Rain Fade without Rain?

[kirkdickinson]

My HDVR2 has been acting like it has rain fade lately. The dish is clear and the sky is too.

My satellite signals are not the highest, 83-85 range, but that isn't bad. I know if I tweak the dish, I can get a little higher.

Is this causing the apparent rain fade?

I don't think it is rain fade.

Is it possible that my HDVR2 box is fading? I know the main drive isn't so good because occasionally I get a program that will lock the box up and I have to reboot.

Thanks,

Kirk

[rbtravis]

The up-link is in Castle Rock Colorado. What is the weather there. The signal goes up then down.

[cramer]

My satellite signals are not the highest, 83-85 range, but that isn't bad. I know if I tweak the dish, I can get a little higher.Then tweak the dish, silly. And get a signal power meter. The numbers on the screen are simply an indication of error rate. I've seen "99" on a line with the signal so low only 1 out of 12 tuners (6 tivos) could lock.

The up-link is in Castle Rock Colorado. What is the weather there. The signal goes up then down.From a 20m dish :-) God himself would have to stand infront of it to cause rain fade.

[kirkdickinson]

I have a meter. I have the dish adjusted to optimum reception at the dish. On the dtivo unit I am getting from 86 to 99 on all the transceivers except two. Maybe this is my problem. I am only seeing degraded signals on a few channels, but not all of them.

On transceiver 18 the signals on both LNB's is 32-36 range and on transceiver 26 the signal is 0 on both.

Is there a problem with the directtivo box?

Thanks,

Kirk

[HiDefGator]

The up-link is in Castle Rock Colorado. What is the weather there. The signal goes up then down.

that explains why mine was flaky yesterday. I had guessed it was sun spots.

[kirkdickinson]

So, you think G-d was in Castle Rock yesterday standing in front of the big dish?

[FentonMcD]

Guys, it takes an awful lot of rain to stop the ground station dishes from sending the data correct. First, they are very big (not 18 inches). Second, since they are providing the power to transmit, they can use a high power system to guanentee delivery.

If rain-fade was a problem at the ground station, why would they put them in Colorado -- where it snows in feet? Why not put them in Death Valley?

[classicsat]

Castle Rock is closer to the sky than death valley. With that, it will take that much less power to uplink a signal.

[FentonMcD]

Excellent argument. Given that the satellites are 22,000 miles from earth, the extra 3-4 miles in elevation will make quite a difference in closing the link ;)

[kirkdickinson]

3-4 miles? Have you ever been to Castle Rock? It isn't in the mountains. Elevation there is barely over a mile.

I would imagine that the atmosphere causes much more degradation in the signal than distance. So being 6200 feet higher in the atmosphere than Death Valley should eliminate significant atmospheric interference. 50% of the atmosphere by mass is below 18,000 feet, so rising 6200 feet should eliminate at least a third of that 50% and probably more due to the fact that the atmosphere is denser at lower altitudes.

Because the front range of Colorado has so many clear days. (some say 300 in a year) and because the annual precipitation is less than 20 inches, I would think that Castle Rock would be an excellent place for a big satellite uplink.

[FentonMcD]

No doubt Colorado is an excellent place for satellite terminals -- there are lots of dishes in the area. Its easy to close the link when you're the source of the transmit power. They can measure the strength of the signal at the satellite and increase the power at the dish to compensate for any atmospheric conditions.


Also, once the signal arrives at the satellite, it is re-amplified by the TWTAs for each transponder. So, a smaller strength number seen by your receiver won't be because of problems on the receiving part of the satellite. I'm not sure how rain-fade at the ground station would appear to your DTV receiver. My theory is that the fade would occur over the entire uplink and would probably trash all the transponders.

[Dayton-Dave]

Could be sun fade. If this is happening in the morning & late afternoon it could be sun fade it lasts for a few seconds. I get this due to sun being at the same angle as my dish is aimed. It lasts only for a few seconds. If you are recording at those times it will show up on your recordings too.