I'm curious about DirecTV's current spot beam ability with local channels. I've read a lot of comments about people "moving" to a different area for different local channel service, but what's the farthest "move" someone has done. I live in Maryland, but I'd love to get the local channels from my home state, Kentucky. Is that possible?
Spot Beam Geography
- Thread starter EEJay
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 14
- Views 3K
- Status
No way.
As a very "general rule" spot beams are in the neighborhood of 100 -150 or so miles around their DMA; depending on the DMA, and they are not nearly a perfect radius.
As a very "general rule" spot beams are in the neighborhood of 100 -150 or so miles around their DMA; depending on the DMA, and they are not nearly a perfect radius.
Most of the time when people use a false service address they are looking to get "Distant Network Service" which is the networks from NY/LA. I don't think you'll get anything from Kentucky in Maryland. but some places neighboring DMAs should be possible, IE: Atlanta in Birmingham, Birmingham in Montgomery, SF in LA, SD in SF, etc.
Well, I moved over 180 miles away from Chicago & get it just fine. (I did put up a 3' dish, since the Chicago spotbeam was weaker than the other ones, which did the trick) I also can get St.Louis & Indianapolis with no problems as well - actually, 3 of the Chicago locals share the Indy spotbeam. I'm sure there are some spotbeams on the 119 bird I could probably get, but haven't tested any of those spots f/signal strength.
Also keep in mind that if you wanted any of the locals on the 72.5 bird, they should be able to be received anywhere since they are conus beams. (I understand that the signal strength on this bird does not hit southwestern part of the US too well, but obviously this can be tested first)
Also keep in mind that if you wanted any of the locals on the 72.5 bird, they should be able to be received anywhere since they are conus beams. (I understand that the signal strength on this bird does not hit southwestern part of the US too well, but obviously this can be tested first)
loudo said:
Well first of all, the MPEG-4 is ONLY for HD right now, so it shouldn't have any effect on the existing spot beams.
Please note that I said the size of a spot was "general" and "not perfect". Some DMAs overlap, some are much larger than others "depending on the DMA". Use these older maps as a sample reference; maybe someone can post some updated ones.
Attachments
loudo said:
I don't know, but I'm wondering myself - guess we'll have to wait until it is up & running before we'll know the answer...
sine were on the quesion of spot beams i was wondering if u can have five different spot beams on the same transponder . such as transponder 4 can different spotbeams be on that same transponder as long as they dont overlap
beast37799 said:
Yes, THAT'S the whole idea of using spotbeams - to enable reuse of frequencies in multiple areas. Here's a spotbeam/x-ponder chart of 101:
http://wvjw.info/dbs-beam/dtv4s.gif
(I don't know if it is still 100% accurate, but it'll give you an idea)
- Status
