When it snows, you loose signal!

[brad1138]

It never fails, we don't get a lot of snow but when we do the trouble calls start coming in. "No signal, scheduled tomorrow afternoon"....


First of all, to all satellite customers, it is normal to loose signal when your dish gets covered in snow. But mainly, can't CSRs ask "is it snowing?" it seems they don't want to do even the most basic trouble shooting anymore, just create a trouble call and move onto the next call.

DIRT, can you comment on this?

Thanks,
Brad

***EDIT, make that "lose signal" - I had just woken up and was groggy

 

[samedaysatellite]

Im glad the black dishes are now manufactured. If I get a call and schedule the visit for the next day, it's usually fixed before we even roll out. It absorbs the heat and melts it.

 

[dan188]

When I have called in the past with signal issues they have asked me what the weather has been like where I live.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

This has been a problem with Eastern Arc dishes unfortunately.

Glad mine is pole mounted on the ground so this has never been an issue for me.

 

[pabeader]

i keep a hose handy just in case.

 

[ZachS@DISH]

It never fails, we don't get a lot of snow but when we do the trouble calls start coming in. "No signal, scheduled tomorrow afternoon"....


First of all, to all satellite customers, it is normal to loose signal when your dish gets covered in snow. But mainly, can't CSRs ask "is it snowing?" it seems they don't want to do even the most basic trouble shooting anymore, just create a trouble call and move onto the next call.

DIRT, can you comment on this?

Thanks,
Brad

CSRs should be asking this. The first troubleshooting step for signal loss is "Check for anything obstructing the signal to your satellite dish such as tree branches, severe rain, or snow build-up."

 

[Lord_Vader]

The DVR should send a power surge back through the line when it looses signal to heat the dish. lol , just joking.

 

[dan188]

A tech said to me that coating the dish with cookiing spry (ie pam) can help with not letting snow build up on the dish.

 

[Tony S]

I live in eastern Connecticut and we get our fair share of snow here. I have had Dish for about 12 years now and I have only lost signal two or three times because of snow. I used to have the dish on the roof, and the few times that I lost signal, it would come back on again all by itself the next morning (after the sun shined on it for a couple of hours). Last year I got a new roof so I had the dish moved to a pole mount on the ground. Now it will be easy to brush off (but so far I have not had to).

 

[Yespage]

This has been a problem with Eastern Arc dishes unfortunately.

Glad mine is pole mounted on the ground so this has never been an issue for me.

Yeah, unfortunately the only way I could get HD via Dish was by putting it on a pole in my backyard.

The good news is that it is ridiculously easy to brush off now. I actually had to brush off a little snow earlier this season, which was odd because I've had cases where the entire dish was covered with snow (from the dish to the LNB) and I still had signal.

However, I've never lost signal because of it snowing outside. Only intense rain storms have killed my signal.

 

[Tony S]

A tech said to me that coating the dish with cookiing spry (ie pam) can help with not letting snow build up on the dish.

Pam is a very poor choice to use on your dish. It is very sticky. Dirt builds up on it and it might even make the snow worse. I would not use Pam. If you want to try anything like that, Rain-X is a much better choice.

 

[Hall]

A tech said to me that coating the dish with cookiing spry (ie pam) can help with not letting snow build up on the dish.

That has been repeated for years. No idea if it's an old wive's tale or not.... As usual, some people swear by it and "never have any problems" while for others, it doesn't work.

 

[papalittle]

The only time I have had problems with snow on the dish was way back when the superdish was being installed. Since then I have not ever needed to clean the dish. I tucked my dish in an area that gets little wind or snow blown on it.

 

[supermod38]

This has been a problem with Eastern Arc dishes unfortunately.

Glad mine is pole mounted on the ground so this has never been an issue for me.

mine is pole mounted and i lost my signal this morning with only a min amount of snow on the dish.

i guess i should have then come back and tweek my signals a bit

61.5 46
72 52
77 33


what say you?

 

[whatusernamesareleft]

I am on EA and its snowing right now and its fine. Seems like the EA takes longer to lose signal then the Western arc. The first winter I had it, went through a snow storm and had to clean the dish off with a push broom electrical taped to a extendable painters pole.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

mine is pole mounted and i lost my signal this morning with only a min amount of snow on the dish.

i guess i should have then come back and tweek my signals a bit

61.5 46
72 52
77 33


what say you?

I dont know what min accpetable levels are for your area, but maybe one of the DIRT team members will see this and report back, perhaps you need a slight tweek.

 

[joshua.mcglothlen]

The black dishes seem to be worse than the grey ones. I live in northern IN and every snow fall its the same thing. I have used WD40 on my dish and that seems to help

 

[ZachS@DISH]

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/256056-list-minimum-average-thresholds.html 33 does seem kind of low but take a look at that link and see what it says for your zip code.

 

[Scherrman]

I can't believe no one jumped on the OP for saying loose instead of lose. Usually somebody is all over a poster for that.

 

[The Fat Man]

Funny, I am on the EA and my only problem is hurricanes. I've never lost my signal due to snow, when I was originally on the WA until 2009, or on EA since. Knock on wood.