Monday August 14th Technical Chat

[lchial]

Pause bar can be removed.

One of the early questions was whether the blue pause bar could be removed on the 622. The answer was "no". Well it can be made to disappear...just press the "skip back" button.

 

[Hall]

If they boost the power to the NW they boost the power to all.

That's what I figured too, unless the Northwest has their locals on the 129', so I presume they could increase the power on the spotbeams only (???).

If they increase it for the entire satellite, could I get my dish re-aligned to optimize 119' and 110' ?? I think the installer tried to get 129' as high as possible and therefore traded off strength on the other two. Then again, I get similar numbers to at least one other D1000 user here in town.

 

[Hall]

One of the early questions was whether the blue pause bar could be removed on the 622. The answer was "no". Well it can be made to disappear...just press the "skip back" button.

On the 8000/8300 set-tops (for cable) from Scientific Atlanta, there was a setting for the bar that popped up and you could control it with "slow, normal, fast" for how quickly the bar disappears. You could override it to make it go away quicker by hitting "Exit" on the remote. Seems Dish could do something similar.... They didn't seem completely confused by the question either, so maybe they've heard complaints or comments about it.

Speaking of issues like this, is there a good place to ask questions like this other than Tech Chat ?? Calling tech support depends on whether they log the complaint. What about over at dbstalk ?? Are their forums "official" still ??

 

[BFG]

When they boost the power, duck in cover in case the satellite falls out of the sky

 

[HokieEngineer]

This is from thier annual report (from March):

EchoStar V.

EchoStar V, which is currently located at the 129 degree orbital location, was designed to operate a maximum of 32 transponders at approximately 110 watts per channel, switchable to 16 transponders operating at over 220 watts per channel. Momentum wheel failures on this satellite in prior years resulted in increased fuel consumption and caused a minor reduction of spacecraft life. During 2005, we determined those anomalies will reduce the life of EchoStar V more than previously estimated, and as a result, we reduced the estimated remaining useful life of the satellite from approximately seven years to approximately six years effective January 2005. EchoStar V has been utilized as an in-orbit spare since February 2003. On June 30, 2005, the FCC approved our request to use this satellite to provide service to the United States from a third party Canadian DBS orbital slot located at the 129 degree orbital location. Due to the increase in fuel consumption resulting from the relocation of EchoStar V from the 119 degree orbital location to the 129 degree orbital location, effective July 1, 2005, we further reduced the satellite’s estimated remaining useful life from approximately six years to approximately 40 months. These reductions in estimated remaining useful life during 2005 increased our depreciation expense related to the satellite by approximately $9.2 million in 2005 and will increase it by approximately $15.3 million annually thereafter. Prior to 2005, EchoStar V experienced anomalies resulting in the loss of five solar array strings out of a total of 96 available, reducing solar array power to approximately 95% of its original capacity. During August 2005, EchoStar V lost an additional solar array string. The loss is not expected to impact commercial operation of the satellite or its remaining useful life. There can be no assurance that future anomalies will not further impact the useful life or commercial operation of the satellite.

According to that, Echo V has about 2 years left in the tank..

 

[mdonnelly]

...
According to that, Echo V has about 2 years left in the tank..

Long enough for Ceil-2 to make it into orbit.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Long enough for Ceil-2 to make it into orbit.

Heh, yea. Cutting it pretty close though. The press release for Ceil-2 said it was scheduled for a late 2008 launch. Dish might need to move something else to 129 if there are any delays.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Yeh, they said the connection was not built strong enough and is breaking in the insert hole. How many of you have broken your hdmi cable and then complained on this web site. I bet none of you.

I suspect the answer is none for having broken their HDMI cable.

But if you mean having broken their HDMI connection and/or connector, then in the Dish HD forum there have been well over 100 complaints posted. And most of them have also contacted E* to complain.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

What can E* engineers do ?? The HDMI connector is an industry standard and they have to conform to it. Others have mentioned breaking the input on other devices, so it's not just E* being cheap.

While the connector is not robust, the primary issue here is that E*'s method of attaching the connector to their system board is very weak. They should have done a much better job of securing that connector.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

So what is the downside of E* powering up the 129 to higher levels?

There must be one or they would have done it before. Does this increase the risk of other failures, like in the power supplies?

 

[ryanvan]

Will there be somekind of recall?

 

[cebbigh]

Did a scan of tp on 129 and noticed a TP10 is stronger than where it was (83 when at peek vs 72 before). Others looked the same. Hope they boost 23, 30 and 31 but don't see any changes on those yet.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

They said the changes would not be made til Wednesday. According to my calendar its only Tuesday.

 

[wied]

What about E*11 schedule for early 2007
http://www.lyngsat.com/launches/2007.html

 

[aegrotatio]

I wonder what 24" dish they were talking about....

Winegard makes a 24" with mounting options for D-Tube or Universal, maybe they will source that one for people forced to use 129 in areas it's not reaching properly?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dish 1000.2?

 

[dfergie]

What about over at dbstalk ?? Are their forums "official" still ??

I don't believe they were ever official...

 

[aegrotatio]

Dish 1000.2?

Scott, I think you've hit the nail on the head, there.

 

[mothergoose45]

Is it just me, or did they cringe both times they heard Satelliteguys mentioned?

I still remember on a Charlie Chat when someone mentioned Satelliteguys, and Charlie looked like he was about to squeal.

I do think they shrugged off the InHD and FoodHD question. Good job asking it!! I know that has been on a lot of our minds.

That was me about 2 years ago. It was nice.

 

[MikeD-C05]

If they boost the power to the NW they boost the power to all.

I wonder why it wasn't boosted at full power from the start Scott? And why did they let everyone suffer from the dropouts and crappy reception if they could have boosted it all along?