Pointing a Dish1000

[Tom Bombadil]

Well, those numbers for the D500 at 129 look lower than what people are getting for a D1000 that has been peaked for 129.

Perhaps if one peaks their D1000 for 129 & 119, then uses a D300 or D500 for 110, it might yield a better set of numbers than using only a D1000.

Of course, going with a non-Dish 24" at 129 along with a D500 might be better yet.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

With a lot of people reporting signals in the 60-70 range for the 129 bird, Dish could get a bad rep for rain fade. I know when my neighbor's D500 was a bit out of alignment and reading around 70, that he was losing lock a lot.

 

[rixhd]

I have a tech scheduled to come out Thursday, Feb 16th to try and see what can be done to receive higher readings for the 129 satellite. I may be leaving the Dish 1000 to handle the 110 & 119 sats and then getting a Dish 500 to handle the 129 sat.

Please let us know how it turns out. Good luck.

 

[RandallA]

With a lot of people reporting signals in the 60-70 range for the 129 bird, Dish could get a bad rep for rain fade. I know when my neighbor's D500 was a bit out of alignment and reading around 70, that he was losing lock a lot.

129 signals are very low compared to 119 and 110. They are a little better in some areas but in general they are low. I know in the West coast they are in the 60s and 70s with most receivers. My 311s get some TPs in the 80s but I know these receivers reading are always higher than the others.

I'm using the 119 side in the D500.

 

[dale2345]

I also live north of Seattle (in Lake Forest Park). In early November 2005 I had a Dish 1000 installed for my newly purchased Dish 942. The Dish network technician who did the installation got signal strengths of 50-59 for the transponders on 129 and told me "that's what we are getting in Seattle". I repeatedly lost signal/tv pictures on the Voom channels and called Dish technical the next day. They sent a second Dish tech out in 3 days to tweak the system. His work made very little difference (maybe raising the reading 2 or 3 point on most transponders).

I tried Dish technical again and was not offered any additional help. I gave up with Dish and hired a local satellite installer (for $288) to install a second mounting pole and utilize my unused Dish 500 antenna for the LNBF from Dish 1000 for 129 only.

My readings now this morning (no rain or wind) range from 73 to 84 on 110 (not counting 111 for the spotbeam); are 80 to 95 on 119, and 63 (TP 21, 13) to 83 (TP 6, 9,12) on 129. I still get periodic loss of signal; i.e. yesterday I recorded a 1 hour music program on Rave, TP30 and when I viewed it later 15 minutes into the show it jumped to the end because of signal loss.

I have seen unexplained signal drops like TP 30 (Rave) dropping from 68 to 47 while at the same time another transponder say 12 had only dropped from 83 to 78. I can't understand that happening.

 

[Crunch]

Claude

I also live it upstate SC and get upper 60s on 129 with the 1000. I get 80s and 90s on 110 and 100+ on 119. I will lose 129 in a good rain as the signal drops to the mid 40s. Have only had the 1000 a few weeks. When the installers got higher numbers on the 129 signal, 110 would not come in. The only problem I ran into was they said the 1000 was aiming 3 degrees lower (34 vs. 37) than the 500 and I ended up topping two trees to play it safe

Dish installed the upgrade for free so I do not know a lot about the guys who did it. It took them a long time and they had to reinstall some screws in the mount to get everything to work. Mine is on the edge of the roof over the garage. I assume they knew what they were doing.

PS. I do not think they sealed around the new screws. Should I put something on these for waterproofing?

You'll definely want to get some sealant (I usely get clear) to insure you do not get weather damage. I also usely get machine screw and bols for the installation to secure the dish better than wood screw or the like.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

For comparison, I get a 95 from 61.5 using a D300 dish. This is from the upper Midwest.

It is beginning to sound more and more like it would be in my interest to stay on 61.5 for HD and not go to a D1000.

