Signal strength

[Kentstater72]

I have had Voom since June and my strength has always bounced between 60 to 80. I had no real problems until the last few days of rain storms. Now the locals are still fine (Strength in the 60's) but the Voom channels freeze and go black. Is this what others have refereed to as rain fade?
I also searched for HOW to fix the strength problem, but all I can find in the forum is what it should be (around 90)
Any ideas on what I can do, or is this another service call that my wife must endure?

 

[wasch_24]

Yep rain fade...only option other than service call is to "peak" the dish yourself. If the dish is eaily accesible then mark it's current position on the pole and loosen the bolts that hold in place. Using a loud voice or walkie-talkie have spouse watch signal meter in installation menu and move dish up-down-left-right-etc. until you achieve the highest possible numbers and lock it down by tightening the bolts. Make sure she keeps watching the screen as you tighten because it may move the dish.

 

[satellite_crazy_bob]

I have had Voom since June and my strength has always bounced between 60 to 80. I had no real problems until the last few days of rain storms. Now the locals are still fine (Strength in the 60's) but the Voom channels freeze and go black. Is this what others have refereed to as rain fade?
I also searched for HOW to fix the strength problem, but all I can find in the forum is what it should be (around 90)
Any ideas on what I can do, or is this another service call that my wife must endure?

Yes this is RAIN FADE, as far as what your options are well you can request a service call and have them re-peak your dish or you can try requesting a bigger dish. I have seen lots of messages regarding this issue and it seems that others have had their dish changed to something bigger, 24" or 30".

 

[tdillon]

When my Voom installer left, my signal quality was fluctuating between 85 and 91 for the satellite and the signal quality for OTA fluctuated between 42 and 50.

I tolerated poor reception for a couple of weeks until I started reading that others in my area were getting over 90 for the satellite quality and over 60 for OTA signal quality.

I ran a 100 foot cable from the SD output on the voom STB out to the roof and hooked up a small TV. I turned it to the signal strength page and climbed up on the roof with a crescent wrench.

I was able to re-aim the dish and now have satellite signal quality that fluctuates between 96 and 97.

I also looked at the direction my OTA was facing. According to antennaweb.org the antenna was supposed to be pointing at 278 degrees. The installer had pointed it in that general direction (he actually just looked at other antennas in my neighborhood and decided that they must be close to right). I was missing a number of OTA channels when the installer left.

Since I was on the roof to re-aim the dish, I decided to try to get my ABC affiliate, which has a relatively weak signal in my area so I tuned the STB to 7.1 and put the signal strength page on the screen. I turned the OTA antenna in 5 degree increments until I was able to get a lock on the ABC channel. Then I twisted a little left and right until the strength was the highest that it could be. I ended up with the antenna pointed at 235 degrees. Now I get all but one of the locals that Voom has mapped for me. My OTA signal quality is now between 45 and 85 for all of my locals. I have the Winegard Sensar II amplified antenna using the Winegard diplexer to get the power from the Voom STB.

 

[Kentstater72]

Thank You.