61.5 in the Pacific NW

cebbigh

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May 24, 2005
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Frostbite Falls
Anyone lucky enough to be able to pick up 61.5 in the Wa/Or areas? What kind of signal strength are you getting and it is reliable? I believe there is a spot on my chimney that I can mount a 500 and should have a shot at 61.5 but I'm reluctant to try it because it won't be easy. Before I try it would be helpful to know if it's even worth trying.
 
Your going to have very small elevation angle in Seattle for 61.5, but if you get it high enough you should be able to get LOS. I'm using a DISH 300 for 61.5 in northern CA and while it was a little hard to find a signal, I get some tranponders at over 100. It may not be easy, but I would give it a try.
 
I, too, can verify that 61.5 is do-able (at least from Northern California) as long as you have LOS. At my installation when I lived in Lake County I had such a low elevation angle that I had to order an adapter for the dish mount. The darned thing looked like it was pointing at the ground, but it worked. (I still have the adapter rattling around in one of my spare parts totes - in my line of work, I never know where I will be living in the next couple of years.)

If memory serves, I was getting signal strengths in the 70s to 80s on the old 100 point scale. Only the strongest rain squalls caused trouble.

Good luck,
Red
 
Your best bet to do this is to have the dish up at a roof level of a second story house with a good clear horizon line to the south east. Here in Detroit there is a local guy who sets up customers in apartments for 148 that cant see 61.5. The mast is tilted downwards and the elevation on the dish is also dropped so that the dish can then see the signal wich averages around %80 or so for that sat.

You will obviously need to have your azimuth heading to input into a compas, once you have that you can work on aiming and elevation just be sure to have some patience with this as it will take some time to find the sat if it is as low on the horizon as I am thinking it will be for you.
 
I was able to get 61.5 at my place west and a bit north of seattle (Silverdale). My az was like 93 and elev was 12. It took me about 6 hours of searching along the roof to find a spot between the trees. Signal was better than with 129 and was very close to 110/119. I moved the dish over to 129 almost as soon as 129 went live because I was litterally looking through the trees to get 61.5 and was afraid the leaves would grow into the way.

Mark
 
Thanks all. Encouraging. As long as they don't slide Seattle locals to 129 this sounds like a better option (unless 1000.2 is a silver bullet).
 
Installer visit scheduled to re-aim on Sunday. Will ask to have the 129 dish remounted to where I think I can get 61.5 ... that would still give me the option of swinging it back to 129 if it doesn't work out.
 
You should be able to get it, but the look angle is 11 degrees. at that low of an angle, you will need a clear view of the horizon, ie over a lake or a large flat field.
 
JPointerWI said:
You should be able to get it, but the look angle is 11 degrees. at that low of an angle, you will need a clear view of the horizon, ie over a lake or a large flat field.
Heck - at 11 degrees you've gotta worry about rowboats on the lake and horse in the field. :D
 
I just re-aimed my dish from 129 to 61.5 yesterday. I am 7 miles west of West Seattle about 1 mile south of Manchester, WA. I am on a hill looking east over Puget Sound. My LOS is between Blake Island and Vashon Island. My elevation is 10 degrees and azimuth is 92 degrees. I have a Dish 1000 aimed at 110 and 119 and a Dish 500 with single adaptor aimed at 61.5. Fortunately, all I had to do was swing my dish around and repeak. Unfortunately, the 622 didn't recognize 61.5 readily. I scanned the area 1 degree of elevation at a time and found 2 or 3 signals in that direction but the 622 kept telling me it was 119 west -- not even close to its position.

I had to do about 4 or 5 switch checks before it finally went from a 3 item check to a 38 item check. One more check after that and it registered OK for all 3 satellites. I also had trouble peaking it with my meter. It was very unstable. It seemed to jump from 0 to max at the slightest touch. So I used cell phones so my wife could read the TV screen to me as I nudged the dish.

I was able to peak it at a high of 92 on TP's 9 and 19. TP's for Channels 9470 to 9486 are all in the 89 to 92 range. TP's 20 and 22 are weak at 66. HGHD, STZHD, NTGHD and NFLHD are on these TP's. However, they are stable and I haven't seen any dropouts so far. The good news is that the cyclic drop in signal strenth that 129 had is gone. It would drop to below 38 from the mid 70's and lose signal. 61.5 doesn't have this problem.

My neighbors have a couple trees that may interfere, but they are trimmed every year anyway to preserve the view. This certainly is a good alternative until the 129 satellite is replaced in a year or so.

So far reception has been perfect. No pixelization and no dropouts. Of course the weather is good (partly cloudy) now too. I will monitor it during the next storm to see how much it drops.

It is well worth the effort if you have the option.
 
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61 vs. 129 in WA

I had better luck wiht 61 then 129, in the winter even distant storms would shut me down all night, and when we had high wind locally I would lose it, I think because a tree limb would blow in and out of LOS, but if you have good LOS it will be better then 129.
 
Frustration today. Guy put mount up and said could not get 61.5 signal. Blamed it on a tree that was not in the line of site of 61.5. He tried really hard but after announcing he couldn't get 61.5 he had realproblems finding 129. Finally found it but signal worse than when he got here. After he left I put the 500 back where it was to begin with and have the original signal. Have an unsued 1000. Will experiment with it pointing at 61.5. This guy tried really hard but was out of his element. I told him repeatedly 129 is space junk. He tried blaming it on the receiver. First installer I didn't tip.
 
Doable in Bothell/Mill Creek, WA area

I got it at 50/75 signal on TP 25/32 (Sky Angel) with a DISH 500.

Look angle is 10.7 deg elevation/93 deg. azimuth (magnetic.)

A satellite meter such as the SAT-95 will give a solid signal.

Rain fade can be a problem, esp. with a small dish. The rain path can be pretty long, and the signal doesn't like rain.

Even a 36" dish will get some rain fade on this bird.
 
Get a BIG dish...

Big dishes make aiming a bit more touchy but they're worth it for a strong signal (especially in wintertime in NW Washington!)

(big is 48 inches)
 

Is there AnyWhere I can view a VIP622 in action?

622 aspect ratio?

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