dish vs. directv rain fade: dish wins.

[NYDutch]

Curious.

IIRC, Roanoke is in pretty mountainous terrain. Is there a mountain in the way of EA?

I don't know what the logic is in leaving Roanoke as WA only because either arc could be accessible depending just where you are. I think Miami is the really curious WA only market, since there's barely anything high enough around to be called a hill, much less a mountain. And EA is readily accessible there, just as it is in all of Florida unless someone has tree or tall building line of sight issues. At the Florida location I'm in right now, either arc is easily accessible and I used the WA because I still had that LNB installed from our previous location...

 

[sam_gordon]

Well, one obvious issue is, the Eastern arc is pointing EAST

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.

Well, depending on where you are in the country, you are both right. The satellites are over the equator, so anywhere in North America will have to look south to see them. However, unless you are on the eastern part of the country, to see the Eastern Arc sats, you'll need to look east.

 

[Jimbo]

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.

You are correct, they all point South ... unless your UNDER the Equator.
Mine points to the Southwest ... 220* or there abouts on the compass.
I'm in NW Ohio

 

[DishSubLA]

From what I've read, Orby seems to have the least amount of rain fade...but that severely limits your programming choices...

I believe Orby leases transponders on an FSS sat. Also, the reliability of the reception of all the packets--even with redundency--is dependent upon compression related to power. I believe Orby is using HEC? So, Orby is not likely pushing capacity to the limit on the 2 transponders they lease, so less compression with more reliable reception without having to crank up the power.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

First a little physics for you from getconnected.aero, which domain name I did not know existed. (Must be British from the spelling.)

• Ku-band utilises approximately 12-18GHz, and
• Ka-band services uses the 26.5-40GHz segment of the electromagnetic spectrum.

What this means is that DirecTV uses a higher frequency which is more attenuated by rain.

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.

To be more specific, both Dish and DirecTV use 12.2 to 12.7GHz for their Ku downlinks and DirecTV Ka band downlinks are confined in the roughly 18 to 21GHz range. The Ku band satellite transmit power levels for both services are similar although they probably run slightly different levels of forward error correction, which also eats up some band width for programming. I also know the DirecTV satellites put more downlink power into regions with higher rain vs arid regions. DirecTV Ka spot beams only cover a small area and there is a good amount of power in the downlink spot beams but the rain fade is worse on Ka compared to Ku so we have to live with that but the upside is tons of more band width for DirecTV vs Dish who is technically inferior to DirecTV and never took the Ka plunge. It could also be Charlie is too cheap to invest in Ka satellites and infrastructure. When I say Dish is technically inferior to DirecTV, I'm speaking of the days before ATT. I suspect DirecTV has dropped far behind Dish by now in techno savy but at least their main infrastructure was in place before the ATT takeover.

 

[Dudleydog73]

Directv has rare signal loss. If he lost signal in a moderate rain then he had other issues. That misses my point though. For those that want many of the sports channels that Dish refuses to carry Directv is the only real alternative FOR NOW.

I fixed that for you. ATT deathstar is killing DirectTV fast.

 

[NashGuy]

I had DISH for a few years at my house here in Nashville back around 2010, then a few years later had DirecTV for awhile at the same place. Rain fade was worse for me with DISH, although I regularly experienced it with both. But with DirecTV, I would often lose only some of my channels whereas with DISH all of them would typically go out. Fortunately, though, rain fade didn't seem to happen very often during primetime hours when anything I really cared about was airing. More often when afternoon thunderstorms would roll in, seems like.

 

[raoul5788]

I fixed that for you. ATT deathstar is killing DirectTV fast.

A race to the finish for both of them.

 

[dtgoodtonid]

Hey guys/gals. I live in Lexington KY and we are on the other side of an ice storm. I received, at my house, probably a little excess of 1/4 inch of ice. The ice hasn't melted yet but so far only 1 large branch has fallen but my neighbor lost a pretty good size tree. Have not lost electricity. Also, have not lost Dish. Not even for a minute.

I have had Dish for over 18 years so I understand rain fade etc, but I couldn't be more satisfied with a provider than I am with Dish. Spectrum is the local cable provider here and I haven't heard what outages they have, but past experience tells me that they can last for days, especially with the potential out of service volume from something like an ice storm.

My son lives in Augusta GA and now has You Tube TV. He grew up with Dish so he knows it well. Like every other cord cutter his only argument is cost. You get what you pay for.

 

[jct21]

Hey guys/gals. I live in Lexington KY and we are on the other side of an ice storm. I received, at my house, probably a little excess of 1/4 inch of ice. The ice hasn't melted yet but so far only 1 large branch has fallen but my neighbor lost a pretty good size tree. Have not lost electricity. Also, have not lost Dish. Not even for a minute.

I have had Dish for over 18 years so I understand rain fade etc, but I couldn't be more satisfied with a provider than I am with Dish. Spectrum is the local cable provider here and I haven't heard what outages they have, but past experience tells me that they can last for days, especially with the potential out of service volume from something like an ice storm.

My son lives in Augusta GA and now has You Tube TV. He grew up with Dish so he knows it well. Like every other cord cutter his only argument is cost. You get what you pay for.

I'm in pikeville in east kentucky. we got hit with ice too and I never once lost dish signal, even during the heaviest precipitation. right now my dish is layered with ice and snow. still have strong signal. my son is a cord cutter and relies on netflix, hulu and pluto for tv. his internet has been down for 2 days & likely will be a few more. i have a few minor issues with dish but i find it much better than the directv i had for 20yrs. shoulda switched a long time ago

 

[sam_gordon]

A thin sheet of ice on the dish won't have much effect on the signal. "Light snow" (density, not accumulation) also won't have much effect. Heavy ice and "heavy" snow will.