No satellite signal? Check your dish for snow!
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Normally, if you get 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault' on your Sky or Freesat box there is a solution: What can I do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'?
However, if it has snowed you will also find the same message. And there is nothing wrong with your box, or viewing card. This time it is the simple matter of there being snow on the dish or LNB.
(Image from Snow in Manchester! « davesull's Blog).
The satellite signal will be scattered by the snowflakes, so you may wish to clear the snow from the dish. Remember to take care not to move the dish if you do this, and only remove it if you can do this safely.
See Freesat reception - all about dishes - Free satellite - general - ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice for more.
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In this section
Friday, 18 January 2013
Please don't try to clear your dish with a hose pipe, you will end up with a skating rink and possibly a damaged LNB.
Insistently, if you live in a snowy area you can fit a low watt heating cable to keep it clear.
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Tony Hill6:19 PM
Dorchester
What do satellite viewers do in countries with constant winter snow - such as Norway or Germany? Do they have special (heated?) dishes or what?
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Tony's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Charles Stuart6:43 PM
Bristol
I had wondered about this. I don't use it but there is a satellite dish on the side of my house and it's covered in snow. I do use Freeview and everything seems OK there, so I assume that snow on the conventional TV aerial doesn't affect reception.
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Charles's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Charles Stuart: The conventional antenna will work as a wave-guide when covered in snow, as the electromagnetic signal will still cause a signal to form.
The dish works - as per the above diagram - by the "dish" reflecting the signal onto the LNB.
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A. Green10:18 PM
Stop the snow problem on your dish.
Westfalia.net sell a LNB protector for £9.99
It's a transparent bolt on plastic curved cover.
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A. Green: I'm not sure if that will help if there are inches of snow on the dish though...
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Saturday, 19 January 2013
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a.coudray8:50 AM
Southampton
my neighbor cleaned off the snow from my dish and im still not getting any signal as i am bed bound for most of the day the tv is my lifeline what to do next
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a.coudray's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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oldbrew1:30 PM
Sky have some online procedures to try for signal loss, e.g. switching the box off for a short period, and some other ideas.
Having said that they didn't work for me but the phone advice line told me to wait overnight, and in fact after about 30 hours with no signal, it came back this morning.
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Tony Hill5:55 PM
Dorchester
Are there heated dishes in cold countries?
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Tony's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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jb388:15 PM
a.coudray: If anyone has tried to either reset or rescan the box after no signal was first discovered then this will have to be repeated, but irrespective of whether it had been or not ask whoever to switch the box off completely from the mains supply, then after about 30 seconds or so switch it back on again and allow it to go through the searching for listings procedure.
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