# 61.5 vs 129



## Cardinals04 (Jan 19, 2008)

The dish installer explained to me that a neighbor's tree was blocking 129, but he could set up another dish for 61.5. He explained to me that this would be no problem since I do not have locals in HD (Peoria IL), but he did warn me that the locals may not be on the 61.5 satellite whenever they do get added. I thought this was no big deal as I can get them OTA.

Now after researching this site, it seems that I will never get Fox Sports Midwest in HD without 129. Is this true? I have noticed that ACC sunday night hoops are shown in HD on one of my sport alternate channels. Will I get local FSM programming on the alternate channel? Long story short, I need my Cardinals in HD!

Any suggestions, or do I just have to tell my neighbor to cut that tree down?


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## ssmith10pn (Jul 6, 2005)

There has been such little activity on the regional sports channels I took them out of my guide.


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

Cardinals04 said:


> The dish installer explained to me that a neighbor's tree was blocking 129, but he could set up another dish for 61.5. He explained to me that this would be no problem since I do not have locals in HD (Peoria IL), but he did warn me that the locals may not be on the 61.5 satellite whenever they do get added. I thought this was no big deal as I can get them OTA.
> 
> Now after researching this site, it seems that I will never get Fox Sports Midwest in HD without 129. Is this true? I have noticed that ACC sunday night hoops are shown in HD on one of my sport alternate channels. Will I get local FSM programming on the alternate channel? Long story short, I need my Cardinals in HD!
> 
> Any suggestions, or do I just have to tell my neighbor to cut that tree down?


Currently, FSNMW-HD is only on 129°. No Cards in HD on 61.5°.  
*HERE* you can view/monitor all of the channels and the satellite they are on.


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## Cardinals04 (Jan 19, 2008)

Ken Green said:


> Currently, FSNMW-HD is only on 129°. No Cards in HD on 61.5°.
> you can view/monitor all of the channels and the satellite they are on.


Is there anyway for me to tell on that list what satellite will carry the Peoria, IL HD locals whenever they do arrive?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Cardinals04 said:


> Is there anyway for me to tell on that list what satellite will carry the Peoria, IL HD locals whenever they do arrive?


No. The only way to find out where they will land is to check the "uplink activity" reports periodically.


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

Cardinals04 said:


> Is there anyway for me to tell on that list what satellite will carry the Peoria, IL HD locals whenever they do arrive?


Have you considered the possibility of putting your dish antenna on a pole, in your yard, to somehow get around not being able to receive 129°?
It's impossible to predict which orbital your locals will end up on. Dish may be using different satellites by the time they launch, etc.
If it were now, an educated guess would be either 118.75° or 129°. It is highly unlikely IL locals will go on to 61.5°.


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## Cardinals04 (Jan 19, 2008)

2 days ago, I sent an email to the [email protected] address on a totally unrelated issue. I was quite pleased when they called me the next day and assisted with my problem. I brought up this question about Fox Sports Midwest to the rep and she told me the complete opposite of what we have been talking about here.

She told me that I use satellite 129 and that Fox Sports Midwest is on 61.5. She said that I would not receive a strong signal on 61.5 being that I live in the Midwest as this is for people who live on the east coast. She said that I was basically out of luck. This made no sense to me considering FSM is a midwest regional channel. Why would they put it on a satellite set up for the east coast? Plus, my second dish is pointing southeast. How could I argue since she has to have the channel lineup right there in front of her?

Is she wrong? Is there anyway I can tell? She explained that my second dish was more than likely pointed to 129 as it is easier to get a strong signal pointing the second dish to 129 than trying to point one dish and picking up 110, 119, and 129. Should I have the installer come back out and try to point this lone dish to 129?


