I was out 3 times tonight to clear my dish (direct TV) of snow. An acquaintance some time back suggested spraying it with silicone so the snow would slide off. I am debating it but would that degrade the signal?
Harry K
No just spray the PAN part! Snow will slide off but may get stricky later and require scrubbing.
heavy wet snow tends to do this one a year at most here.
you can add some heat tape, to keep it clean at bad weather times. tape gets stuck to back of pan, and they have grids that are designed specially for this.
dont bother with the dish covers, they are a big waste of money and a garbage bag is as useful, and costs little.which doesnt do much...
i used to be a dish dealer installer
Silicone may work fine but WD-40 would work better. WD was designed for use with electronic components. As long as the material you use does not contain metallic components it shouldn't affect the signal. You should clean the dish in the spring anyway.
Are you serious?
Yeah, I tried the "sock" a few years ago. I couldn't see how it would help but tried it anyhow on their advice. I was right. It just moves the snow cover from the dish to the "sock" with the same end result.
Harry K
wd-40 was designed as a water displacement spray (the w-d part). once the volatiles evaporate there's nothing left but a little lubricant, which goes away pretty quickly too, leaving a gummy residue that attracts dirt to stick to it.
silicone spray has no effect on signal strength at all
Being pedantic sorry.. A better word to use is negligible.
I work on microwave transmitters and even solder flux can have an effect on the output power. Small but measurable.
I suspect that if you really caked it on silicone spray might be RF absorbtive. I'll admit that I havent checked though!
You can also heat the dish periodically. The issue I guess is how much it affects the received signal and whether one has enough S/N margin to just ignore it.
Cheers Bob
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote:
I'm not concerned about signal strength, I'm concerned about the notion that silicon is somehow a snow repellent!?
PAM kitchen spray, silicone, even car wax helps make the dish smooth and slippery, so snow doesnt stick.
none of these effect signal strength
heres a site for more info
No No No. It keeps the snow and ice from sticking. Makes it slide out sooner when it warms up. I spray the chute of my snowblower with WD-40 before I use it if the snow is wet and heavy. It keeps it from clogging up the chute. It works.
Well wax I can believe since I wax my skis. But I would expect any significant snowfall to get on it anyway . Its worth a shot I suppose.
Thanks. Somehow I had never thought of that and the past few years it seems like wet snow is all we get. Have only used it once this winter and really didn't need to then here in SE WA
Harry K
Harry try teflon spray. Try to keep it off the LNB That should do the trick
Regards Anthony
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I've tried both satellite snow covers and heaters. Heaters were finicky and didn't always work. I struggled with covers until I found Dish Shield (
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