Sat dishes vs snow (was "Re: [BC] KFI Tower replacement ?")

[Dennis Cope]

When you find something let me know.  Where I work we have dishes from 85'
to 40' and so far everything, except heaters,, don't work.

I have seen over a foot of snow in one of the 40' dishes, as long as it's
dry no problems, as soon as it starts to warm up, we can watch the signal
disappear in the noise.

Sooo, when the dry snow gets about 4 or so inches we get out the basket
truck and I sweep the dishes (try sweeping a 60' dish, it's work), you think
you have problems... And as our EIRP is 1 megawatt we have to kill the
transmitters, get real warm up there if you don't... (2030 Mhz)

Usually when it starts snowing I will depress two of the spare dishes to 0
El and when its time to sweep the on-line dish we put the off-line dish on
the bird, then depress the now off-line dish and hope most of the snow will
slide out.  Other wish its "sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms".

We have used de-iceing fluid something like the airports use but still have
to get up inside the dish.

We have spent thousands of dollars trying to find a way to keep the snow out
and we have to be on line 24 hours a day or no weather satellite pictures
for anyone..  If you find a way to keep snow out please let us know..

GE/Americom would like to know also...


Dennis
Lead Tech Ant/Rf
WESR, WCTG, NOAA

<<
In a message dated 01/03/2006 8:38:10 PM Eastern Standard Time,
feehlee at fcc.net writes:

Try going to this link: http://www.cytonix.com/fluorothane.html This
 expensive stuff but seems to work pretty well at least with their little
 demo piece of plastic coated with their stuff.   Water forms little tiny
 round droplets on the coating.   It refuses to get wet!
                                           Fee Lee

Hmmm... but "wet" isn't the problem. It's wet *snow* that sticks to this
thing like oatmeal.

Also, this quote from that site concerns me: "M-type coatings are also
reported to protect against snow accumulation under some conditions." *What*
conditions?

What about "Rain-X" (or "Rain Dance") car waxes? This thing is some kind of
teflon-like rubberized (vinyl?) fiberglass canvas. It's *very* heavy and
very

tough. I want something that will work with it, and not cause it to degrade.

Willie...
>>


The further north you go, the lower the 'look' angle for a geosynchronous
satellite.
The lower the look angle, the easier for the snow to slide out. But of
course, the further north, the more snow.

Life is full of conundrums, isn't it?
:-)

Unfortunately, unless the dish is nearly vertical, snow (wet snow, in
particular) is gonna stick!

Shortly before I left my job as Manager of Radio Ops at WNYC to go to Z100
(1988), our NPR dish atop the Municipal Building was badly snowed in. My
boss
found a paint product called "Vellox" that allegedly would repel moisture,
and
was claimed to be a godsend for satellite dishes. So, I ordered a couple of
cans and the following summer they applied it. Had to paint an undercoat,
then
the Vellox slippery stuff. Some time later when I was there visiting, they
showed me a photo of the dish. Covered in snow. So much for easy solutions.
I
recommend a heater.   :-)

My other experience with sat dishes vs snow was at MSNBC/CNBC in Ft. Lee, NJ
in 1997. The roof on their building has numerous big dishes, and one day
that
winter when I worked there, there was a really major storm. We drew straws
every hour or so to decide who was to go out on 'broom patrol.' Some of the
dishes are on pedestals, and were really hard to clean, even from a ladder.
But
going up on the roof was a great excuse for an impromptu snowball fight!!

Great fun for this Florida boy.


David P. Reaves, III
TransLanTech Sound, LLC
Creators of the Award-Winning "Ariane Stereo Audio Leveler"

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