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Snow, Freeview & Freesat |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 2,258
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Snow, Freeview & Freesat
Snow, Freeview & Freesat
During the heavy Snow all day Thursday, my Freeview reception, which is pants at the best of time, was none existent. (We are in a valley fed from a remote slave transmitter) My recently purchased Humax HDR-1000 Freesat PVR was excellent though, no Snow reception problems at all. I used to have SKY+HD Stopped that, I needed to use extra 2 PVR's to record stuff. (Single HD Tuners) Freesat, now ditched those 2 PVR's |
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#2 |
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Wickford, Essex, England,UK,GB
Posts: 1,820
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Old sky dishes were very bad with snow and rain and I had phone many time to get a refund on a film ..... but with the smaller and dish move from 19 to 28 made for better and less troubles along with move to digital.
But no longer with Sky but do have freesat and I find it is more likely to go blocky then freeview does in bad weathers.... Freeview I would add that power from main transmitters are lower then old systems and I feel that does not help if you on the digital edge were any movement or blocking of signal will be worst .... also has not been of help that local channel mux are set lower power and too com 7 with HD & SD channels. Virgin has troubles from weathers too with cable pits filling with water and mud and even ants nests along with other service digging into the cables... As we are going to get more weathers that beat records as greenhouse gases are pumped into air, we are going to have be ready to have more break up of all signals and services....sadly |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 5,007
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Quote:
Freeview I would add that power from main transmitters are lower then old systems |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Wickford, Essex, England,UK,GB
Posts: 1,820
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Quote:
Not so. It is measured in a different way.
Digital signal is powered by electricity that is measured in Kw ( kilowatt) |
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,887
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Quote:
A kilowatt is a kilowatt so when London transmitter was 2000kw per channel ( 1, 2, ITV, C4 Ch5 ) before DSO and now 200kw for main six muxes
Digital signal is powered by electricity that is measured in Kw ( kilowatt) |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 21
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Just a note to say, you can get the Sky "Zone 2" larger 60-ish cm dish from eBay including twin and sometimes quad, LNB, for not much more than £20.
These are designed for use in Scotland (and the fringes of the 28.2 signal) and work really well everywhere. Anyone who is getting rain/snow breakup, with a properly alligned dish and decent cable, this is a cheap, and very simple, worthwhile upgrade/fix. I'm putting one up myself, to get rid of the very occasional heavy rain storm break up, even though I'm only just North of London. HTH! Matt
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,288
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Quote:
Just a note to say, you can get the Sky "Zone 2" larger 60-ish cm dish from eBay including twin and sometimes quad, LNB, for not much more than £20.
These are designed for use in Scotland (and the fringes of the 28.2 signal) and work really well everywhere. Anyone who is getting rain/snow breakup, with a properly alligned dish and decent cable, this is a cheap, and very simple, worthwhile upgrade/fix. I'm putting one up myself, to get rid of the very occasional heavy rain storm break up, even though I'm only just North of London. HTH! Matt ![]() . As dish is only 6ft off the ground a broom sorted it out very quickly.
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,779
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Quote:
A kilowatt is a kilowatt so when London transmitter was 2000kw per channel ( 1, 2, ITV, C4 Ch5 ) before DSO and now 200kw for main six muxes
Digital signal is powered by electricity that is measured in Kw ( kilowatt) |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 430
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38cm Zone 1 minidishes are crap across a good part of the UK and the baulk out at the weaker Eutelsat28A channels in heavy rain as well. A 60cm dish is far better for Freesat and Sky reception across the UK;SES Astra recommend at least a 50cm dish across the UK for trouble-free reception of their services from satellite.
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#10 |
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: A small Greek island
Posts: 3,651
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Quote:
Just a note to say, you can get the Sky "Zone 2" larger 60-ish cm dish from eBay
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Easternmost England
Posts: 1,120
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Snow rarely affects terrestrial signal reception.
Assuming it is not an issue of water / ice forming in the connections of the receiving aerial / cabling, then it's likely to be caused by reflections off the icy/snow-covered surfaces destructively interfering with the direct signal to the aerial. As the OP says reception is "pants" normally this indicates a better aerial installation (higher gain with masthead amplification) may be required OR that - due to location - they are receiving from a fringe area and may be technically unserved by any terrestrial transmitter and so will suffer from such weather variation as a result. It's also possible that the "slave" or Relay Transmitter was faulty (mains losses to small sites in the severe weather - including snow - is fairly common). A check on the transmitter checker at http://www.radioandtvhelp.co.uk/interference would confirm that. ALL DTT sites now how some form of monitoring that Arqiva collate. |
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,779
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Quote:
Snow rarely affects terrestrial signal reception.
![]() But snow certainly affects terrestrial, just to a lesser degree than satellite - due to the higher frequencies used for satellite. For the same reason terrestrial signals on lower channels are affected less than those on higher channels - although the difference is less now, with the reallocation of the high channels to make room for 4G. |
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#13 |
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Storbritannia
Posts: 28,916
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Quote:
Snow 'rarely' affects satellite either
![]() But snow certainly affects terrestrial, just to a lesser degree than satellite - due to the higher frequencies used for satellite. For the same reason terrestrial signals on lower channels are affected less than those on higher channels - although the difference is less now, with the reallocation of the high channels to make room for 4G. |
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,779
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Quote:
I've never experienced a snow issue with my satellite feed.
![]() The atmosphere full of heavy falling snow can affect it (in a similar way to heavy rain), but more likely is the dish getting covered in snow - so it's important to have your dish where you can access it with a brush or similar For that reason (as well as plenty of others) it's a BAD idea to fit dishes on chimneys.
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,288
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Quote:
Presumably you don't live in an area where it's prone to heavy snow then
![]() The atmosphere full of heavy falling snow can affect it (in a similar way to heavy rain), but more likely is the dish getting covered in snow - so it's important to have your dish where you can access it with a brush or similar For that reason (as well as plenty of others) it's a BAD idea to fit dishes on chimneys. |
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,779
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Quote:
Since 2008 I have lost my signal once, and that was down to about 6" of Snow on the dishface.
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#17 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
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Quote:
Which is why you want the dish where you can clear it off
![]() I have had snow on the lnb but that didn;'t affect any of the channels I was watching. It might have affected the weaker channels on Pan European beams though. |
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#18 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 14,633
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Quote:
For that reason (as well as plenty of others) it's a BAD idea to fit dishes on chimneys.
Other more snowy countries go for dish heaters. Not really necessary for us in most circumstances of course |
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#19 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,288
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Quote:
What if you're in a situation where height is the only way to get a signal at all?
Other more snowy countries go for dish heaters. Not really necessary for us in most circumstances of course |
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,779
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I wouldn't say 'very' rare - and depending on the exact location it might be EXTREMELY common for that area - in fact I noticed just that fact the other day while sat in traffic
![]() There was even two dishes mounted on a cliff face, with cat wires over the road I was sat on. Just checked on street view ![]() https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=53...2,30,,1,-20.38 |
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,288
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Quote:
I wouldn't say 'very' rare - and depending on the exact location it might be EXTREMELY common for that area - in fact I noticed just that fact the other day while sat in traffic
![]() There was even two dishes mounted on a cliff face, with cat wires over the road I was sat on. Just checked on street view ![]() https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=53...2,30,,1,-20.38 |
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Sussex coast
Posts: 329
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[quote=grahamlthompson;77393781] As will anyone with a roof mounted fish not being able to mount it lower.
Isn't this cruel to fish? |
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. As dish is only 6ft off the ground a broom sorted it out very quickly.