Satellite TV - Rain Effect

I know that ku band (high frequency, 11~12 GHz) are much affected than low frequency because of their dispersion from weather disruption (affected by the elements in the atmosphere). But how rain really affect the Satellite radio signal?, I've gathered some info on the rain/snow issue on our satellite TV (just to have a clearer understanding). The term used for this is Rain Fade, rain fade is the result of disturbance of the rain to our radio signal. There are 3 areas that rain fade may occur:

1. from our broadcast station to the satellite.
2. from the satellite to our satellite dish.
3. and from rain/snow in the satellite dish itself.

The effect of rain fade can be simply explain if we take the properties of water (somewhat like a soft crystal / mirror or glass), it doesn't totally deflect the signal but it somehow alters it through its absorption properties. It can absorb some signal (some are wash away by rain) other get deflected.
It also can scatter the radio signal, an example of this (analogy of mine) is when you play around with a flashlight and face it on a wall, you can make the light reflection much bigger on a longer distance (the light is scattered once it pass by the glass), same goes with the our radio signal when passes a rain, it is being scattered. At least we now have an idea everytime it rain and Satellite TV signal is no good, we can just imagine the rain fade effect.

SatelliteTV splitting

I once wonder if my satelliteTV setup can be used in multiple TV sets, although currently I only own a single TV, it just cross my mind. I did saw some residential house near mine who has an installation of 2 satellite dish, that set-up could be for 2 TV sets, but hey! a single dish will do fine.
If you ever tried to split the coaxial cable for a cable TV for 2 TV, it is different from the satellite TV setup because we have a Receiver that needs to decode the signals. I've read in some forum that they were able to use one receiver for 2 TV's, the catch for this set-up is that both TV will have the same channel or program since they are controlled by a single receiver (I haven't try this one), at least you can leave your couch and still watch the same channel on your kitchen or bedroom and be back again without missing any portion of the shows (if it is ON). There are two ways in having a this done but you need an extra cash on this, because thre will be some modification on the set-up.
One is to have 2 receivers for 2 TV with a single coaxial cable from single LNB, this means we have to use a splitter for the receivers (this one I've already tried with my friends' receiver and a portable TV), this works just fine and different channels for both TV is viewed, I just don't know yet the pros and cons of this set-up because It is advised by some expert (this is the second one) that rather than splitting the coaxial it is best to buy a dual LNB (can connect 2 coaxial cables) for 2 receivers you will have the same result as of the first with minimal problem I guess (cause from my experience splitting coaxial cable, smells trouble). And because it is more of an advantage for a multiple TV set, cause aside from a dual LNB, there's also a quad (4) and Octa (8) available LNB (there's still some that I don't know of) , of course you have to match this with the receiver on how many TV you want. Well maybe I'll do this in the future if I'll be able to buy another TV.

RG6 coaxial cable

I've checked on RG6 or coaxial cable by common terms (although nowadays it is simply called coax), obviously its variety are most commonly used in cable tv (mostly familiar), you must have seen it but never bothers.

RG6 term origin is from a long forgotten military spec which means radio guide and the numbers they say are picked in random (hmmm, I guess it is used to identify other coaxial cable from one another). RG6 coaxial cables main design are cables with 18 AWG (american wire gauge) center conductor and 75 ohm characteristic impedance (pretty technical huh!).

Its physical appearance (if you keenly observe it) has a center conductor, with a shield, the dielectric keeping the two apart, and an outer jacket wrapping (from the material being used in RG6, this is where its variety differs). Its main function (as we all hope it would be doing) is to transfer video signals from one piece of equipment to another with less cable loss, In the case of a satellite TV it is from LNB to our Receiver/s.

According to expert, RG6 coaxial cable are suited for a satellite TV set up, main reason for this is the shielding design which maintains the signal levels inside the center conductor even on a long cable run and appropriate for high frequency radio signals.

Frustrated on Satellite TV

It's not that he is unable to set up his Satellite TV for its been 2 years of being used, he's frustrated that its not getting any signal anymore and don't know what suddenly went wrong.

