# What's the longest you've lost your signal?



## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

I lost my signal at about 6 PM ET Tuesday when we got a blast of snow and ice which covered my dish. Later that night when I was sleeping I lost power which wiped out my guide data. I finally got a signal today around 1 PM when it melted off. Ironically I had just called a satellite service to come clean it off, but I checked when he was en route and I finally got readings again.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

After hurricane Wilma (2005) took me about a day and a half to find my dish (up the street), clear some trees away from my shed door to get to my generator and remount the dish


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

With all the snow we got this winter I only had to clean the dish twice. Lost signal for several minutes on HD channels last month due to solar flareups.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

In my +10 years, I don't think I've ever lost signal for more than 30 minutes (and maybe 15 minutes).


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## Grydlok (Mar 31, 2007)

Define lost signal?

Loose everything or just some things, because I may only loose high def programming never SD


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

10 minutes..


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

Grydlok said:


> Define lost signal?
> 
> Loose everything or just some things, because I may only loose high def programming never SD


I was getting 0 readings on almost every transponder.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

In about 14-15 years as a customer...the rare cases of a signal outage have never exceeded 15-20 minutes, regardless of the reason. Even then, those handful of cases occurred during the midst of a terrible lightening and thunderstorm.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

Not counting power outages, I think the longest I've lost signal is 15 minutes. It could have been longer if it weren't for my dish being mounted where I could reach it to remove the wet sticky snow. Normally, I remove the snow more quickly, but I was watching a recording and didn't notice the signal loss.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

What's best to repel rain/snow/ice? I've heard Rain-ex and Pam are good, anything else?


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Coca Cola Kid said:


> What's best to repel rain/snow/ice? I've heard Rain-ex and Pam are good, anything else?


Dont use Pam. It will turn the dish black and every particle of pollen will stick to it. Rain-X will help keep ice off of it. Rain doesnt matter, only snow and ice.


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## maartena (Nov 1, 2010)

The poll does not have a "Never" option.

I have had the service since October 2010, and I have not once, not for a second (at least not while I was watching, or while a recording took place that I watched later) had a loss of signal.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

maartena said:


> *The poll does not have a "Never" option.*
> 
> I have had the service since October 2010, and I have not once, not for a second (at least not while I was watching, or while a recording took place that I watched later) had a loss of signal.


Then don't vote I guess.

Must be fun living on the moon, the no atmosphere and all.


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## maartena (Nov 1, 2010)

Coca Cola Kid said:


> What's best to repel rain/snow/ice? I've heard Rain-ex and Pam are good, anything else?


An electric dish warmer element. Doesn't do much for the rain of course, but it is the best way to keep snow and ice off the dish. As it will melt and run off.


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## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

"maartena" said:


> The poll does not have a "Never" option.
> 
> I have had the service since October 2010, and I have not once, not for a second (at least not while I was watching, or while a recording took place that I watched later) had a loss of signal.


+1. Same here.


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## maartena (Nov 1, 2010)

Coca Cola Kid said:


> Then don't vote I guess.
> 
> Must be fun living on the moon, the no atmosphere and all.


Southern California. We had a few rain storms this year, and some Santa Ana winds.... but we don't get any snow or ice. At least, not under 2000 ft.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

I only lose signal during heavy rain, and then only for a few minutes. Happened a bunch this past summer, after not losing signal even once for the ~12 months prior. We'll see how this rain season goes.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

maartena said:


> Southern California. We had a few rain storms this year, and some Santa Ana winds.... but we don't get any snow or ice. At least, not under 2000 ft.


You must not watch much TV. I lose my signal when it rains hard and during thunderstorms. Usually only for 5-10 minutes though.


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## murry27409 (Oct 16, 2007)

Back in January, I lost signal on one of my DVRs (HR22-100, 771A) due to extreme cold. (SWM LNB) That lasted several hours, until the temps rose above ~7-8 deg F. 
My other DVR was unaffected. 

Aside from that, almost all outages usually last a few minutes due to heavy precip.


