Dish has finally agreed to swith me from Western Arc to Eastern since my hd locals are on a different satellite than the sd locals. Now I am worried that my picture quality will change. Is that possible? What about rain fade? I want to be able to receive my hd locals, but not at the expense of lesser quality reception.
Switch from Western Arc to Eastern Arc
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If anything PQ will be a little better on the SD channels because the MPEG4 algorithm seems to do better anti-aliasing (not as "fuzzy"). The HD channels will be the same.
Rain fade has not been an issue for me since I moved over to EA from WA. The signal for me is a little lower, but still plenty of signal so only the largest storm clouds cut off my signal, just like when I was on WA.
IOW, never fear... it should be at least as good if not better!
Rain fade has not been an issue for me since I moved over to EA from WA. The signal for me is a little lower, but still plenty of signal so only the largest storm clouds cut off my signal, just like when I was on WA.
IOW, never fear... it should be at least as good if not better!
I was switched last month and haven't noticed any problems with the HD feed. No problems with rain fade. Not sure if his is the reason, but since the dish is aimed much higher in the sky, there is less atmosphere, therefor less rain clouds for the signal to pass through. The one thing is that you will lose the SD signal for your locals. I'm located just east of Rochester, NY.
I've ran EA then WA then back to EA. Even with slightly lower numbers EA has always out performed WA concerning rain fade at my location.
Depending on your location and snowfall you may find that the higher elevation of the EA dish accumulates more snow and ice.
I'm about 10-15 miles east of you in Marion in Wayne County. It will be interesting to see if I have more or less signal loss from snow/ice. The only times I lost signal was if there was a heavy wet snow that accumulated on my dishes, since they faced more south west. I do live in a high wind area, on top of a drumlin with a farm field across the street.
I went from WA to EA about two years ago. The EA dish is about 10-15 degrees more horizontal. This caused the snow (even the fluffy stuff when not wind blown) to pile up in the lower 1/3 of the dish and, helped by solar melting, refroze and blocked some signal to the point of occasional drop-out. I got a front stick-on dish heater from ebay and it does cure the problem when turned on. If you go this route make sure you position the heater all the way down to the lower lip of the dish even though it looks strange not being centered. BTW, I'm on the top of the biggest drumlin (moraine) in MC and do get significant winds.
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