Best Way To Avoid Rain Fade

[cditty]

I have a Dish 1000.2 running two 722 receivers. I have noticed that this dish is more prone to rain fade than my Dish 500 was, even though I have comparable signal... 110/119 is in the mid 70's and 129 is around 65. I have peaked the dish, to get it that high, as it was only in the 50's when the installer left.

I also have a spare Dish 500 and an old Superdish 105. I would like to minimize rain fade as we have a number of storms here. What would be my best setup? I thought about putting the Dish 500 back up and using the 1000.2 just for 129. I am also not opposed to pole mounting 3 separate dishes in the area beyond my fence (which has good los). I have both a DP33 and DPP44 switch (neither are being used now as I am taking the feed directly from the 1000.2).

Any suggestions from you gurus?

 

[DishSubLA]

This may be more of an FEC issue having a greater impact on the rain fade even when the signal strength is really good. It is still less power than many other configurations those satellites can operate at. But maximum number of transponders comes with a compromise. The real answer is for Dish to throttle back on the FEC, but that aint ever going to happen. I'm getting rain fade when I never used to back in the old days, especially when 110 was at 3/4 FEC, although Dish is still VERY reliable. The bigger the dish, the better.

 

[pendragon]

Your numbers seem pretty good on the surface, so something seems a little unusual unless you get torrential downpours.

Is the rain fade the same on both 722s? Are all the satellites vulnerable to the fade? Do all transponders measure in the same range? How much do the readings drop during rain fade? One telling point would be if the readings are different for the even and odd transponders.

 

[cditty]

Your numbers seem pretty good on the surface, so something seems a little unusual unless you get torrential downpours.

Is the rain fade the same on both 722s? Are all the satellites vulnerable to the fade? Do all transponders measure in the same range? How much do the readings drop during rain fade? One telling point would be if the readings are different for the even and odd transponders.

It affects both receivers equally. Signal drops to 0 when it goes out. All sat's seem to fade equally. 129 hung in the longest and came back the quickest, which is odd to me because it is the weakest.

Maybe I am overreacting. I live in Louisiana, so it's not something I have to worry about alot outside of this time of the year. Just seems like we've had 3 heavy storms since I got the 1000.2 and I've lost the satellite on all of them (during programming I was trying to record). Glad I get HD locals OTA.

Any suggestions as to my original question of the best setup?

 

[boba]

Three 36" dishes would probably be the most resistant to rainfade at reasonable cost. That would give more surface area to collect the signal from the satellites but will still go out in downpours.

 

[dishcomm]

I have a Dish 1000.2 running two 722 receivers. I have noticed that this dish is more prone to rain fade than my Dish 500 was, even though I have comparable signal... 110/119 is in the mid 70's and 129 is around 65. I have peaked the dish, to get it that high, as it was only in the 50's when the installer left.

I also have a spare Dish 500 and an old Superdish 105. I would like to minimize rain fade as we have a number of storms here. What would be my best setup? I thought about putting the Dish 500 back up and using the 1000.2 just for 129. I am also not opposed to pole mounting 3 separate dishes in the area beyond my fence (which has good los). I have both a DP33 and DPP44 switch (neither are being used now as I am taking the feed directly from the 1000.2).

Any suggestions from you gurus?

Larger dishes if you can get your hands on them.
How often does it rain heavily enough to knock out your reception?

 

[blooker]

Three 30" antennas and zero rain fade even in the heaviest downpours.

 

[david_jr]

Three 30" antennas and zero rain fade even in the heaviest downpours.

Are these obtained through a local installer or do you go through Dish to get them? The snow/rain fade here in NE is driving us crazy. It goes out in cloudy weather with no rain. Like the OP my signals drop to near 0 during light rain/clouds, but is great when there is clear weather.

 

[pendragon]

Winegard makes a model DS-2077 (76 cm) that takes a DN LNBF without fussing. Available from a few places on the net.

 

[blooker]

Are these obtained through a local installer or do you go through Dish to get them? The snow/rain fade here in NE is driving us crazy. It goes out in cloudy weather with no rain. Like the OP my signals drop to near 0 during light rain/clouds, but is great when there is clear weather.

I did the install myself (with help from people on this site) after buying the antennas online from a Winegard seller. You need the arm with the D channel so it fits the LNB. I bought three used LNB's and DPP44 switch via Ebay.


At the moment it is raining cats and dogs and the signals are in the fifties rather than the usual seventies or higher.

