Can a blizzard kill satellite UPLINK?

[paulm]

Can a blizzard kill satellite uplink?

Here's why I ask:
National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

my father reports it's snowing big snowflakes in grand forks right now, and blizzard with "near zero visibility" is expected to hit tomorrow night. If it's blizarding in grand forks during the hockey game, can i still expect to get the satellite feed?

 

[kingofku]

Can a blizzard kill satellite uplink?

Here's why I ask:
National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

my father reports it's snowing big snowflakes in grand forks right now, and blizzard with "near zero visibility" is expected to hit tomorrow night. If it's blizarding in grand forks during the hockey game, can i still expect to get the satellite feed?

Possibly....the game may be leaving the arena by fiber...depending on which network (regional or otherwise) is carrying the game, the downlink and subsequent uplink may be in Connecticut, Florida, Texas, California, Colorado which probably won't be affected by the bliz conditions. The weakest link would be your local cable head end and their antennas. You may see some loss of signal depending on the amount of snow landing on the receive antenna and how quickly the cable people brush it off (if they, in fact do). If you're lucky enough to have Fios, odds are you'll get a great picture no matter what since their headends are regionalized. If you have Dish or Directv, I would suggest making sure your antenna is free from undo amounts of snow. Otherwise, read the results in the paper!

 

[paulm]

the arena has it's own network (FSSN) - I'm pretty sure they beam it up right from the arena and that's how they get it to the regional cable companies that carry the gmes. I pull in the ku feed from a 30incher out here in idaho.

 

[Mr Tony]

The Fighting Sioux Sports Network is based in Grand Forks so its possible....but since its a fixed location (the Ralph) the dish is probably a lot bigger for the uplink than a remote site.

I've seen games that have been in blizzard conditions at the locations but working fine at the house.....

If there is trouble at the uplink usually we will see either black screen or pixeling but good quality....I saw a game once from Mich Tech against UMD and the screen would pixel because of the blizzard but was alot better than I thought

I think we'll be ok

 

[paulm]

Thanks Iceberg! Now if we could only get some of that snow out this way...

 

[Mr Tony]

worked fine the whole game...99 quality

 

[Cadsulfide]

I'm about 90 miles north of GF and am missing the bulk of the blizzard. All sat sigs are fine.

 

[kingofku]

From Oct 2006....their website

If you intend to watch the Sioux thisFall & Winter via satellite, get your dishes moved by Oct 1st.



NEW Satellite Coordinates


Satellite Coordinates 05-06

Intelsat Americas 8 at 89.0°W

Transponder: 15

D/L: 11991 MHz Vertical Ku

D/L: 1241 Mhz L Band

Symbol Rate: 4.88

FEC: 3?4

It's a pretty small digital slice, rain would hurt the signal more than snow. If they're using a substantial uplink antenna....3.6m to 10m, the pixelation will be minimal as Iceberg mentioned above.

 

[Mr Tony]

It's a pretty small digital slice, rain would hurt the signal more than snow. If they're using a substantial uplink antenna....3.6m to 10m, the pixelation will be minimal as Iceberg mentioned above.

they kept the s/r of 4880 but moved to G11 this year. They probably have a pretty big dish since the home games are the only ones that are shown so the uplink dish is on top of "the ralph"

 

[kingofku]

they kept the s/r of 4880 but moved to G11 this year. They probably have a pretty big dish since the home games are the only ones that are shown so the uplink dish is on top of "the ralph"

Probably so. Gal 11 is now Gal 17.

Watching hockey on such a small slice of digital pie....that encoder must be working overtime! Any pixelation or blocking?

 

[Mr Tony]

nope. Havent seen any issues recently...this year its maxing the meter out. They use this feed for cable companies in NS/SD & MN to show the games.

One year we had issues because they were using G3 and a TP next door (G11 or T5) was screwing them up so a 36" dish was minimum at the time...the FSSN has moved every year they have been out there

03-04 G3
04-05 G3 bad TP
05-06 IA8 (first year of new sat after T4 blew up)
06-07 IA8 different TP
07-08 G26
08-09 G11/17

Whats funny is most cable co's have it sharing another channel (shopping or ads channel) but some have a dedicated channel and when there is no game the screen for the cable folks shows "no signal"

 

[kingofku]

nope. Havent seen any issues recently...this year its maxing the meter out. They use this feed for cable companies in NS/SD & MN to show the games.

One year we had issues because they were using G3 and a TP next door (G11 or T5) was screwing them up so a 36" dish was minimum at the time...the FSSN has moved every year they have been out there

03-04 G3
04-05 G3 bad TP
05-06 IA8 (first year of new sat after T4 blew up)
06-07 IA8 different TP
07-08 G26
08-09 G11/17

Whats funny is most cable co's have it sharing another channel (shopping or ads channel) but some have a dedicated channel and when there is no game the screen for the cable folks shows "no signal"

Well, they're smart. Instead of having a full time digital slice and not use it 100% of the time, they purchase "x" hours of time on whatever is available and let the cable headends and FTA viewers know.

 

[mattb]

Whats funny is most cable co's have it sharing another channel (shopping or ads channel) but some have a dedicated channel and when there is no game the screen for the cable folks shows "no signal"

When SportstimeOhio came on and was not a 24/7 channel, the cable company I subscribed to had at the time had a 'no signal' screen that would appear when there was no Indians game going on or anything coming down from the network.. It was always interesting to see a 'STO game begins at xx:xx slide on the screen a few hours before game time.