Hopper Flex TV Self-Install?

[CB750]

The local small town cable company has been sold for the second time in as many years, and I fully expect another price increase to follow the the last $10 bump in monthly fees.

I would prefer not to be in a contract situation, and have been considering a month-to-month Dish FlexTV agreement. It looks like picking up Hooper & Joey hardware and a dish from SolidSignal would suit my situation.

I would like to do a self-install; I'm a former RF tech, and used to climb towers for a living, so I'm confident that I can handle the dish install and alignment. I have plenty of obstruction-free, two-story high, southern facing antenna mount locations. My home is relatively new and I'm pretty sure that the cable outlets are wired with RG-6; I vaguely recall that it was quad-shielded, but I need to pop a wall plate to verify the specific cable type.

I plan to install the Hopper in the living room and use the Joey for our basement home theater. My hope is that the coax currently in place will be sufficient; the basement is fully finished with a drywall ceiling, so accessing the coax infrastructure or pulling new cable would be tough.

I'm looking for suggestions from the experts. My first question is that I would like to have a dish / LNB set-up that would support local HD channel reception; do I need the Dish 1000+?

Thanks in advance...

 

[TimberWolf]

The dish you need will be determined by which sat your local HD channels are on.
It will be a 1000.2 for western arc and a 1000.2 or 1000.4 for eastern arc.
Make sure you also get a solo node with the equip.
The hopper needs to be up and running and activated before even connecting the joey.

 

[CB750]

Thank you for the info TimberWolf.

I'm about 35 miles west of Kansas City and would want the KC HD locals; it's my understanding that KC HD locals are simulcast on both arcs. Is this correct?
I vaguely recall reading that the western arc would be a better choice (with equal LOS quality) since the satellites are newer?

 

[Bobby]

Take a look here for a view of what channels are on the different arcs: SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - Dish Network Kansas City, MO

As you can see, you would get the most channels with Western Arc. Newness of the satellites means little, but your best best is Western Arc. I am guessing that 35 miles west of KC is still in the KC DMA, that is important if you want KC channels....