We used to lose signal lock several times a year and it seemed to always be at the end of a movie, on a PGA sudden death hole, when it was 4th and long - you get the idea. No more. Good luck.

 

[VegasVoomer]

Best way to avoid rain fade –– Move to Vegas. It never rains here.

 

[blooker]

Once I was near the Charleston underpass and rain from somewhere flooded the darn thing. Probably Henderson.

 

[digiblur]

This may be more of an FEC issue having a greater impact on the rain fade even when the signal strength is really good. It is still less power than many other configurations those satellites can operate at. But maximum number of transponders comes with a compromise. The real answer is for Dish to throttle back on the FEC, but that aint ever going to happen. I'm getting rain fade when I never used to back in the old days, especially when 110 was at 3/4 FEC, although Dish is still VERY reliable. The bigger the dish, the better.

Don't you mean throttle up the FEC?

E-11 is a powerful bird and is very capable of QPSK 7/8 FEC. Not sure of the weather in your area but even at times on my 90cm I can see rainfade on DishNetwork birds in down pours here. Just the nature of the beast with 12.2ghz-12.7ghz signals.

 

[chainblu]

If your signal goes to 0 on a cloudy day, it sounds like you have other problems... maybe alignment issues or something blocking line of sight?

 

[blooker]

Or, the old 129 bird is back.

 

[david_jr]

If your signal goes to 0 on a cloudy day, it sounds like you have other problems... maybe alignment issues or something blocking line of sight?

I am pointed toward trees, but the installer insisted it was looking over the trees. To my eye it looks at the top, but what do I know? I don't know which part of the dish sees what. I have a sat installer near me that does both D* & E*, but they are not the ones E* sent for my upgrade. I am going to call them and see if I can pay them to fix this problem. Wife is not happy when she misses her shows (me neither really).

 

[david_jr]

I did the install myself (with help from people on this site) after buying the antennas online from a Winegard seller. You need the arm with the D channel so it fits the LNB. I bought three used LNB's and DPP44 switch via Ebay.


At the moment it is raining cats and dogs and the signals are in the fifties rather than the usual seventies or higher.

We used to lose signal lock several times a year and it seemed to always be at the end of a movie, on a PGA sudden death hole, when it was 4th and long - you get the idea. No more. Good luck.

Ok this Winegard DS 2077 30" Dish Network Satellite Dish (DS2077) | DS-2077 [Winegard] | DS2077 DS 2077 DS-2077 Dish Network 61.5 international is supposed to be compatible with DISH LNBs. Does that mean it is just a matter of taking the old dish off arm, putting new dish on arm and remounting the lnb on the new dish? Doesn't seem to be much out there for using a 90cm dish for 61.5. I guess that's overkill aye? I think it's worth $60 to take a shot at fixing this. Would I need anything else?

 

[david_jr]

DISH CSR called today.

Okay. E* CSR called me today and said that they had detected I had low signals and they want to send a tech to the house to fix for free. Is this legit? Does my receiver report back all the problems somehow? Is there a catch and they're trying to sell me something? They're sending someone on Monday.

 

[pendragon]

Ok this Winegard DS 2077 30" Dish Network Satellite Dish (DS2077) | DS-2077 [Winegard] | DS2077 DS 2077 DS-2077 Dish Network 61.5 international is supposed to be compatible with DISH LNBs. Does that mean it is just a matter of taking the old dish off arm, putting new dish on arm and remounting the lnb on the new dish? Doesn't seem to be much out there for using a 90cm dish for 61.5. I guess that's overkill aye? I think it's worth $60 to take a shot at fixing this. Would I need anything else?

The DS-2077 comes with a heftier mounting post, so you should count on removing your old one and replacing it. Other than that this is a pretty simple upgrade as the Dish LNBs bolt onto the DS-2077 just like their own. I doubt you would see any real improvement with a 90 cm dish over a 76 cm; the DS-2077 is a fairly efficient reflector and is only slightly lower in sensitivity than most 90 cm dishes.

 

[pendragon]

Okay. E* CSR called me today and said that they had detected I had low signals and they want to send a tech to the house to fix for free. Is this legit? Does my receiver report back all the problems somehow? Is there a catch and they're trying to sell me something? They're sending someone on Monday.

Is your 722 plugged into a phone line or have an Internet connection? If so it may be telling Dish a lot more than your viewing habits. Sounds plausible to me.