Anyone having horrible issues with 129?

[swellde]

I'm in the Johnstown/Altoona PA market and got my locals a couple weeks ago and had to have my dish repositioned for 129. Since then it's been ridiculous. It's rained, no sprinkled, twice since then and each time it's taken two days to finally be able to acquire a satellite signal from satellite 129 which means I get no locals nor the majority of my hd channels. After the "acquiring signal" process fails I get a blue screen that reads "Sorry for the interruption. There is no need to call us. We are working to have this channel back on asap."

Is this true or are they simply throwing up a screen to attempt to discourage customers from complaining? It's not even raining now and if I go to an SD channel I can access the menu and check my signal strength which is a 6 for 129. I don't have the free service plan or whatever it's called so will I be charged 60 bucks for a job that was done piss poor a month ago?

Thanks

 

[Agonizing Fury]

dish Home protection plan or not, all installs (including upgrades) should have a 90 day installation warranty. call dish NOW about this issue before that time period is up. If they try to charge you, refuse to pay. It sounds like something is blocking the 129 sat from your dish, or the satellite has become mis-aligned.

 

[2001kx]

same thing here.
signal strength was between 6 to 8
i still cant get 129
im in the johnstown market as well and yes i get the blue screen telling me not to call?
they are coming out friday to see whats going on?

 

[swellde]

Yep, same here, I just got off the phone and a tech is coming Friday. Maybe it's the same one because I have the 12pm -5pm slot. I mentioned the 90 day warranty and he said it will be free then (THANKS for the info). I'm not sure what is going on, 110 is fine but besides 129, 119 is out as well.

 

[bross]

You should get signals in the 50's on 129 with good weather in your area. I did an install a few weeks ago in Somerset and had good signal strengths. If I remember right, your locals are on transponder 12. 129 is pretty low in the sky for you so LOS issues are probably the issue.

 

[aperry]

I started having major issues recently with 129, and I think it was due to tree growth. We had gotten it retweaked last year, but spring came and started having issues.

I thought originally that some heavy duty wind storms, and possibly the major ice storm we had earlier this year might have gotten it off-kilter a bit. The ice storm took out the tops of many of the trees, but I guess the one that was causing the problems must have still been blocking things.

However, he repositioned the dish and 129 went up to around 50 or so. Best reading I've ever gotten from there.

 

[bhelms]

I had 129 installed on 4/24 to be able to receive those same locals. In fairness the technician did tell me that LOS would be a problem (20 deg. elevation), but he at least got me started. I had initial signal strengths in the 10-18 range and they barely locked. The very next day the leaves came out fully and I completely lost the signal until I did some tree trimming. That was definitely the problem in my case. I didn't have to completely clear the LOS path, just got most of it out of the way. Now I have signal strengths in the 40s to high 50s rather consistently depending on the transponder. I started logging them and will do so for awhile under various conditions. At this point 129 is rather solid, just about as good as I was having with 61.5 (which I still have ready as a back-up, recommended at least until I'm confident 129 works suitably for me), even during the recent hard rains.

During the tree trimming, I connected a cheap SF-95 analog signal strength meter in line with the 129 LNB to tell me when I had trimmed enough, and it worked! Dropping one particular top caused a substantial jump in the strength, after which I was finally able to lock 129 again.

http://www.dishstore.net/product_info.php?cPath=59&products_id=75

Agreed with others, you probably have a tree problem. Look for the possibility of moving the dish position, either higher or further back on your property. Or as a last resort, get the offending trees out of the way...!

EDIT - Not sure what your issue is with 119, but it is also lower in the sky vs. 110. Maybe you were marginally having LOS issues there as well ??

 

[swellde]

Thanks for the answers, I appreciate it. There are no deciduous trees in front that would have gotten thicker in the past month so it must be some tall pine trees. Those are around 50 yards away but there are tall. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything about that unless the move my dish somewhere else.

 

[HARDCASE]

Another option would be to install a 2nd dish somewhere on your property where you have line of sight to 129.The current dish you have-1000.2 has a input on the lnb for that purpose.

 

[2001kx]

well they came out today...they couldnt get a better signal.
so i cut down about 5 trees and BAM...signal strength went from 8 to 61 on sat 129.
im happy now.

 

[dsp81]

Thanks for the answers, I appreciate it. There are no deciduous trees in front that would have gotten thicker in the past month so it must be some tall pine trees. Those are around 50 yards away but there are tall. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything about that unless the move my dish somewhere else.

You can check line of sight issues with DishPointer.com. Put in your address and select 129 from the drop down. Check the box for "show obstacle," and drag the red dot to where you think you have a problem. It will tell you the maximum height of the object to still get LOS.

 

[2001kx]

You can check line of sight issues with DishPointer.com. Put in your address and select 129 from the drop down. Check the box for "show obstacle," and drag the red dot to where you think you have a problem. It will tell you the maximum height of the object to still get LOS.

when its borderline like mine was (only a few feet made a big difference) that would'nt help unless you can measure the tree.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

when its borderline like mine was (only a few feet made a big difference) that would'nt help unless you can measure the tree.

Exactly , That Website is almost useless. Unless you have a Bucket truck and a 100' Tape measure.

 

[dsp81]

Exactly , That Website is almost useless. Unless you have a Bucket truck and a 100' Tape measure.

Or you could just use a little trigonometry: Shadow Measurements

--Or, if you hate math: Tree Height Calculator

 

[bhelms]

Congratulations! Another tree issue solved the logical way!

The Johnstown / Altoona DMA HD LiLs appearing on 129W may have a significant unintended carbon footprint as those of us who had to trim or drop trees to receive that satellite begin burning all that firewood next winter...!!

 

[SandFarmer]

Another option would be to install a 2nd dish somewhere on your property where you have line of sight to 129.The current dish you have-1000.2 has a input on the lnb for that purpose.

Although I'm not in your market, I have always had problems with 129. At one time long ago before multi-bird dishes I had to have two dishes for the services I wanted. So I have always used the second dish for 129 and had the main dish aligned to peak 110/119.

When they first installed a, new to D¡SH, 1K2 dish a Field Supervisor came out to get a personal look at the new gizmo in the field. While watching we chatted and he mentioned the he saw future problems with the size. A tad too small to effectively grab 3 birds at once. At the time I was working at Hughes and checked with a couple engineers. They agreed. So we agreed to leave my wing dish up, dialed it in for 129 and ran new cable just for giggles and set it up for easy conversion to a "Dual Dish" setup. He gave me his personal info if I had any issues or to let him know if it worked out well. In a week I called him with 129 issues. He came out and we reaimed the main dish for 110/119 and connected the second dish for 129 using, I think since there have been so many different versions, SW64 Switch. It was great. But for a single dish I wanted, for a while, the discontinued 1K4 dish. But . . .

 

[Radioguy41]

you are replying to a 12 year old thread.

 

[TheKrell]

you are replying to a 12 year old thread.

This could be a record. Sand Farmer has got to lay off that tapatalk app!

 

[SandFarmer]

This could be a record. Sand Farmer has got to lay off that tapatalk app!

"OMG!" You're so right. But I'm bored. All my Technical/Medical Journals and Whitepapers have to be read on a real screen. With TT I can recline and be entertained.

But the topic is still a problem . . .

Signed,
The from the ️.

P. S.
"Tapatalk!" I thought it was "Tapioca".