[MatthewTheRaven]

Hi there,

I've been getting lots of rain fade lately, which isn't entirely unusual given that it's rained a lot lately!

However, I didn't seem to have this type of trouble until fairly recently. I'm wondering if perhaps I don't need to have the dish peaked? The signals seem okay at a glance, but I get the occasional very low one, and I don't know if that's normal.

This is on a Slimline dish with SWM setup. Tests were performed on an HR20-100

Zip code is 15904.

Anyway, here are my signal strengths during a period with no rain:

Sat 101: Tuner 1:

1-8 97 95 94 43 94 100 95 99
9-16 94 95 95 43 95 100 92 100
17-24 92 100 95 47 95 100 95 100
25-32 95 91 95 97 95 100 95 100

Sat 101: Tuner 2:

1-8 97 95 94 43 93 100 95 100
9-16 94 95 95 43 95 100 92 100
17-24 93 100 95 54 95 100 95 100
25-32 95 91 95 97 96 100 95 100

***

Sat 110: Tuner 1:

1-8 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 95
9-16 NA 94 NA NA 96 NA NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Sat 110: Tuner 2:

1-8 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 95
9-16 NA 92 NA NA 95 NA NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

***

Sat 119: Tuner 1:

1-8 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA 82 95 77
25-32 75 82 95 88 51 78 0 90

Sat 119: Tuner 2:

1-8 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA 89 95 80
25-32 76 85 92 86 57 88 0 91

***

Sat 99(c): Tuner 1:

1-8 95 95 91 94 94 91 90 95
9-16 92 90 89 92 95 91 NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Sat 99(c): Tuner 2:

1-8 95 95 91 94 94 91 88 94
9-16 90 89 90 91 95 89 NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

***

Sat 99(s): Tuner 1:

1-8 41 62 38 87 0 94 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 99 0
17-24 100 98 0 0 50 60 100 96
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Sat 99(s): Tuner 2:

1-8 44 60 43 88 0 92 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 98 0
17-24 100 99 0 0 49 60 99 97
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

***

Sat 103(s): Tuner 1:

1-8 35 97 0 0 55 100 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 66 96
17-24 0 95 95 95 93 0 59 62
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Sat 103(s): Tuner 2:

1-8 38 96 0 0 55 100 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 62 95
17-24 0 95 93 95 92 0 56 60
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

***

Sat 103(c): Tuner 1:

1-8 95 94 94 89 92 89 91 88
9-16 94 88 92 91 94 91 NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Sat 103(c): Tuner 2:

1-8 95 94 93 89 92 89 91 89
9-16 94 89 90 91 92 91 NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

***

Sat 72.5 = NA

***

SWM: Tuner 1:

1-8 100 99 100 77 100 100 95 95
9-16 95 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

SWM: Tuner 2:

1-8 100 100 100 83 100 100 95 96
9-16 95 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
17-24 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
25-32 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA

Thanks so much in advance for any help!

Matt

 

[Mertzen]

They don't get much better then that.
Check outside connectors for moisture.

 

[Grentz]

Those signals look excellent. Very good numbers all around and some of the highest I have seen on some of the sats.

Probably just has to do with the severity of the storms lately. Even the best signals get knocked out in tough storm cloud formations.

 

[Supervolcano]

As they said, signals are excellent.
You won't get much (if any) better.

It's either the wetness of the clouds - OOORRR - Maybe the foot of the dish is a little loose and the wind is kicking the whole dish/mast back a little up on it's heel.

 

[Johnnie5000]

As they said, signals are excellent.
You won't get much (if any) better.

It's either the wetness of the clouds - OOORRR - Maybe the foot of the dish is a little loose and the wind is kicking the whole dish/mast back a little up on it's heel.

That causes problems alot. If you have access to where the dish is mounted, grab it at the pipe and shake it a bit to see if it moves. If it moves, then you need another monopole and probably some self-tapping screws to secure the existing monopole(s). If it doesn't, then you're probably getting moisture either in the LNB itself (will be very obvious if thats the case) or in a connector outside somewhere (check for corrosion around the center conductor of the cable).

 

[MatthewTheRaven]

That causes problems alot. If you have access to where the dish is mounted, grab it at the pipe and shake it a bit to see if it moves. If it moves, then you need another monopole and probably some self-tapping screws to secure the existing monopole(s). If it doesn't, then you're probably getting moisture either in the LNB itself (will be very obvious if thats the case) or in a connector outside somewhere (check for corrosion around the center conductor of the cable).

I have a particularly tall pole mount and it's solid, but if you shake it hard there's some movement, so I imagine in hard winds, I would probably see some image breakup. We had some pretty hard winds this last week, so it's probably to be expected. Would guy-wires be a reasonable alternative?

As far as moisture in the connectors, I imagine silicon caulk is my best bet there?

Thanks to everybody for the input!
Matt

 

[MatthewTheRaven]

As they said, signals are excellent.
You won't get much (if any) better.

It's either the wetness of the clouds - OOORRR - Maybe the foot of the dish is a little loose and the wind is kicking the whole dish/mast back a little up on it's heel.

If I check all the screws and whatnot is there any worry of knocking the dish out of alignment if I tighten anything? If they're that good, I'd like to keep it!

The funny thing is, I did the alignment using the 'call the girlfriend and have her read the numbers' method, so I guess I'm proud it came out so well, but I would hate to have to redo it myself.