Dish Network in Chicago

[nyhunter77]

Hi guys and gals,

Hope i'm asking this question in the right place.

I am a new member here. I have subscribed to Dish for many many years through ordering it for my parents in Florida. Since weather is pretty sunny there most of the time I never really had any problems with service until a storm came around.

I live in Chicago now and would like to order Dish for myself. Can anyone in Chicago whose had Dish a while tell me how service is in the winter? I know that in Florida, even during overcast skies, service didn't go out unless it was really raining heavily.

How bout in Chicago? During winter, when it's mostly overcast all the time or snowing, am I going to get frustrated over all the times with "lost signal"?
Compared to comcast cable here, Dish is half the price so I'd rather have that, but not if i'm never going to see anything.

Please be as detailed about your experience as u can and tell me if u'd recommend it or not. Thanks,

-Hunter-

 

[goaliebob99]

Welcome to Satguys!

dish is awsome the only thing you have to worry about is brushing the snow off the dish, when it accmulates after a bad storm.. If at all possable have the installer not put it on the roof, or if he does, have him put it on the corner where its easly acessable with a broom. I have only had to brush my dish off 1 or 2 times last year and it was only after bad snow storms. Comcast goes out here more than what my dish does.. I have only lost dish once due to rainfade (it looked like a hurricane outside) Your dish service should only go out once or twice a year and if its going out in overcast conditions then something is wrong with the setup. You will really like it.. And if your totally looking to get away from crapcast Sbc has dsl for 14.99 a month.

 

[WJMorales]

I've had dish for many years here near Chicago. I can count the times I have been without service on one hand. I've being without service in the summertime when it raining very hard. I have lost complete service, I still had some channels. BTW, I had service coming from 61.5, 110, & 119.

 

[goaliebob99]

i got service coming in from 119,110,61.5,129 at the moment... this guys most likely will get a D1000 for service from 110,119,129 (one dish)

 

[nyhunter77]

You will really like it.. And if your totally looking to get away from crapcast Sbc has dsl for 14.99 a month.

Thanks Goaliebob,

Yeah, I love Dish already, but i've been w/o it for a few years when i left home. It can only have gotten better and prices haven't gone up much at all.

I had the service before Dish 500, I'm hoping to get that now. I'll remember what u said about the dish being where i can swipe it with a broom. I was wondering about that this morning.

Actually, i've got sbc dsl also, transferring it over to my new place. I'm so happy i'm not going to need to get comcast, they charge too much and they give u too little. My friends have comcast, i'm going to have to bring them over to satellite, they don't know what they're missing !

... Can u say FOOTBALL PARTY!!! (hopefully they don't black out all my east coast games. I'm an AFC East guy.

Lata

 

[rad]

Before kissing of the Comcast option you might want to check it out. Since Comcast purchased the systems from AT&T they've been doing a lot of physical plant upgrades which helps PQ. You're also not locked into any commitment, so if they don't work out you can dump them and still go with E*. Yep, they're more expensive then D* or E* but they offer a couple of things such as:

- Video on Demand. Yea, when I first heard about it a yawned but once you play with it, it's kind of neat
- The local CLTV news station, which sometimes carries some major league sporting events, such as Cubs/Sox/Bulls, can't get this on DBS
- If you're interested in HD you get the major Chicago stations in HD with no antenna.
- Again, on the HD front, Comcast SportsNet has a HD channel, plus Cinemax-HD and Starz-HD
- You don't get HDNet channels, you get InHD instead and no Voom channels.

Comcast has cleaned up their act in this area, you just might want to try them unless price is the overriding factor.

 

[dfergie]

And Welcome to SatelliteGuys...

 

[goaliebob99]

Before kissing of the Comcast option you might want to check it out. Since Comcast purchased the systems from AT&T they've been doing a lot of physical plant upgrades which helps PQ. You're also not locked into any commitment, so if they don't work out you can dump them and still go with E*. Yep, they're more expensive then D* or E* but they offer a couple of things such as:

- Video on Demand. Yea, when I first heard about it a yawned but once you play with it, it's kind of neat
- The local CLTV news station, which sometimes carries some major league sporting events, such as Cubs/Sox/Bulls, can't get this on DBS
- If you're interested in HD you get the major Chicago stations in HD with no antenna.
- Again, on the HD front, Comcast SportsNet has a HD channel, plus Cinemax-HD and Starz-HD
- You don't get HDNet channels, you get InHD instead and no Voom channels.

Comcast has cleaned up their act in this area, you just might want to try them unless price is the overriding factor.

Depends on what area of chicago you are in... obvously if you saw what i get from crap cast you would be shamed...

 

[rad]

Depends on what area of chicago you are in... obvously if you saw what i get from crap cast you would be shamed...

That's why I said to give it a try and see how he like it. I've alway said that PQ even within the same cable system can vary greatly from great to garbage, the only way to tell is to actually try it at your location, you can't count on others experiences. And as I said, no 1 or 2 year commitment so if his does s*ck just cancel and go with E* anyway.

 

[Sparkman]

I went to Comcast in January just because of Comcast Sportsnet HD. I can honestly say it has never gone out since I've had it. I kept E* for my grandfathered distants, superstations & HD. Added Voom, but have since canceled it, found it to be very overrated, nothing on there that I watched. I do like Comcasts VOD feature, & have turned my antenna north to Milwaukee to get all Milwaukee OTA & still get Chicago nets in HD. Cannot say anything bad about Comcast & I was a die hard E* fan.

 

[dougruss]

Have only had a few Outages ( DishNetwork) during some of the Famous "Lake Effect" Snows that we get across the Lake from you's there in "Chi-town".

 

[Van]

welcome to the forums, as others have said you should experience very little signal loss so long as the installer does a good job.