Help - Office Sky Satellite

We currently have a Sky 30cm Dish ontop of our office, and the cable run from the roof to the Sky Digi Box is about 200m.

Since cancelling our office subscription, we have frequently receive the error message "No Satellite Signal being Received" intermittently through different times of the day. To get around this, we have to Power Cycle the Digi-Box to get the picture back again. We bought a Digi-box and this is having the same issue.

On checking the signal strength from the digi-box, it reported to be very low. Therefore we spoke to an independant Aerial Company, whose engineer came onsite and informed me that once you terminate Sky, the signal gets reduced by 30% - so they charged us to install an inline booster - which brought the signal back up to a better level.

After a week of uneffected interuption, we are receiving the same error message again, and so contacted the Aerial Company, who now say that the Dish on the roof is too small for the cable length and will need upgrading to a 60cm Dish instead, and failing that then a new cable installed.

As I'm out of my comfort zone on this and relying on the professionals expertise is this correct in what they are saying?

It's such a coincidence that this started happening after a cancelled subscription.

Any thoughts, comments advice on this would be most helpful - and hope to avoid the office forking out loads of money on our Sky TV picture.

I'm no expert, but how could Sky reduce the strength of your signal? Surely it is a blanket broadcast from the satellite.

Well that's what I thought, but the Engineer was adament this is the case. I'm hoping that BS is not apparent here, hence my question to org, to hopefully come across someone who can supply me with an answer.

Originally Posted by slloyd

On checking the signal strength from the digi-box, it reported to be very low. Therefore we spoke to an independant Aerial Company, whose engineer came onsite and informed me that once you terminate Sky, the signal gets reduced by 30% - so they charged us to install an inline booster - which brought the signal back up to a better level.

They're lying. I work for Sky, developing new set top boxes. It's nothing to do with cancelling the subscription.

Low signal can be caused by weather conditions, especially heavy cloud cover or storms. I'm not an expert on dishes or cabling, but 200m sounds like a lot. You might need a larger dish, or there could be a problem with the cabling or the lnb.

wrydness - Thanks for the update and I somehow thought this to be the case, oh to have a architectural office in Central London £££ spring to mind. Maybe then a replacement dish is the next step, as I'd hate to think the cost of running a new cable in !!!

[tigersaw]

200m is a heck of a cable run, surprised it ever worked.
Just to clarify - it all worked when subscribed.
You cancelled subscription. Kept the same box. Started watching different channels to before? It might be worth quoting what you did watch, and what you watch now, just to see what power and polarisation they are on, it may be they were always weak but you didn't select them?

tigersaw: Yep. Again pretty much what the aerial engineer said. Yep, all worked when subscribed to Sky. Cancelled Sky during Credit Crunch, as we only used to watch Sky News, Sky Sports (Sporting Events), BBC News depending on the Mood - and then the Night Security Guard used to take full advantage and watch a whole host of programs and music channels at night.

Now, we only really need BBC News, as this TV is located in our reception area - so the need for SKy is not needed now but the reception issue is still a concern.

[Stu]

If you can't find £18 a month for the subscription, times must be real hard

Surely it would be a long time before that is more than capital expenditure?

Well my bosses seem to think that's the case, and they're not in the process of re-instating it. The amount of my time, and facilities managements time in trying to get together and sort an alternate solution is a nightmare to be honest.

If you have a Thomson 8215wdr or a thompson sky+ box I can have a very good guess at what's happening.