You have not said what locals that you get. If your locals are on 129, you can just repoint your 61.5 dish to 129 and not replace any of your older receivers. What locals do you receive?
Losing my HD channels end of the year?
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12.5 degrees in and of itself is not the issue, however line of sight (LoS) - which becomes increasingly more difficult at lower angles - can be a precluding problem. I'm at 20 degrees inclination for 129, but looking through trees which I have had to have trimmed twice. When the LoS is relatively clear, I get strong reception. Currently I need 129 for my HD locals. They might be mirrored on one of the EA sats. (I never checked), but even if so I also have LoS issues with the EA sats. unless I move my current dish location a considerable distance back on my property, which will involve setting up a pole mount and trenching at least 100' of coax.
When I went through this, I had a tech come out (free, since they just added the channels to 129 and I needed the added dish to receive programming for which I was already paying!) and "find" the sat. for me. He didn't think it would work but we did a "cheap 'n' dirty" 129 wing installation in mid-spring with a D500 he had with him and it did indeed work...until a couple of days later when the leaves came out on the trees. I made a simple "129 sighter" with an angle of cardboard cut to 20 deg. I taped that to a level and set it on a table on the peak of my roof near the dish location, leveled it, and swung it to (IIRC) 245 deg. magnetic (bearing from my location) using my trusty old Boy Scout compass. This allowed me to identify the interferring trees. When the tree trimmer came over, I connected a "Dish Finder" meter in line with the 129 LNB cable and listened to the tone it produces. We kept trimming until the tone got very strong. Voila! 129 reception when the leaves are out, thanks to the nice hole we opened-up in the canopy.
So feel free to experiment! Worked for me. Get your intended mounting location as high as possible and aimed correctly and you might find out you'll be OK on the LoS issue...or at least learn exactly why you don't have LoS...
When I went through this, I had a tech come out (free, since they just added the channels to 129 and I needed the added dish to receive programming for which I was already paying!) and "find" the sat. for me. He didn't think it would work but we did a "cheap 'n' dirty" 129 wing installation in mid-spring with a D500 he had with him and it did indeed work...until a couple of days later when the leaves came out on the trees. I made a simple "129 sighter" with an angle of cardboard cut to 20 deg. I taped that to a level and set it on a table on the peak of my roof near the dish location, leveled it, and swung it to (IIRC) 245 deg. magnetic (bearing from my location) using my trusty old Boy Scout compass. This allowed me to identify the interferring trees. When the tree trimmer came over, I connected a "Dish Finder" meter in line with the 129 LNB cable and listened to the tone it produces. We kept trimming until the tone got very strong. Voila! 129 reception when the leaves are out, thanks to the nice hole we opened-up in the canopy.
So feel free to experiment! Worked for me. Get your intended mounting location as high as possible and aimed correctly and you might find out you'll be OK on the LoS issue...or at least learn exactly why you don't have LoS...
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Yeah - It actually points downward if you're looking at the dish's main axis. I can't recall the LNB offset angle, is it 22.5 deg? Anyway, I need the negative dish angle to put the signal incidence at 20 deg. elevation on target for the LNB...!
BTW, that "temporary" installation is still in place today. I want to use a better mast eventually and perhaps some guy wires to hold it a bit more steady in windstorms, but for the most part it works just fine...until the leaves grow back in the way again...!
BTW, that "temporary" installation is still in place today. I want to use a better mast eventually and perhaps some guy wires to hold it a bit more steady in windstorms, but for the most part it works just fine...until the leaves grow back in the way again...!
I tried the other day to point the D500 toward 129 and couldn't pick up a signal. My HD locals are currently from 61.5. Should I do a check switch first after disconnecting 61.5 from the D500 to "clear" it from the receiver before trying to pick up 129? I'm not sure but I thought I read this somewhere but can't seem to find where, and don't want to try this if it will screw up what I already have. I have a line of site (just enough above some distant trees) even though the dish looks like it is pointing down at 12.5 elevation. I've got it at 12.5 elevation, 265 Az, and 41.9 skew. Sound about right for 04863?
Skew is unnecessary for a single LNBF unit. The other angles are correct for mag Az.
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