We had allot of bad storms this past summer that took Direct out for up to an hour at a time. I don't know if its the angle the storms are coming in vs the relationship of the dish or what. 101 is 11 degrees SW from true south here. AMC 18 where HITS is at on C band is 105 west and the signal will stay maxed out a 99 quality during the same storm. I understand Ku has rain fade but an hour of downtime is quite a bit. It has nothing to do with my alignment or install.. I tried 3 different dishes & LNBF configurations and they all do the same. Even my FTA ku goes out so it's attenuation because of the moisture in the storm clouds.
Installer Wants Me to Put In a 3" Pipe
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We had allot of bad storms this past summer that took Direct out for up to an hour at a time. I don't know if its the angle the storms are coming in vs the relationship of the dish or what. 101 is 11 degrees SW from true south here. AMC 18 where HITS is at on C band is 105 west and the signal will stay maxed out a 99 quality during the same storm. I understand Ku has rain fade but an hour of downtime is quite a bit. It has nothing to do with my alignment or install.. I tried 3 different dishes & LNBF configurations and they all do the same. Even my FTA ku goes out so it's attenuation because of the moisture in the storm clouds.
Ka (hd) does go out faster than ku (sd), and both much faster than c-band, but an hour is awfully long! What are your signal strength numbers on 99 and 103?
Cut me some slack StonecoldI only had Direct since June, I'm not up on all the high tech lingo you old timers are
Ask me about C band or FTA and I can write a book, but as far as pizza goes I'm a newbie. Always willing to learn and improve the system if I can.
Direct should come up with a polite message instead of 771 that's says "Its raining cat's and dogs out there. You'll have to go read a book for a while"I'm sorry I'm so hard on this rainfade issue. You have to understand I come from C band only for subs since 1987. I would watch the bud with the floodgates open and still peg the signal quality meter. When the weather is bad outside one usually watches tv. I like to be able to view a whole show or movie instead of the signal going in and out, quite aggravating. I'm planning on moving some subs back to C band next year when my first year price runs out and I will downgrade Direct's package. At least then I will be able to enjoy something I pay for during storms. Right now with nothing subbed on the 4DTV the pickings are slim even on DVB. (need that S2 receiver)
You know, with all the talk about losing signal due to rain .... It happens once in a great while, not everytime it rains, like your making it sound.
D*'s signal is solid 99+% of the time.
I don't have HD only SD so only ku here which should work better. My signal numbers on 101 are 96 to 100 most 98 & 99 in regular weather. We are getting some good rains right now from a freak November rain storm. It was 66 degrees today. It has winked out for only a few minutes only. C band nice and strong with 99 quality like always.
People say that Direct never or very seldom goes out. I wonder how many just have been programmed to accept it going out in the rain, figuring that is normal?.
I'm using a 90 cm dish for 101 too, attached is a picture of how much larger my dish is from a stock direct dish for SD. I would think it's large enough but I guess not..
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It's there most of the time yes, but seems I get issues almost every time it rains when the heavy stuff kicks in. May be down for 3 to 5 minutes or up to an hour. I would be interested in reports from people who live in rainy areas like Florida and get real truth down times from them posted.
If you are using a dish that large and getting outages that long, something is wrong. I suspect you have a bad or loose connector somewhere, or maybe a faulty lnb that is okay in good weather, but goes out in bad.
I tried 3 different LNBF's and 3 dishes, an 18", Slimline and the Primestar 90cm which is commercial grade. The coax and connections are fine and sealed water tight. I've been installing dishes since 1987. I'm not new to this stuff. I'm telling you it's weather related. It has do do with attenuation of the 12.2-12.7 ghz ku signal and DirecTv using a 6/7 FEC which has a small error correction buffer. A 3/4 FEC would actually improve this but it would make the picture look worse. Direct is stretching the rubberband pretty tight.
The 90 has cut it down to the shortest time but it still does happen. What is the normal outage time during a 2 hour heavy rainstorm for most people whose dish faces into the direction the storms are coming from?
Wow, you sure got technical in a hurry. Heavy is relative, of course, but here in CT I don't remember an outage of over 30 minutes in 10 years. Most are in the 5-10 minute range. In the past year I'd guess there have been only 4 or 5 times when the signal went out for more than a few minutes.
I have to agree with Chip. We get over 35" of rain per year here. I rarely have rain fade. It has to be pouring very hard to lose signal, and I have HD. Maybe once or twice a year is all....
Is the focal point correct ?
With a dish that large you would think the 101 would not be going down unless your in a torrential downpour.
