# Which Is Better In Rain or Bad Weather DirecTV (or) Dish Network?



## DBSViewer85 (Aug 9, 2019)

*I know* they *Both* use *different* frequency bands; 
*BUT My Question is:* Which Is Better In Rain 
(or) Bad Weather DirecTV *(or)* Dish Network*?
Has anybody* on these forums had *BOTH Services* 
Over the years; *and if so;* which is more *stable* in* inclement weather?*


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Your location will dictate the amount of rain/snow fade you'll experience.


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## DBSViewer85 (Aug 9, 2019)

MysteryMan said:


> Your location will dictate the amount of rain/snow fade you'll experience.


1.) Why is That?
2.) How does that work?


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Water saturated clouds will block your dish's LOS regardless if it's raining or snowing at your location. If you live at a location that has frequent inclement weather you will experience a higher amount of rain/snow fade than other areas.


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## DBSViewer85 (Aug 9, 2019)

MysteryMan said:


> Water saturated clouds will block your dish's LOS regardless if it's raining or snowing at your location. If you live at a location that has frequent inclement weather you will experience a higher amount of rain/snow fade than other areas.


So that's why the best states for the BEST Satellite TV Signal are ones like Phoenix AZ. (and) Las Vegas NV. Right?


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

DBSViewer85 said:


> So that's why the best states for the BEST Satellite TV Signal are ones like Phoenix AZ. (and) Las Vegas NV. Right?


Best satellite signal, no. Least amount of rain/snow fade most likely.


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## DBSViewer85 (Aug 9, 2019)

MysteryMan said:


> Best satellite signal, no. Least amount of rain/snow fade most likely.


Which of the Lower 48 States in the U.S. Generally has the BEST Satellite T.V. Signal???


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

DBSViewer85 said:


> Which of the Lower 48 States in the U.S. Generally has the BEST Satellite T.V. Signal???


As long as your dish has a unobstructed LOS to the satellites your signal strength will not be affected.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

That being said, southwestern states have the satellites higher in the sky (not on the horizon). Arizona would be a good choice for best. But any state can have a useable signal.


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## NYDutch (Dec 28, 2013)

Which state? I don't think there's any practical answer to that other than selecting states with the least amount of rain or snow. We travel extensively in our motorhome, and rain fade is so rare that we don't even give it a thought. Even when it occurs it's usually only for a few minutes at most. And these days with so many streaming options, it's usually just a few clicks to reach an alternate source for the same programs if necessary.


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## VDP07 (Feb 22, 2006)

To answer the op's original question. I've had both systems simultaneously for several years now. Both are tuned to optimal levels. In my experience, while both may lose signal for short periods during severe downpours, it's not unusual to lose Directv's HD channels long before, or even without losing any DISH channels. OTOH, I've never seen rain fade on DISH when there wasn't also rain fade on DTV. Just my non-scientific observations.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

Another aspect of this is where you are located geographically and the resulting dish aiming angles. Whichever service's satellites are higher in the sky at your location will have a more direct shot to your dish. There will be less signal attenuation from the amount of air and humidity it must go through and less chance of the signal having to pass through a storm cloud.

The closer to straight south your aiming angle is at your location, the higher in the sky the satellite will be.


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## RBA (Apr 14, 2013)

DBSViewer85 said:


> Which of the Lower 48 States in the U.S. Generally has the BEST Satellite T.V. Signal???


contact your local meteorologist and find out your precipitation forecast for each month.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

DBSViewer85 said:


> *I know* they *Both* use *different* frequency bands;
> *BUT My Question is:* Which Is Better In Rain
> (or) Bad Weather DirecTV *(or)* Dish Network*?
> Has anybody* on these forums had *BOTH Services*
> Over the years; *and if so;* which is more *stable* in* inclement weather?*


I have DTV and my neighbor right across the street, 200 feet away, has Dish HD service.
Our signals go out at technically the same time when it rains between us and the satellites.
Only a couple of minutes difference each time.

It also depends on which channel you are on. Depending on where the rain is, channels on 99 might be on while channels 103 satellite might already be off.
Lots of times there is a difference between my TV and my sons being on or off because of which satellite we are each using.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

jimmie57 said:


> I have DTV and my neighbor right across the street, 200 feet away, had Dish HD service.
> Out signals go out at technically the same time when it rains between us and the satellites.
> Only a couple of minutes difference each time.
> 
> ...


Best answer, as usual.

Rich


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## CTJon (Feb 5, 2007)

I live in Maine and I find that because the signal is so low on horizon and thus dish is almost vertical snow tends to slide off rather than stick to dish.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

back years ago, I saw a map that indicated that Dish had centered their aiming from the satellites on NC - (you could get reception with a 12 inch dish in ideal weather conditions !) But that was probably only for 119 and 110. 

Losing reception - I can't say about DirectTV - I've never had it. OTOH - I have lots of experiance on Dish, both main arcs (Eastern (61.5, 72.7, and 77) and Western (110,119,and 129)). With a properly aimed dish and cables in good condition - Loss of Signal doesn't happen very often - and when it does - you usually have more important things to think about (like - where am I going for tornado / severe thunderstorm protection). This is exactly why I always try to have alternate means of getting local news stations (OTA antenna since I mastered that).
Frequencies for the two services - the basic download range was the same for both DBS providers - back in the early days, you could actually have both systems working together. (Directtv had service on 101 and 119, with a couple of 110 , DIsh was 119 and 110). Today - well , Dish is mostly on Eastern / Western Arcs, but they also have 118.


