Tampa Fla. area rain fade problem, Is the solution A bigger dish

[johntoto11]

I am a Directv customer, and HDVR2 owner ,and live about 60 miles north of Tampa Fla. I have a 18 inch dual lnb dish pointed at 101 .I have A great signal (almost maxed out) during sunny weather. I do however get alot of rain fade during thunder boomers.It's starting to play on my nerves now that we are getting almost daily thunderstorms in this area. Are there any fellow Floridians out there, who have installed larger dishes for their systems? Has it helped with your rain fade problems? I am considering A 24", or 30", or possibly a 36" dish if it would be worth the trouble. I am interested in hearing your alls ,and especially Floridians,experiences, with bigger dish installs. I'm ready to purchase a larger dish if it would be worthwhile.All comments would be welcomed.Regards, Dennis

[Mike123abc]

I had rain fade in TX went to 24 inch dishes, really cut it down. If you have the space a larger dish never hurts. I have a flat area on the roof that cannot be seen from down below, so I use 24 and 35" dishes without any trouble.

[johntoto11]

Thanx, I saw a 30" dish without A lnb for $50.00 plus $30.00 shipping on ebay.Directv has just given me a $70.00 credit for a larger dish. They were pretty nice about it. You think a local sat. dealer would give me a better deal?

[Mike123abc]

Problem is that to make it look nice you should get one that the LNB will fit. There are different shaped tubes. Make sure you get one that will fit your LNB without any trouble.

[Thespis]

Don't know if you found one yet but...
I found a 24" dish w/dual lnb on ebay for a $50 shipped. The instructions were printed by Winegard (the dish is not labeled so I don't know if it's really a Winegard) and the LNBF is a Grundig.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3024813970&category=15071&rd=1
Shipping was fast and I'm very pleased with the product.

[mnassour]

FWIW, I've had good luck with the below folks on upgrading from 18" dishes to 24" and up...

http://www.starkelectronic.com/wing2.htm

One nice thing is that they carry D-tube, square tube and universal mount arms for each size dish.

I especially like the 75cm tri-lnb dish! :)

I have no connection, just a satisfied customer.

[redhorse1973]

FWIW, I've had good luck with the below folks on upgrading from 18" dishes to 24" and up...

http://www.starkelectronic.com/wing2.htm

One nice thing is that they carry D-tube, square tube and universal mount arms for each size dish.

I especially like the 75cm tri-lnb dish! :)

I have no connection, just a satisfied customer.

Would anyone know if a 35" wide x 21" height dish be good for Rain Fade????

[boba]

Getting a larger dish won't stop rainfade. A larger dish will collect more signal which means you can go longer before the heavy rain decreases the signal below threshold. That may mean a 24 inch dish will give you 5 minutes before fade and a 30 inch dish will give you 7 minutes before fade but they will still fade in heavy rain. Be sure your dish is aimed for the maximum signal whatever size you have and the cables are protected against water intrusion. Check with a good local dealer they are going to be familiar with local conditions and what works best. Florida with water on both sides gets heavy afternoon rains.

[angiodan]

Can you get a 24" dish that would accomodate a Dish 500 type system to look at both birds?

[boba]

angiodan DISH 500 is available only in 20" DISH has never offered any other size you have to use two separate dishes if you want larger.

[Richard King]

a 24 inch dish will give you 5 minutes before fade and a 30 inch dish will give you 7 minutesIf your rain fade events only average 5-7 minutes (which seems pretty typical on this side of Florida) that margin is very significant.

If you can find a used Starband dish, a dish with a skew adjustment just like a Dish 500, it would work well in reducing rain fade. It's approx 36"x24" and has adaptors to attach Dish lnbs. I imagine that it could be optimized quite well for Dish reception after removing the Starband LNB and transmitter.

[boba]

RKing401 if you reread my post it says MAY give 5minutes. This was used only to illustrate a larger dish increases the time before fade affects the loss of picture. My starband dish has never given more signal than my DISH 500, of course it was peaked for the starband signal not for DISH reception.

[Floyd]

I use a .75meter or 1meter dish for my commercial DTV installs, which cuts down on rain outage considerably. It is folly to think that dish size won't help the problem.
DirecTV has a 1.2m dish limit "suggestion", I suppose the reason being that at their prime 101-deg location there are several satellites beaming the information, and they are separated by several miles(5-10?). The larger a dish is, the more narrow the beamwidth is.
I have a dozen 1.2m used dishes in my Tampa warehouse, if anyone wants to aquire one and try to reduce rainfade. They have az-el mounts.
flooydremove@prodigy.net