Eastern Arc upgrade poll.

[dwarren2]

On another thread, it was suggested using one of those super soaker water guns to blast warm water onto the dish to knock snow off. I may pick one up this summer so I'll be ready next winter. My 1k4 was installed at the SE corner of my roof, so even when we had over 50 inches of snow in Dec, the wind swept it clean.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

n1wbd,would replacing the reflector on your 1000.4 with a Dish 500 Plus reflector(Dish 1000.5) make a difference for you in signal strength & reception?

 

[HDRoberts]

Remember, the Dish signal indicator is not a measure of signal but quality. It is heavily influenced by the fact that more (all, I think) EA transponders are 8PSK, while more WA TPs are QPSK. Thus, signal looks lower, even if it is the same strength.

 

[whatchel1]

My understanding was the the measurement is a combination of strength & quality.

 

[HDRoberts]

My understanding was the the measurement is a combination of strength & quality.

Correct, something like that, but still, there is a reason EA will have somewhat lower readings than WA.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

I'm usually not concerned with signal strength until I'm having a problem. Because of my tree issue with my previous 61.5/110/119 setup, I would get frequent pixilation and dropouts.

Since my EA changeover I've only checked SS a couple times (back when digiblur was asking us to check). The numbers seemed lower then pre-EA, but well within what was said as a normal range...

 

[Dah-Henny]

n1wbd,would replacing the reflector on your 1000.4 with a Dish 500 Plus reflector(Dish 1000.5) make a difference for you in signal strength & reception?

My numbers are increased 5 to 8 points using a 1k.5. I never lose signal on dry snow, but occasionally lose signal if an unusually large thunderhead passes to the SSW.

 

[Frank7004]

Is the k4 installed on a w4 mast or a pole? If you had a 2 dish solution before and the tech didn't install a new mast, that may be part of your issue.

How to tell if you have a w4 mast is simple. Look at the foot plate. It will say w4 right on it. The foot plate is rather thick and it's really sturdy when installed properly.

Of course if you are installed on a pole, a pole is a pole. Lol.

 

[n1wbd]

What's the difference between the 1k5 and what I have the 1k4 is the dish slightly larger? Snow here today 61.5 tr 18 dropped to 10 and I could'nt get USA SD had to watch USA HD

My numbers are increased 5 to 8 points using a 1k.5. I never lose signal on dry snow, but occasionally lose signal if an unusually large thunderhead passes to the SSW.

 

[Dah-Henny]

The "plus" reflector is a few inches larger than the .4 reflector. If you can find a scrapped 500+/1000+ dish in your area, you could increase your SS by a little. You only change out the LNB and the LNB arm.

 

[Frank7004]

ok.

 

[reddice]

Well it is official. Everyone in my family is on the EA dish. I had three dishes hooked up before with me being on the EA and the other three SD receivers on 110, 119 and 61.5. Well my mothers TV broke so she got a Sony HDTV. I upgraded her receiver to a 612 DVR but I had to upgrade everyone else receivers. We all now have 612 DVR's even thought the other two receivers are SDTV's. My uncle is going to be buying a new HDTV which just leaves my grandmother to upgrade her ancient TV. I am glad we are on all MPEG-4.

 

[fredp]

I'm in Burlington, Vt. I've had EA for some 10+ months now. I like getting down to one dish vs two but signal strengths are lower and 77 just shows up in red. Back when I got EA installed some of the contractors
in the area were just covering 77 with foil as its not use to us. As for snow, while my dish dish pretty much is vertical due to my location I did get hit with an outage that cleared up over a week. Never had that
with my old two dish setup. T-storms are pretty much the same. Short outages as I had with the two dish setup. I still prefer EA though, with its limitations...

 

[cosmo_kramer]

So far, it looks like a runaway. 36 out of 39 like the EA!!

 

[jscud]

What's the difference between the 1k5 and what I have the 1k4 is the dish slightly larger? Snow here today 61.5 tr 18 dropped to 10 and I could'nt get USA SD had to watch USA HD

Bob, you have got to have a misaligned dish or a bad connecting cable. My signal was perfect today and I am only 45 minutes east of you in the Lakes Region. My dish is a 1k4, I am in the woods and get all three birds fine. I have not lost a signal all winter even though my dish was coated many times. BTW, my dish is on a pole out in the yard so that I can brush the snow off if need be. Also be aware that there is nothing for us on 77 so don't worry about the strength on that particular satellite. Unless you are getting Spanish programming, all of our channels are on 61.5 and 72.7.

 

[DishTechPA]

Will defiantly agree with frank. If on a mast you need a w4 mast or struts on any other mast.

 

[n1wbd]

Hi John, I know something is not right here I tried to talk to tech support again and they keep saying its normal when its not.
As you know we did'nt get much snow at all here today maybe 3" give or take I lost all service for over 1 hour again today.
Advanced Tech support keeps blowing me off. I have even run the diagnostics on the 222 and you can see the poor signals it records as it samples transponders on 3 birds and some transponders are only 17.

Needless to say I'm not happy with them at the moment. I asked them today if they can't fix it put my system back to the way it was I'll be satisfied. They said they could not do that. So basically I'm screwed every time I have a flurry or a sprinkle. LOS is not a issue here either. Your probably right either a bad cable or connector at the dish or a bad LNB assy.

Bob, you have got to have a misaligned dish or a bad connecting cable. My signal was perfect today and I am only 45 minutes east of you in the Lakes Region. My dish is a 1k4, I am in the woods and get all three birds fine. I have not lost a signal all winter even though my dish was coated many times. BTW, my dish is on a pole out in the yard so that I can brush the snow off if need be. Also be aware that there is nothing for us on 77 so don't worry about the strength on that particular satellite. Unless you are getting Spanish programming, all of our channels are on 61.5 and 72.7.

 

[whatchel1]

Hi John, I know something is not right here I tried to talk to tech support again and they keep saying its normal when its not.
As you know we did'nt get much snow at all here today maybe 3" give or take I lost all service for over 1 hour again today.
Advanced Tech support keeps blowing me off. I have even run the diagnostics on the 222 and you can see the poor signals it records as it samples transponders on 3 birds and some transponders are only 17.

Needless to say I'm not happy with them at the moment. I asked them today if they can't fix it put my system back to the way it was I'll be satisfied. They said they could not do that. So basically I'm screwed every time I have a flurry or a sprinkle. LOS is not a issue here either. Your probably right either a bad cable or connector at the dish or a bad LNB assy.

Is the dish being completely covered in snow and sticking to it?

 

[n1wbd]

Not much at all like I said only had about 3" here.

Is the dish being completely covered in snow and sticking to it?

 

[whatchel1]

Not much at all like I said only had about 3" here.

If it isn't sticking heavily to the dish then there shouldn't be reception problems. That is making me think that you aren't getting a good signal level to start with. Are you seeing the levels go down when the clouds roll in?