[BC] Re: Sat dishes vs snow

[SHAFFER, RANDY L]

Mike Hemeon wrote -

>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.
(snip)

Allen Porter responded -

>Every system we install has a moisture sensor/temperature sensor mounted
>on the dish.  The sensor must sense moisture and temperatures below 38F
>to engage.

We have those too, but I agree with Mike, unless they are turned on ahead of time, by the time the sensors would turn on the heaters, the dish wouldn't get warm quickly enough to prevent icing. When our radar is showing snow or rain heading our way and the temperature is near freeezing, our policy is to turn all the heaters on to get the dishes toasty ahead of the storm. I sometimes leave one dish in auto just to be on the safe side. Others, keep them in manual which never made much sense to me. 

Randy Shaffer
WLYH-TV/WHP-TV
Harrisburg, PA