E4 on Sky breaking up after 18:00 in Barcelona

**macgd016** · 3rd January 2012, 10:57 PM

I have been using a Pace ds430n in Barcelona for several years but just recently E4 and E4+1 has started to break up and pixelate at around 18:00 each day. I have good signal and quality but I am only using a Yellow House card and wonder whether a White card would sort this out.

**satandpcguy** · 3rd January 2012, 11:06 PM

Hello and welcome,

E4 and E4+1 on sky channel 136 / 137 have been "free to air" for a number of years, meaning they do not require ANY sky card to be able to watch them.
Proven by the fact that the old "blue yellow" house cards were all deactivated and have not "unscrambled" channels for over 18 months.
So changing to a new card will not make any difference.
You will probably notice that M4 and C4+1 (135) will also be displaying the same problems - do any other channels show the same problem or not?

The most common problem for lost reception of channels is dish alignment. Even the smallest movement of the dish is enough to throw the dish out of alignment and get the best signal reception. The next thing would be obstructions in front of the dish, like trees growning that obstruct the weaker signal channels

The signal test screen on a sky box, measures only one frequency out of the hundred or so used for UK TV, and that will not be the e4 frequency, so the test screen is not a good guage of reception.

**macgd016** · 4th January 2012, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by satandpcguy

Hello and welcome,

E4 and E4+1 on sky channel 136 / 137 have been "free to air" for a number of years, meaning they do not require ANY sky card to be able to watch them.
Proven by the fact that the old "blue yellow" house cards were all deactivated and have not "unscrambled" channels for over 18 months.
So changing to a new card will not make any difference.
You will probably notice that M4 and C4+1 (135) will also be displaying the same problems - do any other channels show the same problem or not?

The most common problem for lost reception of channels is dish alignment. Even the smallest movement of the dish is enough to throw the dish out of alignment and get the best signal reception. The next thing would be obstructions in front of the dish, like trees growning that obstruct the weaker signal channels

The signal test screen on a sky box, measures only one frequency out of the hundred or so used for UK TV, and that will not be the e4 frequency, so the test screen is not a good guage of reception.

Thanks for the reply. I had tried to keep my post simple for clarity but perhaps some more detail is needed.

The Sky box in question is owned by a friend of mine in Barcelona. He has been at the same address for more than a year and originally had a Grundig GDS310 Sky box. This worked well until a few months ago when E4 & E4+1 started to pixelate every day around 18:00. The signal strength and quality are 75% & 50% respectively. I have since sent him a Pace DS430N which he has installed but the problem persists and I know of at least one other person in Barcelona who also has exactly the same problem.

However, tonight he has told me that ITV2, ITV4 and perhaps ITV1 are also effected but I am not sure whether the Pace box has introduced this problem or not.

As a comparison I also have a Pace DS430N at my house near Malaga, I get 50% signal strength and 25% quality but get a perfect picture, unless its raining!

I note that you say that using the digi box signal strength gauge is not a reliable way of aligning the dish, I have a simple signal strength meter so should I select E4 and then use this to try and re-align the dish horizontally. (The vertical & skew alignment have not been changed since they were set by an engineer)

**satandpcguy** · 6th January 2012, 11:22 AM

If you know the dish is aligned properly (and the dish is not warped), then there are a few other things to have a look at:
LNB - LNB perofrmance does deteriorate over time, so upgrading to a newer 0.2 LNB should help.
Receivers - some receivers can also deteriorate over time, but since you have the same using two boxes it may not be that.
cabling: check any exterior cabling for cracks and water ingress.

Failing that, then perhaps its time to upgrade the dish for a bigger one... if you are using an 80cm dish, then a 1m dish may help.

**macgd016** · 6th January 2012, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by satandpcguy

If you know the dish is aligned properly (and the dish is not warped), then there are a few other things to have a look at:
LNB - LNB perofrmance does deteriorate over time, so upgrading to a newer 0.2 LNB should help.
Receivers - some receivers can also deteriorate over time, but since you have the same using two boxes it may not be that.
cabling: check any exterior cabling for cracks and water ingress.

Failing that, then perhaps its time to upgrade the dish for a bigger one... if you are using an 80cm dish, then a 1m dish may help.

I can see that I will have to go through these things methodically, receiver has already been changed but in any case other people seem to be having the same problem, I will re-fit the co-ax connector and get a new LNB as suggested. However, if any of these were at fault wouldn’t I expect to see reduced signal strength/quality?

**satandpcguy** · 6th January 2012, 02:09 PM

Remember that the signal test screen on a sky box measures just one out of the 100 plus frequencies used.
And that signal is on a different satellite to the ones you are experiencing.
So that frequency can be nice and strong and not affcted by any problems, but the weaker signal, like those that you are having issue with, cn be more affcted by any system issues.