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Signal Strength


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Slim.....me knowing nothing about what was done....here are a few things that will cause signal drop.....

A change in freq. or transponder

weather ( of course)

a loose cable...at modem or other (Dway may have had her remove them from the modem to remove static electricity)

or a misaligned dish

Hope this helps ;)

Also.....depending on your location...wasps have been known to build nests in your feed horn......and tree branches can obstruct the line of sight for the dish...

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Another thing to consider.. How solid is the mount? Is it on the house or on a pole.. Could a strong wind have nudged it a hair out of line... With that being said. Has anyone tried to tweak their dish for a better signal strength. I know they are quite sensitive to even a minute adjustment. I'm considering adjusting mine for a better signal but a bit leery since I made a path in the yard adjustin my TV dish a couple years ago.

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The first advice to give about adjusting your dish is that it is illegal in the U.S. to adjust your dish yourself (your direcway dish is a two way communication device unlike your tv dish), unless you are qualified to do so.  Direcway may send someone out if you can convince them you have a problem.

If you do attempt to adjust it yourself, mark where your dish is now, adjust up/down then side to side and then the tilt or skew.  Stop for about 3 seconds at each minor adjustment you make to give the signal time to get to your dish.

Don't stay in front of the dish for very long if your transmitter is on.

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On the subject of signal strength I'm having a difficult time getting a straight answer on what is acceptable.  My installer says that in the 50s is good for being on the west coast (Calif.) and 70s if I was on the east coast.  When I ask direcway I get a range of answers.  Is there anyone on the west coast getting a signal strength in the 70s?

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So I've come back to answer my own post on signal strength.  After a new installer came out I discovered three things: the dish was never installed correctly as it was loose, I had a bad ODU (the little pod on the end of the dish) and wasps had built a nest in the plastic cover that went over the ODU.  Because of the wasp problem my installer told me they don't include the plastic cover anymore (it was just for looks).  When my dish was installed I was getting a signal of 48 to 50, with the replacement ODU and the tie down, I now get a signal in the 66 to 68 range.  It appears the first installer was just lazy and gave me a bogus answer about signal strength being weaker on the west coast.  I'm on freq. 990Hz and got even better signal strength on different frequencies.  So I would recommend wiggling your dish to be sure it is anchored, if you have the plastic cover, remove it but watch out for what may come out.  If these both check out they you probably have a bad component.

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I am on the west coast of Oregon and reading a signal strength of 71 as I type this.

You can attempt to adjust the dish alignment yourself but be aware that VERY TINY movement, especially in azimuth, can make a BIG difference. If you don't know what you are doing you can easily lose the signal completely.  One fairly safe thing to try is simply pushing on one side of the dish (lightly, but hard enough to flex it) without loosening the clamps while someone watches the signal strength.  If it improves then you need an adjustment.  Again you are taking a risk doing this because if the mount is loose and the dish actually moves you may be SOL.

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I live NE of LA about 120 miles.  My signal strength has been 84 - 92 for a long time.  I had trouble with my web accelerator for about 3 weeks.  After diredway re-registered the system and gave me a new site ID the best I can get is 71.  Realigning the dish is tricky but after some high winds I have done it several times.  Works best if you have someone sit in front of the monitor with a walki-talki device. 

Mine once hit 54 and it did not send or recieve at all!

Dennis H

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my signal strength at install was 82 ... it hovers between 79 to 85 on a clear day .. right now, its cloudy AND raining, signal strength 74 :

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Connection is:: 939 Kbps about 0.9 Mbps (tested with 579 kB)

Download Speed is:: 115 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (server1)

Test Time:: Thu Jul 7 02:22:32 EDT 2005

Bottom Line:: 17X faster than 56K 1MB download in 8.9 sec

Diagnosis: Looks Great : 16.07 % faster than the average for host (direcpc.com)

Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-GEIT48VYF

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