Snow+ Sat=0Q

[skewed]

This morning at 645am in south louisiana( right on the coast) I lost sat signal because SNOW built up on my dish. Judging by the depth of the snow on the hood of my truck we had 1-1/2 in 2 hrs. What a treat for us, I can assure you were cookin a Gumbo tonigt!! But I feel for you guys up north who deal with this all the time, how do you keep your dish clear of snow? It wan't the LNB that iced up it was the 3/4" accumulated on the dish! Not that I have to worry about it for another 10 years or so but I'm just curious.

So much for global warming, it's so cold here the crawfish are knocking on the lid of the gumbo pot just to get in!

 

[cracklincrotch]

I haven't found anything that works myself. If I'm feeling ambitious I get my boots on and take a broom with me and brush them off. Otherwise I just wait for Mr. Sun to melt it.

 

[olliec420]

im on the coast in pensacola and i hope that white stuff doesnt come here! i dont want to deal with a city full of idiots who cant drive when it rains trying to drive in snow

 

[andyb2]

Some kind of silicone spray should work.Rainaway or everclear may work as well if you can find it in a spray can.

 

[B.J.]

Many people try to park their dish near the horizon when snow is approaching, so the snow won't collect so much. If it's a dry snow, it usually will slide right off. However my dish is getting so old that if I move the thing to my western sat when it's cold, it will be stuck there for several days, till it warms up, mainly because the gears are getting rough, and the grease gets sticky. It's kind of unfortunate for me, that the winter is the only time I can see a half dozen sats near the horizon, but half the time I'm too afraid of running the dish there for fear of getting stuck.

So for the last few years, I just let the snow accumulate. If it's a dry snow, it won't affect C band until a few inches have accumulated, but it doesn't take much to knock out Ku. It also doesn't take much snow to knock out C-band if it's a wet snow. Actually the weight of the snow is almost more of an issue than the transmission of the sat signal.

One nice thing about offset dishes.... ie they are more vertical, so the snow doesn't collect on them like it does on prime focus dishes. Usually my only problem with offset dishes is when several inches accumulate on the LNBF arm, and build up enough that it blocks the mouth of the lnbf.

 

[gillham]

How much signal would windshield wipers block? Just hook the motor up to the 36V and move the dish back and forth a bit so they run. ;-)

 

[turbosat]

rain-x

I wonder if that stuff called Rain=X would do it. I remember when I was a teen I could put that stuff on my car windshield and drive in the rain with the windshield wipers off! Rain just rolls off it. Of course it made the glass look greasy when it was dry and I quit using it. Sure makes a surface slick, I bet it would work on these little ku dishes, maybe even on the primestars with their little rough surface.
We have a winter storm watch tonite too, and it quit raining, for now. If I still have some of that stuff I may go out and spray one of my dishes just for grins.

 

[Cadsulfide]

up north we just wait for the wind to blow it off. I feel sorry for those folks that get wet snow, up here it's usually below zero and dry. sometimes the drifts build up to5 or 6 feet, makes it hard to get to the array, or down the lane LOL

 

[cracklincrotch]

Cad, my bathroom feels like that a lot these days....

 

[sidha]

 

[SatPhreak]

One nice thing about offset dishes.... ie they are more vertical, so the snow doesn't collect on them like it does on prime focus dishes. Usually my only problem with offset dishes is when several inches accumulate on the LNBF arm, and build up enough that it blocks the mouth of the lnbf.

I agree, except for a dish I had mounted upside down. That was almost horizontal so any snow and the dish would be covered. It was a good thing that it was mounted low to the ground so it could be cleaned off easily.

​

 

[Mr Tony]

must have been some heavy wet snow. We got 6 inches of snow here in Minnesota on Monday and the 6 foot dish kept trucking along even with a good 3 or 4 inches on the dish

 

[Anole]

missin' all the fun

Could someone send me some snow to play with, please? -
I'd be happy to supply a few earthquakes, if ya like. -

I used to have a trick to keep my lizards warm.
Wired up two little 7 watt nightlight bulbs in series (so they each got about 60 volts) and shoved 'em under an abalone shell, on top of a flat rock.
The top of the shell (about the size of a man's hand) was then a nice toasty place to warm their bellies.
The lamps glowed dimly, and had an infinite life time.