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## maartena (Nov 1, 2010)

Coca Cola Kid said:


> You must not watch much TV. I lose my signal when it rains hard and during thunderstorms. Usually only for 5-10 minutes though.


My wife is homebound (somewhat handicapped) and watches TV for at least 4 or 5 hours during the day time.... or has it on in the background. We usually watch TV for about 2 hours on a given night.... sometimes we watch 4 hours...

I'd say we watch a decent amount of TV. Ducks games now, Angels games in the summer. We also record a lot and watch things from the previous night during dinner.

Yeah, we're couch potatoes, at least during the week. In the weekend I am usually way too busy around the house doing stuff.

We have had a fair share of rain this winter, and did not lose a signal once during any rain. Southern California must be getting a stronger signal or something.


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## NR4P (Jan 16, 2007)

Big summer storms, max 10-15 mins. 
But often, every few days in the summer.


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## ciurca (Apr 14, 2009)

Here and there for up to 10 minutes but once during a monster nor'easter 101 was out for hours. The south and Gulf might fear the hurricane but Maryland to Maine fears the Nor'easter.

Sent from my DROIDX using DBSTalk


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## Grydlok (Mar 31, 2007)

Coca Cola Kid said:


> I was getting 0 readings on almost every transponder.


Not good, I drop my HD channels in real bad weather which includes snow, ice and high wind. 
I going to hate when I sell my house and move because I don't think I will ever get this type of balance again.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

Grydlok said:


> Not good, I drop my HD channels in real bad weather which includes snow, ice and high wind.
> I going to hate when I sell my house and move because I don't think I will ever get this type of balance again.


Yeah it really sucked. Good thing I have an antenna so I could at least watch OTA channels.


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## prestone683 (Aug 16, 2010)

Never. Self-installed in April '10. SWM-3 to 3 HD-DVRs, 1 HD (7 tuners). And with 3 DVRs, we'd know if it was out. Someone is _always_ watching TV...


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## TDK1044 (Apr 8, 2010)

About 10 minutes during a heavy storm.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

When I had the SWM-LNB that was susceptible to the cold, I lost signal for 6-8 hours a couple of times.

Besides that hardware glitch I’ve never lost signal for more than 10-20 minutes.

Mike


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

The longest I have ever lost signal was during a sever thunderstorm, I remember not having signal for close to 30 minutes off and on. I have been a DirecTV customer since '02. This storm dropped almost 7" of rain in a day.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

Scott Kocourek said:


> The longest I have ever lost signal was during a sever thunderstorm, I remember not having signal for close to 30 minutes off and on. I have been a DirecTV customer since '02. This storm dropped almost 7" of rain in a day.


I had two situations with significant loss of signal but they were hardware related (SWiM-LNB & bad alignment).

As far as weather goes, here in CT it's been a pretty rare phenomenon. Since 2002 I've had a bit of snow build up in the dish twice so it was out until I brushed off the dish. Other than that it's just been the occasional heavy rain storm and only for ten minutes or so.

It always seems to be rain storms. I've never lost signal during a snow storm. I wonder if that's just coincidence or it there's something different about snow... I'm thinkin' coincidence. 

Mike


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

I rarely loose signal here in SW Washington. The rain never seems to get heavy enough to knock out the signal (it just never seems to let up in the winter :lol.

A couple times during the winter, the snow is wet enough to knock out CONUS HD but locals usually come through. Freezing rain is the worse. It's really hard to broom that off... gotta use a bucket of warm water.


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## JeffBowser (Dec 21, 2006)

:lol: I took the reflector off mine, just put it back on afterwards, but I was down for the entire time I had the reflector stowed away in the house.



davring said:


> After hurricane Wilma (2005) took me about a day and a half to find my dish (up the street), clear some trees away from my shed door to get to my generator and remount the dish


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

For those in northern areas, I would always recommend having your dish installed near a window or near grade, if at all possible. I say this because when snow or ice accumulates on it, you can easily clean/scrape it off. A 2nd level or roof mounted dish makes it tough to get to safely.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

n3ntj said:


> For those in northern areas, I would always recommend having your dish installed near a window or near grade, if at all possible. I say this because when snow or ice accumulates on it, you can easily clean/scrape it off. A 2nd level or roof mounted dish makes it tough to get to safely.


