Satellite Help

[Larry Dedrick]

We have Directv and our satellite was working fine until one morning in Mitchell SD we lost our signal.  We have not been able to lock on since.  We have a TracVision mobile satellite system.  Any ideas on how we. An fix it?

[Jerald Cate]

Larry,
I have Dish not Directv but I've had a similar problem in the past, come to find out it was the receiver.  I've blown 2 Dish receivers in the past year and they have always been connected to a good quality surge protector.  I believe my problem has something to do with power switching but haven't pin-pointed the problem for sure.  In the interim I unplug my Dish receiver surge protector before I do anything (start engine, generator, etc.) that may cause a power surge.  Since I've been doing this I've had no failures.

[Tom and Pam Brown]

Larry, I suggest you give tracvision a call.  They have walked me through several issues and are very helpful.

[Richard And Babs Ames]

If you get a "looking for satelitte" message it is probably not the receiver. The dish does a self check when you turn it on and goes to a limiter switch before finding the satelitte. If you do not hear the dish searching when you turn it on it is probably a low voltage situation. The satelitte service person in our area wired ours up to a lap top power supply and it solved our problem.

[Larry Dedrick]

Thanks All.  We have gone through the entire process several times and the dish is moving...we can hear it but it can't lock onto the satellite.  So the dish is actually working as far as we can tell just not receiving the signal.  I guess we will call TracVision first and if that doesn't help try Directv.  It's not a huge deal since we are gone most of the day but Larry likes his morning and evening new which we can get local using the cable provided by the campground.  Weird thing is it usually takes several tries to get all of those channels so we may be doing something wrong there as well!
Thanks,
Laura

[Tom and Pam Brown]

You could try replacing the LNB on the dish, they do go,bad.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Larry,
You might want to pull the cover and verify the dish is moving in both horizontal and vertical directions.
I had a winegard dish where the vertical motor failed. It was moving but not getting any elevation.
Steve

[Roy C Tyler]

Did it stop working while you were parked in the same spot or did you pull into the spot and it won't work?  I was in Quartzsite two years ago and could not get mine to lock onto the satellite and, after talking to a few people, moved 10 feet and it locked right on.  There were no trees or obstructions anywhere around.  Believe me, there is nothing in Quartzsite AZ to block a satellite signal. Just one of those spots that would not allow the dish to lock on.

[Mandy Canales]

[size=14][/size]Larry...I had the same thing happen to our satellite system where I couldn't get it to lock on no matter how many times I rebooted the system.  When we were on the east coast this past couple of months I asked Geoff Mathews to look at it and found the control box was bad.  If you can hold out until Redmond Geoff will be there and knows the system very well.  He recently bought the business from Gary Swaim.  The cost of a rebuilt control box is about $400.00 and it takes about a week to get it.  Geoff told me the life span of that control box is about 7 - 8 years then needs to be replaced.  If it goes bad there is no way to repair it.  I do know that Gary does have some rebuilt control boxes that he'll send out and still costs 4 big ones.  Sometimes the control box just needs to be reprogrammed.  Looking forward to seeing you and Laura in Redmond.  Safe travels
Mandy

[Larry Dedrick]

Steve,
Larry will check that once we arrive in Yellowstone and he has more time to deal with it.
Roy,
It stopped while we were sitting in a campground it was working one minute lost the satellite the next.
Mandy,
Good to know will have him take a look if it's still not working when we arrive in Redmond.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Laura,
If it just quit working while you were watching TV it's not a motor. Might want to call Trackvision and see what they suggest. Sounds like a failure of the dish electronics.
Steve