New to Dish - have questions/concerns

[vserkowski]

Hi, we recently moved and were unhappy with our local cable company and switched to Dish.

Because I did not see the fine print on Dish's website, I did not realize our local stations did not come in HD. We bought the most expensive over the air antenna that Best Buy has, and it does not work very well, does anyone have any suggestions how to make it work better? We are in a 2 story house and the antenna is hooked up to our TV on the 1st floor in our living room. Dish said they will be adding HD stations soon, but could not tell exactly if they will be for our market or when.

Second, yesterday it snowed. Our signal went out. We were so disappointed to say the least! Is this something that happens everytime it snows/storms? The CSR I spoke with to sign up for service with Dish told that it rarely happens. We've only had our Dish for a week and it went out already!!!

We are so disappointed we signed the 18 month contract. Can some of you tell me how often your signals go out???

Thanks

 

[garys]

Snow is not usually a problem, except of heavy wet snow. Clean off you dish and the signal should come back almost immediately. Most outages are caused by heavy rain or on high the signal strength is. Your problem could also be a poorly aimed dish.

 

[ronjohn]

If you look at AntennaWeb and put in your zip code, you can see what kind of reception you can expect.

What kind of antenna did you buy at best buy? The only ones I have seen there are indoor type antennas. The best type of antenna to use depends upon distance from and direction to broadcast towers.

 

[vserkowski]

Thanks for your replys. I guess we need to figure out how to get on top of our roof to get the snow off. We do have the indoor antenna, I guess, we will have to it out and hope the local HD channels get added sooner than later. I just can't believe that all the people with dishes deal with losing their signal every time there is storm or snow. I thought the technology has been perfected better by now.

 

[tempVAdish]

Thanks for your replys. I guess we need to figure out how to get on top of our roof to get the snow off. We do have the indoor antenna, I guess, we will have to it out and hope the local HD channels get added sooner than later. I just can't believe that all the people with dishes deal with losing their signal every time there is storm or snow. I thought the technology has been perfected better by now.

I agree w/ the others. Your dish may not be aimed the best it could be. I don't get a whole lot of snow where i'm at, but as far as storms, we get our share of really heavy downpours & at the most I lose signal 3-4 times a year, for 5 minutes at the most....

Rob

 

[DSpud]

All the people with dishes DON'T deal with losing their signal every time there is a storm or it snows. I suspect your dish is not mounted correctly. Or, it just so happened you had an extremely large snow fall, enough to completely block the signal, one week after you started service. You WILL lose service during extremely hard rain/thunderstorms and other extreme weather conditions. However, i wouldn't say I lose my signal from dish anymore than I lost my cable signal or electricity.

 

[jeepers94]

If you look at AntennaWeb and put in your zip code, you can see what kind of reception you can expect.

You also need your street address! But even then,make sure to check their map.My house was put a block away from where it actually is.Now 1 block might not seem like much,but it was at the bottom of a hill.My house is on top of the hill.Antennaweb showed 3 stations available at the bottom of the hill. There are more than a dozen at the top,where the house is.
I almost forgot,your snow problem. I live in Wisconsin,and we have had a lot of snow.I have never lost my signal completely. I have noticed a few sparklies at times,which could be caused by the snow.

 

[vserkowski]

jeepers, I too live in WI, Greenfield to be exact, so, did you lose your signal last night????

Should I call them and ask them to check how my dish is mounted???

 

[KAB]

Like has been said before, wet snow and the winds can cause a build-up. It just happens from time to time. Happened to me a few weeks ago (wet and windy), but that was the first time in five years!! Lightly tapped it from behind with a narrow board and it fell away.

 

[thedamaja]

jeepers, I too live in WI, Greenfield to be exact, so, did you lose your signal last night????

Should I call them and ask them to check how my dish is mounted???

Once you get the snow off the dish go to the dish point screen (menu 6,1,1) and check the signal levels for SAT 110 TP11 SAT 119 TP11 and SAT 129 TP 4 (which seems to be the weakest for me)

If you post your signal strengths I'm sure someone will be around to give you an opinion.

Also Greenfield isn't that far from the Milwaukee broadcast antennas I would think you could pull a signal with a little work. I can get all my locals with a pair of amplified rabbit ears on my floor. I'm about 15 miles from broadcast here in South Bend.

 

[Andrewwski]

I'm in Buffalo NY. It all depends on where you put the dish. My relatives had to have it placed on the corner of the roof, totally unsheltered (LOS issues). It would constantly get covered in snow and go out.

We bought a heated cover and all is good.

Yes, it goes out during storms. But that occurs maybe once every few months. And it's usually back within 5 minutes or so.

 

[jeepers94]

I didn't lose my signal last night.I was kind of expecting to though.the snow we got was real wet, and it did stick to the dish.My dish is on top of a storage building,and I have plans to take the ladder out to clean it off.