R22 and old 18" dish

[AllanJ]

Question for all you satellite experts out there: I used to have a DirecTV subscription years ago so I have an old 18" round dish mounted on my roof.

I recently purchased a new R22 receiver and activated it, hooked everything up and now I am without local channels. I believe for my zip code (12901) they moved the locals off the 101 to one of their newer satellites.

I want to obviously receive local stations and do not have any future plans of getting an HD set nor the associated HD channels.

For personal reasons, I do not want to have an installer come to my house and install a new dish. Can I purchase another older 18" dish, aim it at the satellite that is broadcasting my local stations and run that cable into the second entry of my R22 receiver? Would that work?

Your help is much appreciated.

 

[jdspencer]

Your SD locals are on the 72.5 sat. You can aim a second dish at that sat. Having two dishes connected to the separate input on the R22 won't work. You use the WB68 multiswitch to connect the two dishes.

Also, note that DirecTV is in the process of migrating the locals on 72.5 to 101.

 

[AllanJ]

Your SD locals are on the 72.5 sat. You can aim a second dish at that sat. Having two dishes connected to the separate input on the R22 won't work. You use the WB68 multiswitch to connect the two dishes.

Also, note that DirecTV is in the process of migrating the locals on 72.5 to 101.

So should I just wait and my issue will work itself out?

 

[jdspencer]

Do you get your locals at the home?

I have no idea when your locals will move from 72.5 to 101.

 

[AllanJ]

Do you get your locals at the home?

I have no idea when your locals will move from 72.5 to 101.

No, right now I don't get locals with my old 18" dish. On my DirecTV account online details, there is the following message:

"We will soon be changing how we broadcast local channels in your zip code. This may require a free upgrade to your DIRECTV equipment. To find out if you qualify for an upgrade, call 1-888-763-7772. Mention "Free 72 Local Swap" at the voice prompt. "

So I am assuming it should happen soon. Just to confirm that I understand correctly: the SD version of my locals will be going back to 101 which my current dish is pointed at?

 

[boba]

From that message the odds are stronger that your locals are moving to 103 or 99 Ka satellites. If they were moving to 101 there would be no need for equipment upgrades.

 

[Mr Tony]

Directv is moving locals from 72.5 to 99/103

Just had a thread on this about another market like that. In fact, new customers get FREE HD DVR's in those markets

Ice - D* IS now, in fact, ONLY installing HD boxes in ALL 72.5 &/or MPEG4 only markets, on new installs or upgrades, regardless if the sub is SD or HD:

As you can see, they also NOT installing any new R22's, even for SD DVR subs - ALL DVR's in the markets are all HD DVRs. They simply lock the boxes down to 480i for SD subs that aren't paying for HD access.

D* is no longer doing ANY 72.5 dishes in ANY markets any more, even in HD markets for SD only subs. The HD receivers (& R22's) downconvert any locals that are broadcast in HD only in MPEG4, so that D* is no longer putting up SD copies of HD locals in 72.5 markets, which is why ALL MPEG4 equpment is required in these markets.

I also had a client last week who had an HD DVR & SD DVR that were installed about a year ago. The SD DVR died & when D* shipped him a replacement receiver, they sent him an HD DVR instead. Although I had to come over & hook it up, since the HD DVR's do NOT have an RF output, (the SD DVR fed the rest of the house) he was happy in the long run that he just got a FREE HD DVR upgrade.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/1910218-post46.html

Slimline ONLY w/all HD boxes. As I said above, D* has completely stopped installing ANY 72.5 on new installs/moves/upgrades - again, it makes no difference if the sub is SD or HD. And yes, any of his locals that are up in HD, he will ONLY be able to see the HD versions of them. But again, the receivers will just downconvert to SD, & he will be able to adjust whether they will be letterboxed or cropped, to properly fill a 4:3 screen. This is a BIG improvement over those R22's, where you CANNOT make this adjustment! (eg: when any of our HD locals are broadcasting a 4:3 pic w/side bars, & you are trying to watch on a 4:3 TV, you end up getting the "postage stamp" effect on these stations, & NO way to fix it - VERY ANNOYING!)

But also another tidbit - any other of his locals (such as his CW in this case) that are NOT up in HD, D* has put up duplicate SD MPEG4 Ka versions, so that they get EVERY one of their locals via the slimline, whether they are all in HD or not. This applies to ALL Ka markets. In our market, our local CW & MTN stations are not up in HD, but are up in SD MPEG4, so if you do happen to have BOTH a slimline & 72.5 dish, you end up with 2 SD versions of these channels.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/1910353-post48.html

 

[AllanJ]

According to the DirecTV Transponder Map sticky thread, my locals (WCAX, WPTZ, WVNY, WFFF, and WCFE) are now spread between the 99W and 103W satellites.

I wanted to leave up my existing 18" dish (too complicated to move as it's mounted on the power line entry pole to my house) to feed the 101W to an older receiver as well as my downstairs.

I would now like to mount a secondary older dish (for weight purposes) to my chimney in order to receive the locals which are broadcast over DirecTV on my downstairs TV as well as to mount a Channel Master 3010 Antenna for some OTA signals. If both the 99W and 103W are carrying my local stations, could I use one old 18" dish to get both those satellites (as I have an extra one lying around)? If not, what dish could I get (preferably something older due to being lighter) to suit my needs?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[jdspencer]

The old 18" dish can't receive the 99 or 103 sats as the LNB is not compatible.
The only dish that receives 99 and 103 is the Slimline AU9.
It is bigger and heavier than the 18" dish.