Pathway X1

[apachewolf08]

I recently bought a Pathway X1 with a VIP 211Z receiver. Everything works well EXCEPT when I am away from my "home area" I cannot get the stations from home (Tucson AZ). Prior to the new dish I had anold dish 500 that worked real well except at times it could be a task to set it up, BUT when I had the satellites I always had my 'home stations". I have been told that it is a FCC rule that you cannot get your home locals if you are more than about 200 miles away from home. If that is true than why did it work with the 500? Is there a "hack" one can use to by=pass this obstacle?

I really love the convenience of the Pathway but not the hassle of getting my home channels. I really don't care what goes on in Palm Springs, CA or Denver, CO when I am there but I like to know what happens in Tucson, AZ.

Anybody have any idea or thoughts on this?

----PLEASE-----

 

[Brussam]

The FCC doesn't say you can't receive your Locals more than 200 miles from home.

The physical reason is that Locals are in spot beams usually around 200 miles in diameter. Your home could be on the near side of the spot beam and it wouldn't be 200 miles before you could not receive your Locals or it could be on the far side of the circle.

Now the spot beams aren't perfect 200 mile circles but that is the situation. There is no hack for receiving a spot beam outside of where the spot beam is.

 

[NYDutch]

The larger reflector on the 500 compared to the X1 may have allowed you to get your home locals further out on the spot beam fringe signal.

 

[apachewolf08]

I emailed WINEGARD, and was told by winegardhelp that the FCC restricts the transmission of local channels. Besides I have picked up my locals in far west California and up to St. George UT, so I am inclined to believe that there is some programming in the receiver or Pathway X1 that prohibits the reception away from home.

 

[Scherrman]

I emailed WINEGARD, and was told by winegardhelp that the FCC restricts the transmission of local channels. Besides I have picked up my locals in far west California and up to St. George UT, so I am inclined to believe that there is some programming in the receiver or Pathway X1 that prohibits the reception away from home.

It has nothing to do with your equipment. Your local channels are sent from the satellite as a spot beam which only covers a certain area. Once you are our of that area you can no longer pull in those channels. It wouldn't matter what dish antenna you were using.

 

[TheKrell]

I believe NYDutch nailed it, because there is nothing Dish does to your receiver to prevent it from getting your correct locals. If you are out of the spotbeam, that's it. The only thing you can do is get a bigger dish.

The only other possibility I see to explain your issue is that you were looking at SD locals off 119, and now you are trying to look at HD locals off 129. The spotbeams are completely different (have a different ground footprint) coming from these different satellites.

Once you are our of that area you can no longer pull in those channels. It wouldn't matter what dish antenna you were using.

Some folks put up rather large antennas to fix this situation.

 

[boba]

I believe NYDutch nailed it, because there is nothing Dish does to your receiver to prevent it from getting your correct locals. If you are out of the spotbeam, that's it. The only thing you can do is get a bigger dish.

The only other possibility I see to explain your issue is that you were looking at SD locals off 119, and now you are trying to look at HD locals off 129. The spotbeams are completely different (have a different ground footprint) coming from these different satellites.



Some folks put up rather large antennas to fix this situation.

And even with larger antenna they still lose signal at some point.

 

[dfergie]

Here is the Phoenix spot beam for an example from the list ...
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist...&sub=true&sort=&order=&beamMap=CIEL2_SB34.jpg

 

[Bobby]

I'm assuming (yeah I know ) that you are in the Phoenix DMA and you watch Phoenix channels at home. This is what the spotbeam looks like for those channels in HD and SD:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist...ll&sub=true&sort=&order=&beamMap=E10_SB35.jpg

When you look at that, there is no way you watched Phoenix channels in San Diego because even with a very large dish the signal just won't get there...

 

[NYDutch]

I emailed WINEGARD, and was told by winegardhelp that the FCC restricts the transmission of local channels. Besides I have picked up my locals in far west California and up to St. George UT, so I am inclined to believe that there is some programming in the receiver or Pathway X1 that prohibits the reception away from home.

If you happen to live in the Yuma, AZ market area, that spot beam reaches west into the Pacific, covering a lot of southern CA. It also covers parts of Nevada and Utah.

Yuma, AZ DMA Spot Beam Map

 

[Bobby]

If you happen to live in the Yuma, AZ market area, that spot beam reaches west into the Pacific, covering a lot of southern CA. It also covers parts of Nevada and Utah.

Yuma, AZ DMA Spot Beam Map

and they are all SD channels...

 

[apachewolf08]

Thanks all for the info. FYI I am in the Tucson, AZ area, and as said have had no problem before in getting my home channels with a DISH 500. I switched to the Pathway X1 for the convenience of not having to, some time , spend up to 2 hrs locating the sat. The Pathway works great and I'll have to stick with what I can get. Again thank you all for the info.