Signals go from 90+ to zero in rain?

[kevred9]

First, all my signals are normally 80+, with mostly 95-100's on 101. Things are great, HD is awesome. Had our first rain tonight, since the install on Monday, and almost ALL the transponders showed zero on all satellites while it was raining!!!!

It was raining fairly heavy, but by no means a horrible storm. No lightning, not much wind, and the slimline on the pole mount seemed steady.

Is this normal? I think I only saw one transponder in a half hour above 0. I would expect them to be lower, but ALL zero?

Overall, the installer was professional and willing to do what I wanted, but did only have 1 months experience. The only obvious error I see is no grounding block outside. (Switch is inside and drives an H23 and D11).

What else could be wrong? Bad connectors? There is only about 6ft of coax outside...

[curt8403]

First, all my signals are normally 80+, with mostly 95-100's on 101. Things are great, HD is awesome. Had our first rain tonight, since the install on Monday, and almost ALL the transponders showed zero on all satellites while it was raining!!!!

It was raining fairly heavy, but by no means a horrible storm. No lightning, not much wind, and the slimline on the pole mount seemed steady.

Is this normal? I think I only saw one transponder in a half hour above 0. I would expect them to be lower, but ALL zero?

Overall, the installer was professional and willing to do what I wanted, but did only have 1 months experience. The only obvious error I see is no grounding block outside. (Switch is inside and drives an H23 and D11).

What else could be wrong? Bad connectors? There is only about 6ft of coax outside...

fairly heavy rain is more than enough to temporily scatter a microwave signal.

are you sure there is no external ground block? is there one inside with a wire connected to the outside of the cable that runs back up to the dish?

[kevred9]

Nope, no grounding block outside, and while I watched him connect the wire on the outside of the cable to the dish, it is just hanging freely inside by the switch.

Funny thing is, on the outside, it is 2 feet from the dish to the electrical ground.

"Temporarily" scatter the signal completely on all satellites and all transponders for a half hour?

I'd say more than half our our storms here are much worse than the rain we just had... This really worries me...

[curt8403]

Nope, no grounding block outside, and while I watched him connect the wire on the outside of the cable to the dish, it is just hanging freely inside by the switch.

Funny thing is, on the outside, it is 2 feet from the dish to the electrical ground.

"Temporarily" scatter the signal completely on all satellites and all transponders for a half hour?

I'd say more than half our our storms here are much worse than the rain we just had... This really worries me...

no ground will make a storm scatter much worse.

call directv, get a tech out there now. \

Grounding is critical

[Mertzen]

no ground will make a storm scatter much worse.


Grounding is critical

Grounding is required; but are you saying that grounding has a relation to rain fade ?:nono2:

[curt8403]

Grounding is required; but are you saying that grounding has a relation to rain fade ?:nono2:

storms create static build up. no ground, no way to drain off the static/ excess static during a storm can result in more signal loss/

[RAD]

The Ka band signal will be effected by rain more the the old Ku band channels. Plus it doesn't have to be rain at your house that effects the signal, big clouds with lots of moisture in them between the satellites and your dish can also block the signal. I've had the signal go out 4 or 5 minutes before it even started to rain at my house.

[compnurd]

The Ka band signal will be effected by rain more the the old Ku band channels. Plus it doesn't have to be rain at your house that effects the signal, big clouds with lots of moisture in them between the satellites and your dish can also block the signal. I've had the signal go out 4 or 5 minutes before it even started to rain at my house.

Here is a question. I dont have a grounding block per say, the lines go to my multi switch, multi is connected to the house ground outside, the ground from the dish also connects to the house ground, is that ok?

[RAD]

Here is a question. I dont have a grounding block per say, the lines go to my multi switch, multi is connected to the house ground outside, the ground from the dish also connects to the house ground, is that ok?

I've seen some people say that doing that is OK and others that say no it isn't, I don't know the correct answer to that question, sorry.

[curt8403]

Here is a question. I dont have a grounding block per say, the lines go to my multi switch, multi is connected to the house ground outside, the ground from the dish also connects to the house ground, is that ok?

multiswitchs connected to a ground wire are ground blocks as well

[compnurd]

multiswitchs connected to a ground wire are ground blocks as well

Here is another one, if i scrap the ground wire from the ground wire that connects to the MS on the MS, i see small sparks. Is that normal?

