Not At All Happy WIth The Eastern Arc Move

[KazooGuy]

Three weeks ago, I was told I needed to be moved from the Western Arc to the Eastern Arc for no other reason other than because. I was also told it would not cost me anything, but that is another story. Well, since the move to the east I have had nothing but problems with signal losses every time it rains moderately or for reasons that it just feels like dropping out. Before I never loss signal unless it was a violent thunderstorm, perhaps two or three times a year. This evening I loss signal four times during a single hour, for anywhere between three to ten minutes. Having been a DISH customer for the past ten years I have been satisfied with the occasional loss on the Western Arc, but this Eastern Arc problem is totally unacceptable to me. Western Arc signal levels were consistently in the upper 60's to low 70's on normal days, while on the Eastern Arc they are mainly in the mid to upper 40's and seldom reach a 50. The tech told me after he moved the dish I may need to cut down a tree or two once the leaves come out. I thought he was kidding me, but we do not even have leaves on the trees yet and I am losing signal during a spring shower, what is going to happen when the leaves come out? Well, I can tell you, I will NO LONGER be a loyal DISH customer, so a word of warning to those of you that are told to migrate, DON'T LET THEM!

 

[SomeDishGuy]

Three weeks ago, I was told I needed to be moved from the Western Arc to the Eastern Arc for no other reason other than because. I was also told it would not cost me anything, but that is another story. Well, since the move to the east I have had nothing but problems with signal losses every time it rains moderately or for reasons that it just feels like dropping out. Before I never loss signal unless it was a violent thunderstorm, perhaps two or three times a year. This evening I loss signal four times during a single hour, for anywhere between three to ten minutes. Having been a DISH customer for the past ten years I have been satisfied with the occasional loss on the Western Arc, but this Eastern Arc problem is totally unacceptable to me. Western Arc signal levels were consistently in the upper 60's to low 70's on normal days, while on the Eastern Arc they are mainly in the mid to upper 40's and seldom reach a 50. The tech told me after he moved the dish I may need to cut down a tree or two once the leaves come out. I thought he was kidding me, but we do not even have leaves on the trees yet and I am losing signal during a spring shower, what is going to happen when the leaves come out? Well, I can tell you, I will NO LONGER be a loyal DISH customer, so a word of warning to those of you that are told to migrate, DON'T LET THEM!

Arc migration isn't really optional. In many markets, where the locals are available on both arcs, that will no longer be the case at some point soon. How soon? I don't have an answer. But for many accounts, any account change will force an arc flip. All that said, signal losses due to this aren't something that should happen, but it would depend on satellite visibility, and I am assuming you have a poor sky view to the Eastern arc satellites. Admittedly, some people may have no visibility to the new arc. Is there anywhere on your property with a better view to the southeast? Did the tech put the dish in the exact same place, or did he check for better visibility elsewhere on the house and/or property?

 

[KazooGuy]

Arc migration isn't really optional. In many markets, where the locals are available on both arcs, that will no longer be the case at some point soon. How soon? I don't have an answer. But for many accounts, any account change will force an arc flip. All that said, signal losses due to this aren't something that should happen, but it would depend on satellite visibility, and I am assuming you have a poor sky view to the Eastern arc satellites. Admittedly, some people may have no visibility to the new arc. Is there anywhere on your property with a better view to the southeast? Did the tech put the dish in the exact same place, or did he check for better visibility elsewhere on the house and/or property?

He left the dish on the same pole that the dish has always been on. He was here only 30 minutes, however, I do not believe there is any better view of the Eastern Arc any where else on the property. I really could care less about local sat channels. I do not use DISH's sat channels for any of my locals, I have OTA and use the internal OTA tuner to watch locals. So if that is the only reason I sure wish they would give me back the Western Arc.

 

[ncted]

I've been on EA since I signed back up in Dec. 2012. I so rarely lose signal, I've kind of forgot that could be a problem. I suspect your dish needs some attention.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I suspect the alignment of the dish is off just by a hair. Its amazing how small a movement can make such a huge difference.

