I Hate My Dome

[BCook57]

I spent a bunch of money on my Winegard In-Motion dome, and it is rendered useless by the morning dew or the slightest rain shower. Why doesn't the industry have the courtesy to tell the consumer about the issue before the purchase and installation? Really frustrating.

The only channel we get after the rain, or in the morning, is the channel it was on when last used.

What a crummy system! I'm sure it is not just Winegard, but any dome, right?

[BCook57]

I spent a bunch of money on my Winegard In-Motion dome, and it is rendered useless by the morning dew or the slightest rain shower. Why doesn't the industry have the courtesy to tell the consumer about the issue before the purchase and installation? Really frustrating.

The only channel we get after the rain, or in the morning, is the channel it was on when last used.

What a crummy system! I'm sure it is not just Winegard, but any dome, right?

[Harry B]

I have an other brand in-motion satellite dish and it works reasonable well in the south of the country but when you get in the northern part of the country, you are right they don't work that well. This is due to 2 issues. One is that the dish it self is smaller than the open faced dishes reducing signal strength and the other is the dome it self will reduce the signal as well. When the dome gets wet it further reduces the signal. Treating the dome helps some but I have not been impressed.

I live in Florida and have very few problems here but when we were up in Washington State it did not work that well at all. I had pretty much the same comments at that time. We are heading in that direction again so I am sure I will get back to some choice words and the same opinion you just stated.

I know that my next satellite dish will not be a dome again. What they do well is receive while in-motion other than that the advantage is definitely in favor of open faced satellite dishes.

What is really becoming an issue is the HD reception from DirecTV has changed to a KA satellite which none of the domed dishes are able to receive, yet they are still being sold to people without this being clarified. Another got-you.

[Bill Adams]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The only channel we get after the rain, or in the morning, is the channel it was on when last used. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's an odd situation. If dew/rain is blocking the signal, it should block them all and not just the one channel you last watched. Sometimes you will only get certain transponders (the really strong ones) but not just one channel.
Yes, domes don't do as well in rain/dew as the open dishes do and if you spend any amount of time in the NW you certainly don't want to own a dome.
FL, during the rainy season can be just as bad and the morning dew is worse than rain. The Winegard Movin' View had the largest reflectors of any of the domes and should work quite well in FL. The new Road Trip antenna is reduced in size back to about the size of all the others.
If you don't need in-motion, the future of satellite TV reception is the open face dish but your dome should work "pretty well" down there in FL. Have you checked the various transponder strengths to see if you have any reasonable amount of signal on some of your transponders?

[Olive]

I have a Winegard In-motion dome that also works reasonably well. I am currently in northern IA near the MN line and the only time I lost the signal was during a couple of thunderstorms. Even then I had a signal during most of the "weather". You should have the dish checked out. I am certainly no expert on sat dishes (I'll leave that to Bill), but from my experience and those of people I know, it sounds like you might have a problem.

[BCook57]

Thanks for the suggestions. Bill, I'll check the transponders some morning when the dew is heavy and see what I get. It seems that there may be other channels available, but I don't know which channels come from which transponders.

Right now I'm in Michigan for the summer. When it works, it works well, other than an issue with how the remote works sometimes, but that's another story.

Anyway, I'll also have it checked out when I have a chance. Thanks again.

[BCook57]

Bill, I checked the transponders this morning and it showed that I get a signal from 11 of the 32 with morning dew on the dome. I also checked a few other channels and did receive a few - must be ones that are coincidentally on one of the transponders that the dome could see.

Still frustrating, and I assume there is no fix, such as a small "windshield wiper" to attach to the done! Too bad.

Any other suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

[Bill Adams]

Bob,
You might also want to see what kind of signal strengths you are seeing, both when wet and dry. You did not say whether you are using Dish Network or DirecTV but that could be one difference. When dry your signal should be quite high (DirecTV, 90+ and Dish Network over 100) when dry. We were surprised when we were in FL that it worked even with the dew but only because the signal was so strong. If you are not seeing such good numbers you may have a problem with your antenna.

[BCook57]

Bill, I'll check signal strength tomorrow morning when the dew is up. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Clay L]

One other thing to check is to see if the batwing antenna is occluding the dome. It can decrease the overall signal level if it happens to be up and between the satellite and the dome. Then the dew can further reduce the signal causing dropout.

Happened to a friend of mine.

[LindaH]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bill Adams:
if you spend any amount of time in the NW you certainly don't want to own a dome. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I don't understand this statement. We have a Winegard Movin' View dome (stationary) and we spend a lot of time in the Pacific NW...Oregon and Washington, and have yet to have a problem using the dome.

We don't turn our TV on in the morning...it usually doesn't come on until 2 or 3 PM, so I don't know about dew, but we don't often have a problem with rain unless it's a heavy storm where the main brunt of the storm is passing between the dome and the satellite.

[Bill Adams]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I don't understand this statement. We have a Winegard Movin' View dome (stationary) and we spend a lot of time in the Pacific NW...Oregon and Washington, and have yet to have a problem using the dome. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
As I said earlier, the old Winegard Movin' View (no longer made) had a big dish inside and works better than most. However, if you spend any time (other than Summer) in the NW the mist and rain on nearly a daily basis can drive most dome owners crazy.

[dieselclacker]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bill Adams:
As I said earlier, the old Winegard Movin' View (no longer made) had a big dish inside and works better than most. However, if you spend any time (other than Summer) in the NW the mist and rain on nearly a daily basis can drive most dome owners crazy.


Bill you are right on in the above statement. I have a Movin Vu stationary dome, and spent the majority or June of this year in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. We had almost daily drizzle and the reception for Directv thru the dome was really bad. A couple of times I climbed on the roof of the motor home and dryed the dome with a bathtowel in order to watch a favorite TV show. Well--it was my wifes favorite TV show, but you know how that is.


Dieselclacker

[Bill Adams]

It appears no matter what I say here I can't win! Does it rain in the NW, yes. Does rain cause a problem with a dome, yes. Is it usually fairly dry in the NW in the Summer, yes. Did it rain where you were in the NW during the Summer, apparently! Did someone else spend time in the NW without "any" problems, also, apparently. I spent 3 Summers there (2005, 2006, 2007) and we saw less than 7 days of rain from June 1 to Sept. 30th. I guess it depends upon where you were. We were in the dry places!