OT: Satellite TV

Chris(WA) · Jan 5, 2009

Do any of you have problems with the weather and your Dish network reception. Ours quit recieving last night in a light snow. It does this often but always comes right back but not this time. Was off when I went to bed (off at least 1 hr.)Heck I have seen it lose signal when the sun was shining too hard!
I have had the dish repair children out several times . They blame each other for the problem, do not have whatever part/tool they claim will permenantly fix it and never come back.Talking to tech support is like talking to someone on the other side of the world(literally)
I guess this is as much a rant as a question but I wondered if any of you have had the same experience with Dish and if you had your own fix for it.

rrlund · Jan 5, 2009

We've got Direct. Have had it since 97. Ours got so bad that it was unusable. Phone calls to a Pakastani phone bank wasn't doing any good. The wife finally got ugly with them and got somebody who spoke english after a month or more of threatening. That woman got on something and told my wife exactly what we were watching and when it was locking up. They sent somebody out and installed a whole new system with the 3 knob oval reciever,gave us 6 months of free locals and 6 months of free Showtime for tolerating the trouble for as long as we did and for not switching to Dish.

So I guess you just have to threaten the right people.

Coloken · Jan 5, 2009

I has problems that turned out to be from a tree branch drooping with moisture. The angle was way higher (up in the air) than I thought. Other possibility is the mount is moving when it rains/snows.

51VAC · Jan 5, 2009

We occasionally have problems with our reception when it's raining or snowing. One thing I've done that seemed to help a little was to put in a signal booster between the dish and the box. If I remember correctly, it was around $20.00 at radio shack. I don't watch all that much TV myself, but whenever we lose signal, there seems to be something on that I'm interested in watching!

jay-eye-see · Jan 5, 2009

I had Dish for almost 10 yrs with and lost signal maybe 3 or 4 times. Then I moved and took Dish with me. I had it installed by them at new place and had problems all the time. Called Dish and tried to cancel, they sent someone out and I was lucky, they got it right. The guy that came out said it is all about installation and signal strength.

Bill in IL · Jan 5, 2009

Do you have any obstructions in the way of your antenna outside? Trees or any thing that could catch the snow and keep your signal out. Ku band is know for rain fade and they do go out from time to time. Sounds like you either have too long of a cable run to the house, bad cable, misaligned antenna, obstructions or something like that. There is a alignment screen in the menus somewhere that will tell you your signal strength try looking for it. Good luck with the installers they are all about dumb and did a butcher job when they installed mine, I was not home and was not happy when I got home. You can buy larger antennas for those systems to help if you just are in a bad location.

Goose · Jan 5, 2009

We've had Dish for maybe five years. One time I did have to get on a ladder and brush snow off the dish.

Last summer, one reciever box went kaput. They came out and replaced the box, and while they were at it they replace the dish itself with an upgraded one.

We have 3 TV's running off of two recievers, and I really can't say as I have any complaints.

Allan in NE · Jan 5, 2009

That's for sure.

That bird isn't where they'd like you to believe.

I've seen dishes point directly at the side wall of huge steel buildings and the signal comes in just fine. :>)

Allan

kyhayman · Jan 5, 2009

I rarely have problems with the TV, but the internet is a different. Mine goes out every time we get mist in the air.

Kentb of SWMO · Jan 5, 2009

If the rain of the snow is heavy enough you will always have an outage. There have been time when rain was in the area but no rain at the house we still had the signal drop out. I think it was rain up high on the atmosphere some where between the dish antenna and the satellite. To it is no big deal. This happens to microwaves.

Kent

buickanddeere · Jan 5, 2009

The aim maybe boarderline now due to the dish's mount sagging or being jiggled by the wind. Re-aiming and peaking the signal maybe enough.
A larger dia dish to gather more signal/increase gain will reduce rain fad.

buickanddeere · Jan 5, 2009

The aim maybe boarderline now due to the dish's mount sagging or being jiggled by the wind. Re-aiming and peaking the signal maybe enough.
A larger dia dish to gather more signal/increase gain will reduce rain fad.

Rob in Ore · Jan 5, 2009

We just resolved the same issues that you describe. I guess we had a better tech than you did. He found that the dishes were malfunctioning. They replaced them at no charge because they were just a few months old. My only suggestion is to keep trying to get a good tech out to fix it.