I learned that the hard way, mine's on the roof of my 2 story apartment building. I don't have a ladder but if I did it's still pretty hard to reach since it's on a peaked roof. I asked the installer to put it lower but he said I'd get a better signal up there.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

I voted under one hour, but it would be closer to one minute a couple years ago.

Last Sunday with the heavy rain in southern California I got a couple of "searching for signal" messages very briefly but the picture never disappeared on screen.

Of course I don't count power outages, although they don't happen very often either.


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## twiseguy (Jan 31, 2011)

Used to lose HD everytime we had a thunderstorm (NE Ohio). But, after DTV tech guy came out and replaced swm5 with swm3 , I only lose signals due to ice build up (and no sun).

Thanks for the heads up regarding Rain-X. Will try for next year.


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

When I had cable we lost our service for 4 days straight for an unknown problem.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

I only lose signal just long enough until I go out and clean the ice and snow off the dish. About once or twice a snow season the conditions are right to cause this. I consider that a LOS issue not caused by D* and not their problem...I'm sure I'm in the minority here...


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## twiseguy (Jan 31, 2011)

I get calls from my neighbors (they have TWC) all the time asking me why their cable craps out, but the Direct TV doesn`t. 

Reply- "Hey, it`s Time Warner. I`d e-mail you a response, but your RoadRunner isn`t working, either"


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

Less than 5 minutes during monsoon storms.


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## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

I voted between 6 and 12 hours before I got my dish heater.

I bought one of these last September:
http://www.satpro.tv/slimlinehotshotdishheater.aspx

I have not had an outage since. Mine is on the back of the dish. One of the best purchases I have made!


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## Nighthawk68 (Oct 14, 2004)

I can't ever think of time where I lost service for more than 15-20 minutes and I have been with Directv since May 1996. Only in really severe thunderstorms will it go out. And I can say maybe a couple times a year that I need to brush the snow off the dish, and we get alot of snow here, on average 150-180 inches per year. I have never had it give out due to cold, we can go 4-6 weeks at a time during the winter and never see a thaw, the temp regularly drops below 0 F and at times as low as -25 to -35 F

Ed


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## mhking (Oct 28, 2002)

We had a funnel cloud go by about three miles from us , and in the severe storms around that thing, we only lost our signal for about 30-45 minutes -- and that was in the heaviest of the storms...


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## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

I lost HD signals for a few hours a couple of years ago due to ice. Otherwise it has only happened 3-4 times in the past 8 years for no more than several minutes (really heavy rain is fairly rare in the NW). 

OTOH, my AT-9 (sidecar) dish lost all signals on 110/119 over a year ago and they never came back (probably the dinky coax connectors). Since I have a SWM5, it didn't affect the guide data and doesn't bother me (I changed the dish selection to SL3 so it passes the system test).


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

In the 10+ years that I've had DirecTV, the only time the signal drops below the point where the receiver gets a picture it is raining so hard my rain gutter is overflowing and in most cases the storm is so severe I unplug all of my DirecTV equipment!!

Snow doesn't seem to bother my signal at all-even the 23" blizzard we had in SE Wisconsin on Feb 2 this year (the worst I've ever seen) didn't affect my DirecTV signal and all recordings made during it were fine.

Remember, however, I don't have HD and I assume the Ka band signal is much more sensitive to rain fade and other things that obstruct the signal, not to mention the dishes that aren't aimed perfectly by "professional installers" whose top priority is how many jobs they do in one day.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

ThomasM said:


> *Remember, however, I don't have HD* and I assume the Ka band signal is much more sensitive to rain fade and other things that obstruct the signal, not to mention the dishes that aren't aimed perfectly by "professional installers" whose top priority is how many jobs they do in one day.


Yup, you don't count anymore Thomas.....:lol:


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Does the week my power was out from the windstorm that killed power to 90% of Cincinnati count? Other than that, about 10 minutes.


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## Hutchinshouse (Sep 28, 2006)

8 years total, less than 10 minutes.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

I was with Comcast for a year. Does that count?


