Local Channels, Radius

[nporst]

Hi Folks, New to Dish, just switched from DTV to take advantage of the "Pay As You Go" program for our motorhome. Never had any problems with DTV in the motorhome. I call tell the Dish people will take some getting used to. We have gotten different answers to the same question from different reps TOO many times. My first question is about local channels. What is the radius in miles that we can get local channels from our home address? Is this distance consistent? If we travel past that distance, we have been told to call up and give a local address or zip code and we will get the local channels for that area at no charge. Is that correct and that simple? Will the radius in miles for the local channels be the same at the new location.
Reason for my questions, We like to camp in the middle of nowhere, mainly desert, and I would like to pre-plan. Thanks for your help, this looks like a great site.
Norm

 

[RPB]

In my experience, it isn't so much a radius as the nearest market, and not all channels from that market are necessarily
included

I'm out in the Country between a triangle of cities

60 miles one way is Austin, Tx, they included most of those but not all as local

I'm also 60 miles from Waco/Temple/Killeen/Belton (the stations I watch 90% of the time on my antenna ... they didn't consider those Local)

Of course on my antenna I also get San Antonio, 80 miles away, they aren't "local" according to Dish, but I enjoy them.
Obviously they didn't consider Dallas, Corpus Christi, Victoria TX, Houston TX, San Angelo TX as being local to me, those I watch them all regularly since they are only 150 mile radius, with Houston at 200 being farthest so I only get it in the mornings. When I cancelled my 80 channel Dish account and explained I get 110 channels on my antenna, I told them "Why pay more to get less?" the lady laughed and couldn't seem to stop.

 

[Mr Tony]

Hi Folks, New to Dish, just switched from DTV to take advantage of the "Pay As You Go" program for our motorhome. Never had any problems with DTV in the motorhome. I call tell the Dish people will take some getting used to. We have gotten different answers to the same question from different reps TOO many times. My first question is about local channels. What is the radius in miles that we can get local channels from our home address? Is this distance consistent? If we travel past that distance, we have been told to call up and give a local address or zip code and we will get the local channels for that area at no charge. Is that correct and that simple? Will the radius in miles for the local channels be the same at the new location.
Reason for my questions, We like to camp in the middle of nowhere, mainly desert, and I would like to pre-plan. Thanks for your help, this looks like a great site.
Norm

If you have a RV you can get LA & NY distant stations. There is a form you have to fill out and send in your RV registration and then DIsh will give you those stations instead of locals

 

[TNGTony]

nporst
Iceberg answered your main concern. For RVs you need to get "national networks" since most (not all) of the locals are on spot beams of different sizes.

RPB,
Your local channels on Dish are determined by the FCC based on Nielsen Media Research's Designated Marketing Area. DMAs generally go by county lines. Sometimes you have issues like you describe.

These maps are a few years old but it will give you an idea of why you get the locals you get.
http://www.dishuser.org/TVMarkets/

 

[Jim5506]

Your local channels come via spot beams from the satellite.

The footprint of these spot beams is generally oval and the further you are from the latitude of the satellite the more oval and less circular it is.

These spot beams are about 300 miles wide and again depending on how far you are from the latitude of the satellite can be from 400 to 600 miles long, the size and shape does vary somewhat depending on the aperture of the spot beam.

For instance my SD locals come from a satellite at 110 degrees and use spot beam 26 on TP 26 and the spot beam reaches from the center of New Mexico to near the center of Oklahoma E/W and from the Midland/Odessa Texas area to northern Kansas N/S.

If I had an RV with Dish service I could travel anywhere in this ellipse and still receive my local stations via satellite.

If you know which satellite your locals come from you can look at the satmaps and find an approximation of the spot beam foot prints here: www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page-sub.

To find which satellite and TP your locals are from: put the receiver on the channel you wish to query, press MENU, 6,1,1 to go to the dish point screen. The satellite and transponder of the current channel will be in the 3rd and 4th columns on the screen.

 

[hudgreen]

Some DMA (locals) are on both eastern and western arcs and the spotbeam coverage can be quite different for each.