Storm Disruption

[MVPinBoynton]

We got our dish installed yesterday. Last night we had a quick rain storm that knocked the service off for about 5 minutes. I had always assumed that it took a pretty bad storm to affect a dish. Is it common for them to go out? Also, out of curiosity, is it the rain itself or the very thick clouds that cause the disruption? it is probably both; but wondering if just heavy clouds will cause an outage.

 

[Mr Tony]

heavy dark clouds will kill a signal quicker than rain will

Here in Minnesota I can lose signal and its not raining yet....yet while it rains the signal just goes down but not out

 

[Jimbo]

We got our dish installed yesterday. Last night we had a quick rain storm that knocked the service off for about 5 minutes. I had always assumed that it took a pretty bad storm to affect a dish. Is it common for them to go out? Also, out of curiosity, is it the rain itself or the very thick clouds that cause the disruption? it is probably both; but wondering if just heavy clouds will cause an outage.

What does your signal strength look like on the 99 &103 Sats ?

 

[MVPinBoynton]

What does your signal strength look like on the 99 &103 Sats ?

PI don't under stand what 99 & 103 mean; but all of the strengths wer between 97 and 100%.

 

[jdspencer]

The 99 and 103 sats are the DirecTV HD sats. They will drop out before the SD sat at 101.

 

[Joe Diamond]

We got our dish installed yesterday. Last night we had a quick rain storm that knocked the service off for about 5 minutes. I had always assumed that it took a pretty bad storm to affect a dish. Is it common for them to go out? Also, out of curiosity, is it the rain itself or the very thick clouds that cause the disruption? it is probably both; but wondering if just heavy clouds will cause an outage.

Remember it is the 22,300 mile line between the dish and the satellite that gets blocked to stop the signal. This line of sight (LOS) is in the SW direction and at a certain elevation. So a storm or a building north of the dish will have no effect. Sometimes you get a weather outage when it is not raining at your location and sometimes the rain can be coming down real hard but you have signal. Expect the HD channels to drop out first.
During your first week observe the signal at different times to get to know what normal is....a radical change or drop from normal could mean a loose dish mount. It is probably still true that satellite systems have fewer outages than the local cable company...who also use satellite dish antennae and can be subject to "rain fade."

Joe

 

[MVPinBoynton]

The 99 and 103 sats are the DirecTV HD sats. They will drop out before the SD sat at 101.

I must be a bit slow because I never saw a way to tell which satellite they were using or what the different number categories mean. So you are saying that there are 3 satellites that I will receive from?

 

[Mr Tony]

Directv actually uses 5 satellites slots...major ones in bold

99 is the national HD channels, some locals in HD and a couple SD channels (public interest)
101 is where most of the SD channels are and major cities locals in SD
103 is where the rest of the national HD channels are and some locals in HD
119 is where the Spanish SD channels are and some markets SD locals. Also 2 religious channels and a few of the audio only channels
95 is a separate satellite. That has International channels like Russian and South Asian

Most major markets get a SL3 installed. That sees 99, 101 & 103. If you look at the LNB it's one giant eyeball
If your locals in SD are on 119 they install a SL5. That has one giant eyeball and 2 off to the side (the middle one is for 110 but Directv doesn't use it anymore)

 

[Aridon]

Most rain events here in SE FL will impact signal some. Generally for short periods of time (few minutes or less) but sometimes longer. It can be annoying. I'm not sure if our angle to the birds in SE FL makes it more prone to drop out or if its just the kind of rain we see but it does happen a fair bit more than others say. Especially during rainy season it will be a daily occurrence but thankfully fairly short.

 

[MVPinBoynton]

Most rain events here in SE FL will impact signal some. Generally for short periods of time (few minutes or less) but sometimes longer. It can be annoying. I'm not sure if our angle to the birds in SE FL makes it more prone to drop out or if its just the kind of rain we see but it does happen a fair bit more than others say. Especially during rainy season it will be a daily occurrence but thankfully fairly short.

That is good to know, so I won't think that I have defective equipment.

