Stupid Newbie question - rain!?

[ONUOsFan]

I've only had my D* installed since April and it hasn't rained much this summer, but it seems like every time it rains more than a few drops I start having picture problems and/or losing signal completely.

I knew this was an issue with satellite but I didn't expect it to be that bad, and I'm concerned going into winter that it will be more frequent.

Is this just par for the course with satellite, or should I have them come out and try to fix my alignment or something?

 

[HDhysteria]

i do not get dropouts or searching for satellite messages unless it is a fairly severe thunderstorm, I have had some issues in the winter where snow and or ice build up has killed my signal for more than a day, The next sunny day, it all melted and back came the pic. If I were to move my dash, I would move it to where I could reach it with a broom or some kind of antifreeze spray for future blizzards,,, maybe spraying it with some kind of teflon spray would help, anyone ever try that?

 

[William1]

I am sure the install of your dish was poorly done and the signal not optimumized. What is the signal strength numbers of the transponders. You should have a ll upper 80's to 100's on nearly every one. Note some transponders are not 'lit' on the 103 yet.

 

[KE4EST]

I would have them come back out and fix it, it should not go out that easy.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Thanks, guys - I'll check my numbers when I get home and call them if they look too low.

 

[realplaya3tn]

i only experience picture loss during heavy thunderstorms, the installer that installed my dish said that that was the best signal he ever got while installing systems, i am getting upper 80's to mid 90's on the 103b, and don't remember the rest. you dish probably needs to be peaked.

 

[scottie_h]

It has to be raining extremely hard before I lose signal. I've never had an issue in the winter - and we do tend to get some snow here in Minnesota.

 

[shmeff]

the installer that installed my dish said that that was the best signal he ever got while installing systems.....

think i'm gunna start using that one.

 

[Quantum Tech]

Spray some Rain-x on the dish to keep the ice from building up in the winter.

 

[HDhysteria]

Spray some Rain-x on the dish to keep the ice from building up in the winter.

Thanks, sounds like a good idea,,, btw, do the laws of physics in this alternate universe include sound?

 

[mike1973]

Thanks, sounds like a good idea,,, btw, do the laws of physics in this alternate universe include sound?

It actually works. I live in upstate NY and know all too well what snow and ice can do to a dish! Now I have one mounted on my deck so I can get to it but I have used the rainx trick and it helps. Other people have even used Pam cooking spray.

As for the OP's question, yes it sounds like it might be an alignment problem.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Any trees in front of the area the dish is pointed?

Joe

 

[Quantum Tech]

It actually works. I live in upstate NY and know all too well what snow and ice can do to a dish! Now I have one mounted on my deck so I can get to it but I have used the rainx trick and it helps. Other people have even used Pam cooking spray.

As for the OP's question, yes it sounds like it might be an alignment problem.

Pam also works, but look out for the gnats when spring comes, they can be worse than snow.

To the OP, Ask DirecTV to send a tech to re-tune the dish, unfortunatly, many installers got lazy when the Ka/Ku dish came out and treated it like a normal Multi-satellite dish when it came to alignment. But since 99 and 103 are more temperamental than the rest of the satellite signals, the Ka/Ku needs more precise tuning than all the other DTV dishes. This should fix your problem.

 

[joedekock]

I've only had my D* installed since April and it hasn't rained much this summer, but it seems like every time it rains more than a few drops I start having picture problems and/or losing signal completely.

I knew this was an issue with satellite but I didn't expect it to be that bad, and I'm concerned going into winter that it will be more frequent.

Is this just par for the course with satellite, or should I have them come out and try to fix my alignment or something?

Like you I live in the Midwest in West Michigan, where we get an average of 70" of lake effect snow each year. I have had D* for five years now, and the only time I have signal go out is just before the storm comes. I can literally watch the rain on on the radar come in and a few miles before it hits my house my signal goes out. Once the storm is there, it comes back. This only happens when it is a strong storm.

When I first had it set up I too was worried about the winter because of this. It snows practically every day here where I live. However, the moisture in the air is far less in the winter months than summer, so the signal has no problem in heavy snow storms. That heavy moisture in the summer rain clouds is what causes the signal to break up between your satellite dish and the satellites in space. I have not talked to anyone who lives in the midwest who does not lose their signal for at least a few minuets during a summer rain, but also has no signal loss in the winter storms. The signal in those summer rains should not be out very long though.

I too like an earlier poster spray my dish each year with Pam or a non-stick cooking spray of some type. This helps the snow and ice to not build up on the dish so much in the winter that I have to go out and brush it off. A good tip to remember is when you do that, to do it on a sunny day where it is in the high 60's or higher in the end of the summer, or early fall. That way the cooking spray gets sort of "baked on" and adheres to the dish rather than run off.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Thanks to everyone for your advice.

I think I will call them to come out, as I checked my signal strengths this morning and on a couple of the satellites the lowest readings were in the 70's, but I did have a couple (and I think it was 99 and 103), some of the readings were 40's and 50's.

Like I said, I expect to have some issues, and mine were right before or right as the rain was starting, so maybe that's normal, but it can't hurt to get some stronger signals... There were some times where it was unwatchable/gone for as long as 10 or more minutes.

 

[ONUOsFan]

Thanks again, guys - had them come out on Sunday and realign the dish, and pretty much everything now is between 85 and 97, so I don't imagine I'm going to get much better than that...

Of course, it hasn't rained yet, and the channels I had the most trouble with were my local HD feeds, and I now get those OTA, so hard to say for sure at this point if any of it made a difference.

 

[William1]

You are going to find the rain drop outs to be greatly diminshed. 10 points on the meter means a lot!

 

[raoul5788]

Thanks again, guys - had them come out on Sunday and realign the dish, and pretty much everything now is between 85 and 97, so I don't imagine I'm going to get much better than that...

Of course, it hasn't rained yet, and the channels I had the most trouble with were my local HD feeds, and I now get those OTA, so hard to say for sure at this point if any of it made a difference.

On 99b and 103a you should get some low readings. Those are spot beam satellites. Some of the signals are meant for other markets and therefore not as strong as the ones meant for your area. What are your signals on 103b? Those are all CONUS signals and should be in the 80's and 90's.

 

[ONUOsFan]

On 99b and 103a you should get some low readings. Those are spot beam satellites. Some of the signals are meant for other markets and therefore not as strong as the ones meant for your area. What are your signals on 103b? Those are all CONUS signals and should be in the 80's and 90's.

Yes, you're right, but I was pretty sure that was normal, so I wasn't worrying about those... but I do have some low signals (even some zeroes) on 103a and a couple in the 60's on 99.

The lowest signal I have on 103b is 92.

And we had some pretty hard rain this morning... I flipped around to the HD Locals, new HD, old HD and SD and didn't see any problems on any of them - thanks again, everyone!

 

[TheDurk]

If you are having any problems with OTA in the rain, I'd check my cabling. Since the 50's, the only time we lost OTA here (35miles LOS to NYC) was 1) 9/11 and 2) when the antenna was blown off the chimney in a Nor'easter.