Freezing Rain/ NO SIGNAL!

[DSpud]

I live in West Central Illinois and we have been having freezing rain for pretty much 2 straight days now. Well last night at midnight I went to bed and our dish picture was looking great (722 with Dish 1000+) Other than the occasional digital pixelation on AEHD that we all have come to expect from 129. Anyway, this morning, I have woke up to limited service. I have no signal at 110,118,and 129. I have very low signal on 119 (about 22, barely enough to pull some stations in.)

I ran Check Switch and I am getting OK on just just the 4 port, and its saying its getting signal from satellite 110. In the details section it states my Port 1 and 2 DP Dual Band has Good connection, just no signal, Port 3 DPP Twin Good connection, No Signal, and Port 4 DP Single 110, Even, Odd.

The dish is on the roof, and does not look damaged or misaligned, just icy. Can the ice cause this problem or does anything think I need to contact dish to come out to check alignment?

 

[dave2609]

my experience says yes the ie can cause it, had some freezing rain here and was trying to do a couple repoints and had to remove the ice just to tune in the dish

 

[garys]

Ice, definately your problem.

 

[Mr Tony]

and if there is ice on the LNB that can make it worse.

 

[yooper.mi]

Use windshield deicer if you can reach the dish.

 

[Andrewwski]

Yup, or put that into a squirt gun and squirt it up there.

 

[boba]

Probably 2 problems the weight of the ice has slightly missaligned your dish and the microwaves have to pass through the layers of ice on the face of the dish and then they are reflected back through the same layer of ice. Water weakens microwaves and ice is frozen water.

 

[Poke]

Yeah might check your install of your Dish... Here in Oklahoma today we are having sleet freezing rain and have had no issues. Heck even in a heavy snow I have never loss signal so you might see if someone can tweak your Dish some.

 

[osu1991]

Tulsa not as lucky as OKC 1/8 to 1/4 inch of ice accumulating here. Just had to go de ice my 129 dish as I lost a couple of the weaker transponders and the strong ones were about to go. 110 and 119 can take a lot of ice and snow on the dish before problems start. Glad I pole mounted them.

 

[Poke]

Yeah could be just the positioning of the Dish my on the edge of my house and Stillwater gotten some freezing rain on and off most of the day. But like I said even in heavy snow I never had any issues but I think its due to the way my Dish is position.

 

[Jared Twomey]

i'd guess the ice is interfering... it should take a pretty good amount of ice to break the bolts loose to move the dish... unless the installer didnt tightenen everything down real good.

get some of that deicer stuff that has a pretty good range and soak the thing down

 

[DSpud]

Thanks for all of your responses. I will be trying the deicer tomorrow and hopefully that will fix the problem. Right after I started this post this mornign, I lost power and haven't been able to watch tv even if the dish was deiced. I am at work now so I figured I would check on this post. Great Information, THANKS!

P.S. its going to be a long few days, they are calling for 2 more days of this

 

[kennya]

OSU & Poke, how are things for you all this morning? I am in McAlester and it just barley missed us. I dont think I was ready for another ice storm. Anyway, last January when we got hit hard, my picture looked good for the brief time I had it on.

 

[osu1991]

I'm back in the civilized world with electricity as of 20 minutes ago. Been off since 10 pm Sunday. I was really hoping to find Scifi HD and USA hd when the receivers rebooted a little while ago. It is very bad in Tulsa Metro still. We are having to constantly reset all the traffic signals as power comes and goes. 3/4 of the metro is without power. Most of the city offices are still running on generators, I took the stairs up to my Tulsa office as I didn't trust the elevators. I may have some pictures later There are 2000 linesmen from out of state electric companies gathering at the Expo and ready to deploy at dawn to start trying to get the residential areas back on the grid. I am fortunate that one of the substations is only a few blocks from me. I think that is why I have power now as they were trying to get all the substations restored today after the hospitals and fire stations and water plants and such yesterday. There are 100 year old oaks just split right down the middle from the weight of the ice.

 

[DSpud]

Yeah this ice seems to be causing problems everywhere. Just an update on my situation. I came home this evening with a can of de-icer ready to spray down the dish. I went inside and ran check switch and I was able to get an OK for all my signals. My signal meter also showed better signal than the other day. However, my signal is still not as good as it was before on 118 and 129. These were my "weak" birds before. and now they are bouncing into the "yellow" on the strength indicator. I am hoping there is still a little bit of Ice up there. I will go check it tomorrow.

 

[superdorf]

I am totally out of commission, I probably have 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on the dish and the LNB's. I was out there this afternoon with a haridryer on the end of a 8 ft. 1x2, with little success. I will be attempting the de-icer idea tomorrow.

 

[osu1991]

Run a hose from the hot water outlet of your washer/dryer connections. Actually did this on my dad's house except he has a hot water outlet and sink in the garage for when brewing a certain alcoholic beverage.

 

[aegrotatio]

Microwave signals are refracted by passing through miles of liquid water only--not ice and not snow.
The melting ice on the dish is not going to be enough to block a signal on a properly aligned and solidly mounted dish.
The problems are due to misalignment and, rarely, the ice weighing down the antenna so it's not aligned properly.

 

[kerronis]

I lost my signal down here in Norman briefly due to ice buildup on the LNB. Didn't take much to get it off since the ice didn't seem to stick and it pretty much fell right off. I did, however, have problems with ice accumulation on dish itself which left me having to run check switch every so often on Monday night. Now all is back to normal that the ice has finally melted.

 

[jrp]

I had ice buildup and signal loss yesterday morning. Knocked 1/2 inch of ice off the dish (fortunately not roof mounted) and everything was back to normal instantly.