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

spartanstew said:


> In my +10 years, I don't think I've ever lost signal for more than 30 minutes (and maybe 15 minutes).


I'm with you.


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## djrobx (Jan 27, 2009)

I've never lost signal on a local channel, but I've definitely had disruption (771s) in heavy weather on CONUS channels. It's usually short lived. Lost a few minutes of Holmes Inspection last weekend. I also did have a couple minutes of trouble the one time it snowed in 10 years here - I had to go knock snow off the dish.


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## longrider (Apr 21, 2007)

I use DirecTV at work for background music and TVs in the customer waitng area. 10 hrs a day and 5 - 6 days a week and I doubt I have lost signal for more than an hour per year. At home with more normal usage hours of evenings and weekends I lose signal maybe once a year for just a few minutes


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## markfp (Mar 9, 2010)

In 12 years, probably the longest I've loss a signal was about 15 minutes during a really nasty storm some years ago. Otherwise, maybe I get one or two outages a year and those are usually brief like 5 minutes or less.

As I mentioned before, even though I live in one of the snowiest parts of the country (over 14 feet so far this winter) I've never experienced an outage do to snow.


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## SPACEMAKER (Dec 11, 2007)

I think it was out for about 5 hours on a Sunday a couple of years ago due to a large thick clouded storm. Used OTA connected to the HR20 I had to watch the race.


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## secondclaw (Oct 26, 2009)

Though majority have been under 1 hour, we did loose signal for about 3 hours once during a heavy storm in South Florida.


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## HerntDawg (Oct 6, 2008)

It was about 5 min, got out the weed sprayer and warm water.


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## bjlc (Aug 20, 2004)

I have never had snow stick to my dish.. until this year.. first time in 8 years.. so I lost power for just about two or so hours.. plus it takes SO MUCH LONGER for these boxes to reboot and find signal then my old boxes.. before.. if there was signal, the box came on and then did the update for the grids much later ..


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## mikeny (Aug 21, 2006)

I had about 8 and 1/2 good years with DirecTV. However in the last several months, I've lost my signal several times just enough to screw up a prime time recording partially if not completely. 

We've had a lot of severe weather in NY over the past year and perhaps the new position of my non-pen mount is not the most conducive to optimum signal levels. 

I just lost a new 'Modern Family' on Wed for example. I tried to play it back and I got the 'keep or delete prompt'. There was rain/snow at the time.

As much as I've love the DirecTV DVRs, I really think FiOS is in my future.


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## Jimmy 440 (Nov 17, 2007)

in December during our blizzard for 10 minutes.I was shocked.I thought it would have been out for days til the snow melted.10 minutes !!!!


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## gfrang (Aug 30, 2007)

I voted 1-6 hours but it happened only three times in 12 years and one time it was due to snow accumulation on the dish and two times due to vicious rain.


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## lacubs (Sep 12, 2010)

can i vote for a few days? lol its long story


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

lacubs said:


> can i vote for a few days? lol its long story


Vote for over 24 hours. Please share.


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## shedberg (Jan 20, 2007)

Since 1996, I have had only one outage between 1-6 hours - the rest under an hour and usually under 15 minutes. The 1-6 hours was just this year when we had some wet snow we don't usually get.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

Not counting power outages the most I've lost signal for in 12 years is maybe 20 minutes and that was during a pretty heavy downpour.

Longest I've gone without period would have to be about 1 month after Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004.


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## HarleyD (Aug 31, 2006)

The longest I've had a signal drop is for about 25 minutes.

After Hurricane Charlie we were without power for a week, so I was without DirecTV for a week but I'm pretty confident there was a signal...I just couldn't make use of it.