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## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

All else being equal, Dish uses Ku which is less affected by rain than the Ka Directv uses for HD. However, Dish uses a higher order modulation to squeeze more bits out of their Ku transponders than Directv does, which reduces that difference somewhat. So Directv's Ku should be a little more resistant to rain fade than Dish, but that difference is smaller than the difference between Dish's Ku and Directv's Ka.

That difference between Dish's Ku and Directv's Ku doesn't matter much today since Directv is currently using their Ku for MPEG2 SD, but when they retire MPEG2 and use 101 for HD channels, Directv will be a bit more resistant to rain fade than Dish for those channels channels that get moved to 101 - but less on the rest, so it'll be pretty much a wash.


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## Kuclas (Aug 12, 2019)

Shockingly. My directv (Florida) in Orlando area survived Hurricane Irma (2017) when it passed through as a category 2. All my pool screens were blown away. A big tree fell down in front of my house. But we never lost power (power lines under ground) and satellite never went down. It was amazing. 

But we lost satellite signal during hurricanes Matthew (2016). And lost satellite signal various times for thunderstorms. 

So go figure. A major hurricane we never lost signal or power.


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## makaiguy (Sep 24, 2007)

Kuclas said:


> So go figure. A major hurricane we never lost signal or power.


What matters for satellite reception is the weather between you and the satellite that can block the signal from the bird . From Florida the DTV satellites are roughly to your southwest. The heavy rain with hurricanes is typically in the northeast quadrant so depending on where you are in relation to the hurricane if the heavy storm is not to your southwest it would not be unusual for your satellite to be unaffected.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

makaiguy said:


> What matters for satellite reception is the weather between you and the satellite


half true...
there was an issues when heavy clouds/thunderstorms disrupted uplink signal !


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

P Smith said:


> half true...
> there was an issues when heavy clouds/thunderstorms disrupted uplink signal !


The question here is DIRECTV or Dish for home reception and which is better.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

trh said:


> The question here is DIRECTV or Dish for home reception and which is better.


Some people are like puppies. First you have to show them the stick before you can through it.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

some people think they are the know everything and cannot withstand if they are not


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## DBSViewer85 (Aug 9, 2019)

NYDutch said:


> Which state?


I'm in Michigan.


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## mke (Sep 9, 2015)

I have both dish and dtv dish might be slightly better in rain. I didnt loose reception during a hurricane with dish




Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk


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## krel (Mar 20, 2013)

from living back east back in the late 90's going through the winter storms it never went down. our local cable co went down more than DTV did. there was a couple of times we had a bad storm the power went out and the genset kicked in and we were back up and running watching DTV while all of the neighbors were without cable..
had DTV in 2000 never lost a signal but once it was raining so hard that not even i could see where i was going!! i think there's factors involved like how the dish is pointed and aligned.
to be honest i hear more people out of FL complain about losing signal than any other place


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

krel said:


> had DTV in 2000 never lost a signal but once it was raining so hard that not even i could see where i was going!! i think there's factors involved like how the dish is pointed and aligned.


Back in 2000 (until 2007 or so), DIRECTV was using Ku band for everything. With the advent of their big HD push in 2006, Ka became very important and with that, the issues started to rise.

Rain fade is more of an issue of what's going on in the upper cloudscape than the situation on the ground (especially thunderheads). Dispersion of the beam at high altitudes does a lot more damage to the signal than at lower elevations.


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## tbear853 (3 mo ago)

It's often drawn or shown on a map of satelites like the satelites are just up there over a coast or something, looking near to us even ... but those satelites are nearly 24,000 miles away. The whole of the USA is not so big looking from there, so there's not gonna be big differences state to state in signal strength baring blockage. Imagine a 3" ball at two feet. The whole earth would be an 8" ball at two feet. A big state like Texas would be just over 1/2" wide at two feet away.


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## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

tbear853 said:


> It's often drawn or shown on a map of satelites like the satelites are just up there over a coast or something, looking near to us even ... but those satelites are nearly 24,000 miles away. The whole of the USA is not so big looking from there, so there's not gonna be big differences state to state in signal strength baring blockage. Imagine a 3" ball at two feet. The whole earth would be an 8" ball at two feet. A big state like Texas would be just over 1/2" wide at two feet away.



I don't know the story with Dish, but Directv has different power contours for different parts of the US. The strongest signals are in the SE with the very strongest in Florida, the weakest in the SW. Basically where it rains more often and more heavily they get a boost, where it rains less often and lighter, they get less signal than the rest of the US. This is true for both their Ku and Ka signals, as well as their spotbeams (they broadcast at a higher strength in Florida than Nevada)

Contour maps are available that show this in their filings, I don't have them handy at the moment but maybe someone else does.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

slice1900 said:


> Contour maps are available that show this in their filings, I don't have them handy at the moment but maybe someone else does.


Isn't Tom posted it at edgecutter site ?


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## tbear853 (3 mo ago)

Oh ... I know they can "target" areas in general, modulate signal strength too ... I was just dealing with distances, perspectives, etc. 
One degree is 409.1 miles wide after 23,449 miles.


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