61.5 or 129 in eastern Washington?

[ataribaby]

I recently had an installation of DishHD with two 500 dishes (one exclusively pointed at 129 for the HD channels). However, a wind storm blew that dish down (I know, bad installation) and so they are coming out to re-install that dish. After the initial installation, I realized that there were a few public interest channels exclusively on 61.5 (which also carries the HD channels). I'd like to get Classic Arts Showcase, in particular. So, my questions are:

1) Can I ask the installer to point the dish at 61.5 instead of 129 on the re-install?

2) Will I lose any channels if I do make that switch?

3) Will I see a significant dip in picture quality/signal strength if I go for 61.5 over 129?

4) Is there anything known about the future capacity/reliability of 61.5 vs. 129 that I should consider in this situation?

I'm in Pullman, Washington (which is south of Spokane) so the local channels are on a different satellite (110) and are not affected by this situation.

Thanks for the advice in advance!

- Brett

 

[Mr Tony]

I recently had an installation of DishHD with two 500 dishes (one exclusively pointed at 129 for the HD channels). However, a wind storm blew that dish down (I know, bad installation) and so they are coming out to re-install that dish. After the initial installation, I realized that there were a few public interest channels exclusively on 61.5 (which also carries the HD channels). I'd like to get Classic Arts Showcase, in particular. So, my questions are:

1) Can I ask the installer to point the dish at 61.5 instead of 129 on the re-install?

if you have a line of sight to the satellite they might be able to. 61.5 is pretty low on the west coast (I think like a 12 elevation)

2) Will I lose any channels if I do make that switch?

unless you have HD Locals, there is no differencre in the HD channels. You'd gain the HD demo channel on 61.5

3) Will I see a significant dip in picture quality/signal strength if I go for 61.5 over 129?

61.5 is stronger than 129 so the signal should go up. The only drawback would be rain fade (due to the low elevation)

4) Is there anything known about the future capacity/reliability of 61.5 vs. 129 that I should consider in this situation?

nothing that I know of. I use 61.5 here in MN and the signals are higher than 129