Weather Effects

[yellowcanary73]

How bad does weather as in rain effect Directtv I know when I had Dish it would go out even in a sprinkle and a lot of times when it wasn't raining any where near us.Have Uverse now so we really love the whole house system how well does DirectTV whole house work the really bad thing with Uverse are the boxes.

 

[Jimbo]

How bad does weather as in rain effect Directtv I know when I had Dish it would go out even in a sprinkle and a lot of times when it wasn't raining any where near us.Have Uverse now so we really love the whole house system how well does DirectTV whole house work the really bad thing with Uverse are the boxes.

A properly aligned dish you will lose signal only during a monsoon or a heavy wet snow build up.
I lose signal with the heavy snow from time to time, just go out and brush it off and I'm good to go.

 

[tvropro]

I loose Direct even using a 90cm dish when you get a red cell on the radar coming through. It's the nature of the beast using the K band frequencies. I didn't go through winter yet with Direct but if it's like Ku FTA it will go down in if the dish gets filled with heavy wet snow. Last winter Shaw (Starchoice) from Canada on 107 west ku held up really good for me even with wet snow in the dish. I'm hoping Direct can do the same. I already prepped my dish with a silicone car wax that causes water to slide off the dish vs beading. And I have a hood on the LNBF.

Any land line based service, Cable, UVerse etc shouldn't go out in rainstorms since they use C band and retransmit over a wire or fiber. My C band dish never goes out in rain or snow. C band direct to home is really the best option. The only problem is right now its in a transition period and were not totally sure of its future with subscription services and all the cable channels.

 

[icewalk17]

My service has only went out or been interrupted only a few times since 2007 and it was never because of rain, but wetpack snow on the dish itself. I live in the mountains in California and when it rains it rains and storms good and it's never been affected. It will snow sometimes here and it only is a problem when it's a wet snow that builds up and blocks dish. My patents have Dish network and they also have problems when it rains, no problems here with me though

 

[jdspencer]

It doesn't have to be raining at your house to lose signal. It's the large thundercloud between your dish and the satellite that causes the signal to be lost.

I have lost the signal and that tells me a storm is coming and by the time the rain starts the signal is back.

 

[n4uaj]

The dark cloud usually takes out the hr21 first then hits the h20 has to be a hard rain to take out the sd directv tivo unit.

 

[JerseyMatt]

When I lived in NJ and had DirecTV, I had rain fade issues, mainly because the dish was looking through the very top of a tree and I couldn't get a signal above 70. Because of the southwest orientation of the dish and because the storms usually came in from the southwest, whenever it dropped out, I knew a storm would be on me in about 10 minutes.. Here it's a due south shot at a higher elevation, and the storms generally come from the west, so it doesn't work that way anymore. I can say however that I have not had any rain fade yet since I was installed. I'm looking into a dish heater for the winter though, because the elevation makes the dish into a bowl and I'm afraid it'll collect snow.

 

[JUCJ85]

I live in NY and we get a lot of Rain and Snow, in the begining, it went out a good amount, then we switched to dish, went out a couple times, and now back with DirecTV, never goes out, maybe for a few mins then back.

Now, in Snow storms ive never lost my signal, ever even when first having DirecTV.

 

[LincSta]

With my dishnetwork I rarely had any interuptions unless it was a really strong storm, and then only for under 5 minutes (max). Just a week after the guy installed my DirecTV we had front move through with wind and rain for a few hours, and mine was out (all stations including locals) for a couple hours... I was somewhat frustated since Dish didn't cut out like that... I'm hoping this was mostly because of wind blown rain, and nothing else... It hasn't rained since then, so I'm not sure how it will be during rain or snow in the future...

 

[Mr Tony]

well today we lost D* for about 10 hours

6 hours early this morning when we had the snow storm go through. Clouds were very thick and the snow was like concrete (mainly water)....Once the snow let up it came back
and lost it for 4 hours this afternoon....well the power went out from the downed powerlines due to the wet snow

 

[tvropro]

I hope my Direct holds up as well as HITS did in the winter when it was on ku. Last winter I had my Starchoice on my 84Cm dish and it was the only ku that held up in the wet snow. DirecTV does not like clouds with heavy moisture content in them from what I seen this summer. I think the 6/7 FEC on the SD don't help the situation. Plus I'm sure the ka HD stuff using ka plus mpeg 4 even makes matters worse ( I only have SD). Maybe the 90cm will give me an extra edge for some wet snow events. I guess I always can point the bud at 139 west during the bad snow storm and listen to music down on that bird. I never liked putting the bud up high in the sky when the snow was really heavy. After hearing your report Ice it don't instill much confidence in Direct during a wet snow event. BTW Ice did you brush out your dish and LNBF during your down time? That usually brought back my FTA ku when it was down here.

 

[JerseyMatt]

Yikes! That was just from the storm itself or from buildup on the dish?? I never had major issues from the nor'easters, just when the dish got buried and I had to get out the pool brush with the extendable pole and avalanche the roof.

 

[Mr Tony]

tvropro
yep went out there and checked at 9:00 this morning. There was only a little snow on top of the LNB's and a coating on the dish. Wiped them off and still nothing. The KU dishes didnt come back until almost noon when the snow let up.

