Dish Granted Permission for 86.5 slot

[rocatman]

Dish sent a letter to the FCC in March of 2005 stating that a 4.5 degree DBS solution such as 110, 114.5 and 119 would raise "certain technical difficulties". Here is the FCC website link:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-257928A1.pdf

The 86.5 W DBS slot could be very useful if combined with the Mexican 77 W DBS slot that Dish also has an agreement for and has E-4 keeping warm. Dish maybe able to come up with a reasonable sized dish to do 61.5, 77 and 86.5. Also don't forget that AMC-16, a SES Americom leased KU FSS satellite currently located at 118.7 W will eventually return to 85 W after Anik F3 is launched in April of 2007. The 77 and 86.5 slots have to avoid interference with the Candian slots at 72.5, 82 and 91. Certainly Dish could use these slots to provide HD locals to the southern half of the U.S. One possibility would for Dish to request to move E-6 to 86.5 W since it is not being used for programming at 110 W.

As a side note, the launch of the SES Americom owned AMC-14 DBS satellite is being delayed so that it has steerable beam capabilities for use at 77 W. Dish has a lease agreement for all the capacity on this satellite but I don't think it is a spotbeam satellite. AMC-14 is expected to be launched in the September - November 2007 timeframe.

 

[mike123abc]

They could use this slot to put up more LiL HD markets, E* will fall far behind D* soon with LiL HD when DIRECTV's satellites finally all get into place.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Yes, they could. But it sure would be nice if the new slot was at 114.5 instead.

As others have said, and as I hinted at early in this thread, E* could use these as bargaining chits for transponders at other locations. It is in their best interest to get as many slots to themselves as possible. It doesn't mean they are going to use them.

I would love to see them at 110, 114.5, and 119. Have a nice compact dish with three LNBs on it. Lots of transponders. No need to hit 61.5 or 129 or 105 or 121. No doubling the same channels at different locations. No need for the east coast to need a two-dish HD solution. No more problems for 129 users in the NW, or being too low for Atlanta. If any interference problems with 110 or 119, then it is an all-E* issue and they can work it out without having to deal with another company.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

For some reason I *thought* I remembered reading something in the last 2-3 weeks about 114.5/E*/Ka - not Ku as it stood out to me that would be the first E* Ka that I had heard of.


And btw, the topic of this thread is wrong - they have been granted permission for Construction of the bird for 86.5W - they have specifically NOT been granted a license for the orbital slot or use of it (though that would certainly be thought to be forthcoming if a construction permit is issued).

 

[Stargazer]

It just seems to me like they will have to provide two different satellite dishes to customers to provide everybody with the HD channels unless they have 61.5/77/86.5 or something like that with a SuperDish for the east coast replicating the channels that they have on 110/119 now and then they would have to use an additional spot or two around the 110/119 location to get the HD channels for the rest of the nation or just put everybody in a second dish not bothering their main dish that is up now. 4.5 degree spacing is really needed by them. They can acquire some slots to get to other slots later on by doing some trading around.

I read about 114.5 a while back, that is what Dish was going to get, but they obviously lost their chance at that one.

 

[mike123abc]

If they have a full power DBS satellite at 86.5 they can have a single dish able to pick up 86.5, 110, 119, without it being too large. I would probably come in between a Dish1000 and a Superdish in size.

Sheer idle speculation:

Western 2/3 of the US uses 110/119/129 for HD and HD LiL with the HD LiL capacity being vastly increased once the new spot beam satellite goes to 129 being built now. The eastern 1/3 of the CONUS that cannot see 129 well gets a single dish solution for HD. The big markets would get upgraded to a single dish solution and smaller markets could get HD LiL delivery from 61.5 requiring a second Dish.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I thought a dish that covered a 33 degree spread would have to be fairly large.

Right now the D1000 that covers full power birds at 110, 119, and 129 is kinda large and it covers less than 60% of that spread.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

I thought a dish that covered a 33 degree spread would have to be fairly large.

Right now the D1000 that covers full power birds at 110, 119, and 129 is kinda large and it covers less than 60% of that spread.

Better look at a Toroidal that covers 40 degrees if you believe that - as covering 33 degrees (remember you will loose gain with an oval on the edges where 86.5 and 119 would be) will be a huge dish in comparison.

I also wonder if the lnbs would work in a fixed position - as some adjustment would most likely be needed (even the Directv AT9 has a small adjustment for the 110/119 birds and thats only 18 degrees - half of this).

 

[Stargazer]

I hope whatever dish that is used is smaller than the SuperDish.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

I hope whatever dish that is used is smaller than the SuperDish.

How can you expect a dish to be smaller that covers a 35 degree arc vs. one that covers a 15 degree arc?

Even the Dish 1000 is a 19 degree arc and you want a 35 degree arc smaller?

 

[Tom Bombadil]

The SuperDish was larger than the D1000 because it had to pick up lower strength signals off of the 105 or 121 birds.

But even given that, and assuming that 86.5 would have full power signals, I would think the resultant dish would still have to be noticably larger than a SuperDish. But I'm not an expert on these things.

Frankly, I would be surprised if E* attempted to pick up 86.5 / 110 / 119 with a single dish. This is why I was disappointed to hear that E* might be getting the 86.5 slot instead of 96.5 or 105.5 or 114.5. Any of these could have been more easily paired with 110/119 in a single dish solution.

We haven't heard the final decisions yet, so it remains to be seen if they get only 86.5 space and if they plan to use it for the Dish packages.

 

[OoTLink]

*makes up a rumor that dish is in talks with toridial to make a Super Duper Dish*