Thoughts on winterizing dish systems

[AllWxFlyer]

Hi all,

Although its close to 90F today here in NE Mass. I was sitting here
at the bench wondering what I should be concerned about when
Ol' Man Winter comes around and how he will try to beat the stuffing
outa my Ku dish system.

Being up here at 42 deg NLat, things can get pretty cold.
What do you guys/gals in the really cold areas do for preventitive
maintenance on your systems before the cold weather rolls around?

One advantage of installing your own system is that you get really
familiar with all the components that are hanging outdoors.
Very rugged and, in a sense very precise....

Being a newbie at this, maybe some hints and kinks from you veterens
out there who have been thru a harsh winter or two can pass along
some maintenance tips to help us new guys prepare for whats coming.

We'll be able to rest a bit easier knowing that our dish won't be blown
into the next county during the "big storm" and present some kid with
a new snow coaster with a built-in handlebar....

Secondly, would it be advantagous to coat the face of the dish with
with something like a silicon spray to keep the rain/ice from building
up on the system??

Am I over the top on this, or is it worth doing???

Thanks and good DXing,
John
nr Boston

 

[Mr Tony]

John
I am in Minnesota (45N) where we have extreme temperatures too
I have had my KU system for 4 MN winters and honestly other than making sure the cables from the motor to the LNB aren't touching the roof (do they can freeze to it) I really haven't done anything in terms of winterizing. The most I do is when we get lots of snow to use the snow rake to get the snow around the dish so I can reach the ends of the arc. I have my dish opn the backside of my roof facing up the roof so at 38 degrees for the true south dish its pretty low. That's why I have to clear snow around it sometimes. But other than that, I really haven't done anything

As for the dish coating, I have used rain shield which does work against ice/snow buildup. I have coated the dish & LNB. Only once have I lost total reception due to ice buildup on the LNB

 

[TiminMb]

For me, the issue is inaccessability to the dish during the winter. Its up on the roof, and once there is snow on our roof, I do not want to have to climb up to make any repairs or adjustments. I try to make sure that going into the fall, that I have everything as aligned as I can get it. I also have additional struts on my dish, 4 in total, to help prevent wind damage to the mount. Fortunately, I've never had a problem with snow accumulating on the dish. The further north you go, the more vertical the dish, so the less it is of a snow trap, and what has stuck to the face, gets melted off eventually, even when its 30 below.

 

[sforgue]

Thoughts from 64.78N

Guys;
Anole sent me a link from the E* forums, and asked me to share my thoughts. I'm by no means an expert, but I'm always willing to share what knowledge I have.
I've only been a dish owner for one winter. We got E* last October (right before Winter set in). I trusted the guys that installed my dish (mistake) to set it up for an Alaskan Winter. Unfortunately, when they installed the 1 meter dish, they turned the dish 90 degrees on the mount in an attempt to keep the LNB out of the snow that was going to fall on the roof. Up here, offset dishes are generally aimed 10-20 degrees below the horizon (the "elevation" of 119W is 11 degrees, minus an offset of about 23 degrees for the dish). Well, when they rotated the dish 90 degrees, the dish was now pointing up about 11-12 degrees. Normally not a big deal, but that is a great angle to catch snow. And it caught snow all winter long! I had to climb on the roof a half-dozen times during the winter to brush snow off of the reflector (it never seemed to build up on the LNB). When it drops below freezing up here, it rarely gets above freezing until March or April, so the snow that collects doesn't really melt. Some of it will sublimate (go from frozen to gaseous without passing through the liquid state), but that is only a percentage. The dark gray of the reflector did help capture some heat and help with melting when the temperature was getting close to freezing in March, but October ice was still there in March. A 1 meter reflector has a lot of gain, so we wouldn't start losing transponders until the entire reflector had a layer of snow on it. Really, a bigger problem for us was when snow-laden trees started bending into the LOS of the dish. Also, this is a really non-windy area, so we never had to worry about wind blowing the dish away (but it never helped clear off the dish, either). We saw temperatures as low as minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit last Winter, and the whole system never skipped a beat (no heat of any kind on the dish). Since last Winter, I have installed a 1.8 meter dish and an additional 1.2 meter dish to get three different orbital positions, and they are all pointing "down", so snow buildup shouldn't be a problem. Also, I have a supply of extra LNBs on hand, just in case something goes out. I'm not sure how pliable RG6 is at 40-below, and I hope to never have to find out!
Let me know if this helps. -Steven

 

[Anole]

Thanks SForge -

I figured the FTA guys would get a kick out of your Dish woes in Alaska.
Many of 'em have motors to aim the dish to different satellites.
You and your three fixed dishes are a bit more robust.

Some pictures of the dish-farm start about here in S's thread.
I think you've even beat some of the Canadians with their snowy winter pictures.