How long does rain fade last in Freeview

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Purupuss

12 posts

Geek

#88784 23-Aug-2011 21:39

Last year we invested in a Freeview satellite dish. It was fine at first, then we had a bit of a rainy season and we had our first experience with rain fade. Since then we can usually guarantee that if we get heavy rain we will get a signal disruption - sometimes at the expense of an entire show.

My question is: How long is rain fade supposed to last at any one time? We've just attempted to watch Tangiwai: A love story from two Sundays ago and got through the first hour or the recording with no problems. But the last 50 minutes were totally wiped out by rain fade.

Is this normal? If not who do we complain to? The satellite installer or the company who sold us the DVD recorder?

Thanks in advance.

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12 posts

Geek

#510880 23-Aug-2011 21:47

Meant to say that we're in Thames.

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B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#510893 23-Aug-2011 22:21

Sounds like you may have a signal strength problem. Is the dish set up correctly?
I only have Sky via Satellite in Auckland and Freeview Terrestrial UHF. I've only experienced rain fade on a couple of occasions on Sky in the last 3 years and only for a few minutes each time during torrential rainfall.
Why not try switching to Freeview UHF instead (new TV or STB) and get the benefit of HD and no rain fade. The Freeview coverage map indicates Thames is in a "very likely" area.

injuised

256 posts

Ultimate Geek

#510936 24-Aug-2011 08:00

Purupuss: Last year we invested in a Freeview satellite dish. It was fine at first, then we had a bit of a rainy season and we had our first experience with rain fade. Since then we can usually guarantee that if we get heavy rain we will get a signal disruption - sometimes at the expense of an entire show.

My question is: How long is rain fade supposed to last at any one time? We've just attempted to watch Tangiwai: A love story from two Sundays ago and got through the first hour or the recording with no problems. But the last 50 minutes were totally wiped out by rain fade.

Is this normal? If not who do we complain to? The satellite installer or the company who sold us the DVD recorder?

Thanks in advance.

Rain fade is nearly always a signal problem , sounds like the dish has moved

Jaxson

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#510967 24-Aug-2011 09:11

Did you install yourself?

Rain can interfere with the signal strength but this only really becomes a problem if your signal strength is borderline in the first place. A properly sized and aligned dish should not really suffer this problem too much in NZ as the signal from the freeview satellite is actually really strong.

The other option is water getting into electrical joints.

cyril7

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#510969 24-Aug-2011 09:18

Also Thames/Waikato is in the prime centre of the spot beam, you have a good 1-2dB of signal over the rest of the country, I cannot remember last (except for heavy hail a couple of weeks back) that we got rain fade and we are in Wellington, so my bet is the dish and or skew are out.

Cyril

oxnsox

1923 posts

Uber Geek

#510980 24-Aug-2011 09:36

And to answer your original question.... How long will it last?

If it is 'rain-fade' then it will last for as long as the rain effecting condition exists.

themachine

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#948108 9-Dec-2013 14:51

I have lived in Wellington and in the South Island and in all these places I have experienced rain fade using a freeview box hooked up to a sattelite dish! Ive heard you can purchase a booster plug but cant find it on the internet yet so would appreciate it if anyone in this thread knows exactly what a booster plug is apart form the obvious boosting of a signal, and if it really needed or its is some other reason NZers experience rain fade with freeview?

wellygary

7378 posts

Uber Geek

#948145 9-Dec-2013 15:15

themachine: I have lived in Wellington and in the South Island and in all these places I have experienced rain fade using a freeview box hooked up to a sattelite dish! Ive heard you can purchase a booster plug but cant find it on the internet yet so would appreciate it if anyone in this thread knows exactly what a booster plug is apart form the obvious boosting of a signal, and if it really needed or its is some other reason NZers experience rain fade with freeview?

As the above posters have said, if you have rainfade issues get you dish alignment checked,

as for a booster, the only booster I know of is a bigger dish (Although you can always move your house closer to the satellite, but the building consents are a pain),

see here
http://www.freetv.co.nz/channels.html

cyril7

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#948272 9-Dec-2013 19:32

If the booster does not improve the C/N then its as useful as tits on a bull. The only way to improve C/N without moving yourself to a higher orbit is to get a bigger dish.

Cyril

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#948274 9-Dec-2013 19:45

I also recommend getting a professional to check your dish. For 4 years I put up with rain fade at Papamoa. This dish was installed by who I will now call fly by nighters. Anyway 2 years ago I had a long term reputable aerial installer come to replace the dish as the arm had rusted out that holds the lnb. He fitted a standard hills dish with new lnb. He used his hitech satellite tester to align everything and to this date have never again experienced rain fade. So from this experience I can see now that you dont have to put up with rain fade as others said you have to with satellite

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Jaxson

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#948437 10-Dec-2013 08:13

As has been mentioned/implied above, if your setup is not optimised to start with then less than ideal weather conditions will have a huge impact on your signal quality. Rain fade should only be a problem on NZ freeview in extreme weather conditions, meaning it should basically be vary rare indeed. If you are regularly experiencing this situation then I can fairly confidently suggest that your setup is not to the standard that it should be. The solution to this is to optimise your setup, by getting good components, aligning everything correctly and securing this setup well, especially if you are in a windy location. Also ensure that your connections are clean and suitably protected from water ingress.

Seriously, get your base optimised before you start looking at amplifiers. If you record me whispering to you across a noisy room, you won't be able to make out what I'm saying. Turning up the volume on that recording will make my whispers louder, but you'll also make the ambient room noise louder also.

MikeB4

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#948439 10-Dec-2013 08:19

Does your Dish have a clean sky view, are there any trees, buildings, hills etc impeding view skywards?
Also I would definitely get the installer back to check their work.

tilde

44 posts

Geek

#948738 10-Dec-2013 14:55

B1GGLZ: Sounds like you may have a signal strength problem. Is the dish set up correctly?
I only have Sky via Satellite in Auckland and Freeview Terrestrial UHF. I've only experienced rain fade on a couple of occasions on Sky in the last 3 years and only for a few minutes each time during torrential rainfall.
Why not try switching to Freeview UHF instead (new TV or STB) and get the benefit of HD and no rain fade. The Freeview coverage map indicates Thames is in a "very likely" area.

just following on from this reply, does freeview UHF also suffer from rain fade or atmospheric conditions? i've got a UHF aerial certified for freeviewHD installed by a installer in wellington, and every time the weather goes bad i get static-ky reception. not just rain but even heavy wind and i have checked by looking outside that the UHF aerial is bolted down correctly and isn't moving (a lot).

Spyware

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#948739 10-Dec-2013 15:01

UHF signal is not prone to rain fade. The phenomena generally affects frequencies greater than 8 GHz. So you need to tell us whether you actually have LoS (line of sight) to transmitter.

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Thunderflash

58 posts

Master Geek

#948864 10-Dec-2013 17:55

Everyone above are correct. First of all you need to reset you dish to the satellite. It most likely has moved, it only takes a degree or two of movement and you will lose the signal. Then and only after realigning the dish, you still have issues, look at getting a larger dish, most setups a 60cm dish will work fine even in heavy rain, otherwise a 75 cm dish will be the answer.
Boosters for rain fade are not the answer.

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