[rickeame]

Well, tonight was a first. At around six PM, I had my picture completely go out for about 2 mins during some rain. We've had worse rain, so I'm wondering what the magic mix is that causes rain fade. Big clouds?

Quite annoying, I have to admit -- I'm sure some of you have it worse...

 

[Grentz]

Its not necessarily just rain, but the way the clouds and such are formed in the sky. Also it is not necessarily right where you are, but where your dish looks through (which could be miles away).

12 yrs and I still have not totally figured it out, sometimes we have horrible storms that do nothing to it and other times there is no ran and just some dark clouds that knock the picture out completely.

Overall though, I dont get it a lot (luckily), and having a well peaked dish and solidly mounted dish (to avoid wind swaying the dish and causing alignment issues) is about all you can do.

 

[rudeney]

In my case, about 75% of our storms ride a frontal boundary that will be slanted from the southwest to the northeast. They pull moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico and pump it northward along the front. The front itself tends to be moving mostly due east, sometimes southeast. Since the dish is aimed south-southwest, this makes it have to look “parallel” through the rain when the front approaches and that’s when we get the most rain fade. It usually happens a minute or two before the deluge and usually clears right after it starts raining. If it lasts more than a few minutes, I know we are in for a really good storm.

 

[carl6]

I'm in Seattle proper, and I have never experienced rain fade (that results in picture loss or pixelation, etc.). I have experienced a couple of snow outages when wet snow sticks to the dish and accumulates, but that is very rare around here.

Carl

 

[skyboysea]

Maybe you need to repoint your dish. As Carl says, snow fade happens but rain fade is really rare. I went through the "Pineapple Express" storms in November 2006 without losing signal and that was as bad as it can be.

 

[rudeney]

If the dish was looking perpendicularly through a frontal line, then I can see how rain fade would be rare, but in my case, the front usually lines-up perfectly parallel so there is a much more thick and dense amount of moisture in the air to block LOS. Like I said, it usually only lasts for a few minutes, and it’s not during every storm – only the really strong ones. I probably could stand to get an alignment because some of my signals are in the upper 80’s and low 90’s, but it’s just not a priority since I rarely have issues. For example, I think I’ve lost the signal twice for a total of maybe 5 or 6 minutes so far this year.

 

[SEAKevin]

I also live in the Seattle city limits and the only time I have ever experienced signal loss in the rain is when my dish has managed to get out of alignment. My dish is mounted on a sturdy fence post and surprisingly I've had to have DirecTV come out 3 times in 4 years to re-align it. Twice with my old 2 LNB dish and now once with my Slimline. They mounted stabilizer bars the last time so hopefully it won't happen again.

When I experienced the rain fade I checked my signal strength and saw it was down in the 40's.. and then when the sun came back out it was only in the 50's and low 60's... so I called DirecTV. After a minor adjustment to the dish, it was back up in the 80's and 90's where it belongs.

I have no idea how my dish managed to get out of alignment, but hopefully it won't happen again.

I used to live in Denver and I lost my signal several times during heavy afternoon summer thunderstorms.. but never in Seattle.