What satellite am I aimed at?

gittist

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 30, 2014
164
68
Pennsylvania
It seems to me that while was I was surfing I saw a channel on DishTV that showed a picture of a satellite dish and had some verbiage along the lines of "you are pointed at 61.5 .." Does anyone know what channel that is? (Eastern US). But then maybe saw it while surfing on my FTA dish,....getting old and can't remember s....
 
I don't have a hopper. Thank you for the test channel for 61.5. Is there a way to make the receiver tune to 72? Or, would that require repointing the dish?
 
I don't have a hopper. Thank you for the test channel for 61.5. Is there a way to make the receiver tune to 72? Or, would that require repointing the dish?
The individual channels are assigned the Sat they come from, not the other way around .... You can't choose to see a particular Sat like you could with C-Band .... when you chose a channel you want to see, the box automatically goes to the correct Sat for the channel.
 
I don't have a hopper. Thank you for the test channel for 61.5. Is there a way to make the receiver tune to 72? Or, would that require repointing the dish?
Selecting any of the channels that are carried on 72.7 will cause the receiver to select the correct LNB. The link below lists the current channel/satellite assignments. The Sirious/XM channels for instance are all on 72.7.

 
I don't have a hopper. Thank you for the test channel for 61.5. Is there a way to make the receiver tune to 72? Or, would that require repointing the dish?
Sounds like you are pointed at Dish Network's Eastern Arc of satellites (61.5, 72.7 and 77). If your lnb on the dish has 2 "eyes" they pick up 61.5 and 72.7. If your lnb on the dish has 3 eyes they pick up 61.5, 72.7 and 77. Satellite 77 was turned off for USA Dish customers a couple of days ago.

You are already aimed to pick up 61.5 AND 72.7 because the dish can see all the satellites it is designed for - no adjustment necessary.

The Dish receiver will automatically tune the proper satellite for whichever channel you tune by accessing the database of channels it has in memory.
 
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Selecting any of the channels that are carried on 72.7 will cause the receiver to select the correct LNB. The link below lists the current channel/satellite assignments. The Sirious/XM channels for instance are all on 72.7.

yeah...at this point we may be leaving DishTV after 10+ years because when I look at that list nearly 100% of the channels we watch are on 61.5 and guess which satellite is behind a wall of trees that will have lots of leaves in the spring? Our only hope of staying with Dish is that the satellite is high enough in the sky that the trees don't interfere but they're pretty tall trees and 61.5 has an elevation of 40 degrees for our location.

Did Dish slowly migrate the channels over slowly, like a lot during the summer and early fall, or did they move them all at once? If they moved a lot before the leaves fell we might not have to bail, if they didn't I guess I better start looking for Plans B & C.
 
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yeah...at this point we may be leaving DishTV after 10+ years because when I look at that list nearly 100% of the channels we watch are on 61.5 and guess which satellite is behind a wall of trees that will have lots of leaves in the spring? Our only hope of staying with Dish is that the satellite is high enough in the sky that the trees don't interfere but they're pretty tall trees and 61.5 has an elevation of 40 degrees for our location.

Did Dish slowly migrate the channels over slowly, like a lot during the summer and early fall, or did they move them all at once? If they moved a lot before the leaves fell we might not have to bail, if they didn't I guess I better start looking for Plans B & C.
I don't recall the exact schedule, but channels have been moving from 72.7 to 61.5 for at least a year as I recall. Apparently it was done in part to make room for the channels that moved off of 77, like the few locals that were only on 77.

You could download the free Winegard TV Signal Finder App to your phone and use the augmented reality feature to see if the dish has a clear view of the sats.


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Thank for reminding me about the Winegard application. I had forgotten about them since my Ku FTA dish was set up a few years back. As it turns out it looks like we're going to be ok since the satellite is above the tree line, not by much mind you but above. The trees are pretty old so I don't think they'll go any higher.

Again thanks to everyone who contributed.
 
As it turns out it looks like we're going to be ok since the satellite is above the tree line, not by much mind you but above. The trees are pretty old so I don't think they'll go any higher.
I had my good ol' sugar maple tree topped 3 times to allow LOS to WA. I was able to say goodbye to WA when EA became available. Or maybe it was when I upgraded to my first HD receiver, a 722. Forget which it was. Before that, I had mixed arc on a 625 and 311 to get my locals off 61.5. Or maybe it was my locals. My memory of these events is getting a bit hazy. :crying
 
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