Dish as OTA antenna?

[HanoverPretzel]

I've heard some people reference using their dish as an external over-the-air antenna. How does that work? If it's as easy as pressing the right buttons on the remote or whatever, I'd like to give it a try. There are some locals in a neighboring DMA that aren't available to me through Dish that'd be nice to have for added sports programming (I doubt I'd get them, but worth checking), and since I am an SD-only subscriber to dish, any HD signal I might pick up, even from the channels I already get through dish, would be a nice bonus (since they'd be my only HD channels).

I have a 322 dish, if that makes any difference.

Just trying to get a feel for whether this is something I can do from my living room (In which case, I'll get right on it) or whether it's something that would require scaling a wall and making modifications to the dish itself (In which case, forget it ).

 

[CK SatGuy]

It sounds like it could be possible if you put one of the "Sat In" lines on the OTA input. You might get HD channels, although I don't know how they would look on your TV. As for myself, I use the a coax cable for my TV2 (a HDTV) and I have the modulator on an "air channel" (channel 60) After my TV scanned for the channels, it was able to find channel 60 AND most of my OTA channels (including HD) even though that TV is not connected to an antenna, just to my receiver itself. (Before you ask, I can't record OTA using this setup)

 

[MattG@DISH]

I imagine it would be similar to the old aluminum foil trick (using our dish instead of the foil), but not too sure. I will say that the 322 may bring in the HD channels, but the picture on your TV will most likely not be HD (since the 322 is a SD only receiver, and only has SD outputs). This is more or less a guess on my part, I don't know anything for sure.

 

[Tampa8]

As mentioned, of your receiver is not HD you will not see HD through it.

 

[Peter Parker]

The DISH itself would not be an acceptable antenna for OTA signals. You may have read about people with an OTA antenna that send the signal over the same coax using diplexers.

BTW a 322 is a receiver not a DISH.

 

[navychop]

Yes. And there was this clip on OTA antenna that attached to the dish that some people used. It was a miserable little thing of little value.

 

[Hall]

After my TV scanned for the channels, it was able to find channel 60 AND most of my OTA channels (including HD) even though that TV is not connected to an antenna...

First, I have to assume you're pretty close to your local station's broadcast towers. Second, your coaxial cable is effectively acting as an antenna.

 

[Peter Parker]

Yes. And there was this clip on OTA antenna that attached to the dish that some people used. It was a miserable little thing of little value.

Not sure that one of those would fit on 1000.x antenna. Then again it might work better if you bent it eight ways to Sunday to make it fit.

 

[CK SatGuy]

First, I have to assume you're pretty close to your local station's broadcast towers. Second, your coaxial cable is effectively acting as an antenna.

1. Yes the broadcast towers are only 15-20 miles away
2. Yes the coaxial cable is practically an antenna itself. It's like my TV thinks the cable is an antenna, even though it's really not.

 

[TheKrell]

Not only is the 322 a receiver and not a dish, it has NO ATSC nor NTSC tuner whatsoever. So there is zero chance of picking up any OTA broadcasts, near or far. Your TV, on the other hand, might well do so. And those of us with Dish HD receivers can and do receive these OTA ATSC broadcasts. This gives us all the subchannels Dish doesn't carry, as well as the main channel which in many cases is HD while Dish carries only the SD version.

I see an HD receiver in your future.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Not only is the 322 a receiver and not a dish, it has NO ATSC nor NTSC tuner whatsoever. So there is zero chance of picking up any OTA broadcasts, near or far.

Darn. Well, it was worth asking, anyhow. I appreciate everyone chiming in with their advice.

Your TV, on the other hand, might well do so.

Nope, not even with rabbit ears.

And those of us with Dish HD receivers can and do receive these OTA ATSC broadcasts. This gives us all the subchannels Dish doesn't carry, as well as the main channel which in many cases is HD while Dish carries only the SD version.

I see an HD receiver in your future.

Dish said I didn't qualify for the free HD for life promotion (at least not for free) or free installation when I signed up for Dish Network service for the first time a few months ago -- something about not being able to verify credit information. So I was stuck paying for installation and only getting SD for the same monthly price other people with HD for life pay for HD. The guy on the phone said I didn't even want to know the price HD would have driven the upfront costs up to -- which is probably true, I'm pretty poor. The whole no HD thing is kind of a sore subject with me. If cable prices weren't getting so outrageous, I probably would have told them to stick it when they said I didn't qualify for their advertised specials, but I'd already canceled cable because I couldn't afford it and dish was really all that was left television wise that I could reasonably pay for (Even without the HD).

