New 622 upgrade, installer says "no" to local HD

[GSB0824]

I live in the Atlanta area and recently upgraded 811's to one 622 and one 211. The installer came out very late and the first thing he told me was I would not be able to get local HD via a satellite feed due to the low angle of the local HD satellite. He said the angle was at 29 degrees south and I have tall trees on the south side of my house. He left the original dish and installed a new dish, a 500 I think.

I just wanted to check to see if this guy was feeding me a load of bull since it was late at night. I now have two satellite antennas, but still no local HD. Is there something I can do to the receivers to check and see if I can get them? If trees are a problem, is there something I can do without having to get an OTA antenna?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

The 129 satellite does sit low on the horizon from Atlanta and if you have tall trees in that direction, it could easily block your line of sight to it.

You could get all of E*'s HD channels except your locals using one dish to pull in the 61.5 satellite and the other to get the 110/119 locations. I suspect that is what you are doing now.

To get your locals, you'll have to find someway of gaining access to 129 or use OTA or get them from cable. There is no way to get them from a 61.5/110/119 setup.

This thread has discussed this problem before:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=76173&highlight=atlanta+129

 

[rich88]

Unfortunately, he's right.

According to Dish, the elevation for that area is approximately 29 for the 129 sat, and to be quite honest, that is even a struggle to get the signal.

If I can't get a least a 25 - 26 on the elevation, I won't even try to put in a Dish 1000 or Dish 500 aimed at the 129.

Have spent too many hours trying to get a signal off the 129 at a elevation in the high 20s only to have the receiver unable to acquire it.

I'm sure there is a reason, but I wonder why Dish doesn't put it's East Coast Local HDs channels on the 61.5 satellite also???

 

[bhelms]

The good news is that you will probably have little trouble receiving those same channels OTA with a decent outdoor antenna installation, and the HD picture quality will be superior via the OTA signal anyway. Even if you could receive those channels via Dish you are better off having the OTA equipment installed for several reasons, not the least of which is the superior PQ...

 

[kb7oeb]

Also with just a dish 500 you are missing a bunch of national HD channels that you are paying for.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I assumed the OP also had a dish pointing at 61.5, or else he would have been complaining about a lot more than missing out on his HD locals. Especially given that he has had HD receivers for a long time.

 

[GSB0824]

I have something pointing at 61.5 because I get all the HD channels except for the locals