Satellite Dome in rain??

LK23 · 10-03-2008, 05:31 PM

Here we are in Oregon and find ourselves in a constant rain. Go figure. Our dome satellite is fading in and out. I have RainX with me. Will that or anything else help with reception in the rain?

LK23 · 10-03-2008, 05:31 PM

Here we are in Oregon and find ourselves in a constant rain. Go figure. Our dome satellite is fading in and out. I have RainX with me. Will that or anything else help with reception in the rain?

GaryKD · 10-03-2008, 05:40 PM

Hi LK23,
For me, it is not so much the rain hitting the dome, but what is happening way up in the sky between the dome and the sat. I have read or tried nothing to improve the situation. Maybe an external dish (larger dish), will help. Being in the lightening and thunderstorm capital of the USA we loose the Sat TV quite a bit. We've learned to live with it.

Wayne M · 10-03-2008, 05:54 PM

Gary's correct. You can loose satellite signals just when thunder clouds are over you blocking th sky and don't even have to have it raining. That's why I have a DVR. At least if we loose signal we can still watch something that we recorded.

smlranger · 10-03-2008, 05:56 PM

We've been pretty lucky with our Kingdome...we've only lost signal in very heavy rain.

Max Hubrich · 10-03-2008, 06:38 PM

LK23,

If you have painted your dome, you cannot use a metallic paint color.

I've had two domes-- A King Dome and a KVH, both worked great except in heavy precip, approaching my position from the West, North West (about 98% of the time).

On DirecTV I received a signal strength around 70% with the domes. My new Winegard 5 LNB brings in a 95-96% signal strength. What is your clear weather day/night signal strength?

porscheracer · 10-03-2008, 06:59 PM

There is a product for application to the dome that claims to help with this problem. Sorry, but I neither know what it is or if it works - but I've seen it advertised on RV sat dish sites and in CW (I think).

Severe storm density will kill satellite reception, though. We have it at home, and invariably when the weather gets bad enough you want an update, the sat goes out.

Finhawk · 10-03-2008, 07:58 PM

I don't recall any problems with my plain old dish except in strong winds. Once in a while, simple is better

Oldcarfun · 10-03-2008, 08:08 PM

Wayne M, You can use the DVR when you don't have reception? We have an automatic Motosat dish that works great. One time we couldn't get reception and tried to watch recorded programs on our DVR and couldn't. We called Direct TV and they confirmed. We thought it was odd because we think of it as a hard drive. Do you have other equipment?

LK23 · 10-03-2008, 08:43 PM

Thanks for the replies. My dome dish is unpainted and the signal here is in the 50 to 60 range before the rain.

I fully intend to replace this dish with a MotoSat HD dish when I return from this trip. The domes are OK most of the time but it seems the signal strength is lower than a standard dish and I would like to receive HD channels.

Harry B · 10-03-2008, 11:41 PM

We are in the Seattle area at the moment and are having similar problems with our Kingdome. I posted about it two years ago when we were in the Northwest. At that time we had a Directv R15 receiver and replaced it twice with no better results.

Currently we have a dish Network 722 receiver and are having a bit better luck with the same dome just Dish Network instead of DirecTV. On average however it is marginal here in the Northwest. We are from Florida and it works without much of any kind of problem down there.

Domes just don't bring in the same signal level as open faced dishes, which is why a dome is probably not a good choice for this (Northwest) area, given the rain, smaller dish, dome cover and elevation angles.

My next satellite dish will also be a Moto Sat. I am just waiting for the KA band issue to sort itself out. DirecTV has gone to KA and given the much greater bandwidth available on the KA band satellites, I suspect Dish Network will also do the same in the near future (my personal opinion).

jrcnlc · 10-04-2008, 03:41 AM

When you have no sat signal in order to access recorded programs Push reset button or uplug an plug back in.Then when dvr is starting up searching for sat signal or getting sat info push exit on remote this will bring up dvr menu then select programs recorded.You may have to do this a few times to get right time to push exit button.This is on a direct tv dvr 15

Bob (WA0MQE) · 10-04-2008, 04:52 AM

Others are correct, it's not the domes that are causing this problem, it's the wet sky between you and the satellite. We have the same problem at our home in Colorado. In the summer when we get the real heavy thunderstorms with lots of rain and hail we lose the satellite signal quite abit. Even when it's not raining at our house, a storm could be south of us and those big thunder bumper clouds that reach for thousands of feet can stop the signal.

John_Canfield · 10-04-2008, 05:31 AM

Rex - one of the problems is the fact you are so far north - the dish has a low look-angle and a weaker signal. You could have wet branches/leaves between you and 101W and/or beads of moisture on the dome.

This is the inherent issue with domes - the antenna is so small, it doesn't have much gain and can be a marginal performer at those northern latitudes as you are finding out.

