Dish will install OTA Antenna...

[ttomni6]

but only if "they" decide you are worthy. I've been trying for the better part of a week to get someone at Dish to agree to send a technician out to install an OTA antenna at my house.

First I called Dish. The person I spoke to told me Dish wasn't "currently offering antenna installation promotions in my area." I explained I was willing to pay for the installation, but they said, it just wasn't being offered at all. This seems odd to me for two reasons: 1. I've seen several Dish techs installing antennas in my area over the past few months, and 2. The Dish tech who came out to my house earlier this year to repeak my dish offered to sell me an antenna (including installation). He claimed to have them on the truck, ready to install. In hindsight, I should have just taken him up on it, but I was in a hurry to get back to work.

Next, I tried chatting with Dish, and I got the same response.

I asked around on Nextdoor, and several people said that "Sling" installed their antennas for them, but it was a Dish tech that did the actual installation. So, I called Sling as I am also a Sling subscriber. They said, "yes, absolutely we can install an antenna for you." I thought, "great, problem solved." They transferred me to the installation department, who proceeded to tell me that, since I was a Dish customer (they could tell by my address), I had to order antenna installation through Dish Customer Service. They transferred me to Dish Support, who then proceeded to tell me they couldn't install an antenna for me.

When asked why I would be able to get an antenna installed as a Sling-only customer, but not as a Dish-only or Dish & Sling customer, they CSR told me "the system just won't let me place the order for you." In the good old days, I would assume an error on the part of whoever programmed the system. These days, I assume Dish has an AI deciding who gets what. All I want to do is have a backup source of signal whenever Nexstar or whoever tries to exact their pound of flesh from Dish subscribers the next time around.

If I were more skilled and braver, I would install the antenna myself on my roof, but I want neither a leaky roof nor a broken neck, so I am willing to pay a professional to do the work. I just can't find someone to come out and do it who doesn't want to install a UHF-only antenna in my market with 2 VHF High stations. This is extremely frustrating.

I'm addressing only the first part of your comment which says "only if they decide you are worthy".

I don't know if this is relevant to your situation, but recently I called DISH to get a problem reconciled. I was told that my account was marked with something that essentially said - "do not give this customer any benefits".

I'm figuring that because in the past I dealt with DISH over the phone and was able to receive some very generous credits, etc. Based on that past performance (thank you DISH, they were very generous), DISH is not going to give any other kinds of benefits.

As an example (and please bear with the extended explanation), a few months ago, I had two complimentary movie certificates. Here in Hawaii, we do not receive all of the channels for PPV movies like you guys do on the mainland. The movie I wanted was on an HD channel that DISH does not have available at my location. However, the movie WAS available on an SD channel.

This is where things got weird. I went to the DISH website and ordered the movie I wanted which, according to the link on the site, would give me access to both the HD and SD feeds and used one of my certificates.

To clarify, the only HD PPV channels that appear in our guide are 503, 504, 507, 516 thru 520. So the HD feed of the desired movie was missing.

I went to the SD channel for the movie and received the message that I was not authorized and would have to purchase.

OK - so I called DISH to have them give me access to the SD feed. After an extended conversation, I was given access to the SD feed but they used the second PPV certificate which meant I had to use 2 certificates to get the 1 movie feed. When I asked to have one of the certificates "re-credited" to me, I was told that is not possible because of the flag on my account which essentially said "I am not worthy".

So as I started, I don't know your past history with DISH. I switched from C band back in Oregon when DISH first became available in the mid 90's. Then signed up when we bought this house in Hawaii about 19 years ago. So it's been many years that I've been a customer and also had the longevity to work out some nice credits.It would be interesting to see if you were determined to be not worthy in the same manner I describe.

 

[rvvaquero]

I had a girl tell me I wasn't worthy one time. It was crushing, but I got over it, I think, maybe.

 

[HipKat]

I had a girl tell me I wasn't worthy one time.

Just one?? Lucky you!

 

[ncted]

I'm addressing only the first part of your comment which says "only if they decide you are worthy".

I don't know if this is relevant to your situation, but recently I called DISH to get a problem reconciled. I was told that my account was marked with something that essentially said - "do not give this customer any benefits".

I'm figuring that because in the past I dealt with DISH over the phone and was able to receive some very generous credits, etc. Based on that past performance (thank you DISH, they were very generous), DISH is not going to give any other kinds of benefits.

