61.5 Future...........?

[Parlyle]

Does anybody know what the future of the 61.5 satellite is? I'm suppose to get a Dish 1000 installed on the 17th, and I now have a separate dish for 61.5. I could probably aim that dish to 129, (For Minneapolis HD Locals) or leave it at 61.5 for future programing, if there is going to be anything worthwhile. Then I wouldn't need the 1000.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks:

Lyle

 

[CDH]

This is the question for a lot of people. I'm in a similar situation.

Is the only way to connect a Dish 1000 to the separate 61.5 dish a DPP44? I only have one receiver (a 942, moving to a 622) and I imagine my Dish assigned "installer" isn't going to want to put in a switch and will instead want to leave just a Dish 1000.

I believe there are still a couple of my locals on 61.5. Can I *force* them to provide the DPP44 or should I not bother and simply forgo the 1000 in favor of reaiming 61.5 to 129? (The comments about AMC-16 moving to 119 make me concerned that the 1000 will actually be necessary even if I don't pick up 129 from it.)

CDH.

 

[guruka]

You can force them to supply you a DPP44. I did. The key is that you are paying to receive programming that comes from four different orbital locations. In my case, my HD LILs are on 129 only and my CBS-HD comes off 61.5. If you can demonstrate that you need to receive programming from four sats to get what you are paying E* for, they'll give you the DPP44 at no extra charge.

.....G

 

[Parlyle]

Just checked and my HD locals from Minneapolis has CBS HD on 129. So, that kind of puts a wrench into forcing them into a free DP44.

Lyle

 

[rdinkel]

Order some other programming that is only on 61.5. Then drop that after switch is installed.

 

[RuralSatGuy]

The LNB on the Dish 1000 that is used for the 129 feeds into a jack on the Dish Pro Plus Twin LNB marked LNB IN. You can disconnect this coax and run one to here from your 61.5 dish. No switches needed. Then, if you want to use the separate dish for 129, which I am doing to get a better signal than the D1000 129 LNB provides, you can aim the second dish to 129 - or keep it at 61.5 until you see a need to re-aim.

For now, 61.5 and 129 are pretty much mirrored - with minor exceptions, like the Demo channel and Pentagon, as I recall.

One coax can be run from the Dish Pro Plus Twin and use a separator (right at the 622) to feed both tuners on the 622, leaving the other coax from the Twin available for perhaps a 510 or whatever single tuner receiver you might have. Or you can run both coaxes from the DP Plus Twin to the two inputs on the 622. Separator and one coax works fine for me. Probably could also use the second coax from DP Plus Twin and another separator to run a second 622.

Actually, we took the Dish Pro Plus Twin LNB off of the D1000 and installed it on a Dish 500. Then ran my Dish 300, which had been aimed at 61.5, to the LNB IN mentioned above and aimed it at 129. My installer, who owns the company, and I think this gives better sigs on 110, 119 and 129 than using the D1000. On my Dish 300 aimed at 129, I get some TPs with sigs as high as 85, which from what I read is quite high for 129.

 

[mwgiii]

With Dish, ALWAYS keep any extra dishes up and active.

Who knows when they will change their plans again.

 

[Mr Tony]

61.5 has a few PI channels...129 does not

But Mpls HD LIL is on 129

 

[RuralSatGuy]

Iceberg - We are holding our breath waiting for Dallas HD LIL to come online. Maybe they will also be on 129. Hoping for them to be on a bird that has a little more oomph than 129.

 

[Kagato]

I'm in the same boat as Parlyle. My reasons for keeping it are the free international programs (TVJapan is free several times a day), and sometimes international PPVs are only on 61. As well as the O&O CBS HD feed. I explained that to the representative when I did the upgrade and was instruction to explain to the installer that the 61 stays.