What are good signal levels for Eastern Arc in Southeast Alabama

[strickland604]

Does anyone know what signal levels I should be getting on Eastern Arc in Southeast Alabama? It rained for most of the day yesterday and my dish was out for most of the day. I kept getting the following codes
11-11-11, 11-12-11, and 11-21-11 and when I say it was out most of the day it was actually out for around 4-5 hours while it was raining.

 

[HipKat]

Not sure about S Alabama, but in Illinois and in Upstate/Western NY, I get about 52-54 on the 61 and 50-52 on the 72. I would imagine it would be about the same

 

[strickland604]

Not sure about S Alabama, but in Illinois and in Upstate/Western NY, I get about 52-54 on the 61 and 50-52 on the 72. I would imagine it would be about the same

On 61 I get 55-60 and on 72 I get 60-66 but I get horrible rain fade. I thought my numbers were good but I have never had this bad of rain fade with my previous service.

 

[joegr]

It was a 10"+ rain here (south Mississippi), We had some rain fade, but well under four hours. (I would guess more like one total.)

 

[BamaFan2]

No rain fade in Huntsville yesterday that I saw. The rain was light. The heavy rain was east of Huntsville. It takes a very heavy rain to cause fade for me.

Today (clear skies):
110 - 43.
119 - 70.
129 - 53.

 

[boba]

Does anyone know what signal levels I should be getting on Eastern Arc in Southeast Alabama? It rained for most of the day yesterday and my dish was out for most of the day. I kept getting the following codes
11-11-11, 11-12-11, and 11-21-11 and when I say it was out most of the day it was actually out for around 4-5 hours while it was raining.

Did you sit there for 4-5 hrs watching the rain fade message or did you watch something else and just checked the screen for the message?

 

[strickland604]

Did you sit there for 4-5 hrs watching the rain fade message or did you watch something else and just checked the screen for the message?

No I did not sit there and watch the message screen for 4-5 hours. I was switching back and forth between the ota antenna and the satellite. The tv in the back room was on satellite the whole time though. On the hopper 3 I would get the long dialog box about something obstructing the satellite then it would go to the acquiring signal this may take 5 minutes screen and then go back to the something is obstructing the satellte screen. I did flip between ota and satelite quite often and would walk to the back room and from 1 pm to around 6 pm from the best I can tell it was out.

 

[jerryez]

I got 3 1/2 inches of rain Sunday night. I do not watch live tv, but I watched Madam Secretary last night and NCIS LA and both recorded without any dropouts. What time did you get your rain. It was pouring here between 8 and 10 Central. I am about 40 miles East of you. My signal strength this morning is
110-75
119-38
129-56
Stupid Fox-10 kept interrupting the Saints game to report extreme bad weather in Foley between 2 and 3 PM, but the storm did not get here until much later.

 

[strickland604]

I got 3 1/2 inches of rain Sunday night. I do not watch live tv, but I watched Madam Secretary last night and NCIS LA and both recorded without any dropouts. What time did you get your rain. It was pouring here between 8 and 10 Central. I am about 40 miles East of you. My signal strength this morning is
110-75
119-38
129-56
Stupid Fox-10 kept interrupting the Saints game to report extreme bad weather in Foley between 2 and 3 PM, but the storm did not get here until much later.

I live in Daphne which is just north of Foley. We started getting rain around 1 and it ended around 6 pm. We did get a good rain but in our area I think the local news went crazy with it. I've had satellite service for the past 15 years. I've had Dish and Direct the more recent before now was Direct but I do not recall this much service interruption with either service. It just seams when ever it rains regardless of how strong or light the rain is I lose signal. I just had Dish installed about a month and a half ago. I am on the Eastern arc but I have good signal I think. I checked the signal last night and this is what I had
61 57-61
72 66-69

 

[jerryez]

Those are good signals, or I would suggest that you get your Dish fine tuned. I normally lose the signal for a few minutes when the rain first starts, that is usually the hardest rain at the front of the storm. But it never lasts very long. Our locals are on both arcs, so you could try switching to the 110-129 arc, but you are getting a good signal.

 

[Tampa8]

Those are good signal levels for EA so not sure why you would lose the signal for that long of an extended period of time.

 

[Tony S]

This is most likely not the problem, but it is possible that you have a leak in one of the cables, connectors, or the LNB which could cause signal loss if they get wet. (Just looking for another cause since you have good signal levels otherwise).

 

[Tampa8]

This is most likely not the problem, but it is possible that you have a leak in one of the cables, connectors, or the LNB which could cause signal loss if they get wet. (Just looking for another cause since you have good signal levels otherwise).

Not such a remote idea! One of those "Why didn't I think of that."...

 

[NYDutch]

This is most likely not the problem, but it is possible that you have a leak in one of the cables, connectors, or the LNB which could cause signal loss if they get wet. (Just looking for another cause since you have good signal levels otherwise).

