FTA and Rain Fade

[snathanb]

Ok... we are having our first rain since I installed my system last week, and I am seeing some odd stuff.

1st... rain seems to affect the satellites differently...
a) I'm seeing no noticable signal loss on AMC 4
b) I'm seeing slight to annoying signal fade on G10
c) I'm see NO signal on T5 (my True South Bird)

2nd: On the circular side....

I get very strong signal on 110 for NASA (or did yesterday, like 95% signal quality), but it keeps dropping out in the rain. Oddly enough, it still comes in fine on my regular dishnet box ( on a separate 18in dish).

I thought I would get better signal on my 1meter dish than the 18 pizza pan, but I am seeing the opposite.....

 

[snathanb]

Sorry... determined I had a connection that was not well sealed... took care of it.

 

[OoTLink]

It might be that the meter disk is deeper, or it has a finicky LNB, or there's a tree that becomes a problem when it rains that is in the way of the big one but not the little one.. might also be that because you're using an FTA LNB over a DBS one, where DBS would be better suited for that bird..

Excuse my sillyness

 

[snathanb]

I have a DBS LNB strapped next to the Ku one.

Trees? What's that? I live in Dallas... no trees in these here parts.

I just added the DBS LNB yesterday, and didn't seal the coax. Water had penetrated the connection and was causing the problems.

All solved... back to 99% signal strength on NASA TV.

Oh yeah, and all those free music channels you keep talking about

 

[charper1]

Did any water penetrate down into the cable itself? I would replace that connection, because if any did, over time it will degrade the line.

Maybe a pro will jump in here: will a few shots of WD40 dissipate the water to avoid replacement?

 

[Mr Tony]

WD40 works good
Silicone or there is some stuff that you can get at the rat shack...cable sealant...that stuff works good, but is a pain to remove

 

[PSB]

I use dielectric grease in all outdoor connections, never had a bad one since I started using it!

 

[snathanb]

Ah, good idea with the dielectric grease. I've got that around as I use it on electrical connections under the hood of my jetskis.

 

[Mr Tony]

Also, G10 was wacky this weekend as there were HUGE storms in Arkansas
11719 was out for a while and 11799 was down near 30 on Saturday