When is 61.5 going to get a new bird?

So does that mean there are now three birds colocated at the 61.5 orbital location? Any word on what model of satellite will retire the other three?
 
I would think that the satellite at 61.5 ,that is continuing to have problems, will be the one they move to take up the 148 slot. It hasn't had one there in a while , and they do need to keep up the license there by moving a sat there.
 
E3, E6 and E12 are all around 61.5. They are close enough together (50 miles apart) that they appear to be one satellite to a small Dish. If you had a 16' dish you could probably easily see the three different satellites.

E6 is currently turned off. It is a hot spare. They are still waiting on the FCC to approve them using it at 61.5. They will have to notify the FCC if they turn it on too. I do not really expect them to use E6 unless E3 has more failures.
 
E3, E6 and E12 are all around 61.5. They are close enough together (50 miles apart) that they appear to be one satellite to a small Dish. If you had a 16' dish you could probably easily see the three different satellites.

E6 is currently turned off. It is a hot spare. They are still waiting on the FCC to approve them using it at 61.5. They will have to notify the FCC if they turn it on too. I do not really expect them to use E6 unless E3 has more failures.

E6 can provide three transponders that are currently not in use, because there previously was no satellite at 61.5 that could provide those three frequencies.

That is 21 National HD channels or 42 National SD channels that can be added instantly (once E*14 goes online at 119 to provide the matching space on Western Arc).
 
E6 can provide three transponders that are currently not in use, because there previously was no satellite at 61.5 that could provide those three frequencies.

That is 21 National HD channels or 42 National SD channels that can be added instantly (once E*14 goes online at 119 to provide the matching space on Western Arc).

Actually I think it is now 5 TPs on E3 that are out. But, the issue they face is that some EA areas will not be able to see E6, which is why they appear to be just putting stuff on 72.7 for now. 72.7 has a lot of space.
 
E3 is the sat with the most problems at 61.5. E12 is also having some power problems. E* cannot afford to lose any more TP's at 61.5 so E6 is there now, just in case. AMC-14 was supposed to replace E3 here but we all know what happened to that plan. According to E*'s 10K, E15 and E16 are going to 61.5.

Under Construction:
Owned:
EchoStar XIV
Early 2010 119
EchoStar XV
Mid-2010 61.5
Leased from EchoStar:
QuetzSat-1
2011 77

EchoStar XVI
2012 61.5
 
I think somethings need to be clarified. When E-14 is deployed to 119 W probably in May, Dish should be able to add more locals but I don't see how it adds more space for CONUS programming.

Although the construction of the E-15 CONUS only satellite might be completed in mid 2010, unless the Proton launch schedule changes, it won't launch until late 2010.

The only real bad area for the downlink signal of E-6 at 61.5 W is in the upper half of Maine. There are currently 5 TPs at 61.5 W that neither E-3 or E-12 can provide signals from but Dish currently uses 5 TPs for International programming at 61.5 W. How many folks do you think subscribe to International programming in northern Maine. Wouldn't be surprised if many get satellite for Canada from there. E-6 will definitely be used at 61.5 W as soon as the FCC approves it but it can not fully replace E-3 at 61.5 W so E-3 and E-6 will both stay there until E-15 is launched and operational at 61.5 W in late 2010.

I believe Dish currently has use of only 21 TPs at 72.7 W but this number will increase as DirecTV moves their locals off that slot and releases more TPs to Dish. Eventually Dish will use of all 32 TPs at 72.7 W and I believe Dish will put all the EA CONUS programming on it and there is enough space. If Dish uses 28 TPs for HD that would give them room for 196 HD channels at 7 HD channels/TP. The other 4 TPs would be used for the SD only channels and at 30 SD channels per TP provides room for 120 SD channels. There is no reason for Dish to provide duplicate SD channels of HD channels on the EA if everything is in MPEG-4 anyway. Actually the number of TPs for HD channels might be more.
 
There is no reason for Dish to provide duplicate SD channels of HD channels on the EA if everything is in MPEG-4 anyway. Actually the number of TPs for HD channels might be more.

Yes there is. Money. ;) If Dish did away with all the SD feeds on EA then they would have have to change the authorization on the HD channels so all the SD subs would get them too. If they did away with the HD fee, then they could do this. But with the HD fee they will have to keep the SD feeds. They could do something in the firmware but that would be a nightmare and they would have already done this when they started EA.
 
I think somethings need to be clarified. When E-14 is deployed to 119 W probably in May, Dish should be able to add more locals but I don't see how it adds more space for CONUS programming.

Don't forget... Dish still has some overflow of SD locals on CONUS beams on 119 and 110 (New York, Chicago, Denver). I think that makes up 2 TPs in the 110/119 fleet they would gain. As for their current plans now with E14, they are only TPs 1-5 on the downlink for spotbeams, when E-14 has way more capacity than that for beams. That will have to wait for the 8PSK migration on WA though.
 
Don't forget... Dish still has some overflow of SD locals on CONUS beams on 119 and 110 (New York, Chicago, Denver). I think that makes up 2 TPs in the 110/119 fleet they would gain. As for their current plans now with E14, they are only TPs 1-5 on the downlink for spotbeams, when E-14 has way more capacity than that for beams. That will have to wait for the 8PSK migration on WA though.

Ok, I wasn't aware that there were still locals on CONUS beams for 110/119 W. I assume these are not Superstations or AAD distances.
 
Yes there is. Money. ;) If Dish did away with all the SD feeds on EA then they would have have to change the authorization on the HD channels so all the SD subs would get them too. If they did away with the HD fee, then they could do this. But with the HD fee they will have to keep the SD feeds. They could do something in the firmware but that would be a nightmare and they would have already done this when they started EA.

Before the February 1 price changes, wasn't Dish charging like $7 a month for folks who had a VIP receiver but didn't subscribe to HD programming? I don't know if that fee is still in place. Certainly the doing away of the duplicate SD channels won't occur for awhile anyway and in Dish will undoubtly change their price structure again before that occurs.
 
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