Chris(WA) · Jan 5, 2009

Maybe that's the problem...I need to build a large steel building as a reflector. Good excuse to build a new shed!!

old · Jan 5, 2009

Here is something you can try that may help. Buy some Rain-X and pour it on and then wipe it all over the dish. Doing that helps keep it clean and also keep the rain and snow from sticking to it which is what makes it go out. BTDT and believe me it does help
Hobby farm

Kent in KC · Jan 5, 2009

I looked at satellite TV (we"re out a ways from cable and DSL) but after we got an HDTV I hooked it up to an antenna for the heck of it. I was pleasantly surprised to find over 20 digital channels over the air for free. These include PBS (four different channels) all the local and national stations and two local all-weather channels.

You all might want to check out free digital tv channels. BTW, they come in much clearer and stronger than their analog counterparts and, despite what some say, doesn"t require a special antenna for digital. The old gray rooftop mast works fine or hide it in the attic if your down near the city.

buickanddeere · Jan 5, 2009

Going to tip up TV tower tonight. With the new and improved amp, FM radio band filter, low loss RG-11 cable, HD rotor and a no FM radio/ TV channels 7-69 max gain 168" long antenna.
The plan is off air HD TV with 7 Canadian networks and 5 US networks.
Then hope there will be some program somewhere worth watching.

Walt Davies · Jan 5, 2009

If you are having trouble with service then call and say that you want to cancel your service and switch to the other service they will go over board to get you up and running. The newer equipment is far better and very seldom do i loose signal even with a in. of snow on the dish.
I'm switching from Dishnet to Direct tomorrow because they are in a fight with the local ABC supplier out here and I want all my TV stations.
A while back I wanted to upgrade to the newer DVR system and they said I would have to pay so I called direct then called Dishnet to cancel a few later I had my DVR in and a new update on the dish pickup.
Walt
Walt

lucas boy · Jan 5, 2009

MINE did that twice. i pushed in and held the power button for 10 seconds and it fired back up.. lucas

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2009

My direct dish goes to searching for a signel during a heavy snow or rain storm. At times I can predict that a storm is coming several minutes ahead of it. Spraying cooking spray like PAM on the dish helps keep the snow from sticking to it. My latest complaint is the volume increase during the comercials. I try to keep the volume low so my wife can sleep in the next room and I can snooze when suddenly the sound increases a lot some times. I am looking for something that will blank out the comercials. I think that Direct has added a lot of half hour programs like the external_link COIN scam.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2009

Could have been rain partical up in the atmosphere that didn't make it to the ground. which blocked your signal.

guido · Jan 5, 2009

Hello Chris(WA),
I have directv and there are 2 channels that are used to check incoming signal strenght.
Dish network may have the same feature?
If that is the case, you only need to tune to the test channe/s to check signal strenght.
I only lose reception in severe weather, and only for minutes, not hours.
Guido.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2009

I have had trouble when there was sticky, wet snow that stuck to the dish surface and more or less filled the dish up. It is fairly easy to fix by spraying it clean with a garden hose.

Maybe Dish should market a heater grid that would mount on the back of a dish. Plugging in the heater grid for a few minutes would melt the snow and get the system working again.

I also have lost signal during serious thunderstorms when the clouds were really thick. That problem has always cleared itself within an hour or so. Good luck!

Anonymous-0 · Jan 5, 2009

Ours does that in real heavy rain. I stopped it by putting a sandwich bag over the LNB. Water was getting around where the cable screwed in. sure there was/is a professional scientific fix, bud the baggy sure does the trick.

Dave

IndianaRed · Jan 6, 2009

I used to install them. Sounds like poor alignment or corroded connections to the LNB. Or depending on how old it is, may be the LNB itself. Had to replace mine after about 12 years.

DirecTV has WAYYY better customer service, best of anyone else servincing my house, i.e gas, elec, water, DSL, etc. If you can, switch. They may give you a good deal or cover your remaining contract if you have one.

Of course I'd better mention the obvious, you know you have to brush snow off them?

Good luck.

kopeck · Jan 6, 2009

Yeah, I bet it's alignment too.

I just got in from fixing mine. Last night a bunch of the channels in the high 200s died on me. Checked my signal and transponder 1 was at 35%. Did a small sweep and found it to be OK where it was so then I just bumped the elevation up 1 deg and saw my signal jump up to over 90%.

Checked the other transponders and they were all 85% to 100%.

I installed my own, it's pretty easy.

K

OT: Satellite TV

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

New User

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Similar threads