Can anybody help as I want to go direct to the person responsible rather wait days and find out I got the wrong guys in:

I have a communal dish which British Ariels (they put the dish and ariels in) checked and I was OK. Now we have strong winds, I have not got a picture as the signal is not locking.

Do I call Sky direct for this as it should be locking the signal or is it the dish thats not stable enough so I need to get British Ariels out to correct!

Thanks

what makes me laugh is teh government are forcing us to have digital tele but I can't watch any because of wind.

If you call Sky they'll give you advice on the phone for free. If your dish has only recently been installed, I'd call them back to check it out.

It's normal for your picture to pixellate a bit in poor weather.

I'm right by the sea and the wind here is ferocious, but my digital signal is fine (freeview).

its sky velvet. Freeview goes through the normal ariel system so you will be fine.

Jalopeno - I'll call them Sky tonight - I used to live in the downs and the winds were stronger and it did pixellate very few times but now I get about 2 seconds of tele and then 5 minutes without a signal. That is definatlely not right!!

Yes sorry Abbott, I realised that, I was replying to the other two posts which sounded like they were more about the digital signal/pixellation in general.

Hope you get it sorted out.

If it's a communal dish, first check to see if anyone else has the problem.
Wind won’t be a problem, unless the dish is moving, which is unlikely.
What will cause a problem, is dense cloud. This is when the sky is really
Black, when you have a thunderstorm for instance.
It is a pain, but it’s just one of those things you have to put up with.
Hailstones and snow will also cause problems.

I have a booster on my aerial because I am out in the sticks - you might need one too.

It is fairly complex, getting a satellite signal from a dish, to a number of different locations.

It needs special LNBs and a special distribution box/amp.(or so I am told)

What it sounds like, is that the dish is mounted on a pole which isn't up to the job. Probably too long and too small, so it flexes in the wind.
Mounting pole should be 2" Dia. and as short as possible.

I use to have sky and had problems with the signal once. I phoned up and they said it could be the trees moving that were about 25m from my house but the dish was not pointing towards them.
It kept hapening on and off, even when it was not windy. They then said it was the bit on the end of the dish. They offered to come out and fix the problem at the cost of £60. They said they would replace a few bits and if it still played up theyed give me a whole new system.
I declined there offer as we were putting our house up for sale and thought was it not worth it. So i asked them to cancel the subscription, they ended up saying if i kept it they would come and fix it for free. I took them up on that and it was fine after.
Funny thing was that about a month b4 it started playing up they sent us a letter saying our warrenty was up and to take out cover with them for about £10 a month. We did'ent take up there offer.

quote:

Originally posted by The_Abbott:
Can anybody help as I want to go direct to the person responsible rather wait days and find out I got the wrong guys in:

I have a communal dish which British Ariels (they put the dish and ariels in) checked and I was OK. Now we have strong winds, I have not got a picture as the signal is not locking.

Do I call Sky direct for this as it should be locking the signal or is it the dish thats not stable enough so I need to get British Ariels out to correct!

Thanks

Have you found out if your neighbours have the same problem yet, if they do you should contact who put your comunial dish up,, If there's is alright do you have any warrenty on your digi box?

Noone in the block has Sky. I was the first to use it with this dish.

Sky couldn't give a monkeys as its not there dish. Even though I pay a subscription and not been able to watch anything they don't care (great custoner service). Chappers - when I moved I threatened to cancel and they said the'd install it all free so unless you threaten to leave they charge

Martlet Homes were not very helpful either, they basically told me to get lost as its not urgent.

I have send them an e-mail saying that I pay maintenace for this kind of thing and I expect it to be looked at.

The only time I can watch digital TV is when the skies are clear. As soon as there is cloud, rain, wind it does not work which must mean the dish is moving around. As I previously said I used to live in a worst area for weather and never had these problems. I'm guessing Tetricus is correct that its on some stupid pole.

Why offer the service if you can't get it? That was the whole point the tennants/leaseholders PAYED to have this system put in!!