Winter vs the FTA dish setup

[stanleyjohn]

Got down to the low 30's F sat night and lit my wood stove for the first time.Since this is my first winter coming up with my dishes!What may i expect for problems when the ice and snow begins.Any preventive measures i can take to prevent a problem?

 

[Larobpra]

There will be times you will have to sweep snow off the dish to get signal. Your motor may get sluggish when it gets real cold as well. I don't have C-band but have read of dishes collapsing from the weight of lots of heavy wet snow or ice accumulation.

 

[brentb636]

I used to have snow buildup around the base of my Ku dish, and had to go out and shovel away the path.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Some dish designs have problems with snow building up on the LNBF support arm and blocking the reflected signals from the dish from entering the feedhorn. This can be addressed with heat tape or minimized with products that repel water and ice formation.

Coat the dish and feedhorn cover with a water repellent that is not oil based. The treatment on the reflector will limit ice and snow build-up. The most serious problem is when the feedhorn is blocked or coated with sheeting water, snow or ice. Example is Larobpra's Avatar where the feedhorn appears to be in a perfect exposure for sheeting water.

A few products have been developed to quickly bead the water on satellite / radar domes to minimize the attenuation sheeting water.

Here are a few products that I have used:

• WX2100
• King Control Rain Shield

 

[stanleyjohn]

Some dish designs have problems with snow building up on the LNBF support arm and blocking the reflected signals from the dish from entering the feedhorn. This can be addressed with heat tape or minimized with products that repel water and ice formation.

Coat the dish and feedhorn cover with a water repellent that is not oil based. The treatment on the reflector will limit ice and snow build-up. The most serious problem is when the feedhorn is blocked or coated with sheeting water, snow or ice. Example is Larobpra's Avatar where the feedhorn appears to be in a perfect exposure for sheeting water.

A few products have been developed to quickly bead the water on satellite / radar domes to minimize the attenuation sheeting water.

Here are a few products that I have used:

• WX2100
• King Control Rain Shield

Thanks! You gave me a idea! How about a wax job with some car wax?

 

[the_man_one]

pam, the spray stuff u use in cooking... works great for lawn mowers to keep the grass out from under the deck

 

[longhalkilo]

Just use RAIN-X the one for windshields.It works very good for me where I live in the snow belt.

 

[FaT Air]

I've always retracted the actuator, on the BUD, all the way during heavy, wet, sticky snow.
To prepare for winter is the same as what we did for an annual check-up/winterization BITD.I spray the actuator arm, the retracting part, with GM general purpose spray grease.(Same stuff the dealers use on hinges and latches.) Stands up well. Check the connections for any deterioration and repair/replace as necessary. If you have an older actuator with a grease zerk, a pump or two before winter isn't a bad idea. (use a light lithium grease ) Also lubricate the polar pivot. and any other moving parts. Basically, everything that you don't want to rust, the GM spray grease works very well. Use a small paint brush to coat surfaces with minimum waste.
I've seen some customers, BITD, wrap heat tape on the actuator, covering that with insulation, and covering that with plastic. My jack may slow somewhat, but not drastically. Have never had to resort to heat tape/insulation/plastic. And it's been moved at -40.

 

[SatelliteAV]

pam, the spray stuff u use in cooking... works great for lawn mowers to keep the grass out from under the deck

NEVER use an oil based product on the reflector or feedhorn. This attracts dirt and can lead to increased water sheeting across this debris.

Still vividly remember the stench of rancid PAM that a customer sprayed on their dish and LNBF. The surfaces were sticky to touch and caked in dirt. I wiped the LNBF lens and the Signal Quality noticeably climbed. The customer degreased the dish and I returned several days later for the rest of the service call.

 

[Mr Tony]

well coming up on my 10th winter with a FTA setup (got setup late 03) I learned to keep the snow rake handy. Due to the position of my dish, the northern location (so the dish is aimed low) and the amount of snow we get I keep the broom and snow rake handy

Here is some pics from 2 years ago when we had the blizzard....The pics of the dish on the roof we get snow like that 2-3 times a year minimum....anytime its over 3-4 inches I get the snow rake out and clean around the dishes or take massive amounts of hot water to it

 

[stanleyjohn]

Thanks for the pics iceberg!Im glad that my 6 footor is my main dish and on the back deck Looks like around here there may be a few days in the winter that my ku dish on the garage roof may be out of service.Dont really like the thought of cleaning off the snow on that one.

 

[Mikey11]

i have been through 3 heavy winters now and i think there has only been one day where i could not get signal....

at that time my dish was on a roof three stories up so getting to it was not possible....the snow melted later in the day and it was fine....never another problem since....

my SG2100 got a bit slow but never froze up....i am well north of the boarder so we have pretty heavy winters and temps are normally well below 0F and -20 to -30F at times....

this will be my first winter with an SG9120 so im looking forward to see how it compares to my old SG2100....

 

[B.J.]

As mentioned above, back when I used an actuator, I used to always run my BUD down to the western horizon when a snow-storm was approaching, but for the past 14 years, I've used this Ajax H-H, and if I ran that thing down to the horizon, the odds were that it wouldn't come back, due to the poor mechanical advantage when near the horizon. So I've had to spend the winters with my dish aimed at rather high elevation sats, and I'd end up with lots of snow on them that I'd have to knock off, which resulted in my denting several of the panels. Hopefully this year, now that I've gone back to an actuator, I can minimize my problems during snow storms. My 3' dishes generally don't have any issue, since the face of the dish is almost vertical, although I do have the issue mentioned above about the snow piling up on the lnbf arm right in front of the LNBF. I often put a plastic bag over the whole lnbf and arm assembly, which sometimes helps, and other times makes it worse, but the bottom line is that I often have to go out and knock the snow off the front of the lnbf. A couple years ago, when we had a total of about 12' of snow, there were a couple times when we had 3.5' of snow on the ground, and my 3' dish was almost completely buried, with only the top 8" or so visible. I had to dig it out completely. I usually have to drive my snowmobile around to the dishes in winters with a lot of snow. This year, my motorized 3' dish is up on my garage roof, so it's not going to be as easy to get to, so I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get the snow off yet.

 

[Babadem]

Some dish designs have problems with snow building up on the LNBF support arm and blocking the reflected signals from the dish from entering the feedhorn. This can be addressed with heat tape or minimized with products that repel water and ice formation.

Coat the dish and feedhorn cover with a water repellent that is not oil based. The treatment on the reflector will limit ice and snow build-up. The most serious problem is when the feedhorn is blocked or coated with sheeting water, snow or ice. Example is Larobpra's Avatar where the feedhorn appears to be in a perfect exposure for sheeting water.

A few products have been developed to quickly bead the water on satellite / radar domes to minimize the attenuation sheeting water.

Here are a few products that I have used:

• WX2100
• King Control Rain Shield

Thanks for the links Brian!

 

[sergei]

As a last suggestion you might increase your insurance just in case you fall off the garage roof.

 

[Lak7]

Keep a broom handy, be gentle, it's more of removing the extra weight vs. a clean Dish. (C Band)
Set Alarm Clock for middle of the night blizzards.
Park Dish so that the least amount of snow accumulates.

If an Ice Storm is expected, use plastic bags to line the surface of the Dish, what you can safely reach.