Rain*X on your dish and LNB ?

flytank

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Feb 17, 2006
48
0
Hello there guys !!! Well, as a central Florida resident, I have embraced our summer with much excitement....not!!!!!! As most of you guys know the warm temperatures here generate thunder showers almost every afternoon. A local source told me that applying rain x (yes, the car windshield stuff) to my dishes as well as to the LNB's would cause the water to bead off of them and significantly increase my chances of NOT loosing my signal. I thought it sounded pretty interesting....anyone of you guru's have any input on this ? Scott.....anyone? Thanks in advance and Happy 4th of July to you alll!!!!!!!!
 
I'm pretty sure that wouldn't do jack for rain. Rain build up isn't usually the issue... The issue is the signal being blocked by rain in the atmosphere. Give it a shot though.
 
Majic Walrus said:
I'm pretty sure that wouldn't do jack for rain. Rain build up isn't usually the issue... The issue is the signal being blocked by rain in the atmosphere. Give it a shot though.

Flytank,
I agree with Majic Walrus,
It might work for snow build up , but seeing where your at, I doubt that, that would be a problem for you.:)

Jimbo
 
It's not so much to help it bead, it's to help it roll to the bottom of the dish and not bead on the dish. Will it make your picture clear in rain? no. Will it help? It might. Think about it, if there's rain beads all over your dish, the signal has to bounce THROUGH water to get to your LNB, so eliminating the beads of water may help reduce pixelation. Even if it doesn't, it doesn't cost you much. People will swear by a lot of slick products that work, including PAM. May want to try that first and see if it helps.
 
My dish loses the signal before the rain even gets to the dish. The rain drops in the sky are what blocks the signal. The heavier the rain, the more rain drops there are between your dish and the sat.
 
I have tried it for snow build-up on one of my dishs, only helps with certain type snow. I don't know about water, but my best solution for snow is a plastic trash bag on dish only, not lnb. For lnb I tape a piece of acrylic plastic on top of it and make it long enough to extend out over the front of lnb. These solutions made a big difference between the dish that had it and the one that didn't have it.
 
I also tried rain-x, the water beaded lost signal early and was out longer. It didn"t help in snow. I washed the stuff off, my dish is low enough I use a car snow brush for snow and windshield de-icer for ice. As for rain re-peaked dish for best possible signal. If I lose signal time to shut car and house windows because it is going to rain buckets.
 
My install tech recommend to cover the reflector with pam non stick cooking spray.
I works great for us in the snow country. I usually do it in the fall before snow. i imagine it is wore off by spring but might work on rain just as well.
 
As we used to say in college, "Save your watches!"

Okay, the fadeaway device claims to give a 20" dish the same signal-gathering power of a 90" reflector. It appears the appendage sits in part of your signal path, and if it uses "chromium" in its composite materials, it would be more believable that it would give you an effective 9.0" reflector instead.

This reminds me of those little cell-phone boosters that you stick in the battery compartment. If this really worked, don't you think the cell phone makers would incorporate it into their designs?
 
Ok here it is as the others have said its the rain in the atmosphere that causes the problem not hitting the dish if your put rain X it will stop the signal cause its a wax. and wax creates a film on the dish which will weaken your signal. What causes most signal looses is due to poor installation. And to respond to the PAM theory, PAM works great because its basically absorbed by the dish which has a Teflon coating on it.
 
Satellite signals are delivered at microwave frequencies. How does your microwave oven work - water molecules absorb the microwave energy. Water in the atmosphere absorbs microwaves from the satellite thusly reducing the amount of energy that impings the reflector and is reflected to the LNB. In this case, the only way to increase signal to the LNB is a larger reflector.