 

[downriver]

I also live north of Seattle (in Lake Forest Park). In early November 2005 I had a Dish 1000 installed for my newly purchased Dish 942. The Dish network technician who did the installation got signal strengths of 50-59 for the transponders on 129 and told me "that's what we are getting in Seattle". I repeatedly lost signal/tv pictures on the Voom channels and called Dish technical the next day. They sent a second Dish tech out in 3 days to tweak the system. His work made very little difference (maybe raising the reading 2 or 3 point on most transponders).

I tried Dish technical again and was not offered any additional help. I gave up with Dish and hired a local satellite installer (for $288) to install a second mounting pole and utilize my unused Dish 500 antenna for the LNBF from Dish 1000 for 129 only.

My readings now this morning (no rain or wind) range from 73 to 84 on 110 (not counting 111 for the spotbeam); are 80 to 95 on 119, and 63 (TP 21, 13) to 83 (TP 6, 9,12) on 129. I still get periodic loss of signal; i.e. yesterday I recorded a 1 hour music program on Rave, TP30 and when I viewed it later 15 minutes into the show it jumped to the end because of signal loss.

I have seen unexplained signal drops like TP 30 (Rave) dropping from 68 to 47 while at the same time another transponder say 12 had only dropped from 83 to 78. I can't understand that happening.

I've had 'em come out here five times, so far the best I can get on the 129 is upper 60's with a d1000. Rain fade is a significant problem. Have not had any heavy rain in a couple of weeks.

I bought a can of the satellite silicone spray ( King Rain Shield) and it seems to help in light rain but we have not had enough rain since I applied it to really form an opinion.

 

[rdinkel]

For comparison, I get a 95 from 61.5 using a D300 dish. This is from the upper Midwest.

It is beginning to sound more and more like it would be in my interest to stay on 61.5 for HD and not go to a D1000.

If Dish will give you a D1000 and DPP44 switch, keep the 61.5 as well as 110/119/129 off the D1000. That way, should the 129 signal get too low, the receiver will automatically switch over to the 61.5 for any channel mirrored there. That is the set up I have---but I paid for it and did my own installation. Works well.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Sounds like a plan.

Sounds like THE plan!

 

[LER]

I convinced dish to give me a D1000 and a 61.5 dish (since I wanted to make sure
I could get CBSHD-E).

I don't have the numbers handy, but IIRC, 129 is weak also here in Austin.

I'll have more info once the 622 and HD set get here.

LER

 

[Tom Bombadil]

A question.

My dish setup is all self-installed, all legacy gear. I have a D500 with a legacy twin and a D300, tied through SW21s into two lines that run into my house and eventually both into a 942.

If I replace my 942 with a 622, Dish might offer to install a D1000. Won't know until I make the call. Since I have only 1 receiver and technically need to acquire only three orbital positions, would the installer likely use only a DP21? Or is that even required on a D1000?

It seems unlikely that I would get a DPP44. And if I don't then I don't see how I could keep my D300 pointing at 61.5 in the mix (I know I would have to get a new Dishpro LNB for it).

I don't know how I could make a case that it is mandatory that I have equipment that has to access four orbital positions or drive multiple receivers. My locals are at 121, so maybe I could say I might need to access this in the future. Or maybe I should sub to Sky Angel for one month at 61.5?

And how long of a lifespan would my old legacy gear be expected to have? Some of it is now 8 years old. It continues to work fine.

 

[webbydude]

Tom, you can definately make a case for the D1000 upgrade. Worst, worst case scenario involves you keeping your Legacy equipment as is and the installer just swapping out your 942 for the 622. Seriously doubt that will happen tho.

As you already alluded to, the Legacy stuff IS getting up there in years and probably could stand to be upgraded to DP or DPP.

 

[Grandude]

From the sounds of the above discussions, it seems to me that Dish has made yet again another mistake with the release of the Dish1000. Those at the outer limits of its footprint, ie Seattle, the left coast in general and perhaps even the upper midwest will have problems along with the already known problems with the upper east coast, Florida and Texas.
I was looking forward to the upgrade to a Dish1000 when getting an upgrade to an MPEG4 receiver but now I'm not so sure. If I do end up upgrading, I will want to have a second dish installed for 129. I could use my dish which is now pointing at 148 but would lose CBSHD unless they move it to 129.

