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Signal Strength, Pointing of Dish, and Trees.

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GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Signal Strength, Pointing of Dish, and Trees.

To preface, this is more or less a continuation of a previous thread that I started regarding the titled topic...

https://community.myhughesnet.com/hughesnet/topics/question-regarding-pointing-of-dish-at-installati...

Up until a little over two weeks ago my signal was still great, averaging from 118 to 122.  I have been taking periodic snapshots of my signal strength and saving them to compare.  The trees have started to fill out, so I check the strength tonight, which is a clear night, and it's now at 106.  It's never been this low, not even during steady rain and heavy clouds (during storms I don't use it at all, for safety's sake).  I'll keep an eye on it, but right now it is a little worrying, as the trees still have a ways to go before filled out. 

I'll do a speed test later on, as right now the speed would be lower because of the time. 

One thing that could be good is that I think it's one specific tree that may be causing the problem out of all of them, and I may be able to simply cut it down.  I'll know for sure once the trees are full, which shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks from now. 

I'm hoping that taking the snapshots of the signal strength over time, while not only helpful to me, will be helpful to the Hughesnet folks in case a real problem with the trees presents itself.  Hopefully it won't. 

We shall see...    

37 REPLIES 37
Gwalk900
Honorary Alumnus

There really is nothing wrong with a long and descriptive thread as others that aren't as familiar with the topic may gain insight.

 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

I think GetSatMan fears for the tree.  This is a little comical.

How dare I post such a thread! 

Don't worry.  If and when I have to cut down the tree, I will make sure to get your blessing.  LOL. 

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Also, have no fear.  If I have a technical question in the future, I will be oh so sure to use as few words as humanly possible, lest my thread be too long and risk sounding like I'm obsessed with the topic and going off the deep end.  We can't have that!  I'll try to keep it to ten words or less. 

Oh darn, now this reply appears too long.  I guess I will never learn. 

Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Gabe,

Thanks for posting. I can run some diagnostics later today to see if they have anything we should be concerned about. I'll let you know.

-Liz
If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

Slow performance? Click me!

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

I appreciate it.  It doesn't seem to be affecting my performance in the least bit, at least not at this point.  It may never.  As I later found out, the small signal drop may have nothing to do with the tree at all.  I'm not really concerned at this point, just more curious than anything.  Hopefully it will be fine.  I would be willing to bet that your tests show everything is well enough.  It seems to be here.  

I do know that just in the four days since starting this post, the tree in question has filled out quite a bit more,  yet the signal strength hasn't dropped any more. 

I'll start worrying when there is actually reason to worry, but for now, as I said, it's just curiosity.  Everything's working fine.       

CommunityWorklo
New Poster

Thanks for the reassurance that your system is running fine, that's what it looks like on our end. 🙂

-Liz
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

The amount of room you have between "peak" and "cut-off" is the headroom you have as a buffer for inclement weather. 
Repeating that, there is no direct, 1 to 1 relationship between lower signal strength and lower speeds. These systems can maintain a fairly stable connection and speeds as long as the signal strength is within that buffer zone.
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
Mordacious
New Member

My speed remains pretty constant regardless if my signal strength is 120 or down to about 75, below that I might see a little degradation but I still  maintain a connection until I hit 30, then it goes POOF!
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Right now my signal strength actually went back up a little to 111, but my speed is abysmal, though it's the same with a lot of people this morning, it seems.  Some type of problem that they are aware of and working on.  But my signal strength is good!  LOL. 
Amanda
Moderator

I think I broke this down a while back, but if you guys think back to the time we did the Ask an Engineer interview, I've done some extensive research and learning with Jack, who has taught me a lot about our systems. One thing I do know is that while your signal strength is important, it doesn't determine your speed - it instead determines your efficiency. These, I suppose, could be one in the same. Without giving out too much information that I am not sure that I can, if you think of several ranges of signal strengths depending on satellite orbital location, terrain, atmospheric noise (water droplets, weather), elevation, among other factors - the ranges get determined by averages for those factors which obviously vary, then those averages determine a "working rate". The "working rate" defines a fixed process that I will try to explain here... Say you send x amount of data out - where maybe  'x' is 10 kilobytes. Depending on your working rate, we will send out a certain amount of those 10 kilobytes of redundant information in case anything happens to the original data, so you don't have to re-send (see: refresh) that info. So in the end.. your signal strength is determined by an average of common factors of people in your area which determines the average working rate of your system which determines how efficiently we'll handle your data! 🙂


TO add more I just realized we didn't discuss the original post much.. There IS such a phenomenon where we install in winter when the trees are dead and in spring everything sort of explodes and we're in the situation where there is no LOS. To be perfectly honest and I think Alan can back me up on this, unless its some sort of giant fluffy shrubbery (see: Monty Python) blocking out the whole LOS, you'll be okay.


Sorry to keep adding more... It is system fact that a terminal can operate as long as the signal strength is over 30. That is the minimum!

Amanda
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Interesting.  I figured it was probably the same as my legacy system.  I had a signal strength on that of about 72, on average.  Sometimes during rain and such it would go down, even considerably, but it would still work and wouldn't affect the speed.  The only thing it would do is if it got too low, it just wouldn't work.   

I wasn't really sure if the Gen 4 worked in the same way, but after everyone's help, I understand that it does.  

BTW, I know that what's going on right now, with regard to the considerable slow down in some areas, has nothing to do with signal strength.  I was just being ironic, though it didn't work very well.  LOL.   

Amanda
Moderator

GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

That's me! 
sjl04
New Member

do you have anything better to than bash someone who is mad .kiss my ---
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

do you have anything better to than bash someone who is mad . kiss my ---
I see one of the moderators deleted your post. Your foul-mouth posts aren't going to get you any sympathy around here.
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
El Dorado Netwo
Advanced Tutor

do you have anything better to than bash someone who is mad . kiss my ---
I see one of the moderators deleted your post. Your foul-mouth posts aren't going to get you any sympathy around here.
El Dorado Networks |Diamond Springs, CA | eldoradonetworks.com
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

I guess some people don't know how to act in polite society.