Is Dish moving to eastern arc?

[jcanavera]

I just talked to a Dish customer service person regarding swapping out my Hopper for a Hopper with Sling. She noted that an installer would be coming out to do this since they want to replace my LNB and reaim my dish to the eastern arc satellites. No one at advanced technical support can tell me why other than the Engineers at Dish now want to move customers to the eastern arc.

My son just replaced his Direct TV with Dish and the installer had orders to install his dish using the eastern arc satellites. The installer told me that all of his orders in the last month were to point to the eastern arc. Previously in St Louis all the orders used western arc.

I've heard rumors about a western arc satellite having problems and another that HD signals are stronger with the eastern arc. The installer for my son disputed the signal strength issue.

Anyone know what is going on? The folks at the Dish support forum have no idea why other than they know that new orders and changes get eastern arc.

Jack

 

[MikeD-C05]

Most likely they are getting ready to eliminate some of the cities that are on both arcs. St.Louis might be moving to eastern arc and off western arc. My locals are on both arcs right now, but I would expect that to change if they are using the spotbeams for other cities.

 

[bluegrassboy75]

How would I know which arc I'm on?

 

[jcanavera]

If that's the plan, then it has to be long range, since with a metropolitan population of almost 3 million people, I'm sure there are a lot of Dish customers here. The logistics of moving an entire area will take many years. I guess I have to wonder whether moving me will be an improvement or not. I currently have a clear shot both for either arc, but I do notice I lose HD much more quickly than SD when we get to the thunderstorm season. This winter I lost HD during some snows, a first for me. SD remained on during the winter HD losses.

Jack

 

[dwarren2]

How would I know which arc I'm on?

Easy, do a check switch. If you are on the earc you will see 61.5/72/77. Where are you located. Do you have 1 or 2 dishes on the roof.

 

[bluegrassboy75]

Easy, do a check switch. If you are on the earc you will see 61.5/72/77. Where are you located. Do you have 1 or 2 dishes on the roof.

Paragould, AR. 1 dish

 

[boba]

If that's the plan, then it has to be long range, since with a metropolitan population of almost 3 million people, I'm sure there are a lot of Dish customers here. The logistics of moving an entire area will take many years. I guess I have to wonder whether moving me will be an improvement or not. I currently have a clear shot both for either arc, but I do notice I lose HD much more quickly than SD when we get to the thunderstorm season. This winter I lost HD during some snows, a first for me. SD remained on during the winter HD losses.

Jack

SD requires less information to produce a picture so it makes sense that HD would fade first.

 

[KazooGuy]

Had to be moved to the EA a couple of weeks ago, DISH was in a big rush to get it done. Tech that did the work said he as doing several every day.

 

[dwarren2]

When I was on a split arc, there were a number of hd channels that I was receiving in SD only. The csr wanted to charge me for a tech visit to change me over. I complained very loudly that I was not getting what I was paying for and the csr finally relented and scheduled it as a free tech visit. Being that the dish is much more verticle, I get less loss of signal from rain and snow.

 

[bluegrassboy75]

Easy, do a check switch. If you are on the earc you will see 61.5/72/77. Where are you located. Do you have 1 or 2 dishes on the roof.

Thanks...I must be on warc. I don't have any of these.

 

[dan188]

I'm on a mixed arc. due to my locals being on western arc

 

[dwarren2]

The question would be, when will Elmira get HD? When that happens, I bet they will be on the earc.

 

[nelson61]

There are a number of cities that Dish started transiting to eastern arc service last fall. These are typically multiyear projects aimed at freeing up space on the western arc and improving quality of service for everyone involved. There are no problems with the western arc satellites.

 

[3HaloODST]

Hopefully they'll get WA on 8PSK before they force all the dual-arc DMAs to EA. That would be the logical thing to do IMO.

 

[TNGTony]

Thanks...I must be on warc. I don't have any of these.

FYI: Western Arc is 110º, 119º, and 129º

And you really don't have to do a switch test. Just choose any channel and press the info button twice. At the top left of the info screen it will show you what satellite location that channel is coming from.

 

[nelson61]

This is a list of cities that are having new customer eastern arc installs . Probably means that someday or some year, the SD western arc feeds for these will be shut down. But, lots of service calls before that could happen.

Charlotte,NC
Birmingham,AL
Minneapolis,MN
Raleigh,NC
Tampa,FL
Joplin,MO
Cleveland,OH
GrandRapids, MI
Ft.Meyers, FL
Norfolk,VA
Richmond,VA
Detroit,MI
W.Palm Beach, FL
Orlando,FL
PerryCounty, MO
Savannah,GA
Nashville,TN
Memphis,TN
Mobile,AL
Charleston,WV
Huntsville, AL
Kansas City, MO
Des Moines, IA
St. Louis, MO
Pittsburgh, PA

 

[Tampa8]

Nelson61 is that list available somewhere? JUST yesterday afternoon a house three houses away (In Tampa DMA) had DISH installed, and as everywhere here since changing a few years a ago from EA installs to WA it was a WA install. An EA install easily could have been done.
When I had 118 added a while back I asked about the WA installs and if they saw any difference, and he said exactly what I was told when I was put on the WA, that the problems with rain fade are far less and they get far less complaints related to that. But also they get a fair amount of international installs and using the WA to begin with makes it that much easier. I am surprised to see Tampa or most any FL area being EA as the first choice.

 

[harshness]

These are typically multiyear projects aimed at freeing up space on the western arc and improving quality of service for everyone involved.

Unless these LIL markets are on CONUS, they're not recovering any usable downlink bandwidth by abandoning spot beams that point to the other arc.

 

[nelson61]

Nelson61 is that list available somewhere? JUST yesterday afternoon a house three houses away (In Tampa DMA) had DISH installed, and as everywhere here since changing a few years a ago from EA installs to WA it was a WA install. An EA install easily could have been done.
When I had 118 added a while back I asked about the WA installs and if they saw any difference, and he said exactly what I was told when I was put on the WA, that the problems with rain fade are far less and they get far less complaints related to that. But also they get a fair amount of international installs and using the WA to begin with makes it that much easier. I am surprised to see Tampa or most any FL area being EA as the first choice.

Clarification: Those with international packages are still being configured for Western.

 

[mike123abc]

Clarification: Those with international packages are still being configured for Western.

It would make some sense if Dish were to mirror 118 on 77, at least the lower 2/3 of the US could use EA only and still get internationals.