Is the voom satellite the same one as the dish bird?? I know both dishes point to 61.5 but i've heard different things. I've heard they are the same bird, and I've also heard they are different birds. Can someone confirm one way or the other? 
Question about voom satellite
- Thread starter lostcause
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lostcause said:Is the voom satellite the same one as the dish bird?? I know both dishes point to 61.5 but i've heard different things. I've heard they are the same bird, and I've also heard they are different birds. Can someone confirm one way or the other?
You might have heard this because of the Transponder issue,Dish was using a couple transponders and the FCC said that Voom,I believe, had the license to use them so Dish had to give them up.
Dish has Echostar 3 and VOOM has Rainbow-1 at 61.5. Both satellites are capable of transmitting on all 32 transponders at 61.5 (although E3 might be broke and not able to transmit on Transponder 28).
Even though both can transmit on any of the 32 transponder channels, VOOM is licensed for 11 transponders (1-21 odd) plus 2 more on temporary authorization from the FCC pending their auction (23&24). Dish has licenses for 11 transponders (2-22 even). Sky Angel has the license for 8 transponders 25-32. Sky Angel (Dominion) does not have a satellite, so they have a deal with Dish to have Dish's E3 satellite transmit on their 8 transponder frequencies. In exchange for E3 doing the transmission, Sky Angel leases 6 of their 8 transponders to Dish.
So, essentially VOOM has their satellite broadcasting on 13 transponder frequencies (11 licensed, 2 on temporary authorization) and Dish has their E3 satellite broadcasting on 19 transponders, 17 of which are in use by dish (6 on lease from SA) and 2 in use by SA.
Even though both can transmit on any of the 32 transponder channels, VOOM is licensed for 11 transponders (1-21 odd) plus 2 more on temporary authorization from the FCC pending their auction (23&24). Dish has licenses for 11 transponders (2-22 even). Sky Angel has the license for 8 transponders 25-32. Sky Angel (Dominion) does not have a satellite, so they have a deal with Dish to have Dish's E3 satellite transmit on their 8 transponder frequencies. In exchange for E3 doing the transmission, Sky Angel leases 6 of their 8 transponders to Dish.
So, essentially VOOM has their satellite broadcasting on 13 transponder frequencies (11 licensed, 2 on temporary authorization) and Dish has their E3 satellite broadcasting on 19 transponders, 17 of which are in use by dish (6 on lease from SA) and 2 in use by SA.
I think I understand what you are saying. You are asking how does the Voom receiver know which transponder signals belong to it?? Their software tells the box which transponder channels to listen to.
I am also sure that when the installers point the dish they use a signal meter and it is set to listen for the Voom beacon. That is how the installers know they have the right bird zeroed in..
In reality I am sure the receiver is capable of hearing the dish network sat but it can not decode the signals from it since the proper software is not loaded.
I am also sure that when the installers point the dish they use a signal meter and it is set to listen for the Voom beacon. That is how the installers know they have the right bird zeroed in..
In reality I am sure the receiver is capable of hearing the dish network sat but it can not decode the signals from it since the proper software is not loaded.
lostcause said:
They don't - and that's a problem. Statistically, 50% of the time they are peaking on the wrong one. Yes, they are at the same approximate location, but not exactly. If you peak on Rainbow-1, you will degrade the signal of anything on the the leased transponders on the other satellite, but you would be getting the strongest possible signal on most Voom channels.
That explains why my signal with Voom went down after the installer left, we used an old Dish receiver to peak the signal. I took a Voom stb outside with a small 13" TV and repeaked it 2 weeks later and upped the signal by about 10 points.
wasch_24 said:
I suspect that many installers believe that there is only one satellite at that position, so they use the meter alignment that works for Dish and DirecTV. They get a good signal and assume all is well, but as you say the only true way to align it for Voom is to use the signal strength on the Voom STB. Note also that alignment is more important with the larger dishes since their beamwidth is narrower. So - if you get an upgrade to a larger dish, make sure that the installer peaks it using the STB. Of course, many installers will be offended by this suggestion since the customer cannot possibly know more than they do.
This alignment issue should be documented in a service bulletin sent from Voom to the installers. The meter is OK as a coarse alignment tool, but it must be peaked using the STB. Installers will fight this since it complicates their job and they don't recognize the need. If I were an installer I would carry an extra STB and small TV so it can be done right at the dish. Lastly - if Voom had a stronger signal, then the meter alignment would be just fine and 18" dishes would work as well as they do for Dish and DirecTV.
deArgila said:
Only if you have one VOOM receiver and you have a dual LNB (I think). Don't ask installers to do this since they will not do it. It is more work to peak two different dishes for two different providers. Do not use the multiswitch either since they are not compatible.
The satellites are probably .2 degrees apart in orbit, not really enough to make a difference when peaking. But, many times after the installer does the peaking, they mess up the dish alignment just a bit when tightening down all the bolts to keep it in place.
The recievers recieve all 32 transponders on 61.5. The VOOM recievers are just programmed to only pay attention to the ones that VOOM is broadcasting on. If Dish were to sell VOOM Dish's transponders on 61.5, VOOM would just update the software on the box to look at them, no hardware update would be needed.
The recievers recieve all 32 transponders on 61.5. The VOOM recievers are just programmed to only pay attention to the ones that VOOM is broadcasting on. If Dish were to sell VOOM Dish's transponders on 61.5, VOOM would just update the software on the box to look at them, no hardware update would be needed.
mike123abc said:
That's probably about right. They are supposed to keep a distance of at least 20 miles from other satellites. At their closest the two satellite are about 20 miles and at their farthest about 40 miles Of course here on Earth 23,000 miles away 20 & 40 miles is an insignificant dot.
The satellites move all day long in a small figure 8 patern inside that 20 mile box. The best time to peak a dish is when the satellite is in the "center of the box", but for home use it isn't that critical.
This might work, except that you can't use simple splitters for satellite cables (because of polarity switching within the LNB). You should either connect to two separate connectors of the LNB (if you have one STB of each type) or you must use a multi-switch.deArgila said:
Ilya said:
In theory yes, but it would be interesting to see what would happen. The VOOM satellite could easily handle the E*/SA load, but the opposit is not true. Echostar 3 has some problems, one of the main ones is that it cannot run in high power mode without overheating. So, if it were to have to take over for VOOM, the signal strength of the VOOM transponders would be a lot lower. This would cause 1 of 2 things..
1. They could run with the same low error correction that VOOM uses now, but there would be a *LOT* more rain fade, but then how often does it rain compared to losing a bunch of channels?
2. Increase the error correction to compensate so that the rain fade is the same, but then either increase compression on VOOM channels or drop some...
