[CompiledMonkey]

I spent a lot of time talking my wife into (read: pestering to the point of not caring anymore ) getting rid of our FIOS service in favor of D*. I know the potential risks of satellite service, as does she. She pointed it out many times during our discussions over it. I knew the first time we had an issue with the signal, it would be an interesting night.

Sure enough, on our second day of service, we had a terrible storm roll through. I expected to lose the signal and I wasn't bothered by it at all. I expect it will happen a number of times a year just because of the weather. This storm only lasted about 15 minutes but carried enough of a downpour that I figured we'd lose the signal. I went into the living room while we were cooking dinner to notice the signal had been lost. I just turned everything off while we cooked. I came back in once the rain had died off to find the signal was back.

Her response wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. It was kind of funny really. She just smiled and asked if I was surprised it was out. Given the way it was raining, I wasn't surprised at all. She asked a little while later how I could love D* so much when we lost service already. I simply said I'd rather have 95 HD channels 95% of the time rather than a third of that 100% of the time. And I definitely feel that way.

I figure a lot of people here have interesting stories about their "other half" and their reaction to some instances of losing signal. What is yours?

 

[Nick]

The last time my sat signal went out due to rain fade, I just hit "Cable" -- never missed a lick.

 

[curt8403]

which assumes that you have both satellite and cable. Personally I cannot afford to have both. Gasoline costs too much for other luxuries

 

[Michael D'Angelo]

Well may DIRECTV service went out too for a few minutes in the same storm but guess what, may Comcast cable service for my internet went out too and it is still out an hour later. (before someone ask I am using my EVDO on my Blackberry)

 

[LameLefty]

I get lots of small interruptions of my HD locals in the worst of the spring/summer downpours but they are generally 5 minutes or less in duration (my spotbeam signal on the applicable transponder is usually 97 - 99 in clear weather). When that happens I just flip over to the SD Ku-band local off 101 and almost ALWAYS still have a signal.

 

[CompiledMonkey]

Having both is definitely not in my price range. I'm loving D* and really have no interest in switching back to cable. I can only imagine how awesome Hotpass and NFL ST/SF are going to be.

 

[curt8403]

Having both is definitely not in my price range. I'm loving D* and really have no interest in switching back to cable. I can only imagine how awesome Hotpass and NFL ST/SF are going to be.

be sure to check out the NFL Shortcut channels the day after the games

 

[ansky]

We are getting huge tropical downpours in the NYC area today. As I write this my signal has been out for almost 15 minutes already. Clearly these are very slow moving storms. They guy on the news said some of the cloud tops in these thunderstorms were over 40,000 feet which is very unusual for this area.

 

[syphix]

My experience (with both DBS providers and a lifetime of cable prior):
Satellite: 6-7 signal losses each year, each lasting five to ten minutes.
Cable: 2-3 signal losses each year, each lasting 1-12 HOURS.

I'd much rather deal with short outages.

 

[MattDing]

I'd much rather deal with short outages.

Especially outages I can understand.

I know what's going on when it's pouring and my signal goes south and I can always look at the radar to see how long it's going to last.

When the cable used to go out I was at their mercy and had no idea if it was a 10 minute outage or was going to last for hours and hours. It drove me bats**t.

 

[smokes20]

I live near Dulles airport and in all the years I have had Directv, I have lost signal maybe twice. The longest was when Isabel blew threw here a couple of years ago. And that was only because we didn't have power :lol:

Snow doesn't even cause an outage if you keep the dish cleaned off. I do get some rain fade but it doesn't last long enough to make a case about it. When I had Cox for 16 long, long months I was constantly calling and reporting long outages. Our neighbors who have FIOS tv lost audio last week and some still are out.

Not me

 

[Satsince1978]

Since getting my HD setup two years ago I have had only one rain outage that lasted less than 30 seconds. Have not had a snow outage at all!

 

[MIAMI1683]

I get rain fade here in the really big summertime thunderstorms. It lasts 5 minutes or so. bottom line for me is the same as most. I do business with D*. I like them., I have for years, and im not switching

 

[Steve Robertson]

I get lots of small interruptions of my HD locals in the worst of the spring/summer downpours but they are generally 5 minutes or less in duration (my spotbeam signal on the applicable transponder is usually 97 - 99 in clear weather). When that happens I just flip over to the SD Ku-band local off 101 and almost ALWAYS still have a signal.

I do the same thing as it happened this morning as we are getting some really heavy rain here in the Boston area.

 

[bonscott87]

Doesn't bother my wife at all. Happens just a few times a year and signal is back in 5-10 minutes. Any time we had lost cable it would be out for DAYS, sometimes more then a week. Had some real bad storms last year. I was out signal for about 20 minutes then back. Most of my neighbors have cable. It was out for over 2 *WEEKS*. Needless to say many of them have gotten satellite over the past year.

Rain fade, while it happens, just isn't an issue and never has been for 12 years. We originally went to DirecTV 12 years ago because cable wanted $40 a month for 35 channels while DirecTV had 90 channels for $30. Couple that with better service and less/shorter outages it's a no brainer and still is to this day.

 

[mikepax]

We have had our system for many years. When we get the rain fade, and are in the middle of a program, I just switch over to the antenna. But we record too many shows and usually watch them the next day. If we have a storm the day before, we do miss the program. But like all have said, it only last minutes, not hours or days!

 

[dcowboy7]

Reminder:

sometimes in a storm u will lose the hd signal but the sd signal of the same channel still may come thru....so if espn hd goes espn sd may still be on....u have to suffer thru sd but may be better than nada.

 

[cadyroadsidetech]

We Just Back Up The Directv With A Over The Air Antenna. Here In Ftlauderdale We Get Bad Storms In The Afternoon Alot. When I Lose Signal I Just Select A Antenna Channel Until Sig Returns Approx 5 To 15 Min. Also Helps During Huricanes Although During Wilima Did Not Lose Signal At All. The Wife Understands And Loves The More Hd With Directv

 

[MIAMI1683]

We Just Back Up The Directv With A Over The Air Antenna. Here In Ftlauderdale We Get Bad Storms In The Afternoon Alot. When I Lose Signal I Just Select A Antenna Channel Until Sig Returns Approx 5 To 15 Min. Also Helps During Huricanes Although During Wilima Did Not Lose Signal At All. The Wife Understands And Loves The More Hd With Directv

When I lived there for Wilma (in Coral Springs) I lost my whole dish, and OTA. D* had my dish back up in 5 to 7 days. Cable was out for a month.

 

[Ed Campbell]

Our line storms in high desert country are almost as notorious as Florida thunderstorms. It's monsoon season and we've only lost signal once, so far, this season. 10 minutes.

My wife just heads back to the study and lands on the Web - which she's as happy to do, anyway. I'm the movie and sports geek.

We did lose the lnb's on the guesthouse dish once - a year ago - and didn't know it till we had everything fired back up for expected guests and discovered the critter was dead. That's why we have the PP - and the dish was replaced the day after I discovered the problem.