All of you that say you never lose signal...

[Jimbo]

My questions is NOT about the differences in the weather. I know that. My question is about RECEPTION in southern maine with all the weather conditions you describe! I want to find out if others have ongoing reception problems with the weather up here OR is D* OK?

I get snow and rain here and rarely ever have a reception problem.

 

[Sori4mvp]

The HD channels go out with really thick clouds every so often, but I hardly ever lose the SD channels. Maybe a combined 30 minutes over the last couple of years at my current residence have I lost SD channels due to storms.

 

[homerofwar]

The HD channels go out with really thick clouds every so often, but I hardly ever lose the SD channels. Maybe a combined 30 minutes over the last couple of years at my current residence have I lost SD channels due to storms.

yeah same here, when ever it gets really cloudy signal fades on hd channels, sound may break up allot, SD channels rarely go out though.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

My questions is NOT about the differences in the weather. I know that. My question is about RECEPTION in southern maine with all the weather conditions you describe! I want to find out if others have ongoing reception problems with the weather up here OR is D* OK?

You'll be fine for the most part. But Ice Storms can be a pain, Not only will you lose your signal from Ice coating your dish, But I bet more power outages then in SoCal should be expected as well.
My Advice when Living anywhere in the North East USA.
Mount your dish low enough you can clean the snow and Ice off of it. and Buy a Back up generator of some type.
Nothing Fancy but from what I've learned, I wouldn't go with anything less then a 5000 watt( $600-$1500) but well worth the investment.

But Normal snowfall,(Temp below 28 degrees) 95% of the time will cause no signal issue. But Heavy Wet Snow (temp in the 30's) Sticks to the dish like a Thick Glue. That causes Issues.
Freezing Rain Causes a glaze over the dish which reflects the signal away from the LNBs which also causes signal loss.
And I DON"T care if if you have D* or E*, I've had Just about every one of those Satellite dishes, and Ice effects them all the same.
So As I said Keep your dish as low as possible to access it, if thats not an option buy a Super Soaker and Fill it with Hot water.
Sounds like a big deal, But its really not. You'll be glad you stayed with satellite, when 1 of those Nor Easters hit you with 2 inches of Ice and 2-3 feet of snow, While all cable customers are sitting without TV for weeks,,,,, YES WEEKS, You'll still be up and Running.

 

[vurbano]

I just called DirecTV about this exact problem. We lose our signal for 45 minutes to an hour every time it rains. It can be overcast (with no rain) and we're getting pixelated signals. I had had enough last night. Was happening again beofre we went to bed so I said I would call to have them re-alling the dish, after all. I am paying for the protection plan.

I call when I get home today and find out they won't send anyone unless we have a problem RIGHT NOW. All I told her was thank you and that answered every question I needed to know. Verizon is breaking ground in my area so I will deal with this until then. I've been a subscriber for 8 years but I won't put up with this.

I do actually have a question though. If I cancel the protection plan and prove to them I have bad signals, do I still have to pay for the truck to come out? Sorry, I'll calm down. I just got off the phone with them....

they will gladly roll a truck every time your levels are bad and charge you 50 bucks. And another 50 bucks every few months or so when they roll the next truck. And the next one, and the next one and the next one.

 

[Ramy]

You can still get rain fade, but if you fine tune the signal to get the best signal possible it will only happen on rare occasions. I have only had it happen once or twice to me this year and we have had a lot, I mean a lot of rain.