[merchione]

I have never ever experienced rain clouds fade, does anyone else in my area? El Paso TX. Should I? I know it has to do with signal strength, mine are between 88-96 on all the satellite's

 

[PicaKing]

I have never ever experienced rain clouds fade, does anyone else in my area? El Paso TX. Should I? I know it has to do with signal strength, mine are between 88-96 on all the satellite's

Loosen some of the bolts on your dish and turn it it a little. You will.

 

[Mike Bertelson]

I have never ever experienced rain clouds fade, does anyone else in my area? El Paso TX. Should I? I know it has to do with signal strength, mine are between 88-96 on all the satellite's

I used to have rain fade with my old 3LNB dish.

Since I've upgraded to the 5LNB I have gotten blocking/pixilation
but only during a heavy rain.

In the last 19 months I have lost signal twice and only for a few minutes.

IMHO, a properly installed dish is the key to preventing these kinds of signal problems.

Mike

 

[Matt9876]

Wind Fade = Bad Install !

Unless it's a tornado or hurricane a blowin ! :grin:

 

[mobandit]

I have never ever experienced rain clouds fade, does anyone else in my area? El Paso TX. Should I? I know it has to do with signal strength, mine are between 88-96 on all the satellite's

It isn't a matter of "should you?" It's a matter of "will you?" If a storm pops up in the LOS of your dish, and it includes heavy rainfall, you probably will experience some rain fade, or attenuation of the received signal which results in a loss of signal. The better your dish is aligned the less susceptible to rain fade.

Wind fade should not happen. My brother-in-law was a victim of wind fade after a recent installation. But the installation was improper, the dish wasn't properly mounted or aligned. If the dish is installed correctly, winds shouldn't affect the reception of signals.

 

[makaiguy]

Your geographical location relative to the satellite has some effect also. In Texas, you're just about directly north of the primary satellite locations, which are over the equator, directly south of you. This places you closer to the satellite than any other area of the country, and thus starts you off with the strongest possible signal. Further, this gives you a higher "look angle" and minimizes the amount of atmosphere the signal must pass through to get to you, thus you receive the least amount of atmospheric attenuation. Further, the high look angle also minimizes the area in the sky where a strong storm must be located to block your signal.

Folks much further north, east or west of you have lower look angles, and all three of those factors are worse for them. If you've ever been to Alaska, you've probably noticed that they must use much larger dishes to get their signals, due to the greater distance from the satellites, and the lower look angle (barely above horizontal) through much more dense atmosphere.

So, when you put all those things together, you will probably have less rain fade than those of us in other parts of the country, and you can probably tolerate a bit more dish misalignment than we can, to boot. But when you get an intense rainstorm in that precise spot in the sky, you can still lose signal for a few minutes.