Rain affects the microwave signals from the [tag-tec]satellite[/tag-tec], the heavier the rain the greater the loss. A larger satellite dish will have a better signal margin to cater for the loss due to rainwater.

C band satellite dish is usually big in size whereas a KU band dish is smaller. The Big KU band dish is usually used for special purpose and not meant for home use.

Nobody would like to have a big satellite dish in his compound while a small dish occupies a small space and is capable of providing same services This is one of the reasons why we rush to buy the smaller satellite dishes and anything else is of no significance to stop us.

I want to talk about one of those merits that make us regret discarding our old big satellite antennas. It is common for a small KU band dish to lose signal reception when it is raining, whilst all is well and ok with the big C band dish.

This fact made me like to know why I came to realize that satellite signal is microwave and microwave happens to suffer from attenuation due to atmosphere, i.e. water and oxygen molecules at high frequencies. This becomes worse when it is raining and the loss depends upon water volume.

Your small KU band satellite dish is designed to receive signals, which are transmitted at high frequencies from 10 to 17 GHz, while the bigger C band is designed to receive at lower frequency range of about 4 GHz. You can only improve your system from this trouble by increasing the size of your KU band dish or opting for Cable TV.

River Nile is a big river running from Lake Victoria all the way through Sudan, to Egypt and pours into the Mediterranean Sea. Sudan is flat land and covered with dry land. Somewhere in the southern Sudan the river curves and meadows as it slows down through the plain land. These meadows cover a wide area and looking at it from far looks like sea only noticeable at close distance.

During the rainy seasons the river floods the whore area, and because of the heat from the desert the temperatures are high from minimum of 33 rising to 40 something degrees Celsius. Evaporation also takes place at very high rates making the whole area humid. The air is filled with water vapor that makes the visibility poor. The weather improves in the after noon when some breeze blows away the vapor and some clouds cover the sky and cools down the place throughout the night.

I went there sometime to install three satellite antennas, namely a 12 feet C band dish to receive some Russian news for the workers at the camp, one 90 cm KU band dish meant.

Article by Paul