So, how hard is it to keep a Ku dish clean?
I'm thinking a large black plastic trash bag.
That should keep off the fresh snowfall.
I presume you know when it's coming, so it's a simple matter to go out in the YARD and bag your dish.
Anyone who puts their dishes on the roof, need not apply. -

Okay, so now how hard is it to keep the Ku dish warm?
If you could put a heat source inside the bag, that might do it.
The CFL light bulbs available at the 99¢ store, consume around 20 watts, and that's all heat.
Their glass doesn't get too warm, either.
If you used small wattage incandescent lamps, well their glass -does- get quite hot, so don't.

The white kitchen bags are translucent, and the light would shine through.
Just not certain if they are large enough.
But, they might slip over your smaller Dish or DirecTV dishes and make nice lighted lawn ornaments.

 

[rv1pop]

Watch what you ask for. WXman here says the cold front and snow may get to Bakersfield or further south.... Depends on the winds ahead of it and lack of wind behind it....
I would send some of the cold to you IF IF IF we would get the warmth, but the story is the further south it goes, the longer it will stay here, too. The last real cold snap here (and I am in Seattle area right now) was 9 days long, below 10° F. Power was out for 13 days - I had a generator and took it to a gas station so I could fill up my car and gas cans. That was before the total computer run pumps -- station took cash only and paid for my gas!

 

[SatPhreak]

Us northerner's don't usually worry about snow. It's a fact of life and heating dishes to above freezing would require a lot of energy when winter is 6 months long and gets to extreme temps. Plus the colder it gets the less wet the snow gets and it just slides off. It's only at the end and begining of winter that it is usually wet and sticky. I do nothing unless I lose signal, then go outside with a broom and waste a couple minutes sweeping them off. I rarely have to do it with offsets (unless they are upside down) and when I had a cband dish and it needed cleaning that usually meant that the side walks and deck needed to be shovelled anyways.

 

[primestar31]

I wonder if that stuff called Rain=X would do it. I remember when I was a teen I could put that stuff on my car windshield and drive in the rain with the windshield wipers off! Rain just rolls off it. Of course it made the glass look greasy when it was dry and I quit using it. Sure makes a surface slick, I bet it would work on these little ku dishes, maybe even on the primestars with their little rough surface.
We have a winter storm watch tonite too, and it quit raining, for now. If I still have some of that stuff I may go out and spray one of my dishes just for grins.

All Rain-X is, is isopropyl alcohol. On glass, it causes it to shed rain water. The company buys it real cheap, pours it in a pretty, SMALL bottle, and resells it at like 1000% markup.

You can buy a HUGE bottle of IPA at a drug store for like $1.00US.

And no, it probably won;t work to keep snow off of your dish.

 

[Tron]

I had the same problem yesterday morning... in New Orleans, we probably got about 2 inches of wet, sticky snow. It accumulated nicely on the dishes I'll start a thread in the Shack to talk about it tomorrow, when I can download the pics from the camera. Since the temps were above freezing, the accumulated snow started to melt as soon as the storm passed. By mid-afternoon, it was almost all gone (except for the snowmen in peoples front yards )

 

[tvropro]

You guys down south just don't know how to deal with snow Make an extension broom and keep the dish low in the arc during the storm. It's not really much of a deal for me been doing it since 87. Us Northerners have to deal with it. I still have frozen fingers from working on a dish in 15 degree temperatures yesterday

 

[Cadsulfide]

Anole;

I'll be happy to sent you some snow, how many cubic yards do you need? Everyone has engine block heaters installed in our vehicles, and plug them in when things get -15F or so forcasted for tonight. Most gas engines hard start at -20, and diesels will not start at -30 period without a block heater. Something we see all the time in the winter that you never will, is a parking lot at the supermarket full of running cars with no one in them.

 

[jayelem]

Something we see all the time in the winter that you never will, is a parking lot at the supermarket full of running cars with no one in them.

I'd love too see that
I used to leave the car running at the 7Eleven just to get a paper and coffee and one patron always warned me not to because his truck was stolen in that same parking lot while he was doing the same thing.

Now .... I don't have problems with snow accumulating on my offset dish , but I do remember grabbing a broom to dust off the BUD when I was a teenager , Analog was so forgiving and the interference was sparklies.