What Snow?

[cyberham]

It seems C-band is better in the snow as well as the rain judging by these pics. My 4-foot Fortec kept receiving ARCS from 139W at 7.0 dB even though it had a little snow on the dish/LNBF. The Ku dish stopped receiving.

Ku-dish (left) and C dish (right)


Ku Dish


C Dish

 

[telstar_1]

C-band is much less susceptible to precipitative attenuation than is Ku. It was originally chosen for sat and terrestrial links because of its rain stability. Thus a better ability to get past snow buildup doesn't surprise me.

 

[Borisov-54]

The Ku dish stopped receiving.

And to have a good signal in Ku, put a plastic visor on the antenna. It has been tested, in snow and rain the signal is not 100 percent, but you can watch. If the antenna was higher from the ground, there would be less snow.

 

[cyberham]

And to have a good signal in Ku, put a plastic visor on the antenna. It has been tested, in snow and rain the signal is not 100 percent, but you can watch. If the antenna was higher from the ground, there would be less snow.

Good to know. This snowfall was quite unusual here. Snow is not normally an issue at my location so it's a novelty. Brushing the snow off immediately restored good operation of the Ku dish. I like the dish very close to ground so I can sit on a chair while tweaking the LNB, especially on C-band.

 

[iBoston]

I like the dish very close to ground so I can sit on a chair while tweaking the LNB, especially on C-band.

If i left my dishes that close to the ground, id have to tunnel down to them in the winter.. As it stands, if we get much more snow, i'm gonna have a problem keeping my 10' cband above ground. I've already started carving away at the snow to keep it slightly below the rim. February can go either way. We could get another 40" of snow. February is typically very windy, so drifting can be tricky.

Here is an example of the massive drifts we can get. We had our court yard closing in on us from a 8+ drift. It was hard keeping that open that winter. The drift is the massive drift working its way from the right to the left. I will also add that what you think is the ground is probably about 10-12 inches of hard pack snow/ice. The bottom/last picture is what one night of wind does to our driveway after a long snowy winter.

 

[Jimbo]

If i left my dishes that close to the ground, id have to tunnel down to them in the winter.. As it stands, if we get much more snow, i'm gonna have a problem keeping my 10' cband above ground. I've already started carving away at the snow to keep it slightly below the rim. February can go either way. We could get another 40" of snow. February is typically very windy, so drifting can be tricky.

Here is an example of the massive drifts we can get. We had our court yard closing in on us from a 8+ drift. It was hard keeping that open that winter. The drift is the massive drift working its way from the right to the left. I will also add that what you think is the ground is probably about 10-12 inches of hard pack snow/ice. The bottom/last picture is what one night of wind does to our driveway after a long snowy winter.
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I LIKE your Snow Blower !!!

 

[iBoston]

I LIKE your Snow Blower !!!

Actually, my drive-way, but not my snow blower. It was the neighbors. Mine was a John-Deere that was in the shop at the time. Since that, i upgraded to a much beefier serious blower that out blows the New Holland in the picture in the last post. It is a double height auger, heated cab, articulating drive, 4 wheel drive that just munches anything i throw at it. They don't make stuff like this anymore. Its old, but its a beast!

Love the people here in the community. My neighbor spent 2 hours clearing a path from the street to our house. Our driveway is about 700 feet long. He wouldn't take any money, so i filled his diesel tank back to full. We have a snow blower, and a backup, and that was the FIRST and only time, both units were disabled at the same time. My back-up is a 3-point rear blower attachment that fits on the back of my New Holland Tractor. (not picture)

Picture below of our current machine.

 

[cyberham]

Wildlife is more of an issue than snow.