This was a weird snowfall. We had thundersnow this afternoon. Because the snow was so wet it screwed up DBS. My dad called me this morning hollering "why is the dish out?" (He has Dish)...I explained same problems on D*. If it wasnt so heavy and wet we would have had 2 feet of snow. I had locals the whole time but they were at a 35 or so. For a while they were the ONLY signal showing up (my locals are on 119)

The outage was due to the storm because tonight at 5:00 my signals were still in the mid 70's...normally they are in the upper 90's. When they came back around 11:00 this morning they were in the mid 60's to low 70's (conus TP's)

 

[tvropro]

tvropro
yep went out there and checked at 9:00 this morning. There was only a little snow on top of the LNB's and a coating on the dish. Wiped them off and still nothing. The KU dishes didnt come back until almost noon when the snow let up.

This was a weird snowfall. We had thundersnow this afternoon. Because the snow was so wet it screwed up DBS. My dad called me this morning hollering "why is the dish out?" (He has Dish)...I explained same problems on D*. If it wasnt so heavy and wet we would have had 2 feet of snow. I had locals the whole time but they were at a 35 or so. For a while they were the ONLY signal showing up (my locals are on 119)

The outage was due to the storm because tonight at 5:00 my signals were still in the mid 70's...normally they are in the upper 90's. When they came back around 11:00 this morning they were in the mid 60's to low 70's (conus TP's)

So in short you had a snow slush mixture, what a bitch to shovel. If I would have to sum it up with Direct outages are created by cloud cover with heavy moisture content passing between the bird and you. And that damn 6/7 FEC. While its great for picture quality there is no room for error correction. *Choice uses 3/4 FEC and there is allot of error correction. The longest I had Direct out this summer was close to an hour with the bad rainstorms even on the 90cm. This so far is my biggest peeve with Direct. It honestly reminds me of RTN back on G-10 it went out all the time with the rain. The 90 does help to a point with Direct in fact Direct will be up when my DVB ku goes down on 101 and 97. I loose *choice fast now since I'm using a moded dish 500 with a linear LNBF and there is no wiggle room. There is one thing good about choice set up that way. All I need to do is turn on the 405 and watch the satellite icon during a storm if it turns red I figure Direct will go out eventually. If it stays green there will be no issues at all. Kinda like and early warning radar

Nothing like c band and the bud though. Neither rain nor sleet nor snow killed the bud to the point of unwatchable conditions in the 23 years I have been in it. Except when the wind was so wicked it moved the head and threw off my alignment. That happened maybe twice in 23 years. Not a bad record.

 

[Mr Tony]

So in short you had a snow slush mixture, what a bitch to shovel. If I would have to sum it up with Direct outages are created by cloud cover with heavy moisture content passing between the bird and you.

it was snow but very heavy slushy type snow...and yeah the dark cloud cover didnt help

today we're back to normal signal...mid to upper 90's

 

[Jimbo]

So in short you had a snow slush mixture, what a bitch to shovel. If I would have to sum it up with Direct outages are created by cloud cover with heavy moisture content passing between the bird and you. And that damn 6/7 FEC. While its great for picture quality there is no room for error correction. *Choice uses 3/4 FEC and there is allot of error correction. The longest I had Direct out this summer was close to an hour with the bad rainstorms even on the 90cm. This so far is my biggest peeve with Direct. It honestly reminds me of RTN back on G-10 it went out all the time with the rain. The 90 does help to a point with Direct in fact Direct will be up when my DVB ku goes down on 101 and 97. I loose *choice fast now since I'm using a moded dish 500 with a linear LNBF and there is no wiggle room. There is one thing good about choice set up that way. All I need to do is turn on the 405 and watch the satellite icon during a storm if it turns red I figure Direct will go out eventually. If it stays green there will be no issues at all. Kinda like and early warning radar

Nothing like c band and the bud though. Neither rain nor sleet nor snow killed the bud to the point of unwatchable conditions in the 23 years I have been in it. Except when the wind was so wicked it moved the head and threw off my alignment. That happened maybe twice in 23 years. Not a bad record.

Thats interesting, My C Band would get sparkles when I got enough snow on it, I would lose signal all together when I got enough snow and slush build up on it ... Forgive me, my C Band days are long gone now (unfortunately) and I think Sparkles is the right terminology, but I think I had it wrong the last time, so I'm not sure anymore, again.

 

[Lkr]

thunderstorms in Florida always knock it out.

 

[tvropro]

Thats interesting, My C Band would get sparkles when I got enough snow on it, I would lose signal all together when I got enough snow and slush build up on it ... Forgive me, my C Band days are long gone now (unfortunately) and I think Sparkles is the right terminology, but I think I had it wrong the last time, so I'm not sure anymore, again.

I have been running a well tuned 12 foot dish since 1989. Sparkles very seldom showed up since I had so much gain over threshold. During very bad wet snow storms the dish would continue to play no matter what. I did have to hit it with a broom to keep the snow down but it didn't go out. Unlike Direct using Ku & Ka, the sky could be dark as can be with heavy moisture clouds and pouring down in buckets or wet snow and it would stay up. I used to laugh and check my 4DTV's signal quality during a monsoon and the quality stayed maxed at 99. My Direct falls off at around 45 -50 normally I have 96-100. When the red cells come through D* is gone even using a 90cm dish on 101. This setup is easily giving me 4 to 6 db or more gain over the stock Direct setup, still ain't enough. The bottom line is 3.7 to 4.2 Ghz does not have the issues that 12 and 18 Ghz has. I wonder if a 16 foot dish with about 20db above threshold would keep direct up during those bad weather conditions?