61.5 vs. 129 Reception

[gkjdc24]

Wow...great explanation!

My signal for 119 is about 80, where as my signal for 129 is about half that. As a result, I lose my HD with the slightest rain. So I have them coming back out to repoint my dish to get a better signal from 129.:up

Maybe now I won't need to go through the trouble of getting on 61.5

Thanks!

 

[ralfyguy]

Wow...great explanation!

My signal for 119 is about 80, where as my signal for 129 is about half that. As a result, I lose my HD with the slightest rain. So I have them coming back out to repoint my dish to get a better signal from 129.:up

Maybe now I won't need to go through the trouble of getting on 61.5

Thanks!

What dish do you have? I am in McAlester and I have a 1000.2 with a D500 for 61.5. I have levels around 50 from 129, but it needs to rain REAL good to loose signal. I lost signal from 129 more often with the old D1000, which was a tad smaller. I don't quiet hit 80 on 119, but I also peaked my dish on 129 and sacrifced some on 119/110 for it.

 

[brownover]

Wow...great explanation!

My signal for 119 is about 80, where as my signal for 129 is about half that. As a result, I lose my HD with the slightest rain. So I have them coming back out to repoint my dish to get a better signal from 129.:up

Maybe now I won't need to go through the trouble of getting on 61.5

Thanks!

Get a 61.5! Don't sacrifice some of your 110/119 strength to tweak 129. You get a straight direct look at 61.5 and then your other dish only has to look at 2 satellites instead of 3. How do I know? My son and I live in same state, he has one dish for the 3 satellites and I have 2. My signal strengths better across the board.

 

[gkjdc24]

I have the 1000.2 as well.

That's my plan...To lose some strength on 110 & 119, to beef up 129. When I spoke with the DISH CSR, he made it sound like I couldn't get 61.5, but if you're in McAlester, then that's not necessarily true.

Did you lose it yesterday with those storms that rolled through? I lost 129 completely. Not even screen pixilation before it dropped. Everything else was just fine. No pixilation at all.

 

[gkjdc24]

I took Brownover's advice and called to cancel the tech to repoint my dish. They are telling me that 61.5 is international channels though.

So how do I go about getting them to send somebody out to set me up on 61.5? It seems like it's a big secret

 

[brownover]

I took Brownover's advice and called to cancel the tech to repoint my dish. They are telling me that 61.5 is international channels though.

So how do I go about getting them to send somebody out to set me up on 61.5? It seems like it's a big secret

There may be some international on 61.5, but there is also a lot of HD channels that are not international. All of the Voom channels are on 61.5 plus other hd channels that are mirrored on 129. Since you are in the middle of the country, I don't know how to get them to do it. In this area, 61.5 and Dish 500 are the initial install if you get hd. You will probably have to pay.

 

[gkjdc24]

So...After talking to the 4th CSR, they can send somebody back out to install it for $100. Still haven't decided if I want to pay them more $$ though.

Is 61.5 going to take the place of 129, or will I have a 4th sat?

Thanks again!

 

[brownover]

I have 129 disconnected. 61.5 works a lot better for me.

GK, notice what this post said. You should also be able to disconnect your 129 and then you can tweak the dish for optimum 110/119. You will have 2 dishes. You might even get them to change your 1000.2 for a Dish 500 and then you won't have to disconnect anything.

 

[TalonDancer]

...They are telling me that 61.5 is international channels though....

There are two dish sats in orbital position 61.5 -- E*3 and E*12. E*3 has a lot of international stuff. Most of the recent up-link activity (e.g. new HD locals) has been on E*12. This list breaks them out by sat.

Talon Dancer

 

[levibluewa]

Those CSRs...

are full of sh**! Tell them that the 129 hunk-of-junk satellite isn't providing you a steady signal. Either switch service to the 61.5 or you'll move to Directv.

Gee! A new sat that can't make it into orbit, and an old one that's falling out of orbit...Where's Charlie? And promises of all those new channels in HD???

