Signal Outage

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Cobra611

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 18, 2007
330
19
Beacon, NY
Our first measurable snowfall happened today here in NY. It was a light snow, which never really had any decent intensity until the very end. But, during the first couple of hours, I lost my satellite signal. We were on our way out, so I didn't have a chance to scan that many channels to see what was and wasn't available. My locals were out as well as MSG, but 4 hrs. later everything was back. I had DirecTV for almost 10 years an never lost the signal with such a light snowfall. My dish is on the roof of my townhouse, and I have the protection plan. Is there anything DirecTV can do to help minimize this? I'm not looking forward to the rest of winter if this is going to happen pretty regularly.

Thanks!
 
Our first measurable snowfall happened today here in NY. It was a light snow, which never really had any decent intensity until the very end. But, during the first couple of hours, I lost my satellite signal. We were on our way out, so I didn't have a chance to scan that many channels to see what was and wasn't available. My locals were out as well as MSG, but 4 hrs. later everything was back. I had DirecTV for almost 10 years an never lost the signal with such a light snowfall. My dish is on the roof of my townhouse, and I have the protection plan. Is there anything DirecTV can do to help minimize this? I'm not looking forward to the rest of winter if this is going to happen pretty regularly.

Thanks!

Check your signal strength when you get a chance, see if it's in the high 80's and 90's when weather is decent. If not, you might want to tweak it, D* will do that for you if you call them and have the protection plan it's free.
 
You checked it 4 hours later when you got home but that doesn't mean it was out for 4 hours. It might have only been out for a few minutes when the snow was coming down the heaviest.
 
The 99* satellite has readings of 0 on transponders 4, 6 and 19. Trans. #2 is 39 and the others are mostly 80's, 90's and a couple of 60's.

Sat. 101*(sounds like a college course) has a few 100's but most are in the mid to high 90's.

Clear weather viewing is always excellent, and never had a problem with the big windy days either, such as the 50-60 mph winds we had earlier this week. Even heavy rains never disrupted the picture. So far, it's just yesterday's snowfall. My dish is set up on our roof, which is about 19'-23' up, and it was difficult for me to see if any snow was accumulating on the dish or LNB, or if it was the snows intenisty. By the way, I have a Slimline dish with 3 LNB's. I left the house at 4pm, signal was out, and when I tried, a few moments ago, to view my Penn & Teller BS program I recorded at 5:30pm yesterday, it wasn't available. As soon as I clicked the program in mt List, it immediately asked if I wanted to delete or not delete, meaning it recorded basically nothing for 30 minutes. Luckily when I returned home last night, the signal was back so I could watch the Rangers 3rd period:)
 
Lots of people had issues with signal outage with the snowfall. It was particularly wet, which seems to be a bad combination with Directv signals. Mine was out for an hour or so here in central CT.
 
Lots of people had issues with signal outage with the snowfall. It was particularly wet, which seems to be a bad combination with Directv signals. Mine was out for an hour or so here in central CT.

Used to live in Chicago area and the wet snow that sticks to everything will kill the signal. I used to have a problem with building on the LNB caps playing havoc with the signal along with buildup on the dish, that's a good reason to go with a ground/pole mount in snowy areas when possible.
 
I live in Syracuse and you know how much snow we usually get. In 11 years, I've never had an outage due to snow. My guess would be you dish has gotten slightly out of alignment.
 
Hope you didn't just curse yourself :)

I have to say after all the stories I read on these boards, I really am amazed that I've never had snow related problems. I'll get an occasional bit of rain fade, usually in the summer, but never snow. Either, I must live right or it's going to catch up with me someday.
 
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