Storms vs Satellite

[jpmcdonough]

Is it normal for your satellite service to fail during a thunderstorm?

I'm a relatively new Dish subscriber, and we've been pounded with t-storms around here (DFW) lately. It just slowly loses synch or whatever until you give up and turn it off.

Just wondering.

 

[gadgtfreek]

It takes a pretty bad storm for mine to go out, im talking 15 mph on the interstate bad.

It could be the case that your dish needs to be adjusted for better signal. What type of dish do you have and what are your signal strengths.

 

[brad15]

I'd say that your dish is not aligned properly. it takes a storm so bad that i can hardly see across the street before mine will go out.

 

[jpmcdonough]

It takes a pretty bad storm for mine to go out, im talking 15 mph on the interstate bad.

It could be the case that your dish needs to be adjusted for better signal. What type of dish do you have and what are your signal strengths.

We have those kind of storms multiple times per day around here, of late. Not complaining since we had two years of drought previously.

I don't really know much about this, but I stumbled around and found 'Point Dish'. In 'Point Dish' it says my dish is 'Super'.

When I go into system info, it says I have 4 satellites - 119, 118, 110 and 129, all with green. Under status it says 'good'. I believe the 4th satellite was needed because I subscribe to TV5 (French language channel).

When I go to 'point dish', it says for 110 West, the signal strength is 79.

For 118 West, signal strength is 41.

For 119 west, signal strength is 68.

For 129 West, signal strength is 74.

They all show green. Should I go to 'Point Dish' when I lose signal to learn some more?

 

[vurbano]

Is it normal for your satellite service to fail during a thunderstorm?

I'm a relatively new Dish subscriber, and we've been pounded with t-storms around here (DFW) lately. It just slowly loses synch or whatever until you give up and turn it off.

Just wondering.

Of course. I can have 90+ readings on all D* sats and I lose signal for a minute or two during 75% of all storms. Of course we get pretty violent thunderstorms here in the summer. And I do not classify every rain event as a storm.

 

[mdwatt]

We have those kind of storms multiple times per day around here, of late. Not complaining since we had two years of drought previously.

I don't really know much about this, but I stumbled around and found 'Point Dish'. In 'Point Dish' it says my dish is 'Super'.

When I go into system info, it says I have 4 satellites - 119, 118, 110 and 129, all with green. Under status it says 'good'. I believe the 4th satellite was needed because I subscribe to TV5 (French language channel).

When I go to 'point dish', it says for 110 West, the signal strength is 79.

For 118 West, signal strength is 41.

For 119 west, signal strength is 68.

For 129 West, signal strength is 74.

They all show green. Should I go to 'Point Dish' when I lose signal to learn some more?

It depends on the model of receiver you have. If you have a 322 model, it may read lower due to new software. If you have anything other than that, your dish needs realigned. Doesn't sound like you have line of sight issues because ALL of your signals are low. Usually line of sight affects 1 or maybe 2 signals, but not all of them. Call DISH Network and have them send a technician to realign your dish. Let them know that the signal is realy low and that it goes out really easy whenever it's cloudy or lightly raining.

 

[Van]

Is it normal for your satellite service to fail during a thunderstorm?

I'm a relatively new Dish subscriber, and we've been pounded with t-storms around here (DFW) lately. It just slowly loses synch or whatever until you give up and turn it off.

Just wondering.

With regular rain or a regular run of the mill thunder storm no, but I know what you guys are getting hit with wich is storm systems heavy with alot of rain water so in your case it is normal, you'd loose signal even if it was maxxed out. My old system was tweaked out after I redid the tuning on the dish, we had a three week period of nasty storms where I used to live in summer 05 that knocked out the signal each time and ofcourse these storms were dropping alot of rain ontop of a great deal of lightning.

 

[tsduke]

We have those kind of storms multiple times per day around here, of late. Not complaining since we had two years of drought previously.

I don't really know much about this, but I stumbled around and found 'Point Dish'. In 'Point Dish' it says my dish is 'Super'.

When I go into system info, it says I have 4 satellites - 119, 118, 110 and 129, all with green. Under status it says 'good'. I believe the 4th satellite was needed because I subscribe to TV5 (French language channel).

When I go to 'point dish', it says for 110 West, the signal strength is 79.

For 118 West, signal strength is 41.

