Looking for Orbital Locations - Pacific NW (Seattle, WA)

[WLong]

Hello Guys 'n Gals,

Its been a long time since I have been on the forums. There appears to have been some noticable improvements made with the newer version of vBulletin. Looks great!

I've been catching up on the threads about the new MPEG4 Dish receivers, upcoming deals, and the current channel lineup. I think I am all ready to go come April 1st!

I am assuming that living in the Seattle market, that I would need to have LOS to 110, 119 and another DISH satellite to get all of the channels in the new packages in MPEG4? As it stands now, I have no LOS to 61.5 or 148, 119 comes in "ok" and 110 comes in with no problems, so another satellite might not work (i.e. 129...?)

Any help would be appreciated. I started a new thread for this since my response to the sticky above wouldnt be as searchable for other folks in the NW.

-Bill

 

[Mr Tony]

you would need to be able to see 129 for the HD

 

[RandallA]

The Voom channels are either on 61.5 or 129. The original HD channels come from 110. People in the Pacific NW have been reporting low signals off 129 and since you don't have a LOS for 61.5, 129 might be your only option.

 

[WLong]

I figured as much.

Facing south, I assume this would be to the *right* of where 119 is?

-Bill

 

[Greg Mueller]

Just been down that road....
For us in the NW, the Dish 1000 just won't work. But if you get it with a HD upgrade (vip211 or 622) you'll have the raw materials to set up a separate 129 dish. Some guys are having good luck using their old Dish 500 dish with the 129 LNB off the dish 1000. You'll need one of those "I" connectors to mount the 129 LNB on the dish 500. Some guys are using 30" dishes too. The larger the better.

I'd do the upgrade and let them install everything and then set it up right!

 

[WLong]

Interesting. Is it the angle that doesnt work here in the Pacific NW? Are there problems with LOS to 129? I pretty much cant see any bird in the sky, except for 110 and 119 and like I stated before, 119 often times just breaks up and drops programming in the summer when my trees have leaves on them. I highly doubt I can get LOS to 129 from where I have my DISH mounted, which really.... is the only place I can stick it to get 110 and 119 as well as I get them now.

Ugh... how frustrating! I would be interested in hearing from everyone here in the NW that has tried 129.

-BIll

 

[Greg Mueller]

It must be that we are on the edge of the 129 footprint. Lots of people report low signal strength on the west coast from 129. I'm not having any problem with 119. Have you tweaked you dish for best signal strength? 129 is only 10 degrees off of 119 so you might be able to get it. Maybe you could have someone out for a free site inspection.

 

[WLong]

Yeah I tried every possible combination to get better reception on 119. Perhaps I will get a little better reception with the Super DISH versus the DISH 500?

Anyhow, I am going to try the upgrade on the 1st and keep my fingers crossed that 129 works out for me.

 

[pinkey2u]

I had a problem also with the reception from the 129 satellite on the D1000. After having the Dish installers come out to my house a couple of times to try getting the 129 satellite Voom channels from dropping out, I finally made a call to ceo@echostar.com about the drop outs and unlocking of various Voom channels and they had a tech come out and installed a dedicated D500 satellite dish for the 129 sat. It helped greatly as it brought the readings up about 20 points on the 129 transponders and I have less rain fade. I still have some drop outs on a couple of channels, mainly TP30 when the 129 sat goes through its 45 minute phase of dropping power but then starts regaining signal strength within a couple of minutes. Maybe if you wouldn't mind a larger dish in the 1.2 meter range which would be better for reception...contact Greg Mueller (who posted above) who has just made his conversion for the 129 sat reception with great results. Hopefully you will able to have a line of sight for the three satellite positions. Good Luck!!!