I have a UBC satelite dish. Occasionally, we lose reception and a message appears saying, searching for signal. I have often gone outside and trimmed branches off nearby trees. Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes not. After the last episode, I had to call UBC and they said everyone needed to exchange thier smartcard for an updated one.

I have been noticing as I drive around, that many dishes have trees, bushes, even telephone poles in front of them. I was wondering, can the signal be recieved with obstructions and if not, how much does it take to block the signal?

Usually messages like this only occur if it is raining, or there is a heavy storm in western sky, where the dish is pointing.

If it is happening in dry weather then I suggest you call UBC.

The dish should have an unobstructed view of the sky to the west.

use the Setup on your remote control and find the option that lets you look at signal strength. It should be 255 and if much less than that I would suggest calling UBC to come fix. Over time the dish may not be optimally positioned anymore and require adjustment.

I was faced with very regular Low Signal messages and had them come out and since I am quite remote had to pay 500 baht for them to come. When they arrived they decided that the dish needed to be relocated since the signal was too weak and when they left the signal was 255 and now we very seldom see the weak signal.

Good luck.