Chicago Weather

[chiscott1]

Since I got my HR20 and my 5 LNB dish I've had a lot of outages related to the weather. It seems any weather condition, slight rain, temp < 25 degrees, and clouds will cause my signal to drop.

I live in Chicago, is this the norm? Did my installer skip something (ie. weather proofing the dish)?

My wife keeps asking "Why get a dish in the city of wind?".

Help.

[mrjim]

Is there anything blocking the dish, buildings, trees, telephone poles? You have to have a clear path to the satellite to get the best signal. If you have any thing in the way maybe they can move your dish to a better location. Or if there is nothing in the way, have D*(DirecTV) come back and re-align the dish. Wind should not be a major factor if the dish is bolted done. I live in Kenosha and have no real problems, except for extreme severe weather, hail etc. Hope this helps!

[Earl Bonovich]

Since I got my HR20 and my 5 LNB dish I've had a lot of outages related to the weather. It seems any weather condition, slight rain, temp < 25 degrees, and clouds will cause my signal to drop.

I live in Chicago, is this the norm? Did my installer skip something (ie. weather proofing the dish)?

My wife keeps asking "Why get a dish in the city of wind?".

Help.

I am in the south burbs.

My 5LNB sits on the corner of my house, with nearly 270 degrees of exposure to the weather conditions...

Haven't had a problem.

My guess, is that your dish is a little out of peak allignment, or something is moving into it's way.

I haven't touched my dish since it's installation last January (2006).
I am usually pegged out at 90+ on the signals... .and get very very minimal issues do to weather.

[Packerfan53]

I'm 50 miles from Chicago and had a lot of problems with loss of signal when the HR 20 was installed. Our main problem was "searching for signal on satellite in 2" (771) and also "searching for signal on satellite in 1 (772). Both of these occured when watching the local channels and the weather didn't seem to matter. I spent countless hours on the phone with tech level 2. We've had 4 different receivers and multiple service calls. Each tech who came out thought they were fixing the problem. One tech said dish wasn't level, one tech found a crimp in the cable, one said bad "barrels" and replaced the connectors. None of this worked. Finally, after working with Account Management they sent out a supervisor who found that the wrong cable was used and the cable was "stapled" to the house and the staples were actually going thru the cable in a few spots. Needless to say, the supervisor couldn't believe what he found. He ran all new cable and it's been three months and no more problems except sound drop outs and Caller ID but that is a DirectTV problem and not my problem exclusively. Be persistent, we had 8 different techs/installers come out before the problem was finally found. The supervisor also put up the new slim line 5 LNB dish. (We had the older version 5 LNB dish prior.) The bottom line is they have MANY incompetent techs and installers. One final note, we did get substantial credits on our account for our inconvenience. Was it worth all the aggravation? Hardly, but at least it was something. If it wasn't for NFL Ticket, we'd be long gone. Good luck.

[finaldiet]

Sounds like you need re-alignment.

[Just J]

Sounds like you need re-alignment.

I agree - what are your typical signal levels in clear weather? I range in the mid to high 90's , and only in the very heaviest rain storms do I have issues, and they only last for a few minutes right at the peak of the storm.

I assume that they did brace the heavier 5 LNB dish with the two additional struts? Can you post a picture of your dish and its mounting?

[Coffey77]

About a week ago I had my first "minor" outage which only lasted for a minute or two here in the Chicago area. There were some HUGE storms rolling in though so I wasn't surprised. The AT9 has been through a lot and it's also been 1/4 to 1/3 covered with snow/ice and still performed perfectly. Wind has had no effect on it.

[chicagojim]

I live in Frankfort and only have problems when:

a) Ice/snow accumulates > 1/2" on the dish (rare)

b) There is an oak tree of my neighbors about 80' in front of my dish. During the summer, the leaves will cause rain fade during HEAVY storms, but I can usually get locals even during the worst times.

The 5-lnb dish has a higher elevation than my old 3-lnb did. That alone improved my signal over my previous install.

If my neighbor doesn't come back into town soon, I'm sending my kid up that 100' tree with a chainsaw :D That'll fix the rain fade issue . . . . :lol:

[Earl Bonovich]

If my neighbor doesn't come back into town soon, I'm sending my kid up that 100' tree with a chainsaw :D That'll fix the rain fade issue . . . . :lol:

Call me... I'll bring a chair and some drinks, and we will watch the lumberjack "games".. :D

[lguvenoz]

I have to say you must have an install problem. We live about 40 miles west of the city and have no issues. Our dish is installed on the side of our house, and gets pounded with winds on gusty days. To date our only weather issues have been the following:

1. 2 times had heavy ice and snow buildup this year, and had to clean the dish off.
2. During heavy thunderstorms we've had the normal rain fade on a couple of occassions.

Certainly nothing persistent like you are describing. I just think you had someone either misalign the dish or did a bad cabling and connection job on you.

[Coffey77]

Call me... I'll bring a chair and some drinks, and we will watch the lumberjack "games".. :D

Save me a seat! I have chainsaws and can rent a lift from Home Dep and truck it over. Got a case of no-GHT all set and a wheelbarrow full of ice.