129 bird not good

[sternpry]

Originally I received an email indicating that I was to upgrade from a 500 dish to a Dish 1000 product so I could continue to receive local channels here near Scottsville, Va since a new satellite would have the locals on it. Did that, the guy came out and installed same. When clouds or rain became present I would lose the channels and get the good ol' searching for signal message after a period of pixelization. So, called tech support and had the first guy come by to repeak. Then, the crap started happening again so this time a female came out while it was drizzling and cloudy and repeaked once again. She saw the nasty messages regarding NO reception and said she had never seen some of those messages. When she left I was able to receive local broadcasts on an occasional basis even during the precipitation.
So, another period of cloudiness occurred last week and got the same message and no signal. So we called AGAIN and another guy came out to repeak and said he went from a 68 signal to a 72. I pointed out that if we changed the transponder from 32 to 31 it would show a 50% improvement in signal......but then he told me that would not hold and the system would reset back to transponder 32.....so true. My diagnosis through my menu showed only a 50% signal while the 31 transponder showed a whopping 50% increase to 75%. He repositioned the dish and now the problem is worse (and I believe he reported a better signal just so he could get outta here) so we called support again and they ended up being rude and more or less unresponsive to our problem. The loss of signal occurred again today (and this is a constant with our local station reception) so I called again for ANOTHER repeak.
This getting kind of ridiculous and it is my understanding that the 129 bird is inferior and is located in a very low horizon to the west of my location. The latest guy who repeaked said this is a common problem in our area. We had NO problems until we did the upgrade and now I am totally pissed off. I have been a loyal customer since 1995 and have been pleased up to now. I am certainly NOT getting what I am paying for and do not appreciate the customer service response to my problems.
So my research into DirecTv was done today and I found I could get a much better deal as a new customer but no locals until the middle of this year.
I am on the fence now and really pissed at Dish......is anyone else experiencing the same problems with this satellite?
Is it time for me to cancel my heretofore good relationship with Dish to be able to get some dang response to my problem?

 

[navychop]

129 will be replaced near the end of the year by Ciel -2, unless there is a delay due to the Briz-M upper stage failure (or other reason). Maybe you could stick it out. But I'd go with a second dish pointed at 61.5. VA locals on 129?

I don't know of any VA locals on 129. Give me the call letters to a couple of your local stations & I'll check it out. Sounds fishy.

 

[Mr Tony]

I don't know of any VA locals on 129. Give me the call letters to a couple of your local stations & I'll check it out. Sounds fishy.

Charlottesville

 

[cebbigh]

Totally agree with you on 129. It is a big part of the reason I moved to DTV after over ten years with Dish. Unfortunately on the west coast many of us can't get 61.5.

You might consider doing what navychop suggested. There is nothing wrong with 61.5. There is also a great deal happening with that part of sky which you can find out more about by checking out the Pub. More likely than not your locals will eventually be moved to 61.5 anyway. But in the meantime you might want to look into "moving" to a location that has it's locals carried on 61.5.

Sorry to hear about the experience you had with service reps. During the time I was with them I found you get much better service by going through the "technical" path on the phone tree. More often than not those reps are helpful and also willing to get you to an advanced tech when they don't have answers. Good Luck.

 

[navychop]

Charlottesville

Darn! I missed that while going thru Dishchannelchart!

 

[spudz160]

I have two dishes one pointed at 119, 110 and one pointed at 129. My installer suggested it if i didnt have any issues with 2 sats on the roof. They could put 10 sats up there as long as i get all the channels with no rain/cloud fade.

 

[mattopia]

A number of people here have requested that E* add a second) sometimes larger) dish dedicated to 129, usually a slightly bigger one. You can always e-mail the ceo address and request a permanent resolution.

This would mean two dishes, but it should noticeably increase your reliability.

 

[Buzzdar]

i know from personal experience that getting 50% signal is pretty darn good. Not too many are actually getting 100% not since they chanced and updated the signal meter.

 

[harshness]

Perhaps they want to reward those who spend lots of money on big dishes, but this new scale actually makes things worse. I've found that with the new scale, the meter seems somewhat less sensitive. It makes peaking the dish that much more tedious.

 

[LJALLEN97]

*E installed a larger dish for 129 last year. This has for the most part solved the
signal issue while we wait for the new unit later this year. A search of this site for 129 problems will get you pages of information to correct your not unique problem. You need to use 61.5 or have a separate larger dish installed for 129.

 

[GTAE86]

I feel your pain!

Sternpry - I live north of you in Stanardsville, and have been in a similar situation. The switch from 105 to 129 has been pretty bad for those of us who get our LIL off 129. I have had three installers out with three different stories and remedies. My problem is line of sight to the 129, which may get worse as leaves come in.

Sounds like you are shooting through a tree now, or near one. When it rains, the limbs and whatnot get heavier and droop and kill the signal. I had that once before. You may find that as spring comes on and the leaves come out, your signal gets worse.

In my case I cut some small trees, but the third installer said that did not help. He mounted a separate dish for 129, and I get it fine now, but he says it will go away when the leaves come in, and I agree. I spent a lot of time walking around with a compass, and used the sun-sight method to find a better location for the dish. I will only know for sure in a month or so.

My fear is that people like us will bend over backwards to get 129 in only to be told in a few months that our channels are moving to another satellite.

 

[sternpry]

Finally got the signal straight on 129

Well, the 4th time is the trick I guess. I had the same tech come out that adjusted the dish last time I ran into trouble and he was anticipating changing all the coax to new. Lo and behold, after taking several barrel connectors out and running straight, the problem suddenly fixed itself. I am now getting a signal of 90 which is almost double the 50 I was getting.
So this guy blames the previous techs for putting in too many connectors thereby increasing the drain (strain) on the signal as it passes through.
So no DirecTV for now especially since they can't provide locals around here quite yet.
Happy for now......we'll see. Thanks for all your comments!