Bigger Dish???????

[Trouthead]

I have had VOOM for about a month now and overall I am pleased. The fight on Saturday night was as good a picture as I would guess is possible, bright, colorfull, and detailed. Generally I don't have much problems with VOOM other than last weekend.

I live in central Wyoming at approx 5300 ft. My VOOM dish has a super clear path to the sky with no interference. I get signal numbers in the 90s.

We had rain, snow and drizzle last weekend, and I continually lost signal. It has neither rained nor snowed much since and my signal has been fine.

I called customer service repeatedly last weekend, and went through the turn it off, uplug it routine. I would get a picture sometimes and other times I would not. Finally it worked, but the CSR said my box must be shot and I would need a new one. Now it seems to be working pretty well.

Some pixalation, one or two lockups, (fixed with a reboot) an occaisonal no signal from the satellite message that is fixed by surfing to the next station and then back, but that is it and it is essentially quite watchable.

Now the assumption on my part is that I do not need a new box, but that I do need a bigger dish. How does one go about convincing VOOM of the need for the bigger dish. It seems silly to replace the STB, but I surely don't know.

I have been a C-Bander for almost 20 years, and when C-band loses signal it is a gradual degradation, not seemingly so with a digital signal.

We are now entering the dry season and it might not rain or snow untill October. It will be hard to prove my assumption that a bigger dish would stop my signal loss.

Any opinions on this matter???

 

[The Stone Man]

There's a thread on page 2 about GeneWildershair and a new 30" dish. Check that out at http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=12199. Maybe if you come up with a good enough story, Voom will give you a new STB and a larger dish.

 

[Trouthead]

I don't think my STB is shot, and now I am in the odd position of hoping that it will snow one more time. That assumes that I lose the picture again. The cost of a 30 inch dish is not that much and I am sure I could manage the install myself, but if VOOM will do it I would rather go that route.

 

[DarrellP]

I use a 24" dish in Oregon and this past weekend we had our first real rain since I was installed and I lost my signal when the strength hit 48. It would come in and out between 47-49 (mostly out). I'm going to call them about getting a 30", if they say no, I'll just go buy my own and put it up.

 

[DarrellP]

Check out these guys, they have up to a 48" dish, price is pretty good too.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Check out these guys, they have up to a 48" dish, price is pretty good too.

wow a 48" dish? I would reconsider that option, as the 30" is pretty huge *imo*.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Trouthead, you do not have a bad box. This is VOOM CSR's excuse for everything. They just do not know how to troubleshoot anything really. any bad signal loss, or pixelation question to them always results in them asking to push the little red button, unplug replug, hold the power button down for 10 seconds, and if you still see problems, then you're told your box must be swapped out. I'm on my second box now, and I don't see any improvement over the last one. Now as for getting a bigger dish, yes I think you should go that route. It sounds to me like that's you *real* problem. call VOOM up tell them your situation, if they cannot give you the 30" dish, go get it yourself from somewhere else. It's really not hard to put up yourself at all. I had a light rain last night and my signal dropped from 99 to 95, where as before during the same type of rain it dropped from 96 to high 60's low 70's and signal was lost until rain subsided. I would really consider this option. Good luck, and happy VOOMing!

 

[The Stone Man]

Best advice---listen to GeneWildershair and DarrellP because they know what they're talking about. I must be the luckiest guy on earth, because I have not experienced any weather-related dropouts or loss of signal. I have the original STB with the original 18-inch dish. In 4 months, we've had sun, light rain, hard rain, snow, freezing snow, wind and everything else that could knock out a picture, but no problems. But if I ever do have a problem, this is definitely the right place to get it solved.

 

[Trouthead]

I agree

I doubt my STB is shot. CSR , (and I have dealt with about 6-7 of them now) really have one set of solutions, unplug, hold the red button, etc.

Snow is predicted sometime in the next few days and I will see what happens.
On a clear day my signal strength is 93. I will check repeatedly when it snows or rains.

Any problems and I will call VOOM asking for an upgrade in my dish.

 

[occammd]

Trouthead. I am going to mount the VOOM LNB on my C-Band and point it to 61.5 (?). If you still have the C-Band at your location, why not use that dish? Shouldn't have trouble then.

 

[bbtkd]

Back in the old days of C-band, we all recognized that the best two ways to increase signal was to increase dish size, and put in a better LNA/LNB. How hot is the Voom LNB - and are there better ones available?

 

[DarrellP]

Back in the old days of C-band, we all recognized that the best two ways to increase signal was to increase dish size, and put in a better LNA/LNB. How hot is the Voom LNB - and are there better ones available?

It's the same LNB that Dish & Directv uses.

 

[GeneWildershair]

It's the same LNB that Dish & Directv uses.

I gained more power using the lnb supplied with the 30" dish, over the one that came with the VOOM 18" when connected to the 30".