DirecTV in Florida (Possibly fixed)

Clue words and phrases
Parked in FLORDIA
Early Evening.

Now if I wanted to I might be able to calculate the precise time but Well let's try about 20 degrees. so 2:20,, Might that be when you loose signal, Or perhaps later without doing a whole lot more math.

Orbiting at GeoSync altitude over the equator is a box, AMC-4 is the name of this box,, That is your DirecTV source. Normally works very well. However orbiting out at about 1 AU (Astromical Unit) is a bigger item.. Known as the SUN, and when the SUN lines up with AMC-4.. Your antenna goes blind.

Kind of like me going to supper the other night (Friday) driving towards said sun.. now I was able to control it, but it was blinding. (Without sun glasses) Sadly that won't help you

you are trying to see the light of a match in the glare of a blast furnace.

No problems again today.

Sounds like a reasonable explanation!

haydoracin wrote:
y. So I'm guessing it might have been caused by too much heat around the receiver.

That sounds right. My DTV receiver is very heat-sensitive. It just locks up.

I remembered having a problem when we were in Florida three years ago when I would shut the door on the overhead cabinet that holds the receiver. Haven't been shutting the door this year but the other day I put one of my caps on top of the receiver. Removed it yesterday and didn't experience a problem, at least yesterday. So I'm guessing it might have been caused by too much heat around the receiver. I will let you all know if it returns.

Thanks for the replies.

I had the same thing happen at Reelfoot Lake State Campground in Tennessee. But, it only happened on the local channels (lower numbered). Channels numbered above 100 or so worked flawlessly, while channels 70 and below got the error message. Odd. I called Directv with absolutely no help. It can't be a LNB error or it would affect all channels. We lost those channels at sunset and they resumed around 9:30. It happened over the course of one week with wind, no wind, clouds, clear, and all other weather conditions...nothing consistent.

Cable first.

Is there a wind when you get the error and no wind when there is no error?

I had a cable go bad on my for my carryout and it would loose signal and piss me off to no end. I first e-mailed winegard and the lady replied it could be my servo motor not holding position. Then I called and talked to a tech guy and he said it is probably your cable - the directv puts out a small voltage that holds the servo in place - without that small voltage the servo motor was slowly moving down. I replaced the cable an no issues.

If you have a cable blowing in the wind in the evening, I would swap it first and see if you have the problem the next day.

Out the whole thing in the shade (under an umbrella or something that won't block the signal). If the problem goes away your LNB is going bad and the heat is what's causing it. You might even be able to remove the dome to get some air circulation but the sun directly on the LNB will likely cause the same issue.

Low signal, rain fade or LNB going bad