My first lightning storm, my first outage. .

[mitchflorida]

I am a new Dish Customer. I will say that the picture quality and value is excellent.

However, I had my first lightning storm today, and it immediately went out of service for about 25 minutes. It said one of the satellite connections had been lost and would not work. Suddenly, about 15 minutes later, it "fixed itself".

How often will my service go out during a thunderstorm? How can I tell if the installer grounded the dish? I don't see any evidence that he did (he installed it onto a temporary cinder block!).

Would not grounding this dish cause me an outage whenever there is a lightning storm, or am I barking up the wrong tree? Regardless, it was disconcerting to lose the satellite during my first thunderstorm!

 

[bcshields]

No. Grounding protects against the accumulation of static electricity, which, if left alone, MAY lead to a greater chance of a lightning strike.

How can you tell if it's grounded? Follow the wire from the dish to the rcvr. If you see a 10G copper wire touching a ground pole or some other sort of electrical ground... it's grounded (should be to code though).

Rain fade (which is what you experienced) is caused by water droplets in the clouds (and hail in some thunderstorms) blocking the line of sight from your dish to the satellite in the sky. It has nothing to do with the grounding of the system.

Light gray rain clouds should not cause rain fade. If so, it might be the root of an alignment problem. Mainly dark nasty clouds should do it and that's about it.

 

[mitchflorida]

If my dish were to be hit directly by lightning, what would happen exactly? Would it burn up or be damaged? Or just go out of commission for a while?

 

[bcshields]

Toast. Dish and wiring, and most likely rcvr, all would need to be replaced.

The reciever though, I believe is built to fry so your other electronics don't. rarely see a TV go up in a lightning strike.

 

[ShadowEKU]

it really depends on where it hits. If it jsut hits the dish you may be ok. It depends on where it arcs if it hits the dish.
Now if it hits the Lnb. It Will fry the LNB 100% of the time. if the system is grounded (grounding reduces the risk of a strike as is) then the current will flow down the coax and with luck dissipate into the ground wire adn not damage much else (this depends on the intesity) if it is powerful enough or its not grounded the current will spike into the reciever and fry it plain and simple these things cant handle much of a surge and definitely not a feedback on the sat inputs. hopefully at that point it will go out through the receivers grounding (3rd prong) and hopefully it wont arc into anything else.

That said grounding is key.. there should be a wire from the dish to some sort of ground. For the coax there should be some grounding blocks at the entry point to the house with a copper wire hooked to it ad it leading to a ground. these drain static and reduce the risk of lightning.

 

[ShadowEKU]

By the way. I live in Kentucky and have had dish for quite a while now. its gone out 3 times twice this summer and this was a bad summer. and once this past week but it was one hell of a storm... power went down. I have an industrial ups so my tv didnt die.. was sitting here playing xbox in the dark.

 

[Mickdog]

Toast. Dish and wiring, and most likely rcvr, all would need to be replaced.

The reciever though, I believe is built to fry so your other electronics don't. rarely see a TV go up in a lightning strike.

Rarely is right, however, lightning will hit what it wants! I once saw a TV take a hit that was not plugged in, not attached to a cable, or antenna. The bolt hit the side of a double wide, went down wiring in the wall, out a electric socket and right into the TV. In an other instance, where I used to work, it hit a well grounded network closet, then went through a classroom that was next to the closet. When we walked in the next day you could see where it had went through the computers because the phosphor on the monitors in the room had burn lines. What a mess. Cost em a bundle to replace the network and computer equipment.

 

[mitchflorida]

The dish is connected to a small square concrete cinder block, which is in direct contact with the soil outside my townhouse. I am guessing that the installer will say that any current will be transferred from the wet concrete to soil outside, giving me an effective ground. I will have to look tomorrow to see if there is any other grounding wire, but I haven't seen anything directly conncected to the dish, that is for sure.

 

[ShadowEKU]

unless that pole is made of copper and goes 6-8' thats feet in the ground its not a legitimate ground.

 

[thiggin2]

However, I had my first lightning storm today, and it immediately went out of service for about 25 minutes. It said one of the satellite connections had been lost and would not work. Suddenly, about 15 minutes later, it "fixed itself".
How often will my service go out during a thunderstorm?

Not sure were in Florida your at but here in the Tampabay area I always loose my signal during the rainy season when we get the evening rain storms that will flood the streets in a matter of minutes but it only lasts for about as long as the heavy rain does. And theres really nothing you can do to improve it except tweak the dish the best you can.

 

[blangley]

I can speak on this from personal experience unfortunately. My house was struck by lightning about a month ago and all electronics which were connected to a phone or power cord stopped working.

As for the Dish system, my dish/lnb and wiring were just fine but the receiver was completely hosed. The symptoms of a fried receiver were showing the bright blue video screen when turned on and emitting a constant, repeating chirping sound. My dish was probably spared as it was on the opposite corner of the house where the bolt struck.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I'm very surprised no one has mentioned a surge protector. Get one designed for satellite use with phone and satellite connections.

In addition, I recommend using a UPS between the surge protector and the receiver. It helps with many ills especially with DVRs.

A direct strike is bad news, but near-misses can be a "so what" if EVERYTHING is done right.

A dish at ground level on wet solids is a decent situation - no static to speak of, not exposed to winds, etc., etc.

 

[mattb]

Ive seen an LNBF on a CBand dish get fried twice in lightening strikes that did not directly hit the Dish (hit the broadcast tower about 50 ft away) ... amazingly the receiver did not receive damage either time! (4000$ receiver too)

Lightening is one of those mysteries, you can have a direct hit and it fry everything in its path, while other times, fry only selective stuff! The same radio station's mixing board (completely unprotected) made it thru both lightening strikes (was not even on a surge protector) ... Amazing how lightening flows!

 

[SimpleSimon]

As a rule, LNBFs are extremely sensitive to EMF - after all, their job is to gather as much EMF of a certain frequency as they can.

I would think that it's EMF/static that nails them as opposed to the actual current flow associated with a strike. That current flow CAN be controlled - up to a point. That is, it can be "encouraged" to follow a certain path.

 

[Sky King49]

Where are you from in KY. I was born in Harlan County.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Where are you from in KY. I was born in Harlan County.

Me? Im in frankfort, Have family in London, Went to school in Richmond, was born in Arizona. my biography.

 

[mitchflorida]

What actually occurred yesterday wasn't a just a lightning storm but a hailstorm as well, which is unusual in Florida, to say the least! Pieces of ice in South Florida

I am guessing hailstorms will disrupt satellite reception much worse than just rain and lightning. How about snow? Fortunately, I doubt if it will ever snow down here, but was wondering its effect vs. rain or hail.

 

[bcshields]

hail is much worse... and since some thunderheads have hail in them, although it might not fall, it will disrupt line of sight.

Snow? eh. a dish covered with it won't help, but a little Pam on the reflector solves that.

 

[DWS44]

My house was struck by lightning last spring, at the front corner. No damage or fire somehow, though it did get in one electrical circuit running from that corner of the garage, thru the fusebox (blowing that fuse), thru the kitchen, and straight to the outlet that all my computer equipment was connected to. It also blew two GFI outlets that was in the garage and kitchen on that same circuit, and tripped the surge protection in the APC battery backup unit. The APC unit contained the surge and and none of the computer equipment was harmed. Talk about relief!

When I bought my Hitachi LCD, I got a similar APC unit for it was well that all my HT equipment is running thru!