Do not use Rain-X on the plastic dome. I have had very good luck with the pricey King Dome Spray however. The spray is very effective where you have a heavy dew situation, or misty precipitation. Instead of water beads forming on the dome, they run off.

You could also have a problem in heavy rain at your latitude where it wouldn't happen farther south with a stronger signal. Nothing you can do about that except to use a open (and larger) dish that has more gain

Bill Adams · 10-04-2008, 06:57 AM

While rain and the associated clouds are a problem, the dome itself DOES cause problems for satellite TV reception.
First, the dish itself is much smaller than a standard open face dish and secondly, the KU band signal is reduced when passing through water (that's what's in those clouds blocking the signal). Water that sits on a dome between the satellite and the dish under the dome WILL reduce the signal passing to the antenna. King Dome makes a product called Dome Magic which is the product referenced earlier and while I have no experience with the product appears to help a very little bit. It has to be reapplied fairly often and I suspect that in the rainy NW it would be effective (it at all) for a very short period of time.
Rain-X users beware! Read the label. Rain-X states that it is NOT compatible with most plastics. Test it in a small place on the dome where it will do no harm (low or the very top). You may still not know right away if it will cause damage later.
KVH has the worse rain fade record and the full size Trac-Star and Winegard Movin' View have the best but all will give much lower signal strength in the rain than an open dish.

Oldcarfun · 10-04-2008, 11:37 AM

Thank you Jrcnic for the DVR help. I've printed it and will try it.

Thank you also Bill Adams for the great automatic Motosat open dish installation two years ago. It works great all the time!

MonacoMama · 10-04-2008, 12:16 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bill Adams:
While rain and the associated clouds are a problem, the dome itself DOES cause problems for satellite TV reception.
First, the dish itself is much smaller than a standard open face dish and secondly, the KU band signal is reduced when passing through water (that's what's in those clouds blocking the signal). Water that sits on a dome between the satellite and the dish under the dome WILL reduce the signal passing to the antenna. King Dome makes a product called Dome Magic which is the product referenced earlier and while I have no experience with the product appears to help a very little bit. It has to be reapplied fairly often and I suspect that in the rainy NW it would be effective (it at all) for a very short period of time.
Rain-X users beware! Read the label. Rain-X states that it is NOT compatible with most plastics. Test it in a small place on the dome where it will do no harm (low or the very top). You may still not know right away if it will cause damage later.
KVH has the worse rain fade record and the full size Trac-Star and Winegard Movin' View have the best but all will give much lower signal strength in the rain than an open dish. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Ditto that, Bill!
I am living in Oregon fulltime in our coach. We had the Kingdome stationary dome. You can count on having the worst TV reception you will ever have in Oregon if you keep your domed satellite.
We had the MotoSat SL5 installed at the beginning of this year. I can now watch TV and know that it is a rare occasion that I will lose TV reception.
I am going to suggest you contact someone to have the MotoSat put on at your earliest convenience!

MM

jfb · 10-04-2008, 08:48 PM

We have a Kingdome with the hard-wired remote and DirecTV. In WA, we experience rain/weather fade fairly often. We have found that the fade is not universal to all channels, only the one we want to watch.

We go to the DirecTV set-up mode to find the best signal strength of the 32 transponders, go to that transponder, generally #18, and fine tune the signal strength with the remote.

After the weather clears, our reception is always great!!

Go figure!!

Bill Adams · 10-05-2008, 06:42 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Posted Sat Oct 04 2008 9:48 PM Hide Post
We have a Kingdome with the hard-wired remote and DirecTV. In WA, we experience rain/weather fade fairly often. We have found that the fade is not universal to all channels, only the one we want to watch.
We go to the DirecTV set-up mode to find the best signal strength of the 32 transponders, go to that transponder, generally #18, and fine tune the signal strength with the remote.
After the weather clears, our reception is always great!! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
There is no need to manually change transponders on your receiver. Whatever you do there reverts back once you leave that screen. The screen that allows you to select various transponders is simply a diagnostic screen that allows you to see what the SS on various transponders is.
However, if you change channels to CNN you also change transponders. Each satellite has a certain number of transponders and each transponder can carry 10-20 or so channels. CNN would be broadcast from one and only transponder despite what you thought you had set earlier.
This is also why certain channels are effected by rain more than others. As you have noticed, certain transponders have higher SS and therefore will be the last channels to drop out during a rain fade event.

hamguy · 10-05-2008, 06:24 PM

The farther north you are, the more atmosphere the signal traverses getting to your dish. Reason, the angle to the Sat. is lower and so the sig sees more cloud cover.

While in Montana this summer I had a clear sky above but thick, nasty black storm clouds just SSE of me. We lost signal. When the clouds moved over us, I regained signal.

BTW, If you lose signals due to rainy conditions, go to-
Weather Radar

Then go to the map below the Phoenix area and move to the closest radar to your location. Set the map in motion and you can guestimate when the storm will subside. I can normally predict the clearing within 3-5 minutes.