Local Channels 129

[bkitch88]

Last night while reading a thread noticed that HD Local channels are available in my area. So i got online chat with rep from Dish Network and she stated that for 59.99 they would upgrade my dish and I would be able to receive local channels. I told here I was going to DirecTV. She said give me a moment. She came back and said they would uprgrade for free on Monday. I don't understand, I have 2 dish on the side of my house now and need to upgrade? Will someone fill me in? Not clear on why I get local now in SD and all other channels available in HD but can not get HD locals???? Thanks, and this is my first post, so don't be too mean!!

 

[garys]

Most of the National HD comes on both 61.5 and 129, so you may have one or the other. HD locals are one 61.5, 77, 118 or 129. Some of them may be on two sats but most are only on one. You just do not happen to have the one with your HD locals on it. Chances are one of you dishes will be replaced or you may have one repointed to the sat with your HD locals (which will not cause you to lose most of your National HD channels, but it could affect your rsn HD channel(s).

 

[bkitch88]

Thanks Garys, 61.5, 119 and 110 are what I currently have. She says I will get 1 dish in order to get 129. Very confusing!

Thank you for the info!!

 

[dsp81]

What market are you receiving your locals from (ie, from what city are they broadcast)? From what I could find, you can't get locals from Dish in the Columbus, GA market - in which Lee County, AL is listed. Are you getting your locals from an antenna?

 

[bkitch88]

I am getting my locals from the dish. Montgomery, Al. but are only SD. In order to get HD, I must have 129 setup. Like I said above, I have two dish on my house, 61.5, 119 and 110. Is it simple to point one dish to 129?

 

[dsp81]

You are correct, Montgomery HD comes off 129 (EKB: Dish HD Locals) and Montgomery SD comes off 110 (Dish Locals in 178 cities). The reason you get national HD is because 129 content is mirrored on 61.5.

You could actually swing the dish pointed at 61.5 around to 129. But if Dish offered to upgrade you for free, then there you go. The new dish is the 1000.2 (Dish Network Dish 1000.2* DishPro Plus 110 118.7 119 129).

If you do decide to repoint the dish, you wouldn't actually need Dish to come out at all. To repoint the dish, find the angles at http://www.dishpointer.com. Select 129 from the drop down and put the marker where you have the dish. You'll need the elevation and and azimuth. Dishpointer will tell you the general direction you need to point. You'll need to plug that dish directly into one of your recievers and do a check switch (because it doesn't work if you try to point it while it is plugged into the other dish or a seperator). Run a check switch. Then swing the dish slowly back and forth until you get a hit on 129. Tweak the elevation and the azimuth slowly until you get the best signal. Then plug that dish back into the other dish and the 110/119 dish into your reciever. Run a check switch again and you are set.

 

[bkitch88]

dsp81, thanks for the information!! I believe I will wait on Dish to come Monday and upgrade!! Thanks again! Will I see a difference in quality with the new dish?

 

[dsp81]

The biggest advantage is a single dish. But there probably will be no change in quality. Maybe slighly lower signal levels (because of how the dish has to be designed) - but nothing noticable to you. This assumes the Dish tech does his/her job. If you have a drop in quality - Dish will send somebody out to re-peak the dish.

 

[rroeder]

I'm in the same boat as bkitch88 and also had 2 dishes that picked up 61.5, 110, 119. I recently had the single 1000 dish installed to pickup 129 and the locals in HD here in Colorado Springs, CO.

Before the switch the signal was always good and there was never an issue, regardless of weather, with the HD channels on 61.5, now with the new setup and the 129 sat. there is picture distortion and signal loss except when the weather is nice. I called and had a tech come out last week to make sure the dish was pointed correctly and he said it was fine and that was the best signal reception poss. for 129. The 110 and 119 are getting a strong signal in the 60's and those channels are fine, but the 129 is usally in the 20's or even lower when there is signal loss, high 30's to 40 when the sky's are clear and no signal loss.

The tech said something about they were working on correcting this and it was due to the local channels only recently being offered in HD here and a transponder issue I think he said. Does this sound legit? Maybe I should go back to the 61.5 sat and wait till they correct this issue with the 129 reception??

Sorry for the long rant!

 

[willie177]

You are correct, Montgomery HD comes off 129 (EKB: Dish HD Locals) and Montgomery SD comes off 110 (Dish Locals in 178 cities). The reason you get national HD is because 129 content is mirrored on 61.5.

You could actually swing the dish pointed at 61.5 around to 129. But if Dish offered to upgrade you for free, then there you go. The new dish is the 1000.2 (Dish Network Dish 1000.2* DishPro Plus 110 118.7 119 129).

If you do decide to repoint the dish, you wouldn't actually need Dish to come out at all. To repoint the dish, find the angles at Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com. Select 129 from the drop down and put the marker where you have the dish. You'll need the elevation and and azimuth. Dishpointer will tell you the general direction you need to point. You'll need to plug that dish directly into one of your recievers and do a check switch (because it doesn't work if you try to point it while it is plugged into the other dish or a seperator). Run a check switch. Then swing the dish slowly back and forth until you get a hit on 129. Tweak the elevation and the azimuth slowly until you get the best signal. Then plug that dish back into the other dish and the 110/119 dish into your reciever. Run a check switch again and you are set.

The dish 1000.2 only has 3 LNB's for 110, 119 and 129. the dish 1000+ has 4. I had to have the dish 1000+ to get my locals off of 118.7

 

[dsp81]

The dish 1000.2 only has 3 LNB's for 110, 119 and 129. the dish 1000+ has 4. I had to have the dish 1000+ to get my locals off of 118.7

That's a problem with Sadoun's link - the title of the page I linked to is wrong.

