From what I've read, Orby seems to have the least amount of rain fade...but that severely limits your programming choices...
dish vs. directv rain fade: dish wins.
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Well, with the snow we had in Central Ohio last night, I looked out and the dish what about 3/4 covered. Actually I got some reasonable pictures but a lot of breakups, scrambling, etc. So I just switched to OTA until is warmed a bit and it all slid off. That's the reason they make them dark, to absorb the sunlight and melt the snow.
Well, one obvious issue is, the Eastern arc is pointing EAST, the majority of your weather comes from the West.
If I was choosing, it would be for Programming and Picture quality ...
Not rain fade
Rain fade is really not an issue here, if it goes out for a few minutes, fine .. I know it is raining HARD somewhere to the SW ... Dish points thier dishes at their Sats the same way, but they have the Eastern Arc and that prevents alot of that.
I may lose my signal for a few minutes a year ... I can live with that .
If I had Cable and my drop goes out due to the storm, I'm done for 3 or more days waiting for them to repair.
We all have Streaming abilities now days, so if you really need to watch TV when the Sat is out, Stream, it's quite easy .. till your internet goes out.
Not rain fade
Rain fade is really not an issue here, if it goes out for a few minutes, fine .. I know it is raining HARD somewhere to the SW ... Dish points thier dishes at their Sats the same way, but they have the Eastern Arc and that prevents alot of that.
I may lose my signal for a few minutes a year ... I can live with that .
If I had Cable and my drop goes out due to the storm, I'm done for 3 or more days waiting for them to repair.
We all have Streaming abilities now days, so if you really need to watch TV when the Sat is out, Stream, it's quite easy .. till your internet goes out.
Just to be clear, the eastern arc is not pointing east. It is pointing south. Depending on your actual geographical location those satellites may be a little to the left, center, or right of your location but they are generally south. It is only when that weather gets between your actual dish location and the satellite beam that you get an issue. I know you knew that!
that right there is exactly why I have satellite tv. the cable provider here has a horrible reputation for being unreliable. friends that have cable tv service complain of outages that last several days at a time. they are so bad the city officials are trying to get someone else to provide service within city limits.
Jct21; where are you located in Kentucky? I am in Georgetown, and moderate rain causes my Dish (with Hopper3) to lose signal! I learned to live with it. It usually lasts 15-20 minutes and it is OK.
I didn't know the Eastern Arc didn't point to the east ... it would be a neat trick ....Just to be clear, the eastern arc is not pointing east. It is pointing south. Depending on your actual geographical location those satellites may be a little to the left, center, or right of your location but they are generally south. It is only when that weather gets between your actual dish location and the satellite beam that you get an issue. I know you knew that!
Why don't they call it what it is then ... the Southern Arc
The rest, yes, I knew ...
I happen to live in a western arc area. Does my dish point west? No, it points south. The satellites, both east and west, are located at 61.5°, 72.7°, 77°, 110°, 119°, and 129°. They are all in the southern sky. The first three are eastern arc and the second are western arc. They are called eastern and western because of their relative location in the southern sky.
20 years ago I had a dual dish setup, the western arc and 61.5 for the HD. The western dish would have some rain interruptions. You could tell ahead of time when a monster thunderstorm was about to arrive. The 61.5 dish never went out. At our longitude it points south east. I imagine if you're directly on the eat coast it would point dead south. Still much better than west where the weather typically originates. Not sure how far east they are installing to the western arc nowadays with 72 available but our western dish was pointed way west. Definitely more outages with that setup for me. Almost none with the eastern birds. The handful of times it has gone out was after the storms passed which makes sense.
First a little physics for you from getconnected.aero, which domain name I did not know existed. (Must be British from the spelling.)
The only person I know out here in the east who claims his Dish WA dish suffers less rain fade than his EA dish is Tampa8. I suspect his local weather conditions overwhelm the elevation angle issue. I don't know if he ever subbed to DirecTV, but I suspect Dish is still superior because of the frequencies used.
- Ku-band utilises approximately 12-18GHz, and
- Ka-band services uses the 26.5-40GHz segment of the electromagnetic spectrum.
It's not just the azimuth, but also the elevation. My elevation here just south of DC is 45 degrees. When I had a dish on 110/119, the elevation angle was so low my slant range was terrible with lots of potential clouds in the way. I suppose my old address in southern CA would have an even higher elevation angle. Having two arcs to use is just better than one.
The only person I know out here in the east who claims his Dish WA dish suffers less rain fade than his EA dish is Tampa8. I suspect his local weather conditions overwhelm the elevation angle issue. I don't know if he ever subbed to DirecTV, but I suspect Dish is still superior because of the frequencies used.
As far as how far east WA is installed, note that the Miami, FL and Roanoke, VA locals are western arc only.
I'm in a WA market adjacent to Roanoke. I could get by with either arc not subbing to locals but have stuck with WA. The azimuth for 129 is W/SW at 246 on a compass and a measly 25.5 on the horizon. I'm a firm believer if it isn't broke don't fix it, rain fade for me is pretty much a non issue. As another poster stated most weather comes in from the W/SW. Losing signal for me is an early warning that holy hail is getting ready to unleash real soon. 
Also another observation with a WA setup. If I do lose lose signal once it starts downpouring the signal comes back. This clearly shows it is not the rain but the rain cloud itself. Cloud fade would be a better term.
Also another observation with a WA setup. If I do lose lose signal once it starts downpouring the signal comes back. This clearly shows it is not the rain but the rain cloud itself. Cloud fade would be a better term.
I'm in Pikeville. we just had a heavy rain move through. no signal loss or problems. during Christmas we got about 10 inches of snow. with a completely covered dish and heavy snowfall I still didn't lose signal. fwiw, my neighbor has directv. during this evenings heavy rain I walked over and sure enough, his tv displayed searching for satellite signal. I know dish loses signal, my sister has dish and says hers goes out sometimes. but from my experience with directv, dish seems to be more resistant to rain fade, at least in my case... so far.
Curious.
IIRC, Roanoke is in pretty mountainous terrain. Is there a mountain in the way of EA?
There's mountains all over the place that could potentially block either arc. Western NC which is very mountainous also is an EA market. It's a million dollar question as to the logic behind who is EA or WA in this region.
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