I'm curious about Dish Network.
Last I heard, you were going to task a couple oversized FTA dishes to help get better reception.
Just the short version, should this be a hot button.
I did precisely, exactly that.
Here is a photo (at bottom) I took yesterday of my current projects.
1. This is a 1.8m Prodelin that I am trying to repair. It has missing parts and bent parts. I think I can straighten the bent arms but I'm at a loss on the missing LNB mount. I also need my dad to make an adapter for this to go on the smaller sized pole. It needs a 4" pole, I have a 3 1/2" pole in the ground already. When this ever gets done, I'm using it to pluck down Dish Network 129w for my HD channels.
2. This is a spare 1m Direcway dish sitting on an NPRM. I need to plant a new pole, I want to dedicate it to 83w and feed it to my Home Theater PC through my 1x8 Digiwave switch.
3. Another 1m Direcway that is aimed at 125w for PBS. It goes to my HTPC.
4. Ah, and ~another~ Direcway. This is for 97w and goes to my HTPC.
5. The Lawnchair dish. This is a 1m Primestar dish that was missing an arm. I repaired it be taking a part from an old lawn chair, bent it to match to other side and bingo, it works! The motor is an HH SG-9120 and my dad helped me modify a BUNCH of stuff to mount this dish to this motor. It feeds only my STB (now a MicroHD). My HTPC can not operate a motor, I guess it can't output enough power through the tuner card.
Because I don't want to burn out a switch I ran a wire first from the STB to the motor, then back from the motor to the switch boxes (plastic tool boxes mounted on the poles). The motor goes into an old Fonkamatic 1x8 switch I found, it's weird, I think it is a 1.2 type because it has options on it for GOTO or cascade which causes me a great deal of confusion. Port 1 of the switch goes back to the dish again and connects to the LNB. Port 2 of the switch goes to the LNB on the 10' dish, it has a dual output LNB, more on that in a minute. This setup is the craziest because of the shared C-band dish.
6. A Channel Master 1m . It is now a Dish Network dish for 110w. It feeds a Dish SW-31 way switch.
7. A Channel Master .96m . It is for Dish 119w and goes to the SW-31.
8. A Channel Master 1.2m . It is for Dish 129w and goes to the SW-31. This dish will be replaced by the 1.8m, this 1.2m will be allocated to either 110w or 119w, I have to figure out which of those two satellites have the greatest number of channels that I watch. Dish #7, the .96m will got back to FTA and dish #6 will handle 110w or 119w, TBD. The goal is to have the 1.8, the 1.2 and the 1.0 dishes for Dish Network. IF I can find an LNB that does both circular and linear in one device, I may make one or more of these dishes do double duty. That is if there is any FTA sharing the same satellite positions. I know 129 used to be shared between Dish and White Springs. I haven't really looked into this and it may likely come to naught in the end.
9. My 10' Odom C-band parked on 101w. It has a dual output LNB. One half goes to my HTPC, the other half feeds into my STB system (dish #5 above). I have a Gbox to move the dish but I do not have it setup inline, I operate it manually. I found that my HTPC would randomly operate the dish for no reason. I lost scheduled recordings because this and the dish had a few "flop over" events I think you call them where it went to far and the motor arm gave way. I was lucky that nothing was damaged but I absolutely will not allow anything to operate the dish. The HTPC has priority on this dish and 99.9999% of the time it will sit on 101w. I record from MeTV and ThisTV multiple times per week, especially on the weekends. I count on that dish being on target. I want to put a C/KU LNB on this dish. I can't use the built in 22k switch because I have one inline at the HTPC. I want to use two 3x4 switches on the C/KU outputs so I can feed C/KU to both my STB and my HTPC.
At the HTPC I run first to a 22k switch. The 22k ON side goes to the 10' C-band. The 22k OFF side goes to the 1x8 Digiwave switch for KU stuff. On the 1x8 I have room for plenty of additional fixed dishes, I have a nice little stockpile of spare dishes in reserve but most of them needs parts which I can get if I feel the need, I just need to dig around on ebay. Right now I don't think there is a whole lot going on on ku FTA, not like the Equity days when there was tons of great stuff! I wish I had known then what I know now. I was just learning in those days and had a lot of trouble getting it right. I still miss White Springs. I really wish that would come back.
Anyway. Later this year I need to get over there and retrieve those 11 foot and 14 foot dishes I bought before something happens to them. My dad can't help me because he has medical issues going on and I can't do much because I also have some issues that keep me from lifting anything over 20lbs and I really shouldn't even do that. I'll likely end up having to hire some people to take them down, apart and transport them for me. IF I can get them moved over here I figure to take several months to refurbish them to like new condition. The 14' dish is going to be parked on 101w, the 11' dish will park on 87w. The 10' I have now will be my exploratory dish.
The reason I have three separate dishes aimed at Dish 110/119/129 is that, according to the theory I cooked up in my brain, when you have ONE dish doing triple duty, feeding three LNB's, that the dish is aimed 'sorta out there' in the general direction of the arc. The smaller dish has a smaller surface area and that you're not getting the full surface area of the dish dedicated to any one satellite, just a portion of it. With three separate dishes, each dish is much larger than the stock Dish dish and each dish is dedicated to each satellite and its full surface area is being utilized. Each dish is fine tuned to its satellite. When it rains, I very rarely have rain fade. Only when there are very severe storms do I notice some very minor glitches which are about as annoying as the pixelation that the system does every 30 minutes at the top and bottom of every hour on every channel. I have friends who have those small stock dishes and when it rains they may lose all signal for 30 minutes or more. I never totally lose signal, at most I may get the "Signal Lost" screen for a few seconds and I may get pixelation for a few minutes if it's really bad out. So I know my efforts were worth the trouble. The only real problem I have is trees but that's on the mend too. I paid a guy to cut down limbs that were over my C-band dish and that helped a lot. There are still trees in the way of 129w but I '
juiced' one and it's mostly defoliated now
: . That helped a lot but it still needs to come down. My neighbor is totally cool about the trees and he said he will go in half with me to have the trees on the fence line cut down later this year and that will be a huge help to me. Once fall sets in I'll have several months of bare trees and that will be great. I figure before spring we will have them all taken down.
As for Dish, I was really angry with them a few weeks ago but it seems they got their heads out of their backsides and things are going to go back to normal. This makes me happy. There are other things (about Dish) that annoy me but it's nothing I can do anything about so there's no point in going all PMS over it. It is what it is. With the BIG dishes the service is pretty darn reliable so I'll just shut up and watch TV...
The past 12 months have been absolutely horrible for me. I lost my mom, my dad has health issues and I'm not doing so great either. Most of this year I just quit caring about anything, I haven't touched my dishes for the most part. With the cooler weather the past week I am feeling more like getting outside and doing things, that's helping my attitude a lot too, since I've been in a deep funk, sitting inside in the dark for a year. But, I've had my house wide open for 4 days, haven't run the air conditioner and had the doors and windows wide open all day. I did a year's worth of gardening in one weekend. Now I'm going to get all my dish stuff tweaked up, pull some poles and replant them and pretty much shake it all up, again. Oh, and that 6' WSI special dish? I wadded it up into a small lump of scrap metal. It was severely rusted and just too bent up to use. Buh bye... Off to recycling for you! That dish was doomed from day one because like an idiot I assembled it in my kitchen and bent it before it ever saw daylight. From there it just got worse and worse. Game over for that one.
