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Today it has been foggy all day long, and I wonder can the fog cause the signal on the Dish to go out or not???
Foggy all day long
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The answer is a resounding maybe. Depends on your installation.
Is your signal going out?
Is your signal going out?
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No it hasn't gone out at all yet, at least when I'm here watching Tv, I was just asking to make sure.HDMe said:
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Only thing that knocks out signal here, are those big 'Thunderheads' in the summer that are just south of me. Otherwise, 99% of the time i have a signal, fog, rain, snow, wind, or sun don't knock it out. Although, it is quite annoying knowing severe weather is coming then, bam out goes the dish so you dont know what or when its gonna hit you.
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In my area, only the thick black clouds during a strong storm knock things out completely. Some pixellation with a heavy rain and cloud cover for maybe a minute or two... but only the black clouds overhead every knock my reception out for any significant period of time.
In theory, fog could do the same as a rainstorm... but it depends on how strong your reception is normally. IF you have rock-solid high levels, then fog probably will not affect you... but if you are borderline, then it could be enough to make things shaky.
Since not all transponders or satellites are the same level in any location... it is also possible to see an effect on some channels but not others.
In the scheme of things, fog would be way down on my list of potential worries for affecting signal... but I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility.
In theory, fog could do the same as a rainstorm... but it depends on how strong your reception is normally. IF you have rock-solid high levels, then fog probably will not affect you... but if you are borderline, then it could be enough to make things shaky.
Since not all transponders or satellites are the same level in any location... it is also possible to see an effect on some channels but not others.
In the scheme of things, fog would be way down on my list of potential worries for affecting signal... but I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility.
Fog is a cloud hugging the ground and rarely is thick enough to cause an outage for a correctly aligned dish. If you check signal strength in a fog it will be lower than on a clear day but should still be above threshold.Sleepylazy2006 said:
Fog will also condense easily on metal surfaces so if you have poorly crimped fittings water could get into the system and cause a signal loss, not because of the fog but due to water ingress.
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As one would expect, rain attenuation depends on the rain rate and frequency. The microwave beam scatters from the droplets causing less power to arrive at the receiver. As the frequency increases, the droplets are a bigger portion of the wavelength and the scattering is enhanced. That's why the new MPEG4 K band dishes are bigger; they intercept more signal power.
The droplets of fog are very small compared to the wavelength so its effect on transmission are minimal. There is some attenuation, but you will not notice it unless you are receiving a threshold signal.
There are other factors that include absorptions from invisible water vapor and atmospheric gases. You will see terms like molecular resonance modes (ala the microwave oven phenomenon) and O2 absorption when analyzing absorption -- very complex.
Interesting, I never found any reference to falling snow as a factor.
--- CHAS
The droplets of fog are very small compared to the wavelength so its effect on transmission are minimal. There is some attenuation, but you will not notice it unless you are receiving a threshold signal.
There are other factors that include absorptions from invisible water vapor and atmospheric gases. You will see terms like molecular resonance modes (ala the microwave oven phenomenon) and O2 absorption when analyzing absorption -- very complex.
Interesting, I never found any reference to falling snow as a factor.
--- CHAS
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I haven't either... but funny you bring it up, because for some reason I had a dream last night that it was snowing!HIPAR said:
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My sister used to lose her signal when it snowed - ticked her off and she eventually switched to cable.
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Around here, Time Warner cable goes out in rainstorms too... and often doesn't come back as quickly as satellite. You'd think it would... but somehow they just haven't maintained the infrastructure enough I guess.
In theory, cable should not have weather issues the same way that DBS satellite does... but if they don't maintain equipment properly, storms sometimes knock out things that takes them a day or 2 to find and fix, meanwhile my satellite is humming along once the clouds break!
In theory, cable should not have weather issues the same way that DBS satellite does... but if they don't maintain equipment properly, storms sometimes knock out things that takes them a day or 2 to find and fix, meanwhile my satellite is humming along once the clouds break!
Another "rain fade" problem occurs more often for those with lower look-angles (such as a 61.5 dish located in the Western parts of the country). A thunderstorm 300 miles away might cause a loss of signal even if the sun is shining locally.
As for snow, the culprit is not the snow in the air. The wet-heavy snow that accumulates on your dish will cause a loss of signal. That is why when I moved I did a pole mount - so I can brush off the snow when necessary.
As for snow, the culprit is not the snow in the air. The wet-heavy snow that accumulates on your dish will cause a loss of signal. That is why when I moved I did a pole mount - so I can brush off the snow when necessary.
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Why would a thunderstorm 300 miles away cause a loss of signal???Michael P said:
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On a low look angle the signal path may pass through the storm (and be blocked by it) even though it is many miles away.Sleepylazy2006 said:
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