Thinking of going to DISH from Sky Angel

[chapelrun]

First time poster,

I currently have Sky Angel which as you know is going away, 31 Mar 08. I own all my DISH equipment and am pointing at 61.5

I'm thinking of moving to DISH but have a few questions.

1. Does DISH offer, or is it possible to recieve a package for only the 61.5 location? The reason I ask is LOS may be a problem for 110 and 119 because of a large maple tree in the back yard.

2. I have read in this forum that DISH may offer additional channels after Sky Angel goes dark, does anybody have details or guesses as to what they might be planning for 61.5?

3. My equipment is fairly old, DISH 300 and a 3700 reciever; any reason to upgrade?

4. Lastly since EchoStar in lauching a new Satellite in Mar 08, would it be best to wait and see what DISH does with 61.5

 

[ptech]

First time poster,

I currently have Sky Angel which as you know is going away, 31 Mar 08. I own all my DISH equipment and am pointing at 61.5

I'm thinking of moving to DISH but have a few questions.

1. Does DISH offer, or is it possible to recieve a package for only the 61.5 location? The reason I ask is LOS may be a problem for 110 and 119 because of a large maple tree in the back yard.

2. I have read in this forum that DISH may offer additional channels after Sky Angel goes dark, does anybody have details or guesses as to what they might be planning for 61.5?

3. My equipment is fairly old, DISH 300 and a 3700 reciever; any reason to upgrade?

4. Lastly since EchoStar in lauching a new Satellite in Mar 08, would it be best to wait and see what DISH does with 61.5

Welcome to SatelliteGuys

You can see here what is on 61.5 which is mostly HD channels.

EKB: Dish Network Channels at 61.5°

Yes you will need to upgrade your equipment. Depending on where you live, you can get some local HD channels on 61.5 too. You can get really old if your willing to wait for Dish to do things.

Upgrade your equipment and buy the HD package.

 

[mattopia]

When you switch to DISH they will send someone out to replace your dish and receivers with newer ones. I'm pretty sure they will cancel the installation if you can't get the 110/119 locations, as most of their basic programming is there.

You can *probably* call DISH and tell them you already have things setup, give them your receiver number, and get setup with your current hardware. However, you won't get much at all off of 61.5 once the SkyAngel transponders are shut down. Look at the EKB list provided by the poster above me, subtract the SkyAngel channels, and that's what you'd have.

My recommendation would be to call DISH and "start fresh", keeping your fingers crossed that you have no LoS issues.