Has Dish abandoned AK and HI on Ceil-2 spots?

[djmaui]

I really hope I'm mistaken, but I got a big surprise when I checked on the EKB Dish Network Channel Chart - sorted by beam/transponder. http://www.dishchannelchart.digiblur.com/beam.pdf

I expected to see 5 of the spot TP's on Ciel-2 set aside for Hawaii spot #55 and 5 for the Alaska spot #1. Instead, all 16 spot TP's are mostly filled up with mainland locals. There is one listing for spot 55 on TP 06 and five for spot #1 on TP 05.

As the channel names are mostly followed by (NA), I'm hoping that this is some type of placeholder setup, and we will still get 5 TP's for Hawaii and 5 for Alaska.

I have a dish ready to point at 129 as soon as the Hawaii spot is lit up, and am looking forward to getting out of the third world in HD. :

Does anyone know of changed plans or updates regarding the HI/AK spots?

 

[redsalmon]

I just think they haven't gotten around to populating the spot beams for AK and HI yet. I remember reading that AK and HI would have 5 tp's per spot beam. I see some of the AK one are used for Juneau and Fairbanks SD locals. Dish will get around to it some day, just not------SOON----!

Anyone in the know care to give their 2 cents worth? There are alot of us wondering the same thing.

 

[AKGolf]

Hopefully soon.

I wonder if any dealers in Hawaii have checked out 129 yet to see if they get a signal? There is a dealer in Anchorage that also has an office in Honolulu, I'll get with him and see if he can check.

I'll also let him know about the extra channels available now with a six foot dish, there must be other customers out there that can take advantage.

 

[digiblur]

They have really just started loading up locals on the 48 states on Ciel-2. They are far from done.

Also try TheList link in my signature for up to date channel listings.

 

[djmaui]

They have really just started loading up locals on the 48 states on Ciel-2. They are far from done.

Also try TheList link in my signature for up to date channel listings.

Thanks Digiblur. I did check The List and it has similar, yet more info:
- 12 (9 SD, 3 HD) channels at Spot #1 Alaska on TP's 5,7,9,10,12
- 2 HD channels at Spot #55 Hawaii on TP's 2,6

Do you think we should give up on anticipating 5 TP's each for HI and AK (5 TP's x 7 HD channels = 35 new HD channels)?

 

[djmaui]

I just think they haven't gotten around to populating the spot beams for AK and HI yet. I remember reading that AK and HI would have 5 tp's per spot beam. I see some of the AK one are used for Juneau and Fairbanks SD locals. Dish will get around to it some day, just not------SOON----!

Anyone in the know care to give their 2 cents worth? There are alot of us wondering the same thing.

Hi Redsalmon. On the Ciel-2 footprint thread, you asked the following and HDRoberts responded:

Quote:
Originally Posted by redsalmon
A dumb question, but how many channels per spot beam are possible?

According to the maps Ak and Hi won't be helped by the CONUS beam, so only the spots will be able to bring us new HD.

HDRoberts' response: The AK and HI spotbeams will be fed by 5 TPs each. Dish has been loading 7 MPEG4 HDs per TP. 5x7=35. At least that's the maximum possible.

My question is actually to HDRoberts and anyone else who knows where that "5 TPs each" bit came from. I really, really hope it's still true, but all 16 spot TPs on Ciel-2 seam to be loaded with locals for other States according to Digiblur's "The List".

 

[digiblur]

According to the FCC filings is where the 5 transponders for the AK and HI beams came from. You don't have enough HD locals in AK and HI to fill that space so it's going to be used for national HD to those two states. Just like they did on the Echostar 10(110W) spots for AK and HI.

 

[djmaui]

According to the FCC filings is where the 5 transponders for the AK and HI beams came from. You don't have enough HD locals in AK and HI to fill that space so it's going to be used for national HD to those two states. Just like they did on the Echostar 10(110W) spots for AK and HI.

Thanks Digiblur, We already get all our SD locals at 119 and HD locals at 110 (e*10). Since the Ciel-2 conus signal is not feasible for Hawaii, I was hoping that the 5 hawaii spot TPs would be loaded with National HD (35 or so channels).

 

[Laddyboy]

I really hope I'm mistaken, but I got a big surprise when I checked on the EKB Dish Network Channel Chart - sorted by beam/transponder. http://www.dishchannelchart.digiblur.com/beam.pdf

I expected to see 5 of the spot TP's on Ciel-2 set aside for Hawaii spot #55 and 5 for the Alaska spot #1. Instead, all 16 spot TP's are mostly filled up with mainland locals. There is one listing for spot 55 on TP 06 and five for spot #1 on TP 05.

As the channel names are mostly followed by (NA), I'm hoping that this is some type of placeholder setup, and we will still get 5 TP's for Hawaii and 5 for Alaska.

