Subject line pretty much says it all. The question has been raised on another forum I’m on, and I want to raise my reputation for omniscience there.
Apologies if this question has been raised here before; I tried searching the SDMB before posting this, but my mastery of search fu leaves a lot to be desired. If another thread has the answer, just point me to it and spare me the abuse. 
Cheers,
bcg
Cloud density
Some radio signals are impervious to interference, some aren’t, largely a function of frequency. The signals used for satellite TV are in range that are affected.
Why doesn’t Cablevision go out? Isn’t that a satellite signal as well?
They get a lot of their programming via satellite, but their dishes are usually much larger in diameter than the one mounted on your roof. And they are not getting their signal for the Direct TV or Dish Network satellite either.
These days they may be getting a lot of their content via fiber optic cable as well.
This article seems to answer your question:-
http://www.solidsignal.com/satellite/rain_fade_about.asp
The official name for this phenomenon is “rain fade”
Remember, the satellite is 25000 miles away and has the power output of a domestic lightbulb, spread over an entire continent. It always amazes me that the signals can be picked up by domestic equipment at all. Believe me, it doesn’t take much to block the signal.
Dish size probably has lot to do with it…when I was a kid we lived in the country for about little while and had a “Big Ugly Dish” in our backyard. We never had a problem with “rain fade”, except in winter during wet snowfalls when the dish filled up with snow and I got sent into the backyard to knock the snow off.
(I remember seeing a picture of a current small dish prototype in our Satellite TV Guide…it blew my mind…how could they possible make the dish so much smaller, I thought!)
One of my clients is a sports bar, and I installed the Channel Master “Gain Master” dish linked on that page. It is the best 3 LNB dish made, and I’m getting a signal level of 99 on some channels in Kansas City. It takes a Biblical deluge to knock the signal off air. I just wish they’d make a 5 LNB version for the DirecTV MPEG4 system. The “Slimline” is a fine dish, but nothing replaces a larger dish. Failing that, I’d love to get single LNBs and a switch so I could put up 5 1 meter dishes.
These folks are very serious about not losing their signal.
Exactly what I wanted.
Thanks!
Cheers,
bcg
Cablevision is a cable provider, not a satellite provider.
They get their signals from satellites as well. But, as GaryM pointed out, they get them from large C and Ku band antennas. And it makes a lot of sense to install the biggest dishes you can for a signal that you are going to be distributing to thousands of homes.
Really? No shit. And who provides their signal?
Are you unsatisfied with the replies given by GaryM and gaffa or haven’t you read them?
What has that to do with anything?
Wow, even in the most innocuous thread, people can’t seem to resist getting snarky.
The fact is cable providers can get their signals from multiple sources. The vast majority are from C and Ku dishes 12’ and larger. But in many cases, the local market stations will be delivered via fiber from the station to the cable company. Smaller stations and edge of market stations can be picked up from over the air via antenna (an antenna mast at a cable “head end” can be an excellent introduction to best antenna design practices - UHF dish antennas and the like).
I literally once stumbled across a days work installing a dish that was the NBC network feed for the Kansas City affiliate. I was walking past and saw a guy working on one of the two dishes in front of WDAF (NBC at the time, now Fox) and started talking to him. He wound up hiring me for the day to help with the installation. It was a Ku system, and there were two dishes, one larger, and totally controlled by the network. They could send instructions to move either dish to a new location and transponder, tune the signal, send instructions back to confirm the reception and switch to the new one. They could do this without the viewer noticing.