Rain Fade Question

[JAMHRR]

How can a rain storm affect the reception of an 18" round or an 18 x 24 elliptical dish on a residence, but cable who gets most of its programming from satellites continues to carry a signal during a rain storm?

I have a dish and this will not send me back to cable!! it's just an interesting question.

Thanks. :rolleyes:

[Chris Blount]

The local cable companies get there signal using fiber or C-Band. C-Band is not affected by rain fade.

[davhol]

For a bit more "technical" answer: rain fade is due to the interaction between the signal and the rain. In DBS, the signal is essentially a microwave which is absorbed (to some extent) by the water causing the signal to fade. If you have a larger DBS dish, rain fade would not be as bad in a given situation as with a smaller (normal sized) dish. C-band transmisstion are at a frequency where the signal and water don't affect each other (too much) and thus the reputation that "C-band is not affected by rain fade."

[DarrellP]

I wouldn't worry about it, rain fade is an urban myth that the cable companies like to trump up to get you to buy their crappy analog signal.

I live in Oregon (the wet part) and I have lost my signal once for about 10 seconds due to rain and it was the worst downpour I have ever experienced.

[Mark Holtz]

Also the wavelength of a C-band transmission is entirely different that a DBS transmission. If I recall correctly, DBS uses the Ku-band of frequencies.

[razorbackfan]

I've never experienced rain fade. Last week we got 4" of rain in 24 hours, and my Dish never faded. Once when we got 10" of snow, I had to knock the snow off the dish to get a picture.

[JAMHRR]

I did experience "Rain Fade" earlier this week. My picture was lost for about 1 hour. The best thing is that I know what is causing the picture to go out and when the rain lets up the picture returns.

If I had cable and the cable went out, who knows how long it would be out! I would have to wait for the cable guy to repair the problem.

Last week a car hit a telephone pole on a cross street of mine and it knocked out cable for 3 days. I know this because my neighbors have cable. The cable company had to run new lines. I'm glad "Rain Fade" is the only cause for losing my picture.

[lee120]

my last rain fade was 2years ago