I have a dish ready to point at 129 as soon as the Hawaii spot is lit up, and am looking forward to getting out of the third world in HD. :

Does anyone know of changed plans or updates regarding the HI/AK spots?

I think I see the confusion. The spotbeam transponders can be used over and over within different spotbeams, unlike ConUS transponders which can be used only once. They don't use all transponder numbers in every spotbeam to guard against interference in neighboring spot beams. So just because a spotbeam transponder number is being used for a Lower 48 spotbeam doesn't mean he same number cannot be used for an AK or HI spotbeam.

 

[djmaui]

I think I see the confusion. The spotbeam transponders can be used over and over within different spotbeams, unlike ConUS transponders which can be used only once. They don't use all transponder numbers in every spotbeam to guard against interference in neighboring spot beams. So just because a spotbeam transponder number is being used for a Lower 48 spotbeam doesn't mean he same number cannot be used for an AK or HI spotbeam.

I know a TP can be used on different spots as some spot TPs are showing coverage onj different spots from Texas to Virginia. Each TP has about 25 to 50 channels listed on it.

Here's a sample: TP 04 has 25 HD local channels from Yakima Washington all the way to Savannah Georgia listed at various spotbeam locations.

As each of the 16 spot TPs are at least this heavily populated, where are 35 National HD spotbeamed channels for Hawaii and Alaska goinng to fit in? I thought each TP could only handle about 7 hd channels anyway.

 

[Laddyboy]

I know a TP can be used on different spots as some spot TPs are showing coverage onj different spots from Texas to Virginia. Each TP has about 25 to 50 channels listed on it.

Here's a sample: TP 04 has 25 HD local channels from Yakima Washington all the way to Savannah Georgia listed at various spotbeam locations.

As each of the 16 spot TPs are at least this heavily populated, where are 35 National HD spotbeamed channels for Hawaii and Alaska goinng to fit in? I thought each TP could only handle about 7 hd channels anyway.

If there are 100 spotbeams, Spot Transponder 10 could be used, in theory, 100 times and loaded up in each spotbeam to capacity. Saturation on a transponder occurs within a spotbeam not across all spotbeams. Therefore pick any 5 transponders for HI and any five for AK, place 7 HD channels on each and you have up to 35 national channels for each.

 

[djmaui]

If there are 100 spotbeams, Spot Transponder 10 could be used, in theory, 100 times and loaded up in each spotbeam to capacity. Saturation on a transponder occurs within a spotbeam not across all spotbeams. Therefore pick any 5 transponders for HI and any five for AK, place 7 HD channels on each and you have up to 35 national channels for each.

Wow, so let's say they give the Hawaii Ceil-2 Spotbeam #55 the 35 National HD channels a bunch of us were expecting using 5 transponders at 7 HD channels each, they can still use those same 5 transponders to send a whole bunch of channels to a plethora of other spotbeams?

If this is the case, and : and sorry for wasting anybody's time.

 

[digiblur]

Yep...thats the whole beauty of spotbeams. They can reuse the same transponder over and over...depending on the number of uplink centers of course.

 

[redsalmon]

Now if Dish would populate the spots so the people of AK an HI can enjoy part of the HD that the rest of the population of the U.S. get it would be a truly wonderful event. It would be nice if they would get agreements with the two local HD's that they don't presently have. It's frustrating when the local cable co. carries them, Direct carries one of them, and Dish seems to ignore us.

 

[djmaui]

Now if Dish would populate the spots so the people of AK an HI can enjoy part of the HD that the rest of the population of the U.S. get it would be a truly wonderful event. It would be nice if they would get agreements with the two local HD's that they don't presently have. It's frustrating when the local cable co. carries them, Direct carries one of them, and Dish seems to ignore us.

Do you have any hope of picking up an OTA HD signal for the missing local HD's? that's how I recently solved the NBC HD problem here in Maui, Hawaii. Our State did an early digital switchover and our local NBC station upgraded to an all-HD broadcast studio at the same time. In addition to no longer missing out on big national NBC HD events like the Olympics, Super Bowl, etc., we get a beautiful all-HD local news broadcast and are able to utilize the groovy HD OTA tuner on the 722 as well.

 

[redsalmon]

Do you have any hope of picking up an OTA HD signal for the missing local HD's? that's how I recently solved the NBC HD problem here in Maui, Hawaii. Our State did an early digital switchover and our local NBC station upgraded to an all-HD broadcast studio at the same time. In addition to no longer missing out on big national NBC HD events like the Olympics, Super Bowl, etc., we get a beautiful all-HD local news broadcast and are able to utilize the groovy HD OTA tuner on the 722 as well.

Too far from the broadcast tower. Only way to get them is via Dish. Someday maybe Dish will get it together with the locals and provide the HD signals.