I sort of waffle between being happy Dish lets me afford any television at all, and bitter because Dish wouldn't give me the free installation and free HD for life advertised in big bright letters on all their flyers and on their website. It sits kind of poorly with me that some guy down the street probably pays the same monthly fee I do and has HD whereas I don't. I'm on a low enough income that I really need to get maximum bang for my buck.

 

[TheKrell]

Well that sucks! Are you a credit risk? Which programming package did you get?

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Well that sucks! Are you a credit risk? Which programming package did you get?

I'm on AT 200 for the 1st year because that was the cheapest package I could find with my local sports RSNs and my favorite news network. Once the 1st year intro rate expires, though, I am probably going to reluctantly back down to AT 120+, even though it doesn't include my favorite news network. It'd be a lot easier on my budget to do something like lifeline cable or the dish welcome pack, but, honestly, once I'd get to that point, I'd rather just go without -- personal preference, but I'd feel like spending nothing on nothing is better than spending a little money on (what for me would be) crap. The cable company tried to talk me down to a sportless package or a lifeline package when I quit and I told them to forget it -- why spend money on something I don't feel good about and would barely watch?

As far as the credit thing goes, I don't want to get into too much info on that on a public Internet forum in the age of identity theft. Maybe it's being a little paranoid, but I've heard horror stories.

 

[TheKrell]

Of course I don't want any personal info myself; it was a rhetorical question because I don't understand how you come to be so different from everybody else paying the same bill as you. Seems very unfair.

Perhaps one of the nice Dish IRT members could see what they can do. They helped me, and I didn't even have to grovel.

 

[MattG@DISH]

Perhaps one of the nice Dish IRT members could see what they can do. They helped me, and I didn't even have to grovel.

That's always an option. Now we just have to find one of the "nice" ones...

Feel free to PM me Mr. Pretzel.

 

[towboy123]

Coax cable when properly insulated should never act as an antenna. When coax is properly installed it should not emit or receive any RF transmissions. If you live close to an airport they check for
leaking RF transmissions and will shut you down if they find them.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Perhaps one of the nice Dish IRT members could see what they can do. They helped me, and I didn't even have to grovel.

I just discussed the issue with the Dish IRT person in this thread who said I could PM him. He said there that if I wanted an equipment upgrade, I'd have to purchase it. Probably not his fault -- I'd imagine that's company policy when dealing with certain customers and that his hands were tied. It's an aggravating company policy, though.

Honestly, it'd be nice if there was an occasional company out there I could be happy doing business with, but they all basically discriminate against poor people or people with any sort of negative mark on a credit report or unestablished credit. Meanwhile, many of them make great profits in a down economy (Dish's net revenue was a quarter of a billion dollars in a single fiscal quarter last year -- a billion dollars a year if that profit holds steady). It's just like some of the big banks are starting to phase out free checking unless you maintain a certain balance (Even though they are making big profits after the government bailed them out), and so on and so forth. Many of those same corporate execs and bank execs just got big tax breaks, too, while politicians talk about shutting down unions and cutting school lunch programs for hungry impoverished children. It's a big corporation's and a rich person's world, we're all just living in it.

 

[Brisak]

Knowing what kind of tv you have would be a little helpful as well.Not that this is your situation but I have customers all the time thinking their tv is a hd tv when in fact it is not.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Knowing what kind of tv you have would be a little helpful as well.Not that this is your situation but I have customers all the time thinking their tv is a hd tv when in fact it is not.

It's HD. It's a several year old budget store brand super sale type of deal that's pretty finicky, and not very big compared to most of the HD sets I see out there, but it's 1080i. I used to have HD service from the cable company, and you could really tell the difference between their HD channels and their SD channels, especially with stuff like sports -- and "1080i" was right in the corner there when one hit "display" on the television. Right now, I can only use it for stretchovision SD, though. Couldn't afford to repurchase it today, that's for sure, so I hope it continues to last. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of purchase (Although HD prices are dropping enough and enough are on the used market that the cost might drop enough that it won't be as once-in-a-lifetime -- we're not too many years away from people giving away their used HD sets the way they used to give away used SD sets, I'd imagine).

 

[Hall]

How far from this "neighboring DMA's" TV towers are you ? It's a really, long stretch to pick them up with an indoor antenna...