3.63 disables OTA during rain fades

[rglore]

Was just watching OTA for local storm coverage and switched to a sat channel. The sat signal was out due to the thunderstorm and it would not let me go back to OTA. It totally disabled OTA, cannot select OTA in the guide and cannot even channel down to get to it, stops at the lowest sat channel.

This SUCKS, there are tornado warnings and I cannot get any weather information. Previous releases did this after a few hours but now it's instant. I think this is a safety issue, if a storm would damage my dish, I cannot get any information and warnings from the local stations until Dish comes out and fixes it. I know I can re-connect my antenna directly to the TV but many people would not.

 

[gdarwin]

I'm in a storm right now. Satellite is out due to rain fade. I can still get to my OTA channels.

 

[ScottChez]

I have found that as long as you DO NOT CHANGE CHANNELS to a SAT channel, durring heavy RAIN, you wont loose your OTA.

So if there is a Thunderstorm warning or Tornado warning, DONT CHANGE to a SAT channel.


I live in Nebraska, we had Tornadas last week. No problem loosing OTA.

Dish only checks for a valid Sub durring a channel changing a DBS station. They programed the stay active with OTA on a complaint I filed with them related to public safety. I threaten a class action law suite. Either the listened or had planned to latter ad this feature anyway.

They have the DBS Sub check build in to prevent people from getting free OTA tuners with out subing to dish. At boot up time they do check for a valid Sub.

 

[langlin]

There is a work-around.
On the first error screen select "Help"
on the "help" screen, select "System Info"
Then select "cancel"
Then press the "Guide" button and find your OTA station in the guide.

It works every time for me.

 

[RJohn]

I have to tell you this. The HD Dish Receivers DO NOT have very good OTA receivers. If you have an HDTV with a OTA tuner use a 2 way splitter to feed both the Dish receiver and the HDTV with the OTA signal. I have done this on more than one tv. The Dish Receiver will show no signal while the HDTV receiver brings in a perfect picture.

This is really important if you use your tv for severe weater info. If there are storms in your area, use a radio or go to the HDTV internal reciever with an OTA antenna for weather info.

 

[rglore]

Leon, I knew that trick but it would not work this time. Selecting an OTA caused the 622 to go back to the no-signal sat channel.

gdarwin, before 3.63 I could always get OTA during outages but yesterday I could not. The moment the sat signal returned, OTA did too.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Had thunderstorms last night in southeast , Texas and I was able to access my ota stations. I simply hit menu and then program guide and went to the ota station and there it was. I did this right when I lost the sat signal.

 

[kdg454]

There is a work-around.
On the first error screen select "Help"
on the "help" screen, select "System Info"
Then select "cancel"
Then press the "Guide" button and find your OTA station in the guide.

It works every time for me.

Another work-around I use:
On the first error screen, power off the 622 using the remote.
Immediately power the 622 back on using the remote, and follow by pressing the guide button. Select the OTA channel you want to view.

Note: when you power back on, the error message will be there, but the guide will once again be active.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

rainfade is a non-issue for me. I guess living in a place where it almost never rains or snows has yet another advantage

 

[Sapient]

How bad should the weather have to be to see significant rain fade. Since I upgraded to HD and had to pick up 129 even a light rain can make shows unwatchable. It is possible that there may be some tree interference that is exacerbated when the leaves are wet.

If this amount of rain fade is abnormal, I'm going to want to move my Dish to a post in the back yard before winter hits.