As an example (and please bear with the extended explanation), a few months ago, I had two complimentary movie certificates. Here in Hawaii, we do not receive all of the channels for PPV movies like you guys do on the mainland. The movie I wanted was on an HD channel that DISH does not have available at my location. However, the movie WAS available on an SD channel.

This is where things got weird. I went to the DISH website and ordered the movie I wanted which, according to the link on the site, would give me access to both the HD and SD feeds and used one of my certificates.

To clarify, the only HD PPV channels that appear in our guide are 503, 504, 507, 516 thru 520. So the HD feed of the desired movie was missing.

I went to the SD channel for the movie and received the message that I was not authorized and would have to purchase.

OK - so I called DISH to have them give me access to the SD feed. After an extended conversation, I was given access to the SD feed but they used the second PPV certificate which meant I had to use 2 certificates to get the 1 movie feed. When I asked to have one of the certificates "re-credited" to me, I was told that is not possible because of the flag on my account which essentially said "I am not worthy".

So as I started, I don't know your past history with DISH. I switched from C band back in Oregon when DISH first became available in the mid 90's. Then signed up when we bought this house in Hawaii about 19 years ago. So it's been many years that I've been a customer and also had the longevity to work out some nice credits.It would be interesting to see if you were determined to be not worthy in the same manner I describe.

My history with Dish is nothing special, and I wasn't looking for a benefit. I was simply trying to pay them for a service I know they offer, and they refused to sell it to me for some unknown reason.

 

[GPM]

So, after removing the amp from the line I monitored the CBS off air broadcast yesterday. All was great. Recorded a couple of news broadcasts, no dropouts. Come prime time, tuned to CBS and get a signal lost message. I rechecked it a few times over two hours or so, same result. This morning the signal was fine. My wife's H3 was receiving CBS just fine all night. Guess I'll try a new OTA adapter.

 

[Jon J]

My OTA antenna install this morning was moved to this afternoon when the air temp is predicted to be about 98 and a heat index of about 104. Rather than have a tech possibly die from heat stroke today I rescheduled to a morning appointment next week (which really doesn't mean anything) . Maybe it will be a bit cooler.

 

[Tony S]

Can anyone tell me what model of outdoor antenna Dish installs? Did they install it on the roof? What color code is Dish's outdoor antenna (yellow, green, red, blue, violet, etc)?

Most of my locals are 20-40 miles away and are UHF. My ABC station is 48 miles away and transmits on channel 10. Will Dish's antenna work for me?

I am trying to decide whether to buy my own antenna or to try to get one from Dish.

 

[Bobby]

Can anyone tell me what model of outdoor antenna Dish installs? Did they install it on the roof? What color code is Dish's outdoor antenna (yellow, green, red, blue, violet, etc)?

Most of my locals are 20-40 miles away and are UHF. My ABC station is 48 miles away and transmits on channel 10. Will Dish's antenna work for me?

I am trying to decide whether to buy my own antenna or to try to get one from Dish.

If you can get an antenna from Dish for free, why not start there first. If it works, great. If not you can then go purchase one to see what you get.

 

[ncted]

Can anyone tell me what model of outdoor antenna Dish installs? Did they install it on the roof? What color code is Dish's outdoor antenna (yellow, green, red, blue, violet, etc)?

Most of my locals are 20-40 miles away and are UHF. My ABC station is 48 miles away and transmits on channel 10. Will Dish's antenna work for me?

I am trying to decide whether to buy my own antenna or to try to get one from Dish.

Before they told me they couldn't sell me an antenna, Sling/Dish told me they wouldn't charge me if I couldn't get good signal on all 4 of the networks. That said, they are typically installing one of these:

KING Jack™ Directional Over-the-Air Antenna with Mount & Built-In Signal Meter (OA8500)
DINOVA BOSS MIX antenna

I'd be a bit surprised if either of those will receive your ABC station.

 

[rvvaquero]

I had a King Jack on my RV. It did really well on the UHF stations which were about 15 miles away. Would not pick up the VHF stations which were about 23 miles out.

 

[HipKat]

My OTA antenna install this morning was moved to this afternoon when the air temp is predicted to be about 98 and a heat index of about 104. Rather than have a tech possibly die from heat stroke today I rescheduled to a morning appointment next week (which really doesn't mean anything) . Maybe it will be a bit cooler.