I've read that a lot of subscribers stay because of the dvr's. But if you only get one channel what's the point?

Oh, I'm sure DISH will add a bunch of new HD channels soon!

 

[gkjdc24]

are full of sh**! Tell them that the 129 hunk-of-junk satellite isn't providing you a steady signal. Either switch service to the 61.5 or you'll move to Directv.

Gee! A new sat that can't make it into orbit, and an old one that's falling out of orbit...Where's Charlie? And promises of all those new channels in HD???

I've read that a lot of subscribers stay because of the dvr's. But if you only get one channel what's the point?

Oh, I'm sure DISH will add a bunch of new HD channels soon!

I can do that and I probably will. Not that I would move to D*, but they don't know that

One last question though...If I block 129 to pick up 61.5, then what happens with my local HD? Seems that I read somewhere that local HD is on 129. Correct? Crazy?

After looking at that list , it looks like I would have MORE HD content with 61.5, than I currently have with 129. Or are they basically the same, except for the international channels?

Thanks again!

 

[thedamaja]

..If I block 129 to pick up 61.5, then what happens with my local HD? Seems that I read somewhere that local HD is on 129. Correct? Crazy?

If your Locals are only on 129 then you would loss them along with any HD RSNs if you have them. All National HD on 61.5 is mirrored on 129.

The only advantage to 61.5 is if you are always losing signal on 129.

For me personally 129 performs as good as 61.5 after I upgraded to the 1000.2 from the 1000

Just make sure you're 1000.2 is 100% plumb, this really does wonders for the signal strength with this dish.

 

[levibluewa]

129 on the West coast

Because we have the added advantage of being at the edge of the footprint, in addition to the sat falling out of the sky, the installers started automatically using a 24" dish aimed at the 129 exclusively. It helped a little...the signal loss was shortened from 3-5 minutes 2x an hour to 1-3 minutes 2x an hour. That might be something you'd bring up with the next CSR you speak with...actually get them to turn you over to technical support. Tell them you know someone in the Seattle area and this is what the DISH dispatch center in Renton is doing.

Seriously I wish you guys luck with the 129.

(If I recall correctly I think we played around with the idea of hitting the 61.5 and the 129 and the topic of a switch came up that would default to the sat with the best signal. Not sure about details, because the 61.5 turned out to be behind tall trees and terrain.)

 

[brownover]

I can do that and I probably will. Not that I would move to D*, but they don't know that

One last question though...If I block 129 to pick up 61.5, then what happens with my local HD? Seems that I read somewhere that local HD is on 129. Correct? Crazy?

After looking at that list , it looks like I would have MORE HD content with 61.5, than I currently have with 129. Or are they basically the same, except for the international channels?

Thanks again!

Don't block your 129 then and use all 4 satellites. Your receiver will do the selection work.

 

[ralfyguy]

I have the 1000.2 as well.

That's my plan...To lose some strength on 110 & 119, to beef up 129. When I spoke with the DISH CSR, he made it sound like I couldn't get 61.5, but if you're in McAlester, then that's not necessarily true.

Did you lose it yesterday with those storms that rolled through? I lost 129 completely. Not even screen pixilation before it dropped. Everything else was just fine. No pixilation at all.

Storms weren't as strong here last night. No problems. I don't know what DMA Shawnee is in, and if it's OK City HD locals, I don't know what sat they're on. Don't block 129, just add a D500 for 61.5 and connect it to the 1000.2 input, and rerun Check Switch. The receiver will pick the signal, there's just no way to make it force to take the signal from 61.5.

 

[mike123abc]

We had big storms here in Wichita Falls, I lost 129 for about 1-2 minutes. I rarely lose 129. I have a big 1000+ which I have 118.7 disconnected and have 61.5 connected for 61.5/110/119/129. My locals are on 129. I was recording when the big storm hit here, there was some pixelation and dropouts in the recording but less than 2 minutes.