Here in Santa Rosa, CA we get plenty of heavy rain storms in the winter/spring time frame and I expect that rainfade would be as bad as it is in Seattle.

 

[justlost]

I am located outside of Palm Springs.

I had two dish 500's for 110 - 119 and 61.5. I was getting 90+ on 119, 82+ on 110 and 90+ on 61.5. I installed a 1000 dish and got 85+ on 119, 80+ on 110 and 60-68 on 129.

Frustrated I went back to the two 500's, got my 119 back to 90+ and 110 to 84+. The second 500 is aimed at 129 and showing 78+. I am using the same dishpro+ and dishpro LNB's in all cases.

I did order an "I" adapter for the 129 500 to see if it will add anything centering the LNB ($12 why not try). Maybe I should try the dish 1000 with the dual LNB centered on 129. If I have some time I may try that next.

Im convinced, though, that if you can keep the two dish's, that is the way to go.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

So if one has a D1000 and wants to tie in 61.5, does it require a DPP44 or is there another combination of cascaded switches that will achieve this?

The more I read, the more I want to keep a 61.5 dish in the mix.

Actually, the more I read, the less I care about picking up 129 at all.

 

[SimpleSimon]

The 129 footprint and signal strength problems have more to do with the bird (old E-5) than the D1000. I suspect that once E-10 is live, they may move another bird into the 129 slot just for that reason.

At least, I HOPE so.

 

[RandallA]

"The 129 footprint and signal strength problems have more to do with the bird (old E-5) than the D1000."

I agree with Simon, this bird is so old that no matter what you do, you will always get low signals. Since they are moving more and more channels to 129, I hope it gets replaced soon.

I finally got to replace the Y adapter in the D500 with an I adapter and the first results are that I don't see any difference. The signal levels are at the same levels as they were before, heck they're probably 1 or 2 points less than before. I didn't spend too much time peaking it but I don't see a big difference. I might give it another shot tomorrow.

Edit: Just checked signals again and all receivers are showing an increase of 8-10 points on each TPs. WTH! This is half an hour after I initially checked them. Oh well, that's what I was looking for at least 10 pts. higher.

 

[blwncrewchief]

Hi everyone!

I just thought I would share what I found with the 61.5/110/119/129 signals. My base set up is a 411/811/508 with a dpp44. My setup started with a 105 superdish for my locals on 105. Upon getting the 411 I thought the single dish setup with the D1000 would be nice for just a single dish and I could do without the locals. So I got a D1000 and took down the superdish. Peaked the D1000 everywhich way and 119@ 85-90, 110@ 80-85, and 129 @ 65-70 was the best I could get. No obstructions. I was not happy with 129 so I ordered a Dish300 and put it up and the Superdish back up. Got 119@ 100-105, 110@ 95-100, the Dish 300-129@ 80-85, and swung it to 61.5 and get 95-100. So I'm sticking with the two dish setup. It seems that the decision is single dish or signal quality? You decide

 

[justlost]

Hi everyone!

I just thought I would share what I found with the 61.5/110/119/129 signals. My base set up is a 411/811/508 with a dpp44. My setup started with a 105 superdish for my locals on 105. Upon getting the 411 I thought the single dish setup with the D1000 would be nice for just a single dish and I could do without the locals. So I got a D1000 and took down the superdish. Peaked the D1000 everywhich way and 119@ 85-90, 110@ 80-85, and 129 @ 65-70 was the best I could get. No obstructions. I was not happy with 129 so I ordered a Dish300 and put it up and the Superdish back up. Got 119@ 100-105, 110@ 95-100, the Dish 300-129@ 80-85, and swung it to 61.5 and get 95-100. So I'm sticking with the two dish setup. It seems that the decision is single dish or signal quality? You decide

I'm with you on this one! Here on the west coast, if you want good signal quality on 129 - go with a two dish setup if you can!:up