On Mon, 14 Mar 2011, David Scheidt wrote:
> Rain fade is a real problem, but a properly mounted, and properly aimed dish
> shouldn't lose signal that easily. I've looked at installations where
> the dish moved in anything over a light breeze, which meant it lost
> signal. It's also pretty common to not aim right, just aiming until
> the signal is good enough when the installer is there. It's a
> perfectly fine signal, but there's less margin for loss due to
> interference, weather, etc. Installers tend to be paid flat rate, so
> spending time to get an installation perfect isn't high on their list.
> They don't have to watch the 'searching' screens.
I installed the TV dish myself, twice, and it was mounted and aligned
as well as it could be. The bracket was originally lag-bolted through
cedar siding into the studs on the corner of my house, under an eave.
After re-siding the house, I moved the dish to the roof. Signal strength
was mid-nineties on several transponders in both locations. I made
repeated attempts to align it even better, hoping to improve reliability,
but never had success.
The larger internet dish has to professionally installed, and it was,
on a huge tripod bolted into the roof joists of my garage. It also has
to be aimed very accurately to even establish its bidirectional
connection. While the professional was on my roof, I had him check the TV
dish alignment with his birddog, and he said it was as good as any he'd
seen or done.
Neither system was very weather-tolerant, though. Hopefully YMWV.
Both dishes are gone, and I have U-verse now.
--
David Hillman
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