61.5 sucks in the rain

patsfan72

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Dec 21, 2008
90
0
western mass
just venting my frustrations about the sat at 61.5 we have been getting rain here in the northeast for about a month now and most of my hd channels come from that bird and i always lose signal with the slightest of rain. i wish dish would just put me on the eastern arc. my parents live in hartford and are on the eastern arc, i live in springfield and am on the western arc.they never lose signal with rain.i always lose signal with rain.
 
just venting my frustrations about the sat at 61.5 we have been getting rain here in the northeast for about a month now and most of my hd channels come from that bird and i always lose signal with the slightest of rain. i wish dish would just put me on the eastern arc. my parents live in hartford and are on the eastern arc, i live in springfield and am on the western arc.they never lose signal with rain.i always lose signal with rain.

You do realize that 61.5 is an eastern arc satellite, right? So, either you're on the western arc, or you're getting 61.5. If you are western arc and getting 61.5, and Dish puts you on eastern arc, you're still going to be pointed at 61.5. Only occasionallly do the two arcs mix (and usually for local channels if anything).

Have you called Dish to see if they can try repointing your dish to see if your signal levels can be improved? Is it possible that there are some trees that may have grown into the way that are only blocking a little bit of signal, but when you add in the rain it gets really bad? Just some things to think about...
 
You have poor aim, an obstruction, or an LNB going bad.

Go to the system menu and check switch, and see if at the top there is a message about see details for LNB errors/drift or some such. I had such a message and Dish replaced both my LNBs.

But 61.5 is rock solid for me. Only in heavy icing or VERY heavy snow/thunderstorm does it even burp a moment.
 
I am thinking I have to get mine realigned. I have signal levels now of about 38-42 and if it gets just a little cloudy it goes out, and when it starts sprinkling. Forget about watching TV. I have a technician coming out tomorrow.
 
I have HD locals on 61.5 as well in NE PA. Only lost them during very heavy downpour last Friday night, but not during the other numerous rain showers we have had over the past month. Think your dish needs to be realligned.
Couldn't agree more and I'm from NY.
 
I had issues on my install 3 years ago, they never sealed the LNB correctly, and when it rained any little bit it filled up and I had no signal for over an hour after the rain went away. Took some real complaining to get it fixed, think I had to use the ceo@echostar email address. In the mean time the installers came back out and pointed my dish at the best possible signal we are capable of getting, of course it took another call to fix the LNB, and to say we lose our signal 3 times a year in the rain would be a lot.
 
just venting my frustrations about the sat at 61.5 we have been getting rain here in the northeast for about a month now and most of my hd channels come from that bird and i always lose signal with the slightest of rain. i wish dish would just put me on the eastern arc. my parents live in hartford and are on the eastern arc, i live in springfield and am on the western arc.they never lose signal with rain.i always lose signal with rain.

Patsfan I was having the exact same problem you are seeing. It was a bad LNB and trees blocking the signal. A new LNB and a relocation of the 61.5 dish worked miracles here. Signal was going out almost every time it got cloudy. Now since the fix I have only lost signal during an extremely heavy T-storm. 61.5 signals are in the 60's and 70's now. Even during the recent month's onslaught of seemingly non stop rain we have not lost the signal except on one heavy T-storm. I would call dish and demand a tech at your house because it looks like the rain is here to stay.
 
Are you sure you are really losing the satellite? I thought I was losing 61.5 in the rain, but turns out, my last tv station was a weaker OTA station. When I turned to a 61.5 channel, my OTA tuner was flaking out because I was losing my terrestrial signal in the rain and it was causing my satellite tuner to drop its signal. Solution is that when I am finished watching or recording a terrestrial signal I know tune to the strongest OTA station which does not drop out in the rain. Even when recording a terrestrial signal, I know set a recording for my strongest OTA station for 5 minutes following the recording so my last terrestrial signal is a strong one. My problems have disappeared. Obviously it does not apply if you do not have a terrestrial antenna also. I first reported the problem about 8 months ago on this forum and I had Dish come out and rewire and replace LNBs which did not fix the problem, until I discovered the OTA connection. Strange but true.
 

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