Updated Plans for 148W Alaska Hawaii Service

[nelson61]

Section 1 of the grant for operating E5 at 148W states that Echostar has told FCC that they will be designing a new satellite for 148W that will provide service to Alaska/Hawaii (+?). A confirmation of plans to keep 148W slot permanently.

http://licensing.fcc.gov/ibfsweb/ib.page.FetchAttachment?attachment_key=693361

 

[MikeD-C05]

Well that will be nice. No more second hand service for Alaska and Hawaii. They should have all the same hd as the rest of the 48 states.

 

[AKGolf]

Okay any estimates on how long it'll take to get this up there? Two small dishes, one for 119 and one for 148 would be easy for most in Alaska and Hawaii.

It also talks about moving E5 to 148. I wonder how long it'll take and if they'll put any HD on it?

 

[MikeD-C05]

Okay any estimates on how long it'll take to get this up there? Two small dishes, one for 119 and one for 148 would be easy for most in Alaska and Hawaii.

It also talks about moving E5 to 148. I wonder how long it'll take and if they'll put any HD on it?

If echostar 5 is all you have to depend on at 148 , you're screwed. That wobbly satellite has so much wobble that strength would drop out every 15 minutes or less. I hope that they are working on quickly replacing the existing satellites up there with a new one .

 

[djmaui]

Thanks for the heads-up Nelson61.

Great news for the future, I just hope they still go ahead with lighting up the 5 HI and 5 AK TP's on Ceil-2 @ 129 in the mean time. (Up to 35 hd channels?)

I have a 24" dish all ready to point at 129 as soon as some channels are uplinked and switched on for the Hawaii spotbeam. :

 

[AKGolf]

Thanks for the heads-up Nelson61.

Great news for the future, I just hope they still go ahead with lighting up the 5 HI and 5 AK TP's on Ceil-2 @ 129 in the mean time. (Up to 35 hd channels?)

I have a 24" dish all ready to point at 129 as soon as some channels are uplinked and switched on for the Hawaii spotbeam. :

I pointed my six footer at 129 and was able to get another 16 premium(HBO, Showtime, Etc.) channels and the HD NBA games.

 

[djmaui]

I pointed my six footer at 129 and was able to get another 16 premium(HBO, Showtime, Etc.) channels and the HD NBA games.

Do you think you folks in Alaska can pick up the 129 conus signal and the not-activated-yet spot beam (like we do on 110)?. We in Hawaii have to wait for the spotbeam signal. Nelson61 indicated a 20" dish for the spot and that the conus signal is out of reach without a huge dish in Hawaii.

Are your new Channels numbered in the 55** range (like the 110spot)?

 

[AKGolf]

Do you think you folks in Alaska can pick up the 129 conus signal and the not-activated-yet spot beam (like we do on 110)?. We in Hawaii have to wait for the spotbeam signal. Nelson61 indicated a 20" dish for the spot and that the conus signal is out of reach without a huge dish in Hawaii.

Are your new Channels numbered in the 55** range (like the 110spot)?

Nothing on the spots yet, all of the HD I'm getting is from transponders 17-32. I posted the numbers in the Uplink center, but signal strength mostly in the 20-35 range. I was able to watch on one transponder that was 20, but I think I need to replace something. All of my even transponders were lower than the readings a local dealer had.

 

[AKGolf]

Do you think you folks in Alaska can pick up the 129 conus signal and the not-activated-yet spot beam (like we do on 110)?. We in Hawaii have to wait for the spotbeam signal. Nelson61 indicated a 20" dish for the spot and that the conus signal is out of reach without a huge dish in Hawaii.

Are your new Channels numbered in the 55** range (like the 110spot)?

The channels are in the 300 range. They're also maybe in the 5400 range, I'm at work so can't check right now. There are also other channels that are red in the guide like MGM.

 

[mike123abc]

Dish could have dedicated spots for AK and HI on the satellite, and have another beam pointed to the lower48. If they had all 32 TPs in both spots, they could essentially offer an all MPEG-4 service similar to Eastern Arc with a reasonable sized single satellite dish. They could actually have most TPs the same between the AK and HI spots, just a 3-4 different for locals.

Assuming 32TPs, 16 to duplicate 72.5, 3-4 for locals, and 12-13 to duplicate 129/61.5. A couple short probably, but they really could drop the SD version of the HD channels and probably make it up. If they had 100 HD channels duplicated, that would be the needed 4 TPs if they just provided the HD version.


They could also do something like lease the Lower48 side out like they do with other satellites and perhaps do small markets LiLHD.

Knowing Dish they will not get fancy and it will not really help.

 

[AKGolf]

Dish could have dedicated spots for AK and HI on the satellite, and have another beam pointed to the lower48. If they had all 32 TPs in both spots, they could essentially offer an all MPEG-4 service similar to Eastern Arc with a reasonable sized single satellite dish. They could actually have most TPs the same between the AK and HI spots, just a 3-4 different for locals.

Assuming 32TPs, 16 to duplicate 72.5, 3-4 for locals, and 12-13 to duplicate 129/61.5. A couple short probably, but they really could drop the SD version of the HD channels and probably make it up. If they had 100 HD channels duplicated, that would be the needed 4 TPs if they just provided the HD version.


They could also do something like lease the Lower48 side out like they do with other satellites and perhaps do small markets LiLHD.

Knowing Dish they will not get fancy and it will not really help.

It's nice to see that they have plans for Alaska and Hawaii. Until then at least we'll get a few more channels from 129. I wonder how long before both companies drop the SD feeds, that would save some space.

 

[mboron]

So many options...how will this all shake out? Currently in SE Alaska, we use 119 & 110. Some up north are also aimed at 129. Now (prob. in 5 years) we'll have our own sat. at 148. It sounds like we could be re-aiming dishes up here like crazy. I have done alot of installs where there will be serious LOS issues to swing from 119 to 148. Nothing is impossible, but lots of big trees and mountains. I'm glad they are thinking of AK and Hawaii, just wondering where we will eventually be pointing at. I would consider future LOS issues when doing installs now if I knew what the future LOS would be!