Very concerned about Tulsa HD at 129

[tornado]

Currently Tulsa HD is on 119. After searching I see where on May 20 osu1991 stated that the Tulsa HD locals were no longer available on the 119 spots and he goes on to ask something about their being made available on the 129 spot. Today I received a card from Dish stating that I needed a free upgrade of my Dish Network satellite antenna in order to keep receiving my local HD television programming which is Tulsa. I was not aware of this change at all because I did not see any news of it and I am still getting my local Tulsa HD television programming from the 119 spot. I called the number on the post card and Dish told me. I made an appointment for them to come out and I am concerned about what they can do. I have never actually received 129. I have line of sight issues with everything except 61.5 which I now use very reliably for national HD. I have a a pole mounted Dish 500 and a pole mounted Superdish in the yard just to get 119, 110, anhd 118.7 and I have a seperate Dish antenna on the side of the house for 61.5. How are they going to fix this? I enjoy receiving Tulsa locals in HD? I do not want to lose what I have and I am not sure I should change it because as they say, it is not broken and I do not want to break it. I am very concerned about this. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[osu1991]

The locals just became available this week on the 129 spotbeam. I am assuming your internationals and HD are coming off the Dish 500 pointed at 61.5 and you are getting 110 and 119 from the SuperDish. I don't think there is anything left on 105 or 121 that the Superdish would be picking up. Depending on what internationals you are getting that will probably install a Dish 1000.2 (110,119,129) or a Dish 1000 plus for (110,118.7, 119, 129). You could still keeep the 61.5 dish with either of these. Some international programming is still on 61.5 but most of it is on 118.7 now.

 

[tornado]

I used to receive international from 121, but Dish repointed my yard mounted 121 Superdish when they moved to 118.7 and now my international programming is coming off of 118.7. I have always had to have a seperate Dish 500 for 119/110, also yard mounted because I do not have a clear enough line of sight to have them all located on the one Dish. I really do not have any issues regarding line of sight with 61.5. Also I have used 61.5 since 1999 and am resistent to change and for some reason I think it is better than 129 even though I have never picked 129 up. To the best of my knowledge there is no way to recieve 61.5 and 129 simultaniously nor is it possible to recieve more than four orbital locations. I am very concerned about the reliability of 129 especially at my house with all the obstacles located in that direction. I am not even sure 129 would even be easily obtainable. I am really concerned about this. Thanks for any help figuring this out. I feel like this is going to be very difficult and I am either going to have to give up 61.5 or Tulsa locals. They might not even be able to obtain a signal from 129 in my yard. I know I am praising what I have, but I have a really good Dish Network setup. Besides Tulsa HD, is 129 better than 61.5 for national HD?

 

[osu1991]

129 is fine. Brand new satellite at 129 that just went into operation around the end of last year. That is why everyone's HD locals are being launched or in some cases moved. 129 is loaded with spot beams. I never had any problem with 129 on the old satellite and the new one called Ciel 2 is pretty strong.

If you only have a Superdish and a Dish 500, then you are getting 110 and 119 off the Superdish and 61.5 off the Dish 500 as you can't get 121 and 61.5 off a Superdish. Do you have a third dish for 61.5?

If the installer can get LOS then you will get a Dish 1000 plus. If LOS is a problem he can use separate dishes from different locations, the installer just may need a little persuasion as it will be a time consuming install.

 

[tornado]

Oh yes believe me osu1991 I have a seperate dish for 61.5 and I definately have 119 and 110 seperated out from the Superdish on a seperate Dish 500 antenna. I know that is totally against the proper Superdish installation procedures but due to many trees in the way the installers said it should be done that way. I have three seperate Dish antennas in various locations joined together with a DPP44 switch. It is good to know 129 works good, but like I said I have been a 61.5 user since 1999 and I do not think I can use both. I think receiving 129 may be a challenge because of trees and I do not think I can keep 61.5 and have 129 at the same time. Do you have any other insights that will help me make a decision? I am not very technically oriented at installing satellite antennas, but I think I should have created this thread in the technical discussion area. Thanks for your answers osu1991. What do you think I should do with my present cofiguration since Tulsa HD locals will only be available at 129, I do not receive that orbital location, and I receive 61.5 instead if you understand my situation? I know this is confusing. I only want to do what is best for my situation. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[tornado]

129 If LOS is a problem he can use separate dishes from different locations, the installer just may need a little persuasion as it will be a time consuming install.

This sounds like good advice. I am not sure I want to get rid of 61.5 though.

 

[osu1991]

You can do 5 orbital locations. I know I read on here that somebody had it hooked up and working,but I don't remember if they did it with separate dishes and external switches. I have a Dish 1000 at home and use 2 separate dishes at the lake house with a DP34 switch. I have Dish 1000.2 at my moms and at my dads houses. I know people have both 61.5 and 129 also, but there is no rhyme or reason as to which satellite the receiver chooses to use when there are duplicate channels, such as the national hd. I have slowly moved away into fta setups lately and kinda lost track of the newer Dish setups.

