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CRN satellite reception maintenance

enadmin, 2nd August 2012
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As spring draws nearer we thought it important to provide some tips regarding CRN satellite reception.

Heavy rain and storm activity can affect the CRN service. During the most heavy downfalls it is possible for reception to become patchy or altogether lost. After the storm passes the service should return to normal without user intervention.

Should your station also suffer a blackout, CRN/CBF-provided satellite receivers should maintain their settings and restart themselves entirely as they were. In the event that this doesn't occur please check that your satellite receiver is set to audio channel 14. More involved issues will generally present themselves with flashing lights or codes on the display of the receiver, generally best checked against the equipment user manual. A copy of the code list for the common UEC receivers is available here. (110kb)

If a television is available at the station these can also be connected to the satellite receivers (RCA connector) to get more detailed error messages and general reception statistics which can greatly assist fault diagnosis. While a little red LED generally means BAD, more details are available through the on-screen display. It would be surprising if one of your volunteers didn't have an old telly gathering dust under the house that could be repurposed for this.

Finally, in times of good weather a little preventative maintenance will never hurt. If not weather-related most isolated reception issues can be put down to leaves and muck in dishes, spider webs over LNBs (see picture below!), loose cabling or the general deterioration of older equipment. Particularly in coastal regions rust will slowly work away over many years before the next storm sends a dish crashing from the roof.

We recommend having a professional satellite equipment installer come in to check over your equipment, easily found in your local yellow pages. Not only might your equipment be difficult or risky to access, there may be small cheap parts that can be easily replaced or repaired on the spot now rather waiting for a complete reception failure. Nor could it hurt to have your dish alignment checked - a few degrees make a difference.

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Contact CRN on 02 9310 2999 or via email.

Picture: alien invaders in the LNB! 

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