Thread: One channel bad, other good - same satellite.

I get my locals from 129 (SD locals). Sunday night, one local was pixellated, and the others were fine. Could that be due to different transponders? I typically lose 129 if there is any weather at all, but usually it is all or nothing.

Your locals are probably all on the same transponder. This is Tuesday, is that bad channel coming in good now? If so, whatever it was has been fixed. It could have been a Dish issue or a local channel issue.

But, if they are all on the same transponder, how can one come in good and the other come in bad at the same time?

Because each transponder has many channels. If one of those channels has an issue it will not effect the others.

...rather than a reception problem? That makes sense. My wife never buys that explanation

Originally Posted by GTAE86

...rather than a reception problem? That makes sense. My wife never buys that explanation

typicallly the locals are all on the same transponder. Each local channel is receivced via antenna to a telco Point of Presence(POP). In this building is a computer rack with switching equipment. It is though that switching equipment that the tv signal is transfered to a fiber optic telco transmission line out to a Dish Network Uplink facility. The uplink goes to the satelitte and then down to the customer.
In this instance more times than not it is a reception issue between the tv station and the POP...If it were at the uplink center then most likely all locals would show the same issue.
Next time you tune to a local channel go to menu 6-1-1 and check the signal strength. If it looks as it alwys does next time the poor picture shows up let your wife see it so she "buys the explanation".
It's all about family harmony.

I did not realize there was another antenna component to the system.

We have seen some odd things on the OTA signal as well: We were recording a show (The Amazing Race) that had been preempted by football Sunday before last. We knew it might happen, so we had set up to record the following show (Cold Case, I think). The half hour or more of TAR was great - clear and crisp. The remainder of the show that was recorded as the following program was not watchable - pixellated and dropouts. I cannot believe the reception died in the space of a minute. We see that kind of thing all the time, and will check the same channel later the same night, and it will be fine....

Originally Posted by GTAE86

I did not realize there was another antenna component to the system.

We have seen some odd things on the OTA signal as well: We were recording a show (The Amazing Race) that had been preempted by football Sunday before last. We knew it might happen, so we had set up to record the following show (Cold Case, I think). The half hour or more of TAR was great - clear and crisp. The remainder of the show that was recorded as the following program was not watchable - pixellated and dropouts. I cannot believe the reception died in the space of a minute. We see that kind of thing all the time, and will check the same channel later the same night, and it will be fine....

chalk it up to OTA reception being at best an inexact science.
Whenever I install OTA's, I advise the customer there is no guarantee they will receive adequate signals.