Many people have asked us about our satellite Internet. The sad reality of technology in Sandpoint is that broadband coverage outside of town is spotty at best. Our house doesn’t have a view of Schweitzer, so wireless isn’t an option. And if you ask the folks at Verizon about DSL out here, they just laugh. That is SO never going to happen.
Given our limited options, last year after much agonizing about the price, we invested in DirecWay satellite Internet. After all the horror stories I’d heard about satellite broadband, my expectations were extremely low.
Plus, getting a satellite signal when you live in the middle of a forest is no mean trick. Technically, we do have a view of the southern sky and our big ole dish has been working well for more than a year now. Except today.
If you have satellite TV, you might be familiar with "rain fade" which is when the satellite signal is diminished because of heavy cloud cover. Since the weather has been truly lousy this week, it wasn’t a surprise when our satellite signal was totally and completely dead this morning. But it wasn’t rain fade. As it turned out, a local tree was the culprit. This problem has happened before: the rain weighs down the branches of a nearby tree, so they block out our signal.
Fortunately, James has a low-tech solution to this high-tech problem. Yes, the programmer grabbed his chain saw and went outside to deal with the situation. We won’t have any shortage of firewood this winter and good broadband connectivity is mine once again!