Does weather affect cable?

Question

Does weather affect cable?

Answer 1

Yes, it can. The cable companies use satellites to get their signals for the various channels they rebroadcast and they have boxes which are receivers much like you have to get cable channels which decode the encrypted signals. If your box is not programmed to receive the signal, then it does not unscramble the signal and you do not see the output. So, like you, if weather gets in the way of their signal, then the signal is affected just like yours would be if you received the satellite signal directly. Essentially, the cable company is simple a transport mechanism. They receive a signal using an antenna just like you would, and then simply convert it to a cable channel which you get. The thing is, their antennas are much better than you could have, being a dish antenna maybe 3 or 4 meters in diameter, which is MUCH better than the 18" dish used by providers like DishTV that you put on your roof. However, even with a better antenna, that only means they are less likely to have a signal to noise ratio loss which you see as interference.