Why does Bell TV go off during heavy rain?

  • Thread starter Thread starter rexpac
  • Start date Start date
It's funny you should mention Shaw Direct. I've been with them since May 2005 and I lost signal once in December 2005. We had a weird type of snow fall that was very slushy, and it stuck to the dish. I had to sweep it off. Other than that, even during thunder storms and heavy rain and snow my signal remained fine. I usually get 95% signal on a clear day, so perhaps I have a very strong signal. I came across an article that talks about the difference between Bell and ShawDirect and it was mentioned that Bell uses a signal that falls down to earth on a slight angle. ShawDirect uses some sort of a circular signal that seems to ignore heavy rainfall.

I'm just thinking of switching to Bell due to the terrible PVR that ShawDirect has. I paid over $800 for it in 2005 and could not justify buying another one so soon. However it's been more than 4 years and the frustration of putting up with a crappy PVR is justifying shelling out more money to switch to Bell. I'm hoping that their signal is not lousy as I've become spoiled with a very good signal from ShawDirect. Just like most companies out there, none of them are perfect. Where one excels, the other is flawed. Bell has reduced their prices though, so it puts them more in line with ShawDirect price-wise. It was a smart move on their behalf.
 
It's actually the opposite.
Bell uses CIRCULAR polarity while SD uses LINEAR polarity.
Other slight differences are Bell uses KU High in a DBS transmission and SD uses KU Low in a DTH/FSS transmission.

KU low is 11.7 to 12.2 GHz and KU High is 12.2 to 12.7 GHz
DBS = Direct Broadcast Satellite is quite high powered, hence the original 18" dishes.
DTH=Direct To Home is FSS for Fixed Satellite Service, is lower powered and uses the original 24" dish.

I think the frequency difference is minimal and different bands C, Ku, Ka are all different as the relationship of their wavelength to the water molecule size is variable. Same goes for pine needles and leaves.

Bell TV only uplinks in Toronto, so a major storm there will affect ALL channels.
SD direct uplinks at numerous locations across Canada and North Western U.S., so any local storm ONLY affects a small handful of channels uplinked from that location, so a total outage is highly unlikely.

The main effect on rain fade is polarity.
If the rain is coming down at some angle and the linear polarity is at some other angle, then the effect is minimal if at all.
But a circular polarized signal sees the rain attenuation on there signal where the angles match up, so a small part of every transmission is disturbed.

Of course it didn't help much that until the replacement birds went up, they had been using 2nd hand retired space junk from DirectTV either.

The real solution is simply a larger dish to give better margin.
 
Thanks for the insight Moose. Hey weren't you with StarChoice before? I recall your alias. I spoke to some folks at work who are using Bell and they tell me that their signal rarely ever goes off. That was good to hear because that's what I've experienced with ShawDirect. So I don't think I should notice any difference with the transmission switching over to Bell. I will soon find out. They will be here to hook me up in a couple of days.

I have had some problems getting through to this "verification" process. After you place the order, that's not all - you have to call a toll-free number to verify and confirm your order. Yet the people there don't know what you ordered. They ask for identification such as driver's license and SIN. Who gives out their SIN anymore? Geesh. So I called on my lunch break today, and the guy was hard to understand. I don't know what his mother tongue was, but I know it wasn't English. After taking all of my info, he put me on hold and said he would be right back with a confirmation number that my order has been verified. After 10 minutes I had to be to a meeting so I hung up. Why it would take that long to verify me is crazy. So I just called back 5 minutes ago now that I'm home, and the guy I spoke with said their system is down and asked me to call back in an hour.

I recall how bad the customer service was when I was with them for Bell Mobility. This brings back memories. I just hope to God that I don't have any problems with my PVR or service because the last thing I want to do is spend hours on the phone with people who seem to be spinning in circles.
 
Bell Sat drop out is amazing when compared to Europe. Drop out there was common in what is classed in Europe as "heavy" rain, the same rain in North America would be classed as a light shower. Trees no where near your dish also played havoc. The funny thing was the signal only dropped during the conclusion of close game and never when my wife was watching some kind of "talen" show.
 
I've had Starchoice, Shaw Cable and am now with Telus Satelite TV.

You should be OK in Ottawa.
You are much closer than us out west and at least I think your rains aren't too bad, I could be wrong though.

Good Luck.
 
I had a good test 2 nights ago. It absolutely poured here with thunder and lightening to go along with it. My signal was fine. I checked the signal last night and it was around 92. It was not raining last night, but the signal is strong.

I really love the PVR compared to what I had with ShawDirect. The search by name option with new episodes only is awesome. It's quite nice. My only concern with Bell revolves around billing. I had so much trouble a few years ago with my cell phone. I'm scared to get my bill for this. They tend to always overcharge and it takes forever to get it corrected. I'll have to wait and see.
 
Back
Top