I would stand behind your Dish 500 that has 110,119 and look 10degrees to the right of the Dish and if it clear there, then you should be able to get 129. If you get 110 and 119 fine on the Dish 500 then I would replace it with a Dish 500 plus. The 500 plus will get 110, 118.7 and 119 on a single Dish. If your LOS to 121 with Superdish is still good, then you may have LOS to 129 from that spot and you could put a separate Dish 500 there for 129.

 

[jmccurrytech]

Below is a screen shot of my setup screen. I have a Dish Eastern Arc 1000.4 and a Dish 1000+. I feed 129,110,119 from the 1000+ to the DPP44, then the 77 out on the 1k.4 to the DPP44. The output of the DPP44 goes into a DP21 "Satellite 1" In. On the 118 I split it with a DP Approved Splitter and feed both feeds into 2 separate DP21's on "Satellite 2" In (if you don't have a dual tuner you don't need the splitter, and you only need one DP21).

http://www.satelliteguys.us/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1650/cat/500

 

[oljim]

Sounds like all you need is move the 61.5 dish to 129 and keep everything else the same.

 

[digiblur]

I still don't understand why the OP has a Dish500, Superdish w/ 118.7 LNB, and a 61.5 wing dish.

If you have LOS to 110/119 on a Dish500 then you have LOS to 118.7 in that same location. The installer should put up a Dish500+ then a Dish500 129 wing in a location that has LOS to 129. And by the way you will have stronger signals from 129 than 61.5.

 

[osu1991]

I have seen a lot of strange installs around here. I can understand the wingdish for HD, but unless there was no los for 110 I don't know why they repointed the Superdish instead of replacing it with a plus dish.

 

[tornado]

Perhaps mine is a strange install. Hopefully I can get it all worked out. I was told I had no line of site for 110 from my Superdish so when 121 Superdish was installed Dish 500 was left where it was placed on a pole in the front yard when it was moved off the house due to very large trees in the line of sight for just about everything except eastern arc. osu1991 you are very smart to figure that out. Installers have taken extraordinary measures to make it possible for me keep Dish since I moved to this house six years ago. To obtain internationals at 118.7, when they moved from 121, the installer that came out said he would just change the lnb and use the Superdish being used only for the 121 orbit, 119 and 119 seperated off. The repoint installer said 119 and 110 would just stay where they were due to the line of sight issues with 110 at the 121 Superdish location. The greater question remains, in order to keep Tulsa HD locals, will 129 be able to be added and will that mean pulling the plug on 61.5 and should I be concerned about pulling the plug on 61.5? I think it is slightly complex. By the way thanks for all of your pointers.

 

[Raymie]

I'd configure the install as follows:

Dish 1000+ for 129, 119, 118.7, and 110
Keep the 61.5 wing dish if it's an int'l unavailable at 118.7; otherwise, get rid of it because 129 and 61.5 carry the same HD

 

[osu1991]

If the installer can get line of site to 129 where the Dish 500 is now, then he can just replace it with a Dish 1000 plus and you are good to go. If 129 is blocked he can still put a 500 plus dish there and I bet he can get 129 on a wing dish where the old Superdish is.

I wouldn't worry about losing 61.5. The new sat at 129 is fine and all the national HD is duplicated on 129 and 61.5

 

[tornado]

Thank you very much osu1991 and Raymie. Also don't want to forget to thank everyone else. Thank You.

 

[jcrash]

chainsaw will fix everything.

Got my card Friday...they same Sunday and swapped my dishes....and I got a free upgrade from an ancient sw64 to a DPP44. So, now I can finally replace my other two SD receivers with HD PVR's.

 

[tornado]

The installer came out today to install the 129 degree orbital position but ended up not being able to because a few things were required to get the best results so rather than an installion it turned out to be a very good site survey but I am not concerned about rushing things because Tulsa HD locals are still on the 119 spot. The installer said 129 would be available from the location of my Dish 500. I was also told I could eliminate the Superdish that was being used only for 118.7 and have a one dish solution. Unfortunately the pole my Dish 500 is mounted on is not big enough to support the new dish and it will have to be replaced with a bigger one. He said they have to call before they dig and bring the different pole. I think it is going to be a lot of work with my very large system and this weather is really hot. The new dish is now scheduled for installation Friday morning. I have come a long way from not even knowing HD locals were moving. I sure felt a lot more knowledgeable after all the guidance recieved here. Perhaps I will have an overall improvement of my antenna system for receiving Dish. Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[tornado]

chainsaw will fix everything.

I do not want to get in trouble.