We came through Frances and Jean with only a brief power outage


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## lacubs (Sep 12, 2010)

ok, its all started 2yr ago, you know the sports packages like nhl,mlb,nfl, they wouldn't come on every night and i would reset my box every time a game would come on like ch. 704-2, and because i got (C.P) i had my mom and brother call D* for a week they it and all they would tell us is reset my box. or just watch the SD feed until HD feed comes in, then a weeks later, i wrote a email to a VP at D* told her my story (if you want to that i will post it) and the VP send me a new box and we hook up and the same thing, and now me, my mom, brother are sick with talking with D* and cant understanding mine big problem , so we just let be now like 2 months ago when we would had like rain i would get 727 for like a week and we called and they send a tech a just give me a new box mine 10th box, then my brother moved out and i wanted a DVR and when tech came my mom didn't a new line run to my DVR, so he just took my brother line and ran into my room and never went outside, 2 two days it snow a i got 727 just on my line, so my mom called super mad, and that Saturday 2 tech was here at 8AM and at that time my tv was working and thought they give me more BS but they went outside and saw my line had about 8in hole in it, and that why i lost single for days at time


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## JcT21 (Nov 30, 2004)

very rare i lose signal for more than 1-2 minutes when its weather related. takes longer to get back to live tv after a reboot than it does during a heavy thunderstorm


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## SPACEMAKER (Dec 11, 2007)

I don't consider having snow and/or ice on the dish to be a loss of signal outage because it's something that can be resolved by clearing the dish.


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## mikeny (Aug 21, 2006)

SPACEMAKER said:


> I don't consider having snow and/or ice on the dish to be a loss of signal outage because it's something that can be resolved by clearing the dish.


That's funny Spacemaker but really if you had the signal and then you all of a sudden you have X771 (searching for sat signal), you've lost the signal. If you can bring it back with some intervention, you're lucky that you can restore the signal. I had to do this for the first time with my non-pen mount dish this winter. Any recording during this period will be corrupted.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

Intermittent for up to 30 minutes but that was because I had a tree that when it got wet drooped into my signal path. Otherwise never more than a couple minutes while a big storm front moved in.


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## Laker44 (Jun 18, 2008)

About 2 years ago ago, I lost signals for about 2 weeks do to snow and ice. The dish was mounted far back on the roof and no way of getting to it too clear it off. Other then that I only would lose signals briefly when it rained.


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## kevinwmsn (Aug 19, 2006)

Mine has went several times over 1 hour when the PI to the Dish went out. Still is pretty sad when they need to send a tech out when the light on it isn't green. For as other events, I have other bad thunderstorms where it is has been out an hour on HD, maybe 10 mins on SD. It has messed up a few recordings, but also my OTA recordings on mythtv box had a few issues too.

It would be nice if way down the line when everything is transitioned off mpeg2, that they would put HD on Ku instead of Ka.


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

1. Three days in an ice storm (it does count, it's not always resolvable)
2. Two hours before power went out, Hurricane Fran.
3. Typically 30 minutes in a southern thunderstorm.
4. Typically 10 minutes in a northern thunderstorm.
5. Once in a great while, 15 minutes or so due to a snowstorm.

The upside of the hurricane is that cable TV was out for a month, but my satellite was working the next day once power was restored.


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

It's snowing again and no signal. If this keeps up I might look into getting cable again.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

"Coca Cola Kid" said:


> It's snowing again and no signal. If this keeps up I might look into getting cable again.


That must be some snow or is the dish getting caked? Maybe a heater on it or moving it?


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## Coca Cola Kid (Jul 19, 2009)

tonyd79 said:


> That must be some snow or is the dish getting caked? Maybe a heater on it or moving it?


The snow turned to rain and my signal is back. I missed most of the Tigers game though (7 homers!).


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## xmguy (Mar 27, 2008)

When it storms (like it is now, ironically) HD usually go out for a bit. SD stay in unless it's very bad. HD can be a hour. SD 10 mins or less.


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## Dr_J (Apr 15, 2007)

SD never more than a few minutes. HD can be longer, as long as 30 minutes. Interestingly, I can still get a HD picture with signal strength in the 20's and 30's, but it does tend to go out more than SD. Once, when heavy, wet snow stuck to the dish, I completely lost the HD signal on a program I was recording for over an hour and didn't realize it and recorded a black screen. The SD signal was unaffected. From now on, if I suspect bad weather and I'm recording something important, I'll record it on both SD and HD.


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