For 119 west, signal strength is 68.

For 129 West, signal strength is 74.

They all show green. Should I go to 'Point Dish' when I lose signal to learn some more?

What transponders of each sat are you taking the signal strength reading on? Check tp11.

 

[Tampa8]

If it helps you any - In Florida where it is said we have heavier rain bursts with lightning than most anywhere, I only lose the signal a handful of times, and then for a very short time.
In Connecticut I almost never lose the signal, and then for an extremely short time if I do lose it. There can be that one storm that will block the signal of course for a longer period.
Unless your receiver is not giving the correct readings, some of your signals appear to be too low if you are looking at them on a normal day.

 

[jokeworm]

Here in Tulsa, we do tend to drop out when something significant blows through. Rain alone generally does not seem to knock it off .. but I would guess we drop signal for around 60-70% of "Thunder/Lightning" events... albeit briefly (normally for 5 mins max - just until the worst of the storm blows through.

Generally when the storms are bad enough to knock out my satellite signal .. i'm already tuned to one of the local stations to figure out how bas its going to be and how long its going to last and to make sure that there are not any Tornado's in the mix .... so i simply switch to my Over-The-Air antenna where i can continue watching seamlessly.



The rule of thumb for us seems to be ... If its bad enough for the local weather guys to interrupt programming to give you a breaking weather update .. its probably strong enough to knock out the signal for a few mins.

I have to say though --- in the past 12-18 months my satellite signal only seems to have gone down for around the same amount of time (maybe a little less in fact) than my cable connection. When the cable drops out - it generally takes much more time to come back online. So although the drop-outs are not quite as frequent .. they did tend to last longer ... swings and roundabouts I guess.

 

[KeithInDallas]

Is it normal for your satellite service to fail during a thunderstorm?

I'm a relatively new Dish subscriber, and we've been pounded with t-storms around here (DFW) lately. It just slowly loses synch or whatever until you give up and turn it off.

JPM, I am in Irving (Las Colinas) and I have lost signal much more than ever before during all the storms we have had in DFW the past month. In early May, the wind was so bad it actually moved my dish.

Having said that, your receiver readings seem really low, compared to the ones I have on my 942 and 622. I have 90 or better readings on 110, 119 and 61.5.

 

[RocketFoot]

Mine rarely goes out...if it does, it is for 2 minutes or less. The only time I had an outage was after an ice storm. My dish had 1/2" of ice and I lost signal. I had to get a can of spray deicer and host the dish down and it came right back on!

 

[jpmcdonough]

JPM, I am in Irving (Las Colinas) and I have lost signal much more than ever before during all the storms we have had in DFW the past month. In early May, the wind was so bad it actually moved my dish.

Having said that, your receiver readings seem really low, compared to the ones I have on my 942 and 622. I have 90 or better readings on 110, 119 and 61.5.

That's helpful. I will follow up with Dish about the low readings.

 

[kcribb1]

South Central Florida storms

I have less outage during storms with E* than with Direct. During the hurricanes three years ago I had a signal the entire time... until my power went out

 

[iammike]

I had Dish for 7 years and my Mother still does. I've always thought it was pretty cool how you know a minute or two before a heavy downpour comes because the dish goes out. Usually, by the time the downpour actually gets here the signal is back on. Outages are pretty rare for us too, it takes a real gully washer, and when they do occur its usually just for a minute or two while the heaviest rain moves through.

 

[tigershere]

cable has more down time around here than any DISH and at least you know why the DISH goes out if it does.
When Katrina or any other hurricane came through I rarely lost signal and i used a generator for 5 days and still had TV and internet as I used satellite back them for that even.
The cable was off for 10 days but i at least was happy to be entertained while the mess was being cleaned up and no A/C, etc

I also get any outage before the storm really hits so I know when a bad storm is on the way.

 

[papalittle]

I have a super dish with 3 301's. each receiver acts differently to rain. one goes out in light rain, one in heavy rain and our main one goes out after the heavy rain has ended or if there is hail in the clouds. strange huh?

 

[Van]

I have a super dish with 3 301's. each receiver acts differently to rain. one goes out in light rain, one in heavy rain and our main one goes out after the heavy rain has ended or if there is hail in the clouds. strange huh?

After reading another post you made in a thread Im not surprised, you have an lnbf thermal issue that you should really get replaced under the recall.