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No satellite signal? Check your dish for snow!

Just a quick reminder, as snow has started falling in parts of the UK that it doesn't normally reach.

Just a quick reminder, as snow has started falling in parts of
published on UK Free TV

Normally, if you get 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault' on your Sky or Freesat box there is a solution: What can I do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'?

However, if it has snowed you will also find the same message. And there is nothing wrong with your box, or viewing card. This time it is the simple matter of there being snow on the dish or LNB.



(Image from Snow in Manchester! « davesull's Blog).

The satellite signal will be scattered by the snowflakes, so you may wish to clear the snow from the dish. Remember to take care not to move the dish if you do this, and only remove it if you can do this safely.



See Freesat reception - all about dishes - Free satellite - general - ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice for more.



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Comments
Friday, 18 January 2013
Ian
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:47 PM
Hinckley

Please don't try to clear your dish with a hose pipe, you will end up with a skating rink and possibly a damaged LNB.

Insistently, if you live in a snowy area you can fit a low watt heating cable to keep it clear.

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Ian's 497 posts GB flag
Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
T
Tony Hill
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:19 PM
Dorchester

What do satellite viewers do in countries with constant winter snow - such as Norway or Germany? Do they have special (heated?) dishes or what?

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Tony Hill's 65 posts GB flag
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C
Charles Stuart
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:43 PM
Bristol

I had wondered about this. I don't use it but there is a satellite dish on the side of my house and it's covered in snow. I do use Freeview and everything seems OK there, so I assume that snow on the conventional TV aerial doesn't affect reception.

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Charles Stuart's 159 posts GB flag
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Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:37 PM

Charles Stuart: The conventional antenna will work as a wave-guide when covered in snow, as the electromagnetic signal will still cause a signal to form.

The dish works - as per the above diagram - by the "dish" reflecting the signal onto the LNB.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
A
A. Green
10:18 PM

Stop the snow problem on your dish.
Westfalia.net sell a LNB protector for £9.99
It's a transparent bolt on plastic curved cover.

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A. Green's 6 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:26 PM

A. Green: I'm not sure if that will help if there are inches of snow on the dish though...

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Saturday, 19 January 2013
A
a.coudray
8:50 AM
Southampton

my neighbor cleaned off the snow from my dish and im still not getting any signal as i am bed bound for most of the day the tv is my lifeline what to do next

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a.coudray's 1 post GB flag
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O
oldbrew
1:30 PM

Sky have some online procedures to try for signal loss, e.g. switching the box off for a short period, and some other ideas.

Having said that they didn't work for me but the phone advice line told me to wait overnight, and in fact after about 30 hours with no signal, it came back this morning.

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oldbrew's 3 posts GB flag
T
Tony Hill
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:55 PM
Dorchester

Are there heated dishes in cold countries?

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Tony Hill's 65 posts GB flag
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J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:15 PM

a.coudray: If anyone has tried to either reset or rescan the box after no signal was first discovered then this will have to be repeated, but irrespective of whether it had been or not ask whoever to switch the box off completely from the mains supply, then after about 30 seconds or so switch it back on again and allow it to go through the searching for listings procedure.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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