No strong signals anymore - bad LNB?

[gyyang]

Hi All,
I am new to FTA system. I bought a FTA set a couple of months ago. At the beginning, I could see signal strength near 80%. Before long, signals weakened. I thought it was because strong wind moved my dish position. Now, no matter how I change the dish's direction, the singnal strength is always around 37% - 39%, with quality of 10% - 11%. I am receiving fewer channels and worse pictures. What's interesting is, when I removed my LNB from the dish and pointed it away from the dish, I still got the same signal strength.
My dish is at the site as before. I am pretty sure I am pointing the dish to the true south and my pole is vertical. I don't know what happened. Could the problem be in the LNB, or the receiver?
Here is my FTA set: BSC321S LNB, TRAXIS DBS-3500 receiver, and DiSEqC H-H SG-2100 motor, all are from DMS International.
Will a signal meter help determine whether the LNB is wrong?

Thank you for advice in advance.

[rainman]

check your coax first to make sure there is no water intrusion and that your connectors are clean and tight.lnb's can go bad but not that offen most of the time it's either coax or dish alignment.

[gyyang]

Thanks for your for the tips. I checked the coax cables. Every end is protected from water intrusion. All contactors are tight. It does seem to be a problem with cables.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by gyyang

Hi All,
I am new to FTA system. I bought a FTA set a couple of months ago. At the beginning, I could see signal strength near 80%. Before long, signals weakened. I thought it was because strong wend moved my dish position. Now, no matter how I change the dish's direction, the singnal strength is always around 37% - 39%, with quality of 10% - 11%. I am receiving fewer channels and worse pictures. What's interesting is, when I removed my LNB from the dish and pointed it away from the dish, I still got the same signal strength.
My dish is at the site as before. I am pretty sure I am pointing the dish to the true south and my pole is vertical. I don't know what happened. Could the problem be in the LNB, or the receiver?
Here is my FTA set: BSC321S LNB, TRAXIS DBS-3500 receiver, and DiSEqC H-H SG-2100 motor, all are from DMS International.
Will a signal meter help determine whether the LNB is wrong?

Thank you for advice in advance.

I know that this is a LONG shot, and unlikely to be related, but I'm curious what particular transponders Sat/Freq/SR you are looking at. Ie since you are talking just one set of signal strengths, I'm wondering if perhaps you only watch one transponder (if you watch more than one, is this true across the board??). Ie if you watch just one transponder, it is possible that the transponder has changed parameters, and you're receiver is still set for the old parameters? I don't know anything about the specific receiver you are using, however different receivers behave differently when off freq either for the transponder freq or the SR value. My old Lifetime won't tune a transponder if the SR is off more than by about 15 on a SR value of 20,000, while my Lifetime Ultra will tune a transponder with an SR value of 22,500 when it is set on 20,000 for example, however the reception is not as good. Likewise, the Ultra will tune channels way off frequency, while the Lifetime needs to be right on.
Anyway, I know that over the past few months, some of the freq and SR values for some transponders have changed. When this happened, I noticed that my Ultra still tuned them, but not as well.
So, check to make sure that the values entered for the transponders you are tuning are current, and haven't changed.
Also, if you have a tight tuning receiver, it is possible that your LNBF is drifting due to temperature changes, to the point where your signal isn't as good.

Again, not too likely a cause, but a possibility.

[gyyang]

I am not looking for a particular transponder. I deleted all channels, reset my receiver to default values. Then auto scan the satellites. For each satellite, it shows the similar signal strength no matter where I turn my dish.

[rainman]

if you have got a extra lnb you could give it a try and see if the signal comes back up.then you would know if it was the lnb or not.

[pictureon]

Originally Posted by gyyang

BSC321S LNB, TRAXIS DBS-3500 receiver, and DiSEqC H-H SG-2100 motor, all are from DMS International.

I'm not surprised that you have problem after only 2 months. I had installed about 25 system using the above lnb and I had to change 19 of them within the first month, so it could be your lnb. I do not want to alarm you but even receivers stopped working after 2-4 months (Traxis 2500).
HOWEVER, you did not say anything about changing the dish elevation. Try to lift the dish up little bit and see.