The troubles with 129 - A summary

DaveyBoy26 said:
I check my 129 signal fairly often, and unless there is a bad storm it never varies more than 2-3 points up or down.(I also average a 75). Also have no problems with HGHD, looks pretty good from where I'm standing.:)
Are you using a single Dish 1000 to get HGHD on Sat 129? or a separate dish for 129?

TIA - Tallon Dancer
 
Switched back to some of my legacy stuff. I'm now hitting 110 percent on 61.5 versus 40 percent on 129. When we get the Dish 500 back up, we should be at 120 percent on 110/119 versus 80 percent with the Dish 1000.

MNHTUG said:
Our Voom dish on 61.5 pulls a strong signal. After two install attempts and lengthy conversation with advanced tech last night, I'm going to throw a DP lnb onto my Voom dish and connect it to the port on my DP Twin where 129 would normally be connected. Hope this works.

This thread is good. In my opinion, the thread should include solutions to the troubles around 129 bird. My solution is above. I'm sure others have done this. Hope it works.
 
my 129 signal is from 70-90 depending on tp. I use a dish 100 and have had no problems so far. on 110 i get 85-110 and on 119 I get 95-115, on 61.5 I get 90-120. The setup I have gets a great signal.
 
Heh yes much varies on location with all these issues (excluding the fact that the bird is messed up) For example i go from FULL (125%) signal to 40 or so quite often@%!@ ;0 (I do have a very large dish on it though)

-B
 
pabisc said:
my 129 signal is from 70-90 depending on tp. I use a dish 100 and have had no problems so far. on 110 i get 85-110 and on 119 I get 95-115, on 61.5 I get 90-120. The setup I have gets a great signal.
I'm sorry but I don't understand your setup.

Are you using a single Dish 1000 to get 110, 119, 129 and 61.5?

I thought that you had to have a seperate 'receptor' for each satellite. And the Dish 1000 only has three which are usually aimed at 110, 119 and 129. Is this not correct?

TIA - Talon Dancer
 
DEATH TO 1000...LOL I'm a installer in K.c... I try to use 2 dish set up for all, seems to bring in better sig on 129. But the hightest i hit was 88...lol


It's going to be fun,having to swap all these out as soon as the 100 plus is avail.
 
lakebum431 said:
I hear you. Depending on the transponder, I am at about 109 on 119, 100 on 110 and 75 on 129.

I finally got time up at the cabin to follow the advice suggested by lakebum431 and others. Our installer came back today to re-align the Dish 1000 for better reception of 129. AND... Now my signal numbers look a lot like lakebum431's :)

Interestingly, not only did 129 get into the mid 70's but 119 is now better than 110. And both are above 100 on most transponders.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread,
Talon Dancer

p.s. HGHD is still the canary in the Dish HD coal mine but at least it doesn't have to be put on life support every time a cloud passes by :)
 
Seems that I had good 129 signals, but then a thunderstorm came a along,

129 is so sensitive that a little storm can throw it out of perfection, where before with just 110 and 119 you did not have to have perfection.

again, when is the 129 sat due to be replaced? Did Dish order a replacement, these orders take 2-4 years.
 
What I've seen in other threads suggests that a long-term replacement will not happen until some time in 2008. But a temporary replacement could be in place in 2007.

So you may be living with what we have now for the next 12 months or so.

And a signal in the 70s will experience much more "storm" fade than one in the 100s.
 
Well...The installer just left after installing a two dish set-up, actually adding a second dish for 129. My signal went up about 30 points and I finally receive all the HD ch. I pay for! Anyway, email dish, email your local installer, and I was a squeaky wheel, courteous wheel, and I got my problem resolved. So for me, the two dish set up is working for now!
 
lakebum431 said:
Well, alot of this vaires on location. I have a Dish 1000 in Atlanta (that I have now adjusted) and I can get about 75 on 129 which isn't really causing any reception problems. (There are MPEG 4 video and audio problems with the locals, but that is a different story). And your 110/119 numbers are off too. Maybe you just have a dish that isn't correctly aligned.