 

[Tampa8]

Think of it this way, if everyone had the problems you are having there would be no customers that had to be on the Eastern Arc. So I have to believe it's a matter of LOS and/or aiming. I have both the EA and WA in Ct (WA now in Florida but had EA) There is no doubt the EA is more apt to get rain fade over the WA, (In Florida we were changed to the WA to help reduce it) but not to the extent you are experiencing. I would never lose a signal from a storm I wouldn't have with the WA, but more it was losing it for a longer period of time during the same storm I might lose it with the WA. In Ct I do lose the signal on the EA before the WA, and the WA comes back before the EA, however we are still talking a handful of times a year, one handful usually.

And as posted, it appears this isn't going to be a choice for the by far majority who do watch locals from Satellite. Have them come back out and check for alignment and make there is complete LOS. (Lower signals on the EA are normal, can not be compared to the WA as the ARC's are not the same, and always going to be lower until the WA is changed over. If you have no reliable LOS or they can't get you a reliable signal, since you don't care about the locals insist they change it back to the WA.

 

[boba]

CONTACT DIRT

 

[Brodieb]

When I moved they moved my dish to eastern arc and I was losing signal with even light showers. I called Dish and had a tech come back and realign and now I rarely lose signal even in heavy storms.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Still, to this day, OUR management is telling us that it is not about locals being taken off the Western Arc but about transitioning to MPEG4 equipment. And, since we're installing MPEG4 receivers, it makes sense to flip the system to Eastern Arc so they can get their locals in HD (for areas that the locals on WA are only SD), especially with the high concentration of HD tvs now. It took a while but the market has finally transitioned to the majority of customer's tvs are HD instead of SD.
So, if I roll to one of these upgrade jobs, and the line of sight to Eastern Arc is not there or is "iffy", then I still upgrade the receivers but I leave the system on Western Arc. If the current WA dish is a dish 500, then I will upgrade it to a 1000.2 WA dish to add on the 129 sat in case the customer upgrades to HD programming.
And, if way down the road, Dish really does pull the customer's locals off Western Arc, then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm sure as crap not calling Dish to cancel the job or the account.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Still, to this day, OUR management is telling us that it is not about locals being taken off the Western Arc but about transitioning to MPEG4 equipment. And, since we're installing MPEG4 receivers, it makes sense to flip the system to Eastern Arc so they can get their locals in HD (for areas that the locals on WA are only SD), especially with the high concentration of HD tvs now. It took a while but the market has finally transitioned to the majority of customer's tvs are HD instead of SD.
So, if I roll to one of these upgrade jobs, and the line of sight to Eastern Arc is not there or is "iffy", then I still upgrade the receivers but I leave the system on Western Arc. If the current WA dish is a dish 500, then I will upgrade it to a 1000.2 WA dish to add on the 129 sat in case the customer upgrades to HD programming.
And, if way down the road, Dish really does pull the customer's locals off Western Arc, then we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm sure as crap not calling Dish to cancel the job or the account.

It's probably both cases. If Dish is that desperate to get more bandwidth out of their existing satellites they would want to convert everything to 8PSK/MPEG-4 and put locals on just one arc only and get rid of the dual arc markets.

 

[Teehar]

Also keep in mind that signal readings on eastern arc are always lower than western arc due to the modulation.I'm not a fan of it but,70's are equivalent to 50's on the eastern arc.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I have eastern arc 1000.4 sat dish I've had since 08 that I installed myself and I get in the 70s on the 77sat and 60s and 50s on 72.7 and 61.5 sats. The 1000.4 sat dish is a little bigger than what they are installing now with the 1000.2 sat dish and an eastern arc lnb, but I think that aiming & peaking the dish is the most important part of the installation. If you don't do that right, then you will suffer rain fade and all kinds of lost tuners and signals.