Signal issues due to dark cloudy weather with Dish, Is Direct any better?

[lwh1993]

I'm a current Dish customer, but might not be for long due to reception issues.

During this weekend we had complete signal lost during Dark and cloudy skies, but no rain was occurring. Is this considered normal? My wife was really angry because if the signal goes out like that she's worried if we get any bad weather and we can't check in on the local weather.

I had to convince them to send out a Tech on Wednesday. I have a clear view of the sky without any obstructions or trees.

I've had satellite for the last 10 years and it seems like my latest time with Dish is the worst for reception issues. I don't remember having issues like this on Direct.

Is Direct any better? I would consider cable, but Mediacom has horrible pricing and bad selection and equipment.

 

[lparsons21]

I've got both at the moment and I'm not finding that D* is any better or worse about these issues than is E*.

 

[mdram]

iirc they both were very similar in my area
they only go out when a severe thunderstorm is between them and the sat

 

[sunelec]

You need to peak your dish for the strongest signal.

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Might be heavy rain SE of you but not overhead. It's where the satellite signal is affected.

 

[rad]

My wife was really angry because if the signal goes out like that she's worried if we get any bad weather and we can't check in on the local weather.

Do any of your local over the air stations have a weather subchannel available? If yes, and you can receive the station at your home you might just want to go with an OTA adapter so you can tune that station in, or better yet get a NOAA weather radio.

 

[lwh1993]

I'm looking into an OTA antenna, I'd love to hook it up to my Hopper, but it's in the basement, so signal for an indoor antenna is horrible. I will probably just hook up the antenna to a TV upstairs and use a coaxial switch when needed. We also have a NOAA radio.

 

[Jimbo]

Might be heavy rain SE of you but not overhead. It's where the satellite signal is affected.

iirc they both were very similar in my area
they only go out when a severe thunderstorm is between them and the sat

You need to peak your dish for the strongest signal.

All good points guys !

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Having both Dish(satellites 110,119,& 129) & Directv,I find that Dish seems to go out first during a heavy rainstorm or very dark clouds. I figure that it's because the Western Arc satellites are so low in the horizon,it's more common for them to go out during bad weather(can't speak for Eastern Arc).

 

[harshness]

I've had satellite for the last 10 years and it seems like my latest time with Dish is the worst for reception issues. I don't remember having issues like this on Direct.

It may come down to where you live in terms of East to West. Generally speaking DISH HD should offer better immunity unless you've got a particularly low look angle to the appropriate satellite constellation. DIRECTV uses a rather large dish but it doesn't entirely compensate for the increased dispersion brought on by the much higher downlink frequencies. DIRECTV may be a little better in the central US while DISH should do pretty well nearer the coasts simply because of the distance traveled through the cloud layer isn't as great.

With DISH, you may be able to get a larger reflector in the form of the Plus DISH or the 1000.4.

With either service, it is important that the dish aiming be optimal to make a reasonable comparison.

 

[ts7]

Having both Dish(satellites 110,119,& 129) & Directv,I find that Dish seems to go out first during a heavy rainstorm or very dark clouds. I figure that it's because the Western Arc satellites are so low in the horizon,it's more common for them to go out during bad weather(can't speak for Eastern Arc).

When I had Dish I was on the Western Arc (near Chicago) and had rain fade much more often than I do now with Direct.

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[acostapimps]

We had severe weather here in northern part of Chicago today and all I saw was few seconds of rain fade, really surprised by that because we had dark clouds.

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[ejb1980]

Clouds alone should never drop the signal on Dish or Directv.

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[david_gilbert]

it ain't the storm over you, it is the one south of you that causes the fade. We see it during strong storms south of us, but by the time the actual storm gets to our house the sat is usually back working.

 

[ejb1980]

it ain't the storm over you, it is the one south of you that causes the fade. We see it during strong storms south of us, but by the time the actual storm gets to our house the sat is usually back working.

I assume the exact position that the storm needs to be to block the signal south of you will vary by latitude and be a lot less south the further south you are.

 

[lwh1993]

I'm in Minneapolis, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference. The dish tech is coming out tomorrow, so hopefully they can fix the issue. If not my wife will demand a change of service. I don't remember having issues with Directv, so that would be my next option.

 

[navychop]

This reminds me why I'm with Dish: The service outages were too frequent with the cableco.


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[Charise]

I'm in La Crosse, so just a few hours' drive from Minneapolis. I lost signal for a short while over the weekend, but a few other times when there were weather-related problems, the screen was streaked with color for a few seconds, but the sound still came in. I'm trying to watch Wimbledon matches, so I can still keep up via audio.

We've had really severe storms this last week, so I'm not surprised we are losing a few bits of shows (I only watch what I've already recorded). I even had the electricity go out, so, yes, you are going to lose signal once in a while. However, it comes back soon, unlike with cable, where you'd wait days to get picture back. I do have the OTA set up, so I have that available unless the electricity goes out, which can happen many times with severe thunderstorms.

If you feel you've lost too much of a show to make sense of it, do a "search" for it. I've found that many are available for free "on demand."

Good luck!!

 

[Drucifer]

It's the water pellets between the satellite and the dish that breaks up the signal strength. These pellets can be in the clouds or falling to the ground as rain drops.