Signal Strength Problems and Question?

jollygrunt

Arsenal Fan
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Apr 16, 2005
310
13
Republic of Texas
The signal strength on my DISH shows in the mid to upper 80's. I lose signal whenever we get light rain/drizzle and even during heavily clouded days.

I'm going calling in to get repeaked(?), and I want to have some ammunition in case I need it. So, where can I find out what the signal strength should be in my area of Deep South Texas(78586)?
 
Minimum signal strength dish requires is %70 so your above the min level atleast on the one transponder your looking at. Idealy you want to have it at %100 - %125 though dont expect to get %125 from the repeak. At %80 you should not loose your signal in light rain so it may very well be that there is a loose connection thats just barely making contact.
 
Service call it, don't give the technician a hard time with any ammunition because what most people don't understand is technicians have the right to turn away customers stating no problem found ;) it pays to be polite and simply tell him when it lightly rains you completely loose signal and sometimes even with heavy cloud cover. The nicer you are for a tech the more you will get out of him. ammunition: Are you sure its clouds and rain that causes the problem and not wind moving the dish due to a non secure dish mount? Is the dish mounted to a non treated wood surface that expands and contracts due to moisture and humidity (Wood often appears bowed)? Does it look like a tree is in the path of where the dish is pointed (Leaves turn downward in high moisture and sway about in wind and rain)? He will take all of these factors into account. Without you asking he will replace the LNB, peak your dish and determine if he needs to move it and ask for your "OK" and depending on its location he might have you sign off on it.


Chances are you have no problem, signal strength should decrease in rain and depending on how dense a cloud is but it shouldn't never interrupt service unless a heavy T-Storm is about.
 
wow that is a comprehensive answer but a good one. i have been installer for several years and i could add some other factors that might be causing poor reception in this circumstance. it is possible that rain has leaked into your 'cable box' or on junctions in outdoor wiring that contain coax ends, connectors, diplexers, etc. dish installers are asked to use waterresistant coax ends instead of f connectors yet even a gilbert fitting can rust out or perform poorly in a direct stream of water. so i would recommend to check fittings on the wiring to help signal. also, the 80 percent reading on your tv screen is produced by a potentiometer so it is very similar to but not a percentage, nor is it an absolute value. in other words, each receiver will vary somewhat as to the 'peak' value. also, using your remote control you can change the transponder number in the screen where the signal strength is.. and notice that depending on which transponder is selected you will get a much higher or lower signal strength, including transponder 5 spot beam which will pin the signal strenght graph at 125 if the satellite is acquired. personally i use transponder 18-20 to get a good feel for if the dish is peaked. probably your dish just needs a little tweaking and some more bars can be acquired on the strength, but 80 is pretty good and you should acquire pretty well. that is what got me to thinking that i should reply with new advice about wet fittings and bad wiring since it happens in rain. as the person correctly stated above, only pretty darn bad weather will mess up a sat connection. a light rain shouldnt, in fact getting the high frequency signals through moisture in the atmosphere was the foundation of how small dish tv was invented. they couldnt get enough power at the very high frequencies to go through water in the atmosphere like the big c-band dishes could using somewhat lower high frequencies, until the advent of video and audio compression (mpeg). the dish network box you have in your home is an integrated receiver decoder, which is able to uncompress the signal. in the LNB (low noise blocker) on the dish (it blocks out lower frequencies) there is a small piece of copper inside their so it really is an antenna after all. the higher the frequency the smaller the antenna and so the 20 inch dish was born. anyway, i thought you might find this interesting because i have found that well installed systems are very dependable except in wet big snowflakes and rain/snow that continues for many many miles. in arizona i have sat back and watched tv flawlessly while the dish acquired directly through the heart of a major thunderstorm.
 
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