Dish Network HD Local are here, but....

[jsmith]

If you already have an antenna why down grade to get it over dish plus loose additional channels they do not carry, plus having to pay extra for locals?:confused:

I'm already paying for locals, so no big deal there and the NBC channel out of Green Bay doesn't really come in well over the antenna. Plus I'm guessing that there will be additional programming added to 61.5 in the future, so hopefully I'll be ready.

I got the additional dish added this afternoon, the installer had the wrong information from Dish again... thought I had a 1000.2 and I had the 1000, luckily I had a 44 switch in the basement and he made it work...

[Chinatown]

If you have a Dish 1000, any new HD content, except locals, will be mirrored, if need be, to 110, 119, & 129.


According to several CS R's, the locals can not be mirrored, thus the need for the wing antenna.

[jsmith]

If you have a Dish 1000, any new HD content, except locals, will be mirrored, if need be, to 110, 119, & 129.


According to several CS R's, the locals can not be mirrored, thus the need for the wing antenna.

I find it amazing that you believe what the CSRs at Dish tell you... ? :confused:

One out of four calls to their CS number gets you someone that can actually offer decent information and assist you. I've found that generally the tech. support option (3) is often better, but even then it's questionable.

It absolutely would not surprise me at all if they put additional new content on 61.5, they've switched programming around before, why wouldn't they do it again?

[jkane]

They want the national HD's, like SciFi which isn't there yet, to be on the satellites that everyone can see so they don't waste double bandwidth on them.  Locals "can" go on the far east and far west locations since they don't have to duplicate the bandwidth on the other coast for locals.

Not a great plan, but a plan none the less.

[bradsmainsite]

I'm already paying for locals, so no big deal there and the NBC channel out of Green Bay doesn't really come in well over the antenna. Plus I'm guessing that there will be additional programming added to 61.5 in the future, so hopefully I'll be ready.

I got the additional dish added this afternoon, the installer had the wrong information from Dish again... thought I had a 1000.2 and I had the 1000, luckily I had a 44 switch in the basement and he made it work...

I'm totally shocked that they would have the wrong info.:rolleyes:

How they had you having a 1000.2 around here is amazing!  Nobody uses a 1000.2 around here period.  Let us know if anything worthwhile comes on 61.5 though.

Thnx!:)

[ddysart]

I'm curious if I go with the 24 month agreement what the cancellation fees are like.  2 years is a long time in the technology world.  If they just prorate the $60 cost, I wouldn't mind, but if there is a larger penalty, I might consider paying up front just to keep my options open.

[russellj]

I got my second dish for HD locals installed today. They seem to look as good as what I get OTA. Plus  all the HD channels that I was getting from the 129 satellite are now coming from the 61.5 satellite. It has better signal strength than the 129 does. The main reason I went with the second dish is that living in Sheboygan I am on the fringe area for Milwaukee locals and weather conditions seem to affect the OTA signal sometimes. Last night was one of those times. My signal OTA would go from 95 to 30 to 85 to 30 etc. The picture would keep cutting in and out. I have not been able to figure out what type of weather causes it. Last night seemed to be good clear skys except for a slight wind. The person who installed my second dish also lives in sheboygan. When he saw my OTA antenna he asked me if I had reception problems last night, because he had a hard time watching NCIS OTA. He kept losing signal too.

[Chinatown]

who has added the wing dish, take a picture of it and post it to this forum.

I might have second thoughts, depending on the aesthetics.

Thanking you in advance.

[jsmith]

who has added the wing dish, take a picture of it and post it to this forum.

I might have second thoughts, depending on the aesthetics.

Thanking you in advance.

It's not a "wing" dish... it's just another dish. I think they use the 500 with a single LNB. Not really sure what a "wing" dish is, neither did the installer.

I'm also in Sheboygan and I agree with russellj, the HD locals look as good as the OTA. I have an antenna, but I have it pointed at GB and I get better reception than from Milwaukee. I had Custom Communications from Oostburg set it up and it works great, all except the NBC channel, which now I get from Milwaukee on Dish... ! If I had it up higher I think I could get 26 in better...

I'm sort of beyond aesthetics at this point, I had two dishes once before and then I added an antenna and now another dish again... oh well, it's on the back of the house anyway!

