[BC] Re: Sat dishes vs snow

[RokprtMike@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/5/2006 1:00:34 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

always  thought the networks had heated dishes or at least snow covers.

One of  the worst winters I had with dishes was in the early 90's. Of our 5 
dishes,  none were heated. We had a heavy sleet storm and I spent the entire 
evening  alternating between our large CBS dish and our back up dish. We had 
some  sparkles on video and barely stayed on the air that night. I had to keep  
calling CBS so I could get the dish moved into a position so that I could  
whack it with a hammer to get the layers of ice to break free. I was soaked  and 
very tired by the time we got into late night.

I think it was that  same year we decided to air a few Penn State basketball 
games. This was fed on  KU. By the time the sleet started, we were in the last 
half of the game and I  was able to keep up with the cleaning. Wouldn't you 
know, the next week on the  same night we had another sleet storm. This time I 
rounded up all the space  heaters I could find and positioned various sized 
ladders behind the dish to  hold them. I wouldn't say it worked great, but it 
did a good job and I didn't  have to work nearly as hard to keep the dish clear.

Now we have 10  dishes, three of them heated. It takes the pressure off, but 
doesn't make  cleanning those big dishes any easier.



At NBC, the uplink dishes were heated, but unless the heaters were on when  
the snow or ice began it offered little relief. You would end up with ice along 
 the lower half  of the reflector AND a layer of snow. Which meant someone  
would have to go to the top of the Fox Building and clean it off. There were  
days that it was like being on Mt. Washington up there.
 
For our 5 meter uplink dishes in Paterson, NJ we would simply use pool  
covers and rarely had a problem.
 
Mike Hemeon
NBC Principal Engineer (RET)