I think I am going to lose 129 and my hd channels

downhilldad

Member
Original poster
May 30, 2007
11
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I installed a dish1000.2 last summer and could not get 129 to come in. I thought my view of the sky was c lear of obstructions. 110 and 119 had great signals. Then the seasons changed and the leaves flell off the trees and I tried a check switch test and there it was,129 with a 30 + - signal stength. Actually enough that I signed up for hd programming, but I dont get them all. The seasons are changing again and I want to keep my hd, but to do so, short of cutting down all the trees in my yard, I wonder if installing a dish for the 61.5 bird is the way to go? Is it higher in the sky, which would be good for me I think? I just got done talking to a dish tech and she didnt know much. She did c laim that dish will be phasing 61.5 channels of hd content to 118 which i didnt know was there. They said dish would come and install another dish for 61.5 for 99 bucks. Is this the way to go. It shouldnt be to hard to do myself but how big of a dish, do I need a multi switch in between the two dishes? any help would be greatly welcome. Thanks
 
Getting 61.5 rather than 129 is a good idea, if you can, given your location and potential desire for local HD or regional sports networks. Your location determines whether you really want to top your tree, or rather get a wing dish for 61.5. On topping: when I moved into this house, I couldn't get 119 until I topped my maple tree, and that topping (which didn't look sever to me at all) has lasted 3 years going on 4. I seriously doubt you would need to chop down a single tree, much less several.

It is true that the international channels formerly on 61.5 are moving to 118.7. If you don't care about those, then you don't care about 118.7. The latter requires a much bigger dish anyhow.
 
You might ask again about the $99. I wanted to add 61.5 because my locals (HD) are there now and they asked for $65 and a 2 year commitment. I said that I heard it was free and they went down to just the commitment.

I would emphasize that you have signal problems and ask what they can do about it.
 
National HD channels are mirrored on 129 and 61.5. So, unless there are local channels you are concerned about, you could just put up a wing dish and you're done. A Dish 300 is big enough, but probably you can find a Dish 500 as cheaply. Just get a DishPro dual LNB to attach to it, and wire that into your 1000.2. The 1000.2 already has a multiswitch for a "wing dish".
 
I actually have a super dish, wil that work as a wing dish? I see my locals for fargo ND are not available yet but are uplinked on 61.5, what does that mean? Thank you!
 
Yes, a superdish is overkill for 61.5, but it certainly will work and (due to it's size) reduce your outages due to rain. My dish 500 for 61.5 is already good enough that I'm almost never without programming from that satellite. It takes a downpour of almost Biblical proportions to kill the signal, and even then it only disappears for about 5 minutes.

Dish is actually following a standard, called DVB-S, for their satellite transmissions. Part of this standard is a channel map, confusingly called an "uplink report" around here, which tells the receiver where to look for every channel. This channel map is transmitted on every transponder Dish has in their system, so that no matter what you're tuned to, the receiver will always have the latest info.

If Fargo is already in the channel map, then we know where it's likely to go when it goes "live", i.e. which satellite/transponder it will be on when it's actually available. But sometimes dish moves channels around and where they're uplinked now doesn't mean much. Or sometimes they're uplinked but never become available! Usually an uplinked channel means it's imminent, or coming "soon". ;)

Hmmm. I don't see Fargo listed for tomorrow, nor do I see it listed here. Don't know when it will be available.
 
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