High gain dish

[LED]

No no no no no.

After passing through 7 miles of atmosphere that extra 20 feet is going to make ZERO difference.

The big shops use C-band because it is not affected by rain fade.
Ku-band is always susceptible to rain fade.
There is NO such thing as snow fade.
Ka-band is 10 times worse with rain fade. Go, DirecTV HD!

Of course there is snow fade. If you have enough of anything between a transmitter and receiver it will attenuate the signal. It could be rain, snow, ice particles or even dust. I have been experiencing "snow fade" for the last 9 years. Most moisture in the atmosphere is in a solid state especially in cold weather.
If snow and ice didn't reflect and scatter RF, we wouldn't be able to track storms with radar.
Snow or ice has absorption and scattering properties similar but slightly different than liquid water, but snow and ice will definitely "fade" the signal.
The higher the frequency, the less fade there is, but it still happens.

 

[JohnL]

How is a higher elevation less prone to rain fade?

Digiblur,


This would only work in extreme cases.

If you placed the Dish above the Clouds then it would work. Considering Thunderheads and some heavy precipitation can come from Clouds of up to 30,000 feet, that Dish would have to be mounted pretty high to avoid all Rain Fade.

John

 

[digiblur]

The higher the frequency, the less fade there is, but it still happens.

I believe you have it backwards otherwise all the master feeds would use KA band instead of C Band.

 

[LED]

I believe you have it backwards otherwise all the master feeds would use KA band instead of C Band.

You are correct. I will have to investigate.
What I was trying to get across is that anything that gets between the transmitter and the receiver will cause "fade". It could be rain, snow, ice particles, dust, or we all know foliage like leaves can do it.

 

[aegrotatio]

You are correct. I will have to investigate.
What I was trying to get across is that anything that gets between the transmitter and the receiver will cause "fade". It could be rain, snow, ice particles, dust, or we all know foliage like leaves can do it.

I can agree with dust and definitely with foliage, but absolutely not snow, not ice, and not even water vapor.
Physically, ice does not affect microwaves, and snow is just low-density ice.
Microwaves are only affected by liquid water.

I really recommend that if you disagree with this fact you need to research this some more.

 

[Bob Haller]

I can agree with dust and definitely with foliage, but absolutely not snow, not ice, and not even water vapor.
Physically, ice does not affect microwaves, and snow is just low-density ice.
Microwaves are only affected by liquid water.

I really recommend that if you disagree with this fact you need to research this some more.

sorry, back to school for you snowfade although rare can and does occur, and we all know heavy rain can cause rainfade.

my garmin navigator takes longer to find sats in heavy cloud cover.

years ago a neighbor put his dish on his chimney. I walked over and suggested it was a bad location and in heavy wind could bring down his chimney. he said with dedication thats where dishes go, so they are closaer to the satellite.

He is a know it all so I gave up and wished him well

About 6 months later a terrible storm came thru, moved my dish but that didnt mean much since power was out for 3 days.

walked over to find neighbors chimney down the dish hanging by its cable swinging in the breeze.

all he said is you were right I guess.

later the dish got mounted on his deck, and he said iot really worked out well the bricks did shingle damage, he ended up getting his chimney rebuilt and a new roof. someone must look out for the stupid and the clueless

 

[jjnemoiii]

I have a co-worker who had total signal loss from snow. His Dish Net dish was pole mounted close to the ground, and when the signal went out, and nothing else fixed it, he went out into the snowstorm, wiped the snow off of his dish, went back inside and had good signal again.

 

[LED]

I can agree with dust and definitely with foliage, but absolutely not snow, not ice, and not even water vapor.
Physically, ice does not affect microwaves, and snow is just low-density ice.
Microwaves are only affected by liquid water.

I really recommend that if you disagree with this fact you need to research this some more.

Hi, I guess we could discuss snow fade for a long time.
You say that there is NO such thing as snow fade. I will ask you the same question, do you have facts to back up your statement?
I agree that ice and snow do transmit radio and microwaves easier than liquid water, but ice and snow will absorb and scatter some of the signal.
We experience snow fade many times in the Winter. If is snowing heavy and my signal strength drops or disappears, I think it is caused by the snow. When the snowfall lightens, the signal strength goes up.
It is not caused by snow accumulating on the dish, for I have covers that help prevent this very effectively.
Enough of this, I don't want to argue this point. I know snow fade happens.
I posted my question and it has been answered by several people.
Thanks,

 

[cj9788]

I bought a one meter winegard dish for the 119w sat and it has all but elminated rainfade. I found a local dealer so there was no shipping costs I just had to pick it up at the dealer.

 

[LED]

Wow, I bet a 1 meter dish would solve all of my fade problems.
That's over 39". There is no Winegard dealer anywhere here in Colorado that I can find. At least close to Boulder.
I did find that solidsignal.com has very good prices and reasonable shipping cost. I haven't seen the 1 meter dish for sale online except on Wingard's web site and their prices and shipping are very high.
The 76cm (30") dish is the one I will order as soon as it gets a little warmer.
Thanks

 

[primestar31]

Wow, I bet a 1 meter dish would solve all of my fade problems.
That's over 39". There is no Winegard dealer anywhere here in Colorado that I can find. At least close to Boulder.
I did find that solidsignal.com has very good prices and reasonable shipping cost. I haven't seen the 1 meter dish for sale online except on Wingard's web site and their prices and shipping are very high.
The 76cm (30") dish is the one I will order as soon as it gets a little warmer.
Thanks

Do you ever see any old Primestar dishes in people yards? I knock on the door, and ask them if I can have them. I've only been turned down once. My id isn't Primestar31 for nothing! Great dish. I've even pulled the poles a few times, but that's a lot more work. You can remove the old lnb, and bolt a dish lnb right up without a lot of work. There's several sizes, but the holy grail is the older 1 meter dishes. They are fiberglas, and heavy, so should be pole mounted (but there are roof mounts available for them). But you can't beat the price of "free".

Just carry a wire cutters, and an adjustible wrench in your car. If you see one in a yard, you are all ready to knock on that door! Getting one is like paying yourself all the money you just saved on a new dish, plus the expensive shipping.

 

[Chena]

If anyone is interested, I just added a few pics of our 2 large dish setup to the members gallery.

 

[Van]

My old system lost signal in a heavy snow, I also had customers every winter who would loose signal during a heavy snow, I've had to clear snow off of dishes on roofs aswell as ice off the dishes and once the snow was cleared the signal came back so I call bunk on snow and ice not having any effect on signal.

 

[LED]

If anyone is interested, I just added a few pics of our 2 large dish setup to the members gallery.

Chena,
What size dishes are they? Where do you live? Those dishes look to be almost vertical. I am at 40 degrees north latitude, and mine aren't nearly that vertical. I hope that I will have a big dish like those next year.

 

[Chena]

Chena,
What size dishes are they? Where do you live? Those dishes look to be almost vertical. I am at 40 degrees north latitude, and mine aren't nearly that vertical. I hope that I will have a big dish like those next year.

I am north of 64. :up:up:up

I think the small dish is 4ft (148), and the larger one 6ft (110,119). The little strip of light on the horizon is just above a mt. range we have to look over. If it is stormy at the mts, we have snow fade. If we have really heavy snow (rare) or a downpour at the house, it also goes out.

 

[aegrotatio]

my garmin navigator takes longer to find sats in heavy cloud cover.

I hate to bump this thread but the 1.5 GHz used by your Garmin Navigator is not affected by rain fade!

We are talking about 12 GHz and 18 GHz, not 1.5 GHz.