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

Cardinals04 said:


> 2 days ago, I sent an email to the [email protected] address on a totally unrelated issue. I was quite pleased when they called me the next day and assisted with my problem. I brought up this question about Fox Sports Midwest to the rep and she told me the complete opposite of what we have been talking about here.
> 
> She told me that I use satellite 129 and that Fox Sports Midwest is on 61.5. She said that I would not receive a strong signal on 61.5 being that I live in the Midwest as this is for people who live on the east coast. She said that I was basically out of luck. This made no sense to me considering FSM is a midwest regional channel. Why would they put it on a satellite set up for the east coast? Plus, my second dish is pointing southeast. How could I argue since she has to have the channel lineup right there in front of her?
> 
> Is she wrong? Is there anyway I can tell? She explained that my second dish was more than likely pointed to 129 as it is easier to get a strong signal pointing the second dish to 129 than trying to point one dish and picking up 110, 119, and 129. Should I have the installer come back out and try to point this lone dish to 129?


How to put this....she's absolutely, positively wrong!
FSNMW SD is on Satellite 119° - Channel 418
FSNMW HD is on Satellite 129° - Channel 368

Period!

You can view it on the link to the channel charts I put in one of the earlier posts in this thread.

If you can lock on to 129°, you're good to go!


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## bruin95 (Apr 23, 2006)

Cardinals04 said:


> She said that I would not receive a strong signal on 61.5 being that I live in the Midwest as this is for people who live on the east coast.


Just to clear up more misinformation this women gave you, the above statement she made is completely false. While the "intention" may be for "easterners" to use 61.5, it can be seen in the west. I'm in Vegas. I have an 18" dish pointed at 61.5, and get very high signal levels on that bird. Better than what I get on 129 for that matter.


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## Ken Green (Oct 6, 2005)

bruin95 said:


> Just to clear up more misinformation this women gave you, the above statement she made is completely false. While the "intention" may be for "easterners" to use 61.5, it can be seen in the west. I'm in Vegas. I have an 18" dish pointed at 61.5, and get very high signal levels on that bird. Better than what I get on 129 for that matter.


Ditto, I'm in STL, and used 61.5 for several years before switching to 129. 61.5 provided a far superior signal than 129 does. When 129 went up, I left the Dish300 on the roof, pointed at 61.5, with the disconnected cable hanging by the switch, in the event 129 was not adequate. It has gotten better since then.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

There are people on the west coast using 61.5 instead of 129 for HD reception - she was way out in the weeds.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Jim5506 said:


> There are people on the west coast using 61.5 instead of 129 for HD reception - she was way out in the weeds.


Alot of us are blocked by mountains, trees, tall buildings. But if you were on the west side of the Sacramento Valley on an east facing slope where the Coast Range starts to rise up, you might get 61.5 easier than 129. With satellite, its location, location, location.


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## DJ Lon (Nov 3, 2005)

bruin95 said:


> Just to clear up more misinformation this women gave you, the above statement she made is completely false. While the "intention" may be for "easterners" to use 61.5, it can be seen in the west. I'm in Vegas. I have an 18" dish pointed at 61.5, and get very high signal levels on that bird. Better than what I get on 129 for that matter.


Same here.


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## CABill (Mar 20, 2005)

phrelin said:


> Alot of us are blocked by mountains, trees, tall buildings. But if you were on the west side of the Sacramento Valley on an east facing slope where the Coast Range starts to rise up, you might get 61.5 easier than 129. With satellite, its location, location, location.


It isn't an issue of "easier" to get 61.5, but of the significantly higher signal strength from 61.5. 25 miles NE of Sacto, I've risen to the 400' elevation (Sacto is about 50' IIRC) & the LNB arm points down into the ground. The location issue is more to clear neighboring trees/buildings as the sat is 15º above the horizon. The more you head up I-80, the more likely you will have trouble with the low elevation of 61.5 from trees.


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## kmcnamara (Jan 30, 2004)

I had a dish at 61.5 for several years and switched to 129 specifically so I could pick up my RSN in HD. The programming was identical between the 2 spots otherwise.


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