Eastern Arc vs Western Arc

hgrimberg01

New Member
Original poster
Aug 3, 2009
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NoWhere
What is the difference(if any) between the western and eastern Dish Network arcs and their respective Dish 1000.2 and 1000.4 dishes.


Thanks
 
Say what?

What is the difference(if any) between the western and eastern Dish Network arcs and their respective Dish 1000.2 and 1000.4 dishes.


Thanks

So what are you asking? The 2 dishes are set up a little bit different because the LNB's are spread just a little different because the sats are spread a little different. EA is all MPEG4 I'm pretty sure.
 
Only difference reguarding programing would be local dma channels, any other standard package and HD package would be on both with EA needing mpeg4 receivers. Word is that WA will be switched over to all mpeg4 at some time in the near future.
 
It could be just me, but I had previously had a WA install from 2006-2008, then I went to DirecTV for 18 months. Now I am with Dish again, and I have EA. I do not know if it is the MPEG-4 encoding or what, but the SD channels seem to look sharper on EA than they did on WA, and especially DirecTV.
Like I said, it is subjective, and could just be my eyes.
 
Western Arc has newer more powerful satellites and Eastern arc has hand me down satellites with weaker signals. Weaker signal strength more rain fade. Western arc covers 110/19/129 sats, eastern arc covers 77/72.7/61.5 sats. Western arc has Mpeg 2 sd channels mpeg 4 hd channels and Eastern arc has ALL mpeg 4 channels on sd and hd channels. Mpeg 4 takes up less room on your hard drive compared to mpeg 2. Eastern arc was a pain in the ass to peak and achieve a good signal in south east Texas where I am and western arc is easier to peak.

This year they will start launching new sats to go to 72.7 and I think 77 . They will also move some older sats into those slots as well on 77 and 61.5 to help provide more transponder use. I will wait till next year to see if the signal stength improves before I try to use my eastern arc dish once again.
 
As far west as the OP is, I would not go with EA yet. I am in Alabama, so I have very good signal strength from all satellites and hardly ever get rain fade.
I really dont know why they try to do EA installs much farther west than the Mississippi River.
 
well you can peak ot the 110/119 fairly easy in the 70s usually, and depending where you have service, how hot you can peak the 129, avg., high 50s and 60s, sometimes into the 70s. The 61.5 peaks pretty easy into the 60s and 70s on EA. 72.7 and 77, are usually in the mid 50s, and 30s to mid 40s, respectively, depending on what region you have your dish. Overall EA doesn't peak as high, and has about the same rain fade as WA. Its all about tuning pretty much.
 
How do you know whether you should be EA or WA? I am in Grand Forks ND, 58201 and put up the 1000.2 pointed at 110/119/129 and have a great signal. Every time I call Dish on something unrelated they keep telling me I need a new dish installed.

???
 
Western Arc has newer more powerful satellites and Eastern arc has hand me down satellites with weaker signals. Weaker signal strength more rain fade.

When you consider rain fade I'd take a look at local weather patterns.

My Eastern Arc 1K4 setup has had far less rain fade then my previous 1K2 Western Arc dish even with the weaker signal.

Here in Northern Indiana we get heavy lake effect precipitation off of lake Michigan which would take out my 1K2 western arc dish all the time. Sometimes for an extended period as the lake conjures up more rain. The eastern look angles weather the storm much better with only a few picture breakups this summer and no total loss of signal.
 
How do you know whether you should be EA or WA? I am in Grand Forks ND, 58201 and put up the 1000.2 pointed at 110/119/129 and have a great signal. Every time I call Dish on something unrelated they keep telling me I need a new dish installed.

???

for new customers unless the HD locals are on 129 (or line of site issues) the customer gets a EA dish. I've seen a few of them popping up here in Minneapolis

As for GF, the Fargo HD channels are on 129 so you should have a Western Arc dish
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist...l&sub=true&sort=&order=&beamMap=CIEL2_SB8.jpg
 
Weaker signal strength more rain fade. Eastern arc was a pain in the ass to peak and achieve a good signal in south east Texas where I am and western arc is easier to peak.
For me in MN the experience was opposite on both of these points. The southeast look angle seems to have less rain fade for me even though my signal starts off 10-15 points lower on 72/77 compared to 110/119. I also found that with the elevation screw and azimuth cam on the 1000.4 dish it was significantly easier to peak than pretty much any other dish I've worked with. (albeit I haven't worked with that many)
 
When you consider rain fade I'd take a look at local weather patterns.

My Eastern Arc 1K4 setup has had far less rain fade then my previous 1K2 Western Arc dish even with the weaker signal.

Here in Northern Indiana we get heavy lake effect precipitation off of lake Michigan which would take out my 1K2 western arc dish all the time. Sometimes for an extended period as the lake conjures up more rain. The eastern look angles weather the storm much better with only a few picture breakups this summer and no total loss of signal.

As usual , your mileage and or geographical region will vary. IN my area of Texas we get signals in the high 30s and low 40s on 72.7, the main sat for programming. I could get in the 50s on 77 sat but it would always show in my system info screen as yellowed and it would show that it was losing signal locks several times a day. Like I said I will revisit the eastern arc dish , I have installed next to my dish 1000.2 sat dish , next year once new sats go up and the signal strength goes up. I really want to use it since to me the pq is better on sd channels on eastern arc compared to western arc. But in southeast Texas we can get quite a lot of rain , hurricanes excluded, and rain fade would kill me on eastern arc with the low signals I get today.
 
Any folks here in the area of New England (Conn)? How is rain fade with EA? And to the poster who has tried both D* and E* (mpg4 SD) which was better E* with EA?

Thanks
John
 
If you live in a bad neighborhood, a car full of gangsta rappers may do a drive by and yell out "Eastern Arc, muthaf'er!" if you choose a Western Arc dish.

Reverse that if you go Eastern Arc.
 
As usual , your mileage and or geographical region will vary. IN my area of Texas we get signals in the high 30s and low 40s on 72.7, the main sat for programming. I could get in the 50s on 77 sat but it would always show in my system info screen as yellowed and it would show that it was losing signal locks several times a day. Like I said I will revisit the eastern arc dish , I have installed next to my dish 1000.2 sat dish , next year once new sats go up and the signal strength goes up. I really want to use it since to me the pq is better on sd channels on eastern arc compared to western arc. But in southeast Texas we can get quite a lot of rain , hurricanes excluded, and rain fade would kill me on eastern arc with the low signals I get today.

I just got my 1000.4 here in SD and 77 comes in in the low 20s, 61.5 in the mid 30s and I haven't had any issues. Thankfully it doesn't rain here, and while I don't get any signal from 72.7, it seems to be working OK. I have received some 'signal loss' errors, but its working. I am counting the days until the new satellites go up, though. Kinda like when I lived in Seattle and 129 would drop every 30 mins, even with the large pan dish.

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