09-02-2010, 02:56 PM
The size of the sat dish is very important as well as the aiming.
If you are near the ocean, rust and salt spray will cause signal degradation problems in a relatively short amount of time.
You cannot just have it installed and forget about it.
Get up there and clean the sat dish and LNB off. Anything that interferes with the signal collection and its' entry into the LNB needs to be dealt with, including bird droppings. I have heard of people putting a light coat of wax on the sat dish to help ward off rust.
Due to Hawaii's position relative to the satellites, rain fade can be an issue, especially if you have trees, etc. partially blocking the view towards the satellites. Think of the angle of the sat dish and how it has to go through the clouds. In Hawaii, that signal has to go almost horizontally through the clouds which further obscures the signals. This is why you have to get the larger sat dishes compared to what you would use on the mainland.
Hawaii also suffers in that somehow, the local installers have been allowed by the providers (Dish and Direct) to charge completely unreasonable fees for the installs. The actual sat dish cost $20 or less which is why if you move or cancel service, no one comes to remove the sat dish. It isn't worth the effort. They are not $200 or more as the installers would have you believe. Coax cable is a couple cents per foot and the cheap connectors are about a dime each. Those connectors that are installed outside are subject to corrosion and may be the cause of signal degradation as well. Replacing them with higher end connectors with gold contacts may be an option for those of you near the ocean. Wrapping the connections with tape or other water proofing is also a good idea.
If you are near the ocean, rust and salt spray will cause signal degradation problems in a relatively short amount of time.
You cannot just have it installed and forget about it.
Get up there and clean the sat dish and LNB off. Anything that interferes with the signal collection and its' entry into the LNB needs to be dealt with, including bird droppings. I have heard of people putting a light coat of wax on the sat dish to help ward off rust.
Due to Hawaii's position relative to the satellites, rain fade can be an issue, especially if you have trees, etc. partially blocking the view towards the satellites. Think of the angle of the sat dish and how it has to go through the clouds. In Hawaii, that signal has to go almost horizontally through the clouds which further obscures the signals. This is why you have to get the larger sat dishes compared to what you would use on the mainland.
Hawaii also suffers in that somehow, the local installers have been allowed by the providers (Dish and Direct) to charge completely unreasonable fees for the installs. The actual sat dish cost $20 or less which is why if you move or cancel service, no one comes to remove the sat dish. It isn't worth the effort. They are not $200 or more as the installers would have you believe. Coax cable is a couple cents per foot and the cheap connectors are about a dime each. Those connectors that are installed outside are subject to corrosion and may be the cause of signal degradation as well. Replacing them with higher end connectors with gold contacts may be an option for those of you near the ocean. Wrapping the connections with tape or other water proofing is also a good idea.