Do we actually need the Superdish to get all three birds?

[Guest]

I've been wondering about this, particularly since the Superdish is not self-installable (at least for the moment). Is there any reason you can't just use a Dish 500 pointed at 119 and 110, and another antenna pointed at 105, and the appropriate switches? Those of us who are HD subs already have a second dish pointed at one of the wings and switches we could use for that purpose since all the HD content will migrate to 105 anyway sooner or later.

I suspect I'm missing something here. Does the 105 bird throw off a signal of lower power, such that a bigger dish is needed to see it? Would a Dish 500, aimed at the 105 alone, be sufficient to pick it up?

 

[davhol]

The bird at 105 is a FSS signal whereas DISH's core and wing sats are DSS. It requires a completely different LNB. Current switches will (probably) NOT work. But, given the fact that there are FSS LNBs and switches out there, you may be able to cobble up a system. It may cost you more than you think, though.

 

[fv3]

The bird at 105 is a FSS signal whereas DISH's core and wing sats are DSS. It requires a completely different LNB. Current switches will (probably) NOT work. But, given the fact that there are FSS LNBs and switches out there, you may be able to cobble up a system. It may cost you more than you think, though.

It is my understanding that the DishPRO switches will work....

 

[davhol]

I should have said "current LEGACY switches"... my bad! Thanks for clarifying this!

 

[fv3]

I would note that the formidable J Hotsenpiller has been receiving signals from AMC-2 for a few weeks. I regularly see his reports to Lyngsat, for example here:
http://www.lyngsat.com/dig/dishamc2.shtml

I do not know if he has integrated his 105 dish into his Dish Network systems or not, but it should be an easy matter.

I believe all you need is DishPro switches and a DiSEqC 2.0 compatible band-stacking FSS LNB. Unfortunately, I have not been able to test this, and do not know of anyone who has tested. But it should not be long now.

 

[Mike500]

I believe that it can be done on the cheap with a separate dish. Aiming is a real bear with ku band digital dishes. The satellites are so close together that the only verification you get is getting the actual picture. A "Birddog" helps but only to identify which satellite you have locked on to.


With the proper switch, the extra dish can easily be integrated with the Dish 500. The technology of the dish and lnb is not new. It's the way that Dish will integrate it.

These dishes are generally foreign made, except for Winegard dishes, and can be had for about $60. The killer is shipping, as UPS charges a surcharge for size. These dishes and lnb are the default standard for most of the rest of the world.

 

[Stargazer]

What would make the SuperDish easier to install is that you will know that you are locked on the 105 satellite when you get 110 and 119 as well because they would all work hand in hand, just like on the Dish 500 where you have the 110 satellite when you have found 119 or vice versa, just as long as your skew setting on the dish is correct.

When the pole or mast is not plumb your elevation and skew numbers indicated on the dish will not be true in which would make it a nightmare in many cases to try to get a good signal in. Also the more satellite slots you try to tune in on one dish, the more sensative a little adjustment gets. If you would have one slot with a lower signal, trying to adjust that one slot higher may result in another slot or two going lower, then when you try to adjust the ones that were lowered back up, another one or two would get lower, so it can get to be a real headache if something is off of adjustment slightly.