 

[raoul5788]

Remember it is the 22,300 mile line between the dish and the satellite that gets blocked to stop the signal. This line of sight (LOS) is in the SW direction and at a certain elevation. So a storm or a building north of the dish will have no effect. Sometimes you get a weather outage when it is not raining at your location and sometimes the rain can be coming down real hard but you have signal. Expect the HD channels to drop out first.
During your first week observe the signal at different times to get to know what normal is....a radical change or drop from normal could mean a loose dish mount. It is probably still true that satellite systems have fewer outages than the local cable company...who also use satellite dish antennae and can be subject to "rain fade."

Joe

It's sw if you are east of Texas, and se if you are west of Texas. The closer you are to Texas, on either side, the closer to s the line of sight will be.

 

[Jimbo]

I must be a bit slow because I never saw a way to tell which satellite they were using or what the different number categories mean. So you are saying that there are 3 satellites that I will receive from?

Go to, Menu/Settings/Sat and Antenna/View Signal Strength
Then it will default to the 101 Sat, if you push the + or - button, it will move to the other Sats available on your Set up.

 

[MVPinBoynton]

Thanks so much. I had checked the strength; but didn't realize the plus/minus did that. Now I have something to play with when I get home from work.


Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks so much. I had checked the strength; but didn't realize the plus/minus did that. Now I have something to play with when I get home from work.


Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

Make sure your looking at the screen that has all the transponder showing, not just the single single one for the different Sats

 

[dishcomm]

We got our dish installed yesterday. Last night we had a quick rain storm that knocked the service off for about 5 minutes. I had always assumed that it took a pretty bad storm to affect a dish. Is it common for them to go out? Also, out of curiosity, is it the rain itself or the very thick clouds that cause the disruption? it is probably both; but wondering if just heavy clouds will cause an outage.

Both..Just picture a signal that in order to receive it, clear line of sight to the source is required. Clouds are essentially water droplets and clouds which produce rain, have rain, snow and ice pellets in them. All of these things can deflect or even block said signal. One thing you can check is the transponder signal strength. If all signals are not in the upper 90's to 100, your dish may be misaligned. Check on a clear day.

 

[MVPinBoynton]

The one I saw had different rows with categories like 8-16, 17-25, etc; and the headings for the columns looked like percents to me. There were lots of numbers; but I don't remember seeing satellite numbers. I did see the plus and minus option. I will check it out closer when I get home.

 

[MVPinBoynton]

Both..Just picture a signal that in order to receive it, clear line of sight to the source is required. Clouds are essentially water droplets and clouds which produce rain, have rain, snow and ice pellets in them. All of these things can deflect or even block said signal. One thing you can check is the transponder signal strength. If all signals are not in the upper 90's to 100, your dish may be misaligned. Check on a clear day.

The screen I looked at had all numbers in the 97%-100% range, so it is probably fine. The radar showed a red area southwest of us; which I am sure caused my issue. I just didn't know how easy it was to knock out the signal. I will keep track of what the weather is like moving forward.

 

[Jimbo]

The one I saw had different rows with categories like 8-16, 17-25, etc; and the headings for the columns looked like percents to me. There were lots of numbers; but I don't remember seeing satellite numbers. I did see the plus and minus option. I will check it out closer when I get home.

This IS the section you want to be looking at, as you can see each transponder on the Sat, vs just the Sat on the other screen.

 

[tigerfan33]

You all are going to give this guy the impression that anytime it's cloudy you will lose a signal. LOL

The only time I have lost signal is with a heavy rain. I've never lost due to any type of cloud cover unless they had rain or snow in them. As soon as the heavy rain lets up my signal is back up

 

[MVPinBoynton]

You all are going to give this guy the impression that anytime it's cloudy you will lose a signal. LOL

The only time I have lost signal is with a heavy rain. I've never lost due to any type of cloud cover unless they had rain or snow in them. As soon as the heavy rain lets up my signal is back up

So I don't have to worry about partly cloudy? I have a feeling if it was that bad, D* wouldn't have so many satisfied customers. I am really like it so far.