West Coast?/Get a 24 inch dish!

[BigTVSteve]

I live about 15 miles north of San Diego, near the coast.

I have two VOOM receivers, fed by two separate RG6 cables, from a single 24 inch VOOM dish. Under normal conditions, each receiver shows 98 or 99 as the signal level from the satellite dish.

Yesterday, we had major fog and rain most of the day. Although I did not experience any VOOM signal dropouts all day, my satellite signal levels dropped to 85-90 for most of the day. I hate to think what would have happened if I had an 18 inch dish or if my dish had been even slightly mis-aligned to start with.

Today (no rain or fog), my satellite signal levels are back to 98-99 on each receiver. How did other SoCal West Coast VOOMers fare during the poor weather on Dec 31st?

 

[Voomster]

Howdy From the S.F. BayArea , just got a 24" dish replacement a month ago
in light to medium light rain I get 79% to 84% much more than light rain no satalittle so I switch to my Voom provided (ota) I can receive over 50 miles in HD with a 99% in the hardest rain possible. My Voom esperience has made me religious to a degree, when ever the TV News weatherman says rain for tonite and I know I'm going to be home and want to watch Voom HD , I say a little prayer ... and pray for a light rain. I'm not sure if it works
but as a Voom customer , it surely can't hurt

Being as Secular as possible in dry weather

Loving Voom

Voomster bow

 

[BigTVSteve]

Voomster,

What is your clear weather/no rain satellite signal strength?

Yesterday's fog and moderate rain hurt my signal much more than the heavy rains about a month ago. The no fog/heavy rains at that time dropped my signal down to 94-95 from the normal 98-99. I probably didn't have much signal strength margin left yesterday, but I have yet to see any VOOM satellite signal dropouts...

 

[BlackHitachi]

Up here in Oregon i have a 24inch dish and signal is 96 until rain. goes down to 85-90.. I can live with that. I had my first fade Jan 1 at 10:30 PM due to snow but back one in about 45 min!!

 

[warkovision]

I was finally upgraded to 24" yesterday after a couple of reinstallations to eliminate rain fade. I'm in the San Fernando Valley and the recent storms here have wreaked havoc with my ability to receive VOOM. The last relocation got my signal up to 97 (it had been in the mid 80's) in good weather. When it would rain, the signal would fall into the high 60's It's at 97 again with the new 24" dish and I'm hoping it won't dip so much. The weather's doing a number on my OTA reception as well.

 

[SeattleVoomer1]

Hey, Voomster,

I don't know why you are getting such a low sat signal with a 24" dish. As BigTVSteve asked what is your clear weather signal? We just had a 24" upgrade and get a 98 in clear weather. So far have only seen it go down to 96 in light to mod rain as well as in heavy fog here is Seattle. Maybe your antenna is not aimed properly?

Still watching HDTV under clear cold Seattle skies, Gill

 

[gws]

Here in central California, we get a 97 signal with the 24 inch dish until the rains start. It then drops to 60 or 70 in moderate rain and completely disappears in heavy rain. Of course, with such a low look angle, the signal can be affected by more than just the local rain.

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

We get occasional rain fade with our 18" dish. But we are going to wait for the elliptical dish in March and see what the future holds.

We get 94 signal in clear weather, and down to 70s or 80s in heavy rain. Anything below 70 is a fade, but that happens only in the worst of storms.

We are about 80 miles north of San Francisco along Hwy 101.

 

[BigTVSteve]

Rainy Conditions Signal Strength

GWS,

I am surprised that your signal drops off so much in moderate rain with a 24 inch dish. I am in the SoCal area, so I also have a very low look angle to the satellite. My azimuth is about 110T and the elevation is only about 12 degrees, so I am looking through a lot of atmospheric rain when the big storms roll through SoCal. My typical moderate rain signal is 94-95 and moderate rain/heavy fog the other day only took me down to 85-90 in signal strength.

Do you have any trees or other obstructions that might be bringing your signal level down? Is your dish mount really rigid? Might wind gusts during the rain storm be affecting you?

I have rock steady 98-99 for clear signal strength on both receivers. I think others have reported about the same strengths with their 24 inch dishes. Is anyone else with a 24 inch dish seeing a drop off during rainy conditions to the 60-70 signal level?

 

[tdillon]

I am in Southern California. You have signal loss somewhere in the installation if you have less than 98 strength with a 24 inch dish. Re-aim, replace the diplexor or run separate cables for the dish and OTA antennas. Most of the time I have a 99 on the Satellite signal, and it rarely drops below 85 even in the heaviest rains now.

 

[Tvlman]

I am in Southern Cal in the Huntington/Newport area and the weather on Dec. 31st was no problem. On Dec. 28 the extreme wind-blown rain blacked out both my Voom and DirecTV Dishes starting about 11pm. First time that's happened. Normally get a good 98 signal with my 18" and a very clear picture on my Hitachi. I don't know if being on the coast helps but I have a fairly clear shot to the SE. Happy New Year to all Voomers.

 

[warkovision]

So far I'm thrilled with my new 24" dish!!

We're having a wail of a rain storm and wind here in the Valley and my signal strength is holding steady between 85 and 89. There would be no way that I would get anything in weather like this with the 18 incher. My OTAs are effected adversly now. I'm not receiving CBS, ABC 1,2,or 3, or UPN (which is the hardest for me to get consistently.)

 

[RocketRay]

Here in north "The O.C." I've got the 18" dish and only when the rain is really heavy does it fade or drop out. So even during the last 5 days I didn't have VOOM for maybe a couple of hours.

 

[Bilodeaumj]

Here in north "The O.C." I've got the 18" dish and only when the rain is really heavy does it fade or drop out. So even during the last 5 days I didn't have VOOM for maybe a couple of hours.

Same here in San Diego. I was only out for a little while when we had our big rain but not enough to have a service call. I read a book instead...