This is the plight of my office mate who has the same Satellite TV set up as mine, I mean very same dish size, LNB and receiver model. Through our conversation on our coffee break (smoking break for us) that we get to know each others satellite set up, although he's been using it longer than I am.
From his description, one night upon turning on the TV, he's not able to get any signal. He check the signal strength on the receiver and was amazed on the signal behavior, normally its value would fluctuate from a value of 55 to 60 but now its range is from 0 to 60, just like an offbeat equalizer. I accommodate him to a retailer in manila, we brought the LNB and the receiver since we think is the only possible device that might be not working properly.

Onto the retailer, we thought that the they must have some device in checking the LNB and Receiver for their analysis of the problem, since they offer repair services. To my surprise, the method is trial and error. They have a fully functioning set up of satellite TV, and what they do is replace each part of what we brought on the functioning set up and check which failed. Well, from the trial it seems that the LNB is still good but the receiver is not. The software is not the issue but the hardware (so they say), they are not sure if they can fix it, my office mate just bought a new receiver with a good discount.

Our initial assessment of the failure would be overused of the receiver cause my office mate said that he normally forgets to turn it off even if the TV is not in used (a possible 24/7 workout, whew!). That's one lesson for our Satellite TV 101, taking care of the receiver means, turning it off when not in used (its pretty basic!).

Rock band

Nope! I don't mean a group of musicians. but Yes! the band the we received in Satellite TV (Free-to Air) rocks! I was wondering on the significant effect the difference the two band that satellite TV transmits.

A C band (3~4 GHz) low frequency and Ku band (11~12 GHz) high frequency. A simple analogy that I read for this is using a celphone, if you recall older celphones use to have an visible antenna attached to it (if you don't, they have!), the new ones don't (well they do but not visible). same as the band, C band are somewhat old (original for communication) but still remains and the dish requirement are much bigger since the coverage of area are much wider.Ku band requires much less dish size and designed primarily for SatelliteTV, the coverage area are smaller.

To sum it up, the higher the frequency the less Dish size is required (that's good)but oless area of coverage also. The next difference is the weather effect (ex. heavy rains/dense clouds) on both bands, Ku band might have fade or lost signal while C band can still have a good signal on heavy rains. The Explanation for this is the dispersion, since C band has a wider footprint (coverage) dispersion are wide but for ku band dispersion are smaller or concentrated which makes them susceptible to weather disruption.

That's their major differences, they still do have something in common - the Azimuth and Elevation angle is the same for both C and Ku band on how to set up of a satellite dish,(considering you're in the same spot and targeting a single satellite). Well I somehow got the idea. Not to worry since majority of receiver are C and Ku band integrated, also LNB are with C and Ku band set-up it thats the case you should be getting both. I think I only utilizes the Ku band.

The Signal

For me the signal is the most important factor in Satellite TV, what's the used if you can't get any. Shoot the dish plate and it'll probably bounce back to you (word of reminder: please don't try this at home. LOL!).

The signal I'm talking about is the one we get from the satellite. There are actually 2 significant band in this Satellite TV topic that always comes up when researching. Its the C and ku band, the explanation for this is very much technical, but there's always a way for us to understand it. Basically, the main difference is the range of frequency, C band (3~4 GHz) and Ku band (11~12 GHz), whoahh!!. I'll try get much info on this before my head spin.

Where does the signal came from? 100% sure not from aliens (or could it be from them - hidden messages, hhmmm?). In reality it not from space (i mean the signals), the origin of the signals are (yes my friend!) from Earth, to be more specific from a broadcast center. They are the ones responsible in transmitting or broadcasting a programming source signals to the satellite (they use a powerful type of satellite dish) and the receiving satellite then distributes or rebroadcast them to back to earth. This is where our satellite dish comes to work, it catches the signal then you watch your TV with your favorite program.

Agila 2 "birds eye view"

Courtesy of satbeams.com, I'm able to at visualize the location of Agila 2. As long as Agila 2 moves with the same speed as the Earth revolves, the satellite will be appearing stationary in the sky they call it Geostationary (that's COOL!).
Judging from the view, we can fairly state that depending upon where you are compared to where the satellite is at, the direction and angles differs.