Dropout in Philadelphia

[TSSJimmyCoN]

Hey guys.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this situation. A customer called today who has two outdoor home antennas on seperate sides of his house. He is using them with 50 foot extensions and has them plugged into JVC-SR2000 model radios. In addition he has a stiletto in his home and a plug and play in his car.

Just last week the JVC models are only getting between 1-2 bars of signal and no terrestrial signal whatsoever. We determined that the antennas or equipment were not the cause of the problem when he used a brand new antenna and a brand new unit/dock on his roof. His stilleto has been dropping out every few minutes as well yet he doesn't have any problems in his car. The customer went as far as to cut down trees to see if they were blocking antenna path. He has made sure his aiming is correct. I spent almost an hour and a half with this customer today between two phone calls. Has anyone heard of such a thing?

 

[Kryptonite]

Re-position the antenna? Not just a few feet, but maybe do a major re-positioning of the antenna?

I'm assuming it's NOT a repeater issue?

 

[TSSJimmyCoN]

We have tried that. No repeater issues according to Walk the dog. He is 8 miles from a repeater

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Sats are pretty simple. If you can get them clearly in Chicago, you should get them in Philly. I would bet that there is interferance from another source. The most common cause would be a bad repeater repeating crap that the radios can't decode but enough for the radios to latch onto that signal over the sat signal. Failing that, any type of microwave transmission can totally scramble sat signals. Sometimes cellphone towers or even portable phones can cause disruptions although unlikely given the size of the outage.

 

[TSSJimmyCoN]

The thing is, the customer has had these radios with the same or similar setup for 3 years and has had NO problem whatsoever until now. It is sort of baffling as we did every type of product troubleshooting available and yet still cannot get a signal...even with a brand new kit out of the box.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

The thing is, the customer has had these radios with the same or similar setup for 3 years and has had NO problem whatsoever until now. It is sort of baffling as we did every type of product troubleshooting available and yet still cannot get a signal...even with a brand new kit out of the box.

Interference then. Has anything new gone up in the area? A new business? A new tower or sat dish? A range witht he SL would tell you how local or widespread the effect may be.

 

[TSSJimmyCoN]

That does not seem to be the case. When speaking with Matt (from tss) yesterday, he informed me that this seemed to happen last year around the same time as summer came to a close, possibly dealing with the satellite movement or the solstice/earth's rotation. Does anyone have any view on this? Keep in mind this ONLY happens to the customer in his house.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

That does not seem to be the case. When speaking with Matt (from tss) yesterday, he informed me that this seemed to happen last year around the same time as summer came to a close, possibly dealing with the satellite movement or the solstice/earth's rotation. Does anyone have any view on this? Keep in mind this ONLY happens to the customer in his house.

That would pretty much rule out the sats would it not? Is a carnival visiting the area? Perhaps its machinery is generating interference. Lots of stuff happens annually which has nothing directly to do with the earth's position around the sun. Certainly a earth/sun issue would affect more than one house in Philly.

 

[Kryptonite]

Captain Janks:

"Meanwhile, the satellite was blown out of orbit by a blast of wind from Howard Stern's asscheeks."
"...another possibility is Baba Booey's wild pitch?"
"The satellite was being pushed into an orbit around Artie Lange's waistline."

:idunno:

 

[TSSJimmyCoN]

LOL... I'll keep looking into it. Thanks for the help guys