I recently returned to Dish and have a Hopper 3 and a new dish pointed at the eastern arc. Last time I had Dish, everyone was on 119/110 and the signal strengths were all in the high 90s. Very few rain fades. Now on EA, rain fades seem much more frequent and signal strengths seem low. Ranging from 35-61 on either bird.
Do I need to peak the dish or are these numbers normal? Are rain fades more frequent on the EA? Thanks for all input!
First, the signal strength scale has been changed since the time when everyone was on 119/110, so lower numbers are normal for everyone now, regardless of arc, with Eastern Arc generally having lower numbers than Western Arc, as has already been said. 61 is a good signal for Eastern Arc. What transponders are you seeing the 35 strength on? If it is a spotbeam, that may be normal for your area. (For instance, if it is a spotbeam for another market that happens to barely reach your area, but is not intended to actually serve your area, you will see lower strength readings than normal.)
TheKrell makes a good point about the look angle to the satellites. One factor affecting the strength is the amount of atmosphere that the signal has to go through before reaching your dish. Generally, lower elevation settings will result in lower strengths, due to the satellite being lower in the sky, increasing the distance the signal has to travel through the atmosphere, and increasing the odds of obstacles (such as storm clouds) getting in the way of the signal.
Another factor, although a smaller one, is the size of the dish you are using. Like Tampa8, I also have both arcs. The dish I use for Eastern Arc is a 1000.4, which has LNB's for three satellite locations (77 / 72.7 / 61.5) and a larger reflector than the standard 1000.2 dishes. My Western Arc dish is a 1000+, which has LNB's for four satellite locations (110/118/119/129) and the largest reflector of any dish currently being installed by Dish. As a result, I hardly ever get rain fade on either arc. The main factor when I do get rain fade is which direction the storms are approaching from, like ncted said. Since the storms tend to move from west to east, I will usually lose signal on Western Arc first, while Eastern Arc still works. Then, when the storm is far enough east, the Eastern Arc signal will go out, but I usually have signal back from Western Arc by that point. It is very rare that I have signal loss on both arcs at the same time.
