Signal Reliability - Eastern Arc vs. 110/119?

djmeaney

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2008
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We've been having some signal issues with our 110/119 install.

We've had a couple of Dish Techs out this week the first said it was trees and the second said it wasn't trees!

Here's the question, assuming the second Dish Tech is correct and line-of-sight is not the issue, is an Eastern Arc signal less susceptible to rain/clouds than 110/119?

I live about half way between Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield , Massachusetts in zip code 06029.

The 119 signal strength is currently between 30 and 35 on most transponders with a high of 50 on one transponder. This is on a day with blue skies and low humidity. The 110 signals are around the mid 70s, and after the Tech that was here yesterday aligned the dish (signals were 2 - 5 lower before alignment). Both techs said there would be no line-of-sight issues with Eastern Arc.

Here are more details on my circumstances if you want to read on:

We rarely had loss of picture through the winter and early spring, but starting about 2 weeks ago we began to frequently lose the signal. There seems to a pretty strong correlation between the signal loss and the sprouting of tree foliage.

Tech that came out last Sunday said trees were definitely the issue. He didn't climb on roof but stood behind dish from the ground (dish is on the lower corner of the garage roof) and used the sight glass tool to determine that the neighbors tree was the issue. He called Dish to explain that original install was done back in November when there no leaves on the trees. As a result, Dish scheduled a tech to come out and do an Eastern Arc install with a 722 receiver (to replace our 625 DVR - 110/119 install) we only have a SD TV so no benefit other than better LOS.

Tech comes out on Friday with a work order that only says a receiver swap, and he says he doesn't have the dish required for Eastern Arc because the work order didn't say EA. (I don't know why the techs don't carry spares -- the tech on Sunday didn't have a 722 or the right dish either -- could have potentially solved the problem right there and then!)

Yesterday the tech goes on the roof checks the dish location with his sight glass tool and says the tree is not the problem. He realigns the dish and is surprised the signal didn't go up more, but says its not the trees. He then explains that the clouds can be a problem. When he was hear there was a high cloud cover, but it wasn't raining and the clouds were thin enough so that distinct shadows were cast on the ground.

He says an EA install probably wouldn't help since it's not an LOS issue. I said that's fine we'll keep what we've got then since we have no committment and installing the EA would require a 2-year committment. I got the imprression that at first he was pushing the 110/119 existing install because he didn' t have the right dish. After he went to his truck to speak with his supervisor he seemed to pushing for a reschedule to install EA.

I asked him everyway I knew how if EA would make a difference since LOS was not the issue and I could not get a straight answer.

If EA is truly not going to make a difference, and the recent signal loss is considered normal than I would like to keep my options open and avoid a 2-year committment.

But if current if EA yields a more reliable picture I wouldn't hestitate to make the committment. I like Dish's DVR technonlgy.
 
Everything sounds like you have a LOS problem with 119. It also sounds like the techs aren't doing a proper LOS survey. You have to verify BOTH sats separately. If they are using the figures from the Point Dish screen (or the manual), it just gives you the average of the two sats.
 
EA will give you a higher look angle than WA does so it is possible that you will get a stronger signal. Look about 90 degrees East of where your current dish is aimed how is the tree cover in that direction? Yes I think the first trch was correct that your problem is the growth of new foliage.
 
I think the same thing; line of sight issues. Try the eastern arc and it should be stronger signals than 119 depending on where you are in the country. In southeast Texas where I am, my signals are for 72.7sat- anywhere from 40 - 48 ,on 77 sat- anywhere from 45-50 and on 61.5 sat- I get from 45-60 depending on what transponder. Up in Connecticut, Scott G. says he gets in the 60s on 72.7 sat , which is the E.A. equivalent of 119 for core programming . So it definitely depends on where you are living how great your reception will be.Since you live near Connecticut you should be good to go with the eastern arc .
 
Yes, as best I can tell the locals are on the 119. That is were we have the most reception problems. Although on a couple of occasions the Dish ch. (#101?) was also getting blocky...
 
Yes, as best I can tell the locals are on the 119. That is were we have the most reception problems. Although on a couple of occasions the Dish ch. (#101?) was also getting blocky...

So if you switch to eastern arc, wouldn't that mean that you'd loose your locals?
 
Locals are on Eastern Arc

The Dish installer was here today and installed Eastern Arc with a 622 (had been told by a CSR that I would be getting a 722 -- but that another story).

Anyway, I do have all my locals on the EA, but they are all in HD not SD. Only concern there is that the 622 will fill up fast with HD recordings.
 
Using eastern arc only , you will be doing all your recordings in mpeg 4 , which takes up much less room. So your hard drive for 30 hours will have much more capacity with mpeg 4 only. Now add the external hard drive feature and pay DISH the 39.99 to activate it and you can archive all your shows and have even more room for shows. I use a 750gb external hard drive and I have heard some will even use 1 tb external hard drive. I use my ex. hard drive for all the movie and shows that I want to watch . Right now I am catching up on Castle , Medium , Heroes and Rescue me from earlier in the year. I saved them for the summer when there was less to watch. I also have about 130 hd movies to watch.
 
Something else that I think bears mentioning is that the dish for eastern arc has some fine tuning adjustments where the one for the western arc is like trying to adjust jello.
 
If this problem started when the leaves filled out on the trees, the trees are causing the problem. When I first got Dish, I needed to cut a few branches off a tree to get 119.

As was stated earlier, EA may be a solution as well.

PS.. Dam those trees! :)
 
Good to hear that you got EA installed, but I agree with the LOS issue. From what you described, the foliage was causing your problems with 110/119. Your signal strength should have been much higher. The tech that told you the cloud cover was the problem didn't have a clue, or didn't want to do the job and get on to his next job. The only time I've seen cloud cover have a significant impact on signal is with heavy precipitation.
 

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