Of course it's going to happen from time to time, unless you have found a way to move the rain clouds out from between your dish and the sat.
You also have to take into consideration where in the US were talking as the elevation is different the farther south you go, changing the chance of having issues as well.
That said, he's in Chicago and I'm in the Toledo area so our elevations should be about the same.
That said, he's in Chicago and I'm in the Toledo area so our elevations should be about the same.
You should put a Slimline up to the other one and see how much of a difference there is, your still gaining quite a bit with the one your using VS the SL though.
I have the Slimline up and the 90cm Primestar. There is about 5 quality points difference in clear skys. The 90 holds in there better in the rain (it better). I think in Chicago the problem may be at the angle the storms roll through. Most clouds move through at a 90 degree angle to where I'm pointing. Which means that I look right through the large area of the moisture ridden clouds. (see diagram) My Azimuth is 202 degrees and Elevation is 40 degrees.
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I was reading on the internet last night about this. There seems quite allot of people who have issues like me . It also says in dry areas like California it seldom happens. What DirecTV does is average it all out throughout the US and come up with their 90 something percent uptime. That may be the case for some but not others. I happen to be in a situation where I'm in the minority. I need to do more research and talk with a person I know who does commercial installs with dishes as big as 9 meters and see what he has to say about it all. He's the one that helped me way back in the day overcome weak signal issues on C band when I upgraded from a 10 to 12 foot dish.
I also am seriously thinking about reviving C bands subs next year once the transition happens to the new EMM for Comcast HITS on the 4DTV especially for the summer. It may be the only option for reliable service 24/7, 365 by me. The bud and pizza dish can coexist.
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You really lose service that often where your at that you would invest in more BIG DISH stuff ?
Or do you just have a love for the Big Dish ?
I too really loved my C Band days till pricing and channels started to go away.
Honestly Direct goes out in the rain more than I would like. A 6 foot may help and I may investigate it next year if I can find one at the right price.
As far as the Bud goes I love it. It's in my blood. I don't know if you follow the 4DTV area here any. But SRL /Skyvision will be supporting the 4DTV next year after the Motorola ACC shutdown due to the deal with the devil NPS made with Charlie Ergan of Dishnetwork to hand over 50% of NPS's c band subscribers to Dish in exchange for the Sobongo channel on E* and access to sell Dish in certain area's. (NPS is not meeting their quota, Good) Getting back to the 4DTV the Comcast HITS channels on W5 will be available with possibly new channels being added. This intrigues me, if I can get certain channels I want on C band again I will go that route. It's just better than a DBS ku system. The broadcast industry uses C band for there feeds because it is more reliable. Ku originally was meant for VSAT and news feeds where a big dish was not available for uplinking. It was never meant for 24/7/365 operation. The smaller dishes caught on in Europe for tv services and was launched with Primestar in the U.S. Then Direct launched with the 18" dish. Believe it or not Direct and Dishes days are numbered since Fiber will rule in the future. Once that is everywhere, or most places services like Fios and UVerse will be the norm. They are in their infancy just like Direct was back in the day when the bud ruled. The bud as a broadcast tool will be around for a long time still.
Getting back to subscriptions on c band I have the equipment and really only got Direct to fill a void. Don't get me wrong Direct is a good DBS service for the most part. The things I don't care for is the rain fade, the contract and they are priced quite high compared to what I was paying with c band for many years. I want to still use my 4DTV for more than a dish mover it's only going to be 5 years old in January. My last receiver a Monterey 50, I got 16 years out of. So IMHO the 4D has some life left in it. The Digicipher has a very good picture and is quite solid technology. My plans are probably picking up some C band channels again next year when my teaser rate with direct expires and I downgrade. I can also get some channels I like that Direct don't offer on the bud or is in a high tier with Direct. I kind miss a few and would like them back. I think a very basic package with Direct and some ala cart on the bud is a perfect solution for me unless the bud picks my mainstays back up then Directs days are numbered after the contract expires. And yes the bud will still be selling a pick 10 pack next year and other things in small packs and ala carte. And there are no contracts, pay as you go.
Direct should offer a pick 10, 15 or something like that that would work well for quite a few. I have Choice Xtra and watch maybe 10% of it. The other winning move with the bud is DVB. I have a few receivers and need to get a newer S2 HD box. prices are dropping and that is also in my future. There are some cool things you can get with DVB and they are free And to answer the main part of your original question, Yes I would invest more money with my bud. If you haven's seen c band lately you should get a look at some of the new things you may be quite surprised.- Status