[curt8403]

Here is another one, if i scrap the ground wire from the ground wire that connects to the MS on the MS, i see small sparks. Is that normal?
NO! that is not normal

[compnurd]

NO! that is not normal

Ok, What from the ground wire would cause that if anyone knows? I can hold the wire fine and feel nothing. and i am not talking huge sparks, like smaller then the spark on a gas stove say

[curt8403]

Ok, What from the ground wire would cause that if anyone knows? I can hold the wire fine and feel nothing. and i am not talking huge sparks, like smaller then the spark on a gas stove say
a possible bad rcvr that is acting up. it would put a voltage on the ground side of the system, what rcvrs do you have

[compnurd]

a possible bad rcvr that is acting up. it would put a voltage on the ground side of the system, what rcvrs do you have

HR21-100 and 3 D12-500

[curt8403]

HR21-100 and 3 D12-500

do you have a multimeter (Volt Meter)

[compnurd]

do you have a multimeter (Volt Meter)

yes i do

[curt8403]

yes i do
check the outside of the sat in cable (when connected) to ground. any voltage is bad/

[compnurd]

check the outside of the sat in cable (when connected) to ground. any voltage is bad/

Got it. Will do it in the morning

I am going to check ground connected and ground not connected. for all i know it is the ground wire with the voltage

[flipptyfloppity]

check the outside of the sat in cable (when connected) to ground. any voltage is bad/

Digital meters are so high impedance you'll almost always see a voltage.

[kevred9]

Clear view of south sky (parking lot and soccer field).

I was most concerned since radar showed no red (really heavy rain)
and a half hour out is a long time compared to most reports I hear...

My clear sky number are:
101
1-8: 94 96 94 0 92 100 94 100
9-16: 94 96 94 61 96 100 94 100
17-24: 94 0 96 0 92 100 94 100
25-32: 92 63 94 40 94 100 94 100

110
1-8: - - - - - - - 90
9-16: - 83 - 97 - - - -
17-24: - - - - - - - -
25-32: - - - - - - - -

119
1-8: - - - - - - - -
9-16: - - - - - - - -
17-24: - - - - - 94 96 92
25-32: 30 96 96 94 0 94 96 94
99(a)
1-8: 94 92 89 85 94 92 87 85
9-16: 92 92 85 85 94 94 - -
17-24: - - - - - - - -
25-32: - - - - - - - -
99(b)
1-8: 0 72 0 74 43 80 - -
9-16: - - - - - - 0 0
17-24: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
25-32: - - - - - - - -
103(a)
1-8: 0 0 0 41 0 52 - -
9-16: - - - - - - 0 0
17-24: 0 74 0 74 98 0 0 0
25-32: - - - - - - - -
103(b)
1-8: 94 92 92 89 89 85 90 89
9-16: 89 89 92 90 92 92 - -
17-24: - - - - - 0 - -
25-32: - - - - - - - -

[compnurd]

Got it. Will do it in the morning

I am going to check ground connected and ground not connected. for all i know it is the ground wire with the voltage

Ok, When the MS is connected and grounded i get .01 which is nothing. If i take the cable away from the MS i get 5.4

[K4SMX]

There's nothing wrong. None of your receivers have grounding AC cords. The cases of your receivers are at a slightly different ground potential than your ground at the multi-switch. Make sure that whatever your multi-switch is using as a ground, if it's a separate ground, is connected to your service ground with #6 wire, solid or stranded.

[eakes]

The clear sky numbers are good, tweaking the dish would likely do more harm than good.

The Ka frequencies are effected more by 'rain' than Ku. The attenuation is actually caused by rain droplets in the clouds, not so much those that are actually falling. It would be possible to have no rain at the receiving antenna location, yet the system can be out due to storm clouds to the south/southwest. Conversely, it can be raining "cats and dogs" at your house and there is no interruption of reception. The usual condition is that it is raining at your house with storm clouds to the south and the signal fades out.

At my house here in Texas, I have reception 99.9% (most) of the time. Since I put up my first system in 1995, 30 minutes is the longest single outage, which occurs no more that twice a year. Toss in 3 or 4 ten minute outages a year and that is it for rain outages.
Snow buildup on the feedhorn and dish can also cause an outage and it will be out as long as the snow remains there. When that happens here, I use the garden hose to clear the snow since the dish is mounted on the chimney about 15 feet off the ground.