Rain and HD reception

[IceRunner]

Question: I just got my HD DVR upgrade. Some HD channels are coming in and others aren't. The installer says that it's because of the driving rain here (we have a nor'easter). Does this sound normal?

What seems weird is that I can get the regular Extra Innings channels fine. The numbers bar for the HD Extra Innings channels are light blue (instead of the normal dark blue) and when I click on them, it says that it's looking for the satellite.

So do HD channels sometimes not come in during rainstorms while others do? If this continues when the rain stops, the installer said he'd come in and adjust it.

[Sancho]

Sounds like your dish is slightly out of alignment.

I was having similar problems with my HD receiver losing signal every time there was a rain cloud in the air. My SD was fine, but HD went out frequently. I called D*, who sent over a tech. He made a slight dish adjustment and I've only lost signal 2 times since, and both times were in severe thunderstorms and each was for less than 2 minutes.

If it doesn't clear up and keep signal, I'd check the alignment of the dish.

[jtwex]

You can post your signal meter numbers here so we can take a look for you. I'm betting your 99/103 numbers are lower than the others & are more susceptible to rain fade. I'm aligned as good as possible & I lose the HD feeds first in in-climate weather. The worst is recording a favorite show & finding out it poured during the show.

[IceRunner]

I guess these are the numbers you're talking about:
1-8 94 85 93 0 88 96 94 96
9-16 88 88 94 0 88 96 86 96
17-24 88 83 91 0 87 96 88 95
24-32 88 63 92 74 89 96 87 96

Tuner 1 and 2 both are at 94 percent

Basically, the only HD channels I'm getting are the channels with double-digit numbers. Any HD channel that's triple digit, I'm not getting. So I can get ESPN in HD one place, but I can't get it in HD another place.

I'm getting all of the SD channels I'm supposed to get fine.

[jtwex]

Instead of the transponders, just give me the signal strength for each sat.

Menu, Sat, View Sig Strength, Signal Meters, then hit the + and run through all the satellites.

I'm guessing your 103 & 99 are starting near the minimum of 70.

[IceRunner]

Oh, OK
101--94 percent
110--94
119--not acquired
99 (c)-- not acquired
99 (s)--not acquired
103 (s)-- not acquired

And it's not raining right now.

[jtwex]

Oh, OK
101--94 percent
110--94
119--not acquired
99 (c)-- not acquired
99 (s)--not acquired
103 (s)-- not acquired

And it's not raining right now.

This is not correct. Did they upgrade your dish to a slimline 5lnb when they upgraded you to HD?

edit: Noreaster, where are you located so we know which spotbeam your on?

No 103 (c)?????

[IceRunner]

Yeah, I got a slimline dish.

I have no idea about the spotbeam. I'm in southeastern Virginia.

It was driving rain when the guy installed it. He said if the HD channels didn't come in when the rain stopped, he stop back by at no charge. Looks like that's what I'll have to do.

[jtwex]

Yeah, I got a slimline dish.

I have no idea about the spotbeam. I'm in southeastern Virginia.

It was driving rain when the guy installed it. He said if the HD channels didn't come in when the rain stopped, he stop back by at no charge. Looks like that's what I'll have to do.

While they shouldn't do it in a rain storm they still should be able to get you some type of signal across the board; maybe not a perfect signal but it's all math on the install. Unless you got a new 3lnb slimline they didn't even tune the 119 for you. In the interim, check the following:

Menu, setup, setup....Under "Info & Test" look down on the right & see what "Dish Type:" you have.

Make sure you have B-band converters on each coaxile cable going into your receiver (small black boxes with a cable coming out).

If everything is fine I would make sure the new technician tightens everything down because the dish moving in the storm is the only reason I can think of for losing all those birds in such a short time.

[IceRunner]

It says I have a "Slimline-5." I assume the cables are connected correctly.