I have WA, neighbor got EA

[mjstraw]

I've had WA HD setup for almost 2 years - 2000.2 dish receiving from 110, 119 and 129. Clear view to all 3, with what seems to be typical signal levels compared to what others post here.

129 suffers occasionally from rain fade, snow hasn't been a problem, don't think I've ever lost 110 or 119.

Neighbor has had a single-dish SD installation for almost 10 years and recently upgraded to HD. They installed what appears to be an EA dish - points more to the south than mine (which points off to the southwest).

He wasn't home during install, doesn't know anything about "arcs" and probably doesn't care but I'm curious why they would have used EA instead of WA as they did for me. He has the same "sky view" as I do so I don't think it's due to an obstruction of any sort.

It will be interesting to see if he suffers more or less rain fade than I do. If less, then I may push to have them convert me to EA once my 2-year commitment is done.

Thoughts?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

They were not actively rolling out Eastern Arc like they are now. Western Arc was the correct setup for when you were installed and still works for you today.

 

[Tampa8]

In reality, if you have all HD receivers, or at least not any Mpeg2 receivers, it really doesn't matter, though I am curious about locals.

 

[vash1090]

signal strengths depend on your area, but you can always count on WA since it was previously the standard for everywhere

 

[Jimmerinwi]

To me, I prefer WA over EA. Reason being, EA dish being a higher elevation collects a lot more snow. We had a bad heavy wet snow here a while back and pretty much all we did for three days was scrape ice off EA dishes. I have a 1000.2 dish and would only trade it for a 1000.4 WA, NEVER would get EA.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[JosephB]

I'm interested to know which market you're in. I'm in Birmingham, AL and I have a WA setup (installed in Jan) and Birmingham is on the original list of EA cities. It seems like even though they have duplicated coverage with spot beams right now, they should standardize on one or the other. Go ahead and pick which one you're going to use in the future, even if it's years out, and save the money on repointing dishes later on. Otherwise it's just a waste.

 

[mjstraw]

Western PA, Pittsburgh DMA for locals. Never had to deal with snow/ice problems so I'll probably stick with WA and occasional rain fade (devil you know vs devil you don't know) although I may request 1000.4WA if they don't develop any problems between now an August (end of my commitment).

Thanks for the insights