How soon should I connect my 61.5?

[vampz26]

As I stated previously in a thread. I have a dish pointing to 61.5 presently unused. It is part of my original Dish install a few years back where I used it to get my locals here in Chicago, and Voom as part of the deal.

Then, when I upgraded from th 942 to th ViP622, Dish included the newer Dish1000 as part of an 'upgrade'. Now I get my HD locals from the 129 location and nothing from 61.5...there sits the dish...a monument to a then obsolete configuration...

Now I'm hearing that there may be some life in the old Dish yet! I guess all I'm wondering is how soon should I get this thing turned back on? Would I lose my Chicago HD locals? Would I lose my Comcast Sportsnet Chicago (Gasp! that can't happen)...Is this anything I can do myself? Or do I need to have an installer come out? (I can be pretty handy if necessary...but hardware really isn't my thing... )

Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[rcdallas]

If you don't need it, then I'd probably leave it. If you Chicago HD locals come off 129, you'd loose them.

If the 61.5 has a DP Dual in it, just take a piece of coax and run it up to the DPP Twin on your D1000 and remove the 129 orbital connection at the DPP Twin, screw in the 61.5 run a check switch and that's it.

 

[digiblur]

Yep, I'd hook it up as long as it is still pointed correctly. That way you'll have 61.5, 110, 119, and 129.

 

[DISHGAGUY]

I presently have a dish 1000.2. I have 119, 110, and 129 with a dish 500 with 1 LNB on it for 61.5. The Dish 500 is connected via cable to the 1000.2 and I get 4 satellites on my receiver. I do not know if your dish 1000 is capable of 4 satellites, but if it is just run the cable for the 61.5 satellite to the dish 1000 and you are good to go. I do not know how soon dish is going to do anything with the 61.5, but Skyangel stops broadcasting today March 31, and that should free up space for some channels.

 

[vampz26]

I presently have a dish 1000.2. I have 119, 110, and 129 with a dish 500 with 1 LNB on it for 61.5. The Dish 500 is connected via cable to the 1000.2 and I get 4 satellites on my receiver. I do not know if your dish 1000 is capable of 4 satellites, but if it is just run the cable for the 61.5 satellite to the dish 1000 and you are good to go. I do not know how soon dish is going to do anything with the 61.5, but Skyangel stops broadcasting today March 31, and that should free up space for some channels.

I don't know either. My 'upgrade' was done on 4/22/2006, it does not look to be the 1000.2 from pics I've seen, and I don't know if other models have the capability you speak of.

 

[TalonDancer]

Check the info in this thread for more details of difference between the Dish 1000 and 1000.2.

FWIW Dish swapped out my Dish 1000 to a Dish 1000.2 because the older Dish 1000 did not have the extra connector to hook up a wing dish with a simple "daisy chain" cable off the LNB.

Talon Dancer

 

[mdonnelly]

I was going to say use a DP21, but then I noticed you have a dual tuner, so that's not such a great idea.

You could either upgrade the Dish to a 1000.2, or get a DPP44 switch. The 1000.2 is about half the price of the switch, but only has three outputs, while the switch has four.

But I don't think there's any need to rush out and do it today. Maybe by Summer.

 

[DISH_NC]

When we got Raleigh locals in HD on the 118 Sat, we got a Dish 1000+ to get the 118, 110 and 119... Even though the dish has an LNB for 129, I chose to upgrade the LNB on my 61.5 to a DishPro and use that instead of the defective 129 Sat. All 4 go into a DPP44 switch.

Since it looks like Raleigh HD locals will be on 61.5 in MPEG4, I might have no use for the 1000+ anymore. Might have to put it on Ebay and go back to a DISH500 and the 61.5 or wait for new Sats in the east....

With an angle of attack of 45 deg for 61.5, I get much better signal and less fade than 129.

 

[vampz26]

Thanks for the advice. After looking at the accompanying thread references, I defiinitely have the Dish1000, and NOT the 1000.2, which means no easy way to connect the 61.5 dish...

My first reaction was to call Dish and whine about my dish being 'damaged' due to the severe winter weather we've been having in Chicago, and see if I can't parlay that into a dish upgrade and maybe tip the installer a few bucks to do the connection for me.

And then, I saw a post by Scott indicating that there is a new dish on the horizon intended for use with the Eastern Arc, advising those looking to upgrade to just wait on that new dish...

Of course I could just do both, assuming Dish is generous enough to upgrade my dish and I just follow standard upgrade procedures later when the new dish comes out for the arc...of course i can't say I've seen a lot of generosity out of Dish over the years...hmmm....

 

[Hemi 6.1]

If you got it ,Hook it up!

 

[cummingsje]

Just called Dish to ask about getting my HD LIL's. Mine just came on line last week (Flint, MI). I have a 1000.2 pointing at 110, 119 and 129, and since my HD LIL's were added to 61.5 they are coming out this Wed. to install a second dish at no cost. I wasn't real crazy about a second dish but I have had a great experience all-around with Dish and didn't want to go anywhere else.