Every fault below comes from real call-outs across Durban and surrounding areas. Some have a quick check you can try yourself before booking anyone — where that's true, we say so. When a visit is needed, the diagnosis is done with a signal meter, quoted before work starts, and covered by our 12-month workmanship warranty. New to this part? Start with the satellite dish component guide.
1. No signal at all (E48-32)E48-32, E30
What you'll see: The screen shows "No signal being received" or an E48-32 message. Every channel is affected, not just some. It often appears overnight with nothing obviously having changed.
Why it happens: Despite the wording of the message, this is far more often a dish problem than a card problem. The usual causes are a dish knocked off alignment, a failed LNB, water in an outdoor connector, or something new growing or built in the line of sight to the satellite.
How we fix it: We measure signal strength and quality at the decoder input first, which immediately separates a roof fault from an account fault. If signal is absent or marginal we work back up the chain — connector, cable, LNB, alignment — and fix the actual break rather than replacing parts hopefully.
2. Dish knocked out of alignment by wind
What you'll see: The picture worked perfectly until a storm or a spell of high wind. Now it is gone entirely, or breaks up badly on most channels while a few still hold.
Why it happens: Wind loading on a dish is substantial and relentless. If a bracket bolt was not torqued properly, or the mount was fixed into mortar or a weak substrate, the whole assembly gradually rotates. Only a couple of degrees is needed to lose lock.
How we fix it: We re-peak the dish on a meter — azimuth, elevation and LNB skew — then correct the underlying reason it moved: re-torquing, re-fixing into solid material, or replacing an undersized bracket. Simply re-aiming a dish on a bad mount guarantees a repeat callout.
Full dish knocked out of alignment by wind troubleshooting guide →
3. Picture breaks up in the rainE48-32 (intermittent)
What you'll see: Perfect picture in clear weather. As soon as it rains — sometimes before the first drops — the picture pixelates, freezes, and often drops out completely, returning once the storm passes.
Why it happens: This is rain fade: water in the atmosphere absorbs satellite signal. It only causes visible failure when your installation has no headroom to spare — an undersized dish for the area, slightly-off alignment, a tired LNB, or losses in poor cable and connectors.
How we fix it: We measure your actual signal margin in clear conditions. Where alignment or hardware is stealing headroom we fix that; where the dish is genuinely too small for your area, we say so and quote an 80cm or 90cm upgrade rather than pretending a realignment will hold.
4. A tree or new building has blocked the signal
What you'll see: The picture has degraded gradually over months or a year — first slight pixelation, then failures in weather, now regular dropouts at particular times of day.
Why it happens: Something has moved into the line of sight between dish and satellite. Usually a tree that has simply grown; sometimes a new wall, extension or building next door. Wet foliage after rain absorbs far more signal than dry, which is why it often shows up as a weather fault first.
How we fix it: We confirm obstruction with a meter and a line-of-sight check, then look at the options honestly: relocating the dish to a clear aspect, raising it on a taller mount, or — where neither is possible — talking through streaming alternatives instead of selling you a job that cannot work.
Full a tree or new building has blocked the signal troubleshooting guide →
5. Aimed at the wrong satelliteE48-32 on some channels
What you'll see: A newly installed dish gives a picture on some channels but a large block of channels is missing entirely, and no amount of re-scanning brings them back.
Why it happens: The dish has been peaked on the wrong satellite. Several satellites sit within a few degrees of each other in the same arc, and it is entirely possible to lock a strong, stable signal onto the wrong one — which is why the picture looks fine on whatever that satellite carries.
How we fix it: We identify which satellite the dish is actually seeing, re-aim onto the correct one, re-peak on a meter and re-scan the decoder so the full channel list returns.
Symptom doesn't match any of these?
Faults overlap — a "satellite dish problem" is sometimes another link in the chain wearing a disguise. Describe what your system is doing on 069 507 6822 (or WhatsApp a photo of the error screen) and we'll tell you which component it actually sounds like, free, before anything is booked.