[jsmith]

So, I had the second dish installed and the installer needed a switch and power inserter (because he didn't have the proper information on the work order), which I had and gave him. He never installed the power inserter and took it with him. Now it's like pulling teeth just to get him back out here to drop it off. Now it seems like every morning the receiver needs to find satellite signals again and occasionally a channel won't come in... Every time I call Dish to get an install or upgrade it takes two or three times to get it right, why is that... ?

[jsmith]

By the way, anyone in the Sheboygan area looking for an excellent Dish Network retailer or installer try Custom Communication Solutions in Oostburg, nice guys! Helped me out when the guy that Dish sent out messed up! FYI - they also install OTA antennas!

Jamie.

[tbarney]

Installer was here today and hooked me up wiht 61.5.  I'm not sure if it could have been done with something smaller, but it is a huge Dish 500 dish that was used.  I don't understand how all the cabling works with Dish Network, but he took the cable from the 61.5 feed and ran it to the 1000.2 setup that I originall had. It looks like it ran up the arm to the end where all the LNBs are. I have to imagine that there is a switch of somekind built in. Can anyone confirm?

My original setup was mounted on a pole in the ground. (I think the original installer was afraid to get on my 2 story roof  The one problem with the install is that there is a tree not more than 10 feet from the 61.5 dish and it is straight in front of it.  I get signal now because there are no leaves, but in a month I can bet that won't be the case.  At least the install comes with a 90 day warranty. I  can bet he'll be back!

[bradsmainsite]

I got my second dish for HD locals installed today. They seem to look as good as what I get OTA. Plus  all the HD channels that I was getting from the 129 satellite are now coming from the 61.5 satellite. It has better signal strength than the 129 does. The main reason I went with the second dish is that living in Sheboygan I am on the fringe area for Milwaukee locals and weather conditions seem to affect the OTA signal sometimes. Last night was one of those times. My signal OTA would go from 95 to 30 to 85 to 30 etc. The picture would keep cutting in and out. I have not been able to figure out what type of weather causes it. Last night seemed to be good clear skys except for a slight wind. The person who installed my second dish also lives in sheboygan. When he saw my OTA antenna he asked me if I had reception problems last night, because he had a hard time watching NCIS OTA. He kept losing signal too.

To explain what is happening with OTA signals especially in the Sheboygan area and areas around lake Michigan especially in Spring and summer months.  Temperature inversions or ducting is the culprit with the cold lake waters and warmer temps a loft it sets up a narrow band that rf gets caught in and will travel hundreds of miles which is where the problem comes in.

Analog stations from Indiana, MI, and Ill. travel in this space and some of these are on our digital channels, so what happens is you have an analog waveform superimposed on top of a digital wave form and your receiver has no clue how to decode both of them.  Depending on the signal strength from the distant analog station it will either cause pixalization, or complete signal loss.  When the conversion happens in '09 this should take care of a lot of those annoying analog stations causing intereference once the plug is pulled.

With reference to NBC Green Bay channel 26 problems in Sheboygan these are mostly caused by analog 41 from Milwaukee as it is on the same channel as the Digital channel 26 from Green Bay.  There is also an analog 41 from South Bend IN. that raises havoc at times with the ducting problem.  Once again this should resolve itself once the plug is pulled on analog

Hope this helps answer some questions with OTA issues in areas along the lake.  Again this is mostly seasonal, but can happen throughout the year, and may be the reason some people have problems all of a sudden that do not normally have issues.:bang: BTW you don't have to be just near the lake this can happen anywhere, but is most common around here.

300 days and counting, and things should stabilize maybe?

[tbarney]

To explain what is happening with OTA signals especially in the Sheboygan area and areas around lake Michigan especially in Spring and summer months.  Temperature inversions or ducting is the culprit with the cold lake waters and warmer temps a loft it sets up a narrow band that rf gets caught in and will travel hundreds of miles which is where the problem comes in.

I think I had this same thing today. I'm in Germantown and figured I would try to see what other HD markets I could get by pointing my attic antenna in different directions. Pointing straight east I was able to get ABC 13 and Fox 17 from Grand Rapids Michigan. Signal strength for 13.1 was in the mid 60's. Once the sun went down both were gone.  And here I thought I'd be able to get an alternate NFL game on the out of market fox station. Oh well.

In addition, from my location I could not get GB, Madison, or Chicago local channels by pointing in their general direction. I had hope for madison since they are only 70 or so miles...  I guess I'm stuck with just Milwaukee locals.