Question that appears that Dish customer service could not answer...

Bruins4877

New Member
Original poster
Dec 1, 2012
3
0
Hampstead, NH
Hello peeps,

I am in the market to ditch Comcast as my tv provider since I'm paying ridiculous money. I would have to keep them for internet, but that is fine, I can deal with that. So I have been looking for options to replace my cable tv. I contacted DirectTV and had everything set up to have them come out and install a dish and I was pretty happy with my deal, then came the installation. I had an install time scheduled between 8-12. Got a call around 11:15 to say they would not be out until maybe after 2pm. Strike one. The Installer came out, I told him what I needed (4 tvs, 1 with DVR, 3 HD receivers). After seeing this, he said "Ok, let's go and see if we can actually see a signal". Now I'm thinking he should had done that FIRST. Strike Two. He then took out his little contraption to locate the satellite. He said that I have 3 trees directly in the way of the signal. Ok, so now I have wasted a day of my personal vacation time to have them come out and tell me they can't hook me up...Strike Three.

On to Dish Network and a question. Can anyone tell me if the dish installation is in the same direction as DirectTV? I tried to talk to their customer service and all they seemed to want to do was sign me up. I asked specifically if the direction of their dishes are the same as DirectTV since I know there are BIG ASS trees in the way. I am NOT going to take another day off from work if they can't tell me this. I live in Southern New Hampshire and just need to know the general direction that the satellite will have to point. I downloaded the Dish Align app for the iPhone just to see if I could in fact have any type of service, however I do not know which satellite that Dish Network uses.

Any help at all would be appreciated. Does Dish have to be pointed towards the southwest like DirectTV? Can someone tell me which satellites I would have to point to? I would love to give Dish my money, but I'm not going to waste yet another day for them to come out and tell me they can't do it. I would rather like to know in advance that they can't do it.
 
Dish looks SE or SW depending on programming and area we use satellites 61.5 72.7 77 110 119 and 129

Schedule an appointment for one of your days off, since Dish could care less we work every day of the week all year long
 
Hello peeps,

I am in the market to ditch Comcast as my tv provider since I'm paying ridiculous money. I would have to keep them for internet, but that is fine, I can deal with that. So I have been looking for options to replace my cable tv. I contacted DirectTV and had everything set up to have them come out and install a dish and I was pretty happy with my deal, then came the installation. I had an install time scheduled between 8-12. Got a call around 11:15 to say they would not be out until maybe after 2pm. Strike one. The Installer came out, I told him what I needed (4 tvs, 1 with DVR, 3 HD receivers). After seeing this, he said "Ok, let's go and see if we can actually see a signal". Now I'm thinking he should had done that FIRST. Strike Two. He then took out his little contraption to locate the satellite. He said that I have 3 trees directly in the way of the signal. Ok, so now I have wasted a day of my personal vacation time to have them come out and tell me they can't hook me up...Strike Three.

On to Dish Network and a question. Can anyone tell me if the dish installation is in the same direction as DirectTV? I tried to talk to their customer service and all they seemed to want to do was sign me up. I asked specifically if the direction of their dishes are the same as DirectTV since I know there are BIG ASS trees in the way. I am NOT going to take another day off from work if they can't tell me this. I live in Southern New Hampshire and just need to know the general direction that the satellite will have to point. I downloaded the Dish Align app for the iPhone just to see if I could in fact have any type of service, however I do not know which satellite that Dish Network uses.

Any help at all would be appreciated. Does Dish have to be pointed towards the southwest like DirectTV? Can someone tell me which satellites I would have to point to? I would love to give Dish my money, but I'm not going to waste yet another day for them to come out and tell me they can't do it. I would rather like to know in advance that they can't do it.

Directv now points at the 99, 101 and 103 Sats
It's hard to imagine you couldn't get thier Sats seeing they are so close together now, however, the Dish Net. Sats iirc are 110, 119 and 129 (?) ...
Correct me if I'm wrong DISH guys, but I know the 101 is in use for sure, think I got the others right.
 
for hd in NH you should only need 61.5 and 72.7

they are a little farther south and a little higher elevation than direct
 
There are 2 sets of satellites Dish uses, one southwest (110, 119, 129 west latitude), and south to southeast (61.5, 72.7 and 77 west latitude). The group of satellites that you would use is determined by the market that your locals come from. In your case, being in southern NH, you are most likely in the Boston market, which has the choice of either set of satellites, so you should probably be ok with Dish finding a signal for you, provided your due south and slightly southeast skies are unobstructed.

Go to this site and put in your address and zip and then select the 61.5 and 72.7 satellites...it'll show you the direct line of sight of the sats and you can zoom in to your house. You can even move the origin to the exact location where you want the dish installed.

http://www.dishpointer.com/
 
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As you're in NH, a Dish installer would most likely aim the dish towards the "Eastern Arc" satellites (61.5W, 72.7W and 77W as mentioned above), although if the signal is blocked they might use the 110W, 119W and 129W "Western Arc" satellites. Visit http://www.dishpointer.com to get an idea of what, if any your neighboring trees may be in the way of the above satellites. Enter your address and select one of the satellites, or under "Multi-LNB" you can choose Dish 1000.2 (western) or Dish 1000.4 (eastern).

HTH
 
Dish came out to my house and told me there was a neighbors tree blocking one of the sats on the Western arc, so if I went with that one I would not get HD but I would get locals. If I went with the Eastern arc I would get HD but no locals. Of course I went with the HD and no locals and put up an antenna for my locals.
 
for hd in NH you should only need 61.5 and 72.7

they are a little farther south and a little higher elevation than direct

Yes, 61.5 and 72 is all you need and those satellites are toward the south and southeast and pretty high in the sky.
 
Thanks for all the information. I'm glad I stumbled onto this site. I see there is a wealth of knowledge. I think I might be able to use Dish. I will call this week and schedule an appointment.
 
Be glad the trees are in the way in the southwest...just noticed that Boston locals on western arc are SD only.
 
There are 2 sets of satellites Dish uses, one southwest (110, 119, 129 west latitude), and south to southeast (61.5, 72.7 and 77 west latitude).
Didn't notice this until the edit window had passed...meant to say longitude, not latitude. :facepalm
 
The EA satellites are usually easier to view in New England as the elevation is pretty high. WA was/is much more likely to face some kind of obstruction.

One caveat to this is the dish sits upwards and more easily collects snow. If the dish isn't easy to reach, have a super-soaker handy. ;)
 
An update...setup for installation and the installer came out today. Using his phone, he said he thought he'd have no problem getting a signal. After showing him what I needed inside the house, he then went on the roof with the dish to test out the signal. Was on the roof for 45 minutes. Could not get line of site. I'm not completely convinced that this guy knew what he was doing. So no Dish, no Direct TV, stuck with crappy, expensive Comcast. If Dish would really like my money, they could send out a real Dish employee and not a sub-contractor who may or may not know what he is doing. I think I may knock down some trees on my neighbors property the next time there is a storm.
 
Call a local dealer. They'll give you the best service and they know what they're doing.
 
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