I see you are in ATL as well. I am in Marietta and the HD loclas are quirky, in particular t WXIA the NBC station has constant drop outs. I wonder how much is Dish vs. them as I get OTA as well and noticed their signal strength is down, used ot be in the 90's now in the low to mid 70's. But I find all the ATL HD Locals on 129 do seem to glitch eveyr so often, NBC has multiple second outages.
 
Does anyone know what the requirements are to get a Dish 1000 plus from E* ??
I know if your locals are on sat 119k then they have to install a 1000 plus but what else would get it ??

Laters,
Mikef5
 
I have a Dish1000 and a Dish500 pointed at 61.5. Looks like all my Voom channels are using 61.5 which I seems to be receiving about a signal of 100 on. When I go to channel 9901, which is probably the only thing I get on 129, I get a signal of 93. That seems pretty good for this problem bird. The odd thing is that 110 gets anywhere from 78 - 90. And 119 gets between 68 - 75. So it appears to be the opposite of most others here.

A Dish tech is coming out this weekend to swap my 811 for a 622. Should I have them re-point the Dish1000 to try and get better signals on 119 and 110? Or is this standard for the midwest (Chicago area)?
 
At my wits end! Still no luck tunning in 129(on a Dish 1000).
I have Readjusted Azimuth, Elevation & Skew to no avail.
These Dish 1000's must be a ******* to get tuned for all three satellites.
Diagnostics indicates all is hooked up but no signal on 129.

I am now thinking wing dish. I have an extra Dish 300 to use.

Where do I find my Azimuth, Elevation & Skew just for the 129 wing dish with zip 66776 ?
 
At my wits end! Still no luck tunning in 129(on a Dish 1000).
I have Readjusted Azimuth, Elevation & Skew to no avail.
These Dish 1000's must be a ******* to get tuned for all three satellites.
Diagnostics indicates all is hooked up but no signal on 129.

I am now thinking wing dish. I have an extra Dish 300 to use.

Where do I find my Azimuth, Elevation & Skew just for the 129 wing dish with zip 66776 ?


Use the DP Dual (single "eye") in the center 119 position on your dish. Make sure your skew is set for your zip code and your mast is plumb. Do a switch test and then peak the 119 signal by itself with just the one LNBF.

Once you get your dish peaked to the 119 by itself, put the LNBFs back where they belong. Connect everything as they should be, do another switch test, and everything should fall into place.

The Dish 1000 really is not that difficult to aim. You very likely may have a LOS (line of sight) issue. Should you conclude that you need/want to to use the wing dish for 129, here is a calculator you can use:

http://www.sat-sales.com/calculator.php

And here is a fun little site that can aid in determinig LOS using the sun, moon or stars:

http://perso.numericable.fr/~gjullien/satellite.htm

I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting these links, but any one can do a search and find them on their own.

:welcome and good luck!
 
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Ok tried again and no luck! Sure would like to get HD for the Super Bowl.

Put level on mounting arm and made sure was plumb.

Rechecked Azimuth: 211 Elevation: 39 Skew: 117 - matched my zip 667XX

Hooked DP single LNB to the 119 and ran check switch.

Tuned 119 in. 119 Signals ranged from 92 to 124.
Locked everything down.
Reinstalled the LNBs, checked switch again and it showed

119 & 110 are OK and show Twin as device

port 3 which should be 129 shows Sat as conn, an X in the trans,
device Dual

status = reception verified
switch = DPP Twin


getting strong signals on 119 (92 to 124) 110 (82 to 96)

But get absolutely NO SIGNAL on 129.

After that called Dish CSR got no help there. Wanted me to schedule for dish to come out, I said no I would try again myself.

Decided to try wing dish. Used a Dish 500 with the DP single ran coax from there
Back to the twin LNB IN.

Set wing dish elevation at 34.5 – rotated throught the horizon and no change in
129 signal tone.

I don’t know what else to try.