 

[willie177]

That's a problem with Sadoun's link - the title of the page I linked to is wrong.

I see that, the page is correct though

 

[sca]

I'm in the same boat as bkitch88 and also had 2 dishes that picked up 61.5, 110, 119. I recently had the single 1000 dish installed to pickup 129 and the locals in HD here in Colorado Springs, CO.

Before the switch the signal was always good and there was never an issue, regardless of weather, with the HD channels on 61.5, now with the new setup and the 129 sat. there is picture distortion and signal loss except when the weather is nice. I called and had a tech come out last week to make sure the dish was pointed correctly and he said it was fine and that was the best signal reception poss. for 129. The 110 and 119 are getting a strong signal in the 60's and those channels are fine, but the 129 is usally in the 20's or even lower when there is signal loss, high 30's to 40 when the sky's are clear and no signal loss.

The tech said something about they were working on correcting this and it was due to the local channels only recently being offered in HD here and a transponder issue I think he said. Does this sound legit? Maybe I should go back to the 61.5 sat and wait till they correct this issue with the 129 reception??

Sorry for the long rant!

might have worked better with the 61.5 just repointed to 129.
cant gaurantee that tho, not knowing what transponder or spotbeam they put the springs locals on.
30's and 40's were decent in the colorado area before ciel-2. not sure now.

 

[digiblur]

The tech said something about they were working on correcting this and it was due to the local channels only recently being offered in HD here and a transponder issue I think he said. Does this sound legit? Maybe I should go back to the 61.5 sat and wait till they correct this issue with the 129 reception??

Sorry for the long rant!

Nothing wrong with 129 reception. It used to be bad in some areas before Ciel-2 arrived and took over. Now reception across the US is great and it also has a ton of spotbeams to offer more HD locals too.

Sounds like you had a bad install. In my area I can get better signals from 129 than I can with 61.5.

 

[rroeder]

I would be curious to know what others in my area get for a signal on 129, like I said I had a 2nd tech(besides the guy who installed it) come out to check the dish allignment and he said it was fine. We are getting a snow storm right now and most of the channels on 129 are losing signal.

What is Ceil-2? When I subscribed to the HD channels they had to install a 2nd dish to pickup the 61.5 cause the original dish(same location as the current 1000 dish they just installed) was being affected by 3 large trees in the backyard.

Do you think this current setup is being affected by the trees? Both techs said the 129 signal was not being affected but then why did they have to install that 2nd dish before to get the 61.5 sat??

Thx for the help

 

[digiblur]

I would be curious to know what others in my area get for a signal on 129, like I said I had a 2nd tech(besides the guy who installed it) come out to check the dish allignment and he said it was fine. We are getting a snow storm right now and most of the channels on 129 are losing signal.

What is Ceil-2? When I subscribed to the HD channels they had to install a 2nd dish to pickup the 61.5 cause the original dish(same location as the current 1000 dish they just installed) was being affected by 3 large trees in the backyard.

Do you think this current setup is being affected by the trees? Both techs said the 129 signal was not being affected but then why did they have to install that 2nd dish before to get the 61.5 sat??

Thx for the help

If you have 61.5 and 129 most of the time the receiver will default to use 129 for national HD channels...but then sometimes not. Of course with just about any dish, snow accumulation will cause signal loss.

Ciel-2 replaced the aging Echostar5 bird at 129. It's more powerful than E5, has spotbeams for HD Locals, and covers just about the whole continental US.

Not sure why they put the 61.5..maybe poor signal from E5 in your area at the time or a line-of-sight issue to 129. Not sure.

Look at the 129 signals others are reporting around the US. Don't pay attention to the 1-16 transponders as those are spotbeams and change from area to area. Here's the thread:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...-post-your-129w-spotbeam-signal-readings.html

 

[rroeder]

I used to have 2 dishes and one picked up 61.5, now I have 1 dish and it's picking up 129, 110, 119

Most of the transponders above 16 were showing in the 20's to low 30's but it's snowing hard right now, altho that never affected the signal on 61.5

From your thread most were showing at least twice that, 2 posters from the Denver area were showing 60's and 40's for trans 21 & 22, that's also more than 2X what I'm getting.

Wondering if the trees are the issue even tho the techs said not, the 61.5 dish was pointed away from the trees while my current dish is pointed towards them.

 

[sca]

I used to have 2 dishes and one picked up 61.5, now I have 1 dish and it's picking up 129, 110, 119

Most of the transponders above 16 were showing in the 20's to low 30's but it's snowing hard right now, altho that never affected the signal on 61.5

From your thread most were showing at least twice that, 2 posters from the Denver area were showing 60's and 40's for trans 21 & 22, that's also more than 2X what I'm getting.

Wondering if the trees are the issue even tho the techs said not, the 61.5 dish was pointed away from the trees while my current dish is pointed towards them.

did they remove the other dish? it could have been repointed at 129 (if no trees in the way) instead of putting up the integrated dish. its possible that the 61.5 dish was removed because your locals will be coming off 129 in hd.

 

[rroeder]

did they remove the other dish? it could have been repointed at 129 (if no trees in the way) instead of putting up the integrated dish. its possible that the 61.5 dish was removed because your locals will be coming off 129 in hd.

That's correct only one dish now, local HD are only on 129 which is why they had to switch the setup.

Is it possible that the trees are causing the weak signal on 129 and thus the signal loss during bad weather? When the weather is nice out there is no signal loss tho.

Again, both techs said the trees are not an issue but with the previous setup the 2nd dish(for 61.5 HD channels) had to be installed due to the trees.

 

[garys]

It is easier to get great signals using two or more dishes than trying to get three sat locations with one dish.