Much cooler, here in Central, IL, Temps Monday and Tuesday are in the high 70's compared to today, heat index is currently 107° and up to 110° tomorrow

 

[GPM]

Received my new dual tuner today. Of course after showing no signal whatsoever Wednesday night, the old single tuner worked fine last night. I was surprised to see that while the old single tuner was full of cooling slots the new dual tuner had none. No wonder these things run hot. I had a few USB powered fans laying around so I stuck one behind the H3, next to the OTA tuner. Can't hurt I figure. Signal strength is marginally better with the new tuner. Guess I'll just wait and see how it works.

107-110 are normal July temps around here. Lots of outside workers, but most start at or before the sun comes up. Early mornings are pretty nice, only 90 or so.

 

[Tony S]

Before they told me they couldn't sell me an antenna, Sling/Dish told me they wouldn't charge me if I couldn't get good signal on all 4 of the networks. That said, they are typically installing one of these:

KING Jack™ Directional Over-the-Air Antenna with Mount & Built-In Signal Meter (OA8500)
DINOVA BOSS MIX antenna

I'd be a bit surprised if either of those will receive your ABC station.

Thanks a lot for posting that! I already have tried the Clearstream 2MAX and the Clearstream 4MAX antennas, and both of them received the exact same channels at my location. Unfortunately, no CBS, no ABC, and no CW. Therefore, I do not think that the Dish supplied antennas will work any better.

My house is surrounded by many tall trees and that is the problem. During the winter months, I can receive CBS and CW (and 24 additional channels). I receive 48 channels in the winter, and only 24 channels when the trees have leaves...and I can do that with the shorter-range flat square antenna that Dish sent me a while back (when our Fox station was in dispute). I thought for sure that the Clearstream 4MAX would work better, but the leaves block the signal so well that I get zero signal for CBS and CW. An amplifier will not help because there is zero signal to start with.

What is weird is that I can get Fox with a signal strength of 85%, and NBC with a signal strength of 75%, but with CBS I have a zero signal reading. Looking at the antenna fool data, it appears that CBS has similar power, is virtually the same distance away, and comes from virtually the same direction as Fox and NBC, however I can not receive it at all. Since my ABC is on channel 10, I knew that receiving it would be near impossible with those antennas that I tried.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an antenna that might be able to shoot through the trees? Right now, I am most interested in receiving CBS since that is the station that is blocked by the dispute.

(BTW, I posted something similar to this during last weekend's SatelliteGuys outage, but my post and some of the responses were lost due to Scott having to use an earlier site backup).

 

[Tony S]

Well, I finally solved the mystery of why I could not get CBS but had no problem getting weaker channels. It turns out that due to FCC re-packing regulations, CBS (WFSB Channel 3) has to change their broadcast channel and has lowered their transmitting power while they are doing antenna tower work. They expect to back to full power on August 1st.

The Clearstream 4MAX antenna does do a good job at my location (when mounted outside at the peak of the eaves) and it does pick up all the channels that I would expect at my location.

Hopefully, when CBS returns to full power on their new channel, I will be able to pick it up easily.

 

[Cypresstree]

Well, I finally solved the mystery of why I could not get CBS but had no problem getting weaker channels. It turns out that due to FCC re-packing regulations, CBS (WFSB Channel 3) has to change their broadcast channel and has lowered their transmitting power while they are doing antenna tower work. They expect to back to full power on August 1st.

The Clearstream 4MAX antenna does do a good job at my location (when mounted outside at the peak of the eaves) and it does pick up all the channels that I would expect at my location.

Hopefully, when CBS returns to full power on their new channel, I will be able to pick it up easily.

I’m sure you already have - but just in case you haven’t, be sure to rescan...


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys mobile app

 

[Tony S]

I’m sure you already have - but just in case you haven’t, be sure to rescan...

Yes...Seven stations in the Hartford area are changing frequencies, and at least 4 of them (CBS, NBC, FOX, CW) are changing today at 1PM. I wonder if they all planned to change at the same time so that customers would only have to rescan once.

 

[charlesrshell]

How do the local stations notify customers date and time the change over is scheduled?

 

[Tony S]

How do the local stations notify customers date and time the change over is scheduled?

Most of them notify us by including the information as part of their regular news show, just as if it was a regular news story. They also run occasional short 'commercials' with the notification. As part of the news story, they show customers how to re-scan their TVs.

There are also online notifications on the station's web sites and on Facebook (that is how I found the information about the re-scan).

 

[charlesrshell]

Most of them notify us by including the information as part of their regular news show, just as if it was a regular news story. They also run occasional short 'commercials' with the notification. As part of the news story, they show customers how to re-scan their TVs.

There are also online notifications on the station's web sites and on Facebook (that is how I found the information about the re-scan).

Thanks