Weather and Dish reception

[Tigress]

I live in West Central Wisconsin, and lately, we have been having these damned torrential rainstorms. They don't last long, but sometimes they aren't much at all, just normal rain. I am curious, is the Dish that touchy that the signal will go out? Or do I need to move my dish? Right now, its pointed at the SW sky, but there is a building nearby that could affect it. I sometimes have trouble on a clear nite with the HD channels only.

 

[Van]

Unless the building is within 10ft of the dish and two stories or greater then the building isnt an issue, its most likely that if your dish is loosing signal from a moderate rainfall that its out of tune somewhat. Take your remote and hit menue 6 then 1 and 1 again and you should see a signal strength screen, a high number is a good thing while a low number or moderate number isnt. Tuning your dish if you can get to it easily and have some help is easy, a slight tug to the left or right will tell you wich way is going to give a better signal, same thing for up and down but you wont know this unless you have someone telling you through a window or cellphone how it is. It takes about 5 seconds to get results from a movement though it could be less, once you get an idea you can loosen up the sleave bolts to turn it left or right and once done tighten and then loosen the elevation bolts to give it that last fine tune then tighten.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Thats exactly what I did when I peaked my 1000.2 after it was installed. Cranked the tv very loud and listened to the SS meter as I tugged the dish left and right and pulled it up and down. All of this was with it still bolted down, but it gave me an idea of what direction to move it.

 

[rthomp03]

Keep in mind that it isn't necessarily the precip at you location causing the signal loss. Any precip along the line-of-sight from the dish to the sat will degrade the signal. I've lost signal before with sunshine at my place and a nice 50K'+ thunderstorm 10-15 miles away.

 

[Super Dave]

If the actual rain causes interruption it could be the LNB. It took the CEO dept. to get involved and after the 3rd trip they found the LNB was still full of water 3 days after a rain. Nice thing is the 2nd trip from the installers insisted the dish needed to be tuned and peaked the aiming. So I have a new LNB and the dish never goes out due to weather, beautiful thing.

 

[boba]

In the first 2 posts change the word tug to gentle pressure. To me tug suggests a violent action and you don't want that.

 

[Cyclone]

Thats exactly what I did when I peaked my 1000.2 after it was installed. Cranked the tv very loud and listened to the SS meter as I tugged the dish left and right and pulled it up and down. All of this was with it still bolted down, but it gave me an idea of what direction to move it.

Baby monitors are also useful for this situation.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Im lucky enough that my tv is near my rear sliding door, but thats a great idea.

 

[nmoulton]

I recommend purchasing a $10 satellite signal meter from ebay. It's hard to tune your dish using the receiver signal strength meter. A real meter gives you much finer resolution and immediate feedback to the changes you are making, plus its right there in front of you.

 

[Van]

To me tug suggests a violent action

That would be jerk,

I recommend purchasing a $10 satellite signal meter from ebay. It's hard to tune your dish using the receiver signal strength meter. A real meter gives you much finer resolution and immediate feedback to the changes you are making, plus its right there in front of you.

Not a bad idea but it also requires a short jumper of say 6ft, you can get that same meter at radioshack for a few dollars more and alot sooner.

 

[Charise]

We have had some pretty heavy rains lately, but I haven't lost signal while I was watching TV (or something recorded during the storms). Some pixelization at times, but that's about it. After adding HD last year, I had trouble with losing signal pretty frequently during the first month. The installer came out and re-peaked the dish--no charge.

 

[dishcomm]

I live in West Central Wisconsin, and lately, we have been having these damned torrential rainstorms. They don't last long, but sometimes they aren't much at all, just normal rain. I am curious, is the Dish that touchy that the signal will go out? Or do I need to move my dish? Right now, its pointed at the SW sky, but there is a building nearby that could affect it. I sometimes have trouble on a clear nite with the HD channels only.

Because buildings do not move ,even in the wind, it is doubtful the building is interfering with your reception. If it was, you's have siganl issues all the time..Now, what you need to do is go to the menu...Press 6-1-1..Look at the signal strength. Use Sat 119 TP 11....If it's less than 100 the dish may need to be repeaked..I get frequent inquires regarding weather issues..9 times out of ten rain fade can be made less frequent by proper tuning of the dish.