Rain / Snow Fade? Read Post 1 Before Posting

[Pinza]

You probably have 2 x 90cm or 1m Dish's, that is why.

[Interceptor]

I have a 24" and a 30" dish. I only get reception numbers between 75 and a 100. The reception has slowly gotten worse from when I first installed them. I have some trees interfering and maybe the wiring has degraded and the dishes may have moved slightly but I rarely lose my picture even in big storms and than only for a moment. The dishes are on the garage to the lee side of a big fir, so that helps protect them from the ocean winds. I think the bigger dishes are slower to lose a signal too.

Too bad they don't make a 24 or 30" elliptical dish for two satellites as the 20" dish is pretty poor out here on the wet coast.

[Pinza]

Best elliptical I have used on Bell is a 75cm Channel Master Dish, excellent reception.

[MCIBUS]

I'll post my reply here as in response to N6 thread regarding rain fade.

True N6 will be more powerful the N1, despite that I still see rain fade. Not from the uplink center, although tend to wonder with the size of Dishes they use(assuming its like those Telesat uses here in Ottawa for the Ank Sat's) you would think that there wouldn't be a problem with the uplink.

But getting back to the rain fade issue.

I still see it being an issue maybe as not much as now(depending on your dish size). The reason being:

1) most subs either have a 20" Dual LNB Dish, those that have a 18" or 24" dish usually only sub to SD sand not HD.

2) depending on how hard the rain is falling or how thick the cloud cover is ore snow sticking to your dish(although this one you could sweep of the snow if dish is reachable by ladder or safe to do so)

There are very few who have a dish larger then a 24" Dish or use two dishes(24") pointing at 91 & 82.From what I've seen its mainly a 20" Dish with either one LNB or Two LNBs or the one with the built in switch at the dish.

True the larger the Dish the better the signal. But then again it also comes down to estatics, Do really want a 1.5M Dish mounted on the side of your house or Roof? Yes any size Dish may take away the look of your house, but a 18",20" or 24" Dish is more applying then a 1.5M Dish.

I can't comment on how my signal strenght would be now if I still was using the 2 24" dishes I have on BTV(there being used for Dish and I present have the New 20" Quad(2 LNB switch built at Dish), but despite my readings on 82(see previous post on my readings) I still loose the signal on N2. Now grant you this is when the rain is heavy. So I'm not sure if this will be totally prevented(rain fade at home location during local storm)time will tell.

On a somewhat OT despite contrary popular believe those with SD also have issues with Rain Fade, not as much as BTV, speaking from experience I had the largest eplical dish possible for SD with a strong signal and I got Rain Fade, basically picture pixeling, though I have to admit I never totally loss signal.

So will this New Bird be improvement? Probably but it won't eliminate Rain Fader totally(local wise). The only way I see if you wanting total Rain Fade to be gone(local wise) is either get a honking 1.5M Dish for each Bird or try those 10' 12' Dishes(if possible) for each Sat.

[JoeLouie]

I don't recall anyone saying that N6 would completely eliminate rain fade. There is no way to completely guarantee that rain fade will never be an issue (with satellite)...possibly aside from having a dish the size of a bus on your house lol. It's just the nature of the technology. N6 will greatly decrease the chances of it happening though.

[46FD04]

As an installer myself, I have to agree with JoeLouis.

My question to all of you is, what is your definition of Rain Fade???

I have a basic 20" Bell sat dish with two LNB's and SW44 switch installed. I recently switched to a DPP Twin LNB and DPP44 switch (prior to the Quad being introduced).

I NEVER experience rain fade.

But I do experience Hurricane-force rain fade, like the rest of us.

When I experience a MASSIVE rain storm, torrential downpours, thunderstorms, etc... yes, I lose my signal.

With your basic, run of the mill rain storm, never.

If you are experiencing dropouts during a basic rainstorm, you most likely have one of two problems;

1. Dish is NOT pointed properly
2. Interference issues such as nearby trees or your dish is mounted on the wall of your house, just below the soffits / eavetroughs.

I once had a customer who mounted his dish right beside a downspout, and had the dish pointed directly at the downspout, experiencing significant signal issues.

I've seen this eavetrough issue a hundred times, requiring me to lower it 2 - 3 feet. Once this was done, signal strength was 100% on the transponders that provide a 100% signal.

Once the new Nimiq6 is operational, you will still have signal problems if your dish is having any kind of interference problems, resulting in rain fade.

[46FD04]

On a side note, I just re-located someone's Shaw Direct dish. It has been up for over 10 years, and the boulevard trees grew high enough to impair his signal. Should be over 80, was hovering around 50.

Initially, a Shaw Tech came out and determined he had a bad LNB. Changed LNB, signal still at 50, Tech stated it was because of the new Triple LNB Shaw is using (yeah, sure).

So the customer called me directly, I attended, and within seconds I said, "TREES!"

We relocated the dish to another part of the home, away from the trees and voila, we got a 92.

Even their own Techs don't always get it right.

Us private installers, in my own humble opinion, do a better job sometimes.

[JoeLouie]

I hear from customers all the time complaining about Bell, how much they hate it because their signal goes out any time there's a bit of rain, snow or wind, but they've had the dish in the same spot for 10 years and have never had a tech out for anything. In 90% of the situations the dish just needs a simple realignment, and the other 10% of the time the dish might need to be moved because of a tree that wouldn't have been an issue 10 years ago when the dish was installed.

[rogue17]

A bit of rain,snow or wind. I never lose signal.

My signal loss comes when there is a heavy downpour. When it subsides a bit then I get the signal back. Heavy snow fall especially huge flakes will afftect my reception. Now when there is heavy rain or snow with wind then it's lights out. But that is the nature of the beast. I know that it is subject to the elements.

But I hate cable and from what I've seen of Fibe I still prefer Bell TV but that is just my preference.

[MCIBUS]

I didn't say I loose my signal in light rain, like others its only when its heavy storms. Like others once it lightens up I get my signal back in most case the most I've eve lost my signal is 5 mins max/Heavy thundestorms if that.

I know you'll never get ride of rain fade that I know.

For me I have nothing blocking the signal. The only issue have is where the dish is located(have no other choice) the rain in most cases hitts the dish directly not sure if that has anything to do with it or not. Never had snow fade(only when snow sstuck to dish) but I can easily brush it off with a broom.

[snirp]

I'm in Montreal and last night just after 7pm, I lost some channels like CityTV and all HD channels above 1500. Beautiful, sunny day here and in Toronto near as I can tell.

Later that night, it was still not working. So I did System Info and satellite 91 is ok but it says Error for satellite 82 with massive signal losses since June 13.

I don't have a dish. I access Bell through my apartment building. I guess I need to call tonight...

Is anyone else having the same problems?

[Pinza]

A lot of these issues at this time of year in Apartment Buildings is due to Roof Work, where the Roofing contractor, moves one of the Dish's.

As your happened at 7pm, this is doubtful, so I would suggest you call Bell although asking your Super might not be a bad idea as well, just to see if there is any work going on up at roof level.

[snirp]

They've told me to do the Check Switch option on my receiver. I'll try that tonight when I get home. Not work on the roof according to the landlord so we'll see what happens after I try this. Thanks.

[MCIBUS]

Well we finally got hit with heavy thunderstorms in Ottawa. Single held till about 60% then BOOM it dropped to zero for about 10-15 mins finally came back.

Interesting during the signal loss did a diganostic and it toild me the exact times the signal kept dropping on the 9241?

[JoeLouie]

Insane rain and thunder and lightning here right now and my signal on both satellites only dropped about 5%. No complaints here!