Certainly not unheard of! Last year I was doing some reconfiguring of our RV sat setup while at our upstate NY vacation cottage. To avoid interfering with the Hopper in the cottage that's connected to the permanent 1K4 there, I set up our portable 1K4 to use with the RV setup instead of connecting the RV to the permanent Duo Node as I normally would. During my testing of the new wiring layout, I compared signal levels between the two Hoppers (both on EA), and was surprised to see the cottage Hopper levels were about 10 points down from the RV Hopper levels. I stuck my meter on the permanent dish, and made sure it was tweaked up as high as I could get it, but even right at the two dishes the numbers were off. As a quick test, I swapped the LNB's between the two dishes, and looky there! The signal levels swapped as well. I took the lower reading LNB off and shined a bright light beam into the translucent cover, revealing noticeable moisture on the inner surface. Installing a spare EA LNB brought the signal levels back to nearly identical on both Hoppers. I couldn't find an obvious crack anywhere, but since I had a few extra EA LNB's anyway, I just tossed it in the trash.

 

[HipKat]

Certainly not unheard of! Last year I was doing some reconfiguring of our RV sat setup while at our upstate NY vacation cottage. To avoid interfering with the Hopper in the cottage that's connected to the permanent 1K4 there, I set up our portable 1K4 to use with the RV setup instead of connecting the RV to the permanent Duo Node as I normally would. During my testing of the new wiring layout, I compared signal levels between the two Hoppers (both on EA), and was surprised to see the cottage Hopper levels were about 10 points down from the RV Hopper levels. I stuck my meter on the permanent dish, and made sure it was tweaked up as high as I could get it, but even right at the two dishes the numbers were off. As a quick test, I swapped the LNB's between the two dishes, and looky there! The signal levels swapped as well. I took the lower reading LNB off and shined a bright light beam into the translucent cover, revealing noticeable moisture on the inner surface. Installing a spare EA LNB brought the signal levels back to nearly identical on both Hoppers. I couldn't find an obvious crack anywhere, but since I had a few extra EA LNB's anyway, I just tossed it in the trash.

If it’s not too intrusive, where’s your cottage at? I’m from Buffalo. Us techs noticed a long time ago, different versions have different signals. A7 series seems to be the best

 

[NYDutch]

The cottage is in the Adirondack foothills on the shore of The Great Sacandaga Lake. The LNB's I have on both dishes right now are the type with three separate covers. The one I swapped out had the double cover for 72.7 and 77, with a separate cover for 61.5. I don't know which series is which though...

 

[HipKat]

The cottage is in the Adirondack foothills on the shore of The Great Sacandaga Lake. The LNB's I have on both dishes right now are the type with three separate covers. The one I swapped out had the double cover for 72.7 and 77, with a separate cover for 61.5. I don't know which series is which though...

There’s a small silver tag under the “eyes”. The LNBF you have is a 1000.4 eastern arc. You’d probably be better off with a 1000.2 eastern arc, but you’d need a 1000.2 Dish.

I have a house at Black Lake. Northern NY is God’s country. The Sacandaga area is beautiful

 

[NYDutch]

There’s a small silver tag under the “eyes”. The LNBF you have is a 1000.4 eastern arc. You’d probably be better off with a 1000.2 eastern arc, but you’d need a 1000.2 Dish.

I have a house at Black Lake. Northern NY is God’s country. The Sacandaga area is beautiful

I'll have to check the LNB tag tomorrow in the daylight. We're in VT right now, so I won't be able to check the cottage dish until we stop there next week for a few days. I prefer the 1000.4 dish though, both for the easier aiming adjustments and the triple LNB so we can use the 77 sat when necessary due to the tree cover on some sites. I could use a 1000.2 at the cottage I suppose, since it doesn't need frequent aiming, but the 1000.4 was free...

I agree, the Sacandaga area really is beautiful, and our cottage there is our "exit plan" for when we decide to get off the road from fulltime RV life. Our family has been there since 1947, and we've made a lot of great memories there. Our two daughters and their families all live within a few miles of the cottage.

 

[NYDutch]

There’s a small silver tag under the “eyes”. The LNBF you have is a 1000.4 eastern arc. You’d probably be better off with a 1000.2 eastern arc, but you’d need a 1000.2 Dish.

Ok, I looked at the tag on our current EA triple LNB, and my daughter stopped by the cottage to check on things, so I had her send me a photo of the tag there. Both LNB's show "A21CA2-" followed by different number/letter sequences that appear to be a serial number.

 

[HipKat]

Ok, I looked at the tag on our current EA triple LNB, and my daughter stopped by the cottage to check on things, so I had her send me a photo of the tag there. Both LNB's show "A21CA2-" followed by different number/letter sequences that appear to be a serial number.

A2 series. The only ones i ever hear other techs talk about is how bad A1's are and how great A7's are. Truth is, I get passing limit scans on all LNBS. Limit Scan is an option on the Super Buddy meter that tests 4 transponders for signal strength on each satellite