# Switch from Western Arc to Eastern Arc?



## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

Dish has finally agreed to swith me from Western Arc to Eastern since my hd locals are on a different satellite than the sd locals. Now I am worried that my picture quality will change. Is that possible? What about rain fade?


----------



## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Anecdotally, SD picture should be better, HD will be the same. If your installed does a good job of peaking the dish, not just getting signal, you should not have trouble with rain fade except in heavy precipitation events, maybe 3-4 times per year.

Emphasize getting the highest possible signal on all three satellites, some installers are reportedly being sloppy - insist on the highest possible signal.


----------



## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

If all your locals (HD and SD) are on the Eastern Arc, there is no reason to not go there. Unless you're taking some foreign language packs - everything on 119/110/129 should also be available on 61.5 / 72.7/77 . The only real reasons to choose one over the otherr would relate to Locals availabilty, and Eastern Arc REQUIRES all receivers to be VIP models, even for just SD.


----------



## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

Wonder if Eastern Arc would be an answer for me. I'm 90 miles west of downtown Chicago. Reception on 129 sucks. I have a seperate dish alread for 61.5 and that is usually the one the receivers will eventually select due to the weaker 129 signals. At the moment my Chicago HD channels are mirrored on 61.5. Not sure about the other Chicago channels. Also wonder if long term Dish will continue to mirror there since they made 110/119/129 primary for our area.

I have an absolutely clear shot to 61.5 so the other Eastern Arc satellites are probably in the clear too.


----------



## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

I'm way south of you BillJ, but I had issues with the 129 also. And this past year, after a couple of trees took a growth spurt, it was getting worse. Slightest sprinkle and out she went! 

Fortunately for me, the EA is a clear shot, with no trees in sight. And they lit up my locals in HD on the EA only, so turning the dish was way better for me. Better signals overall and much less problems with rain. Well, actually I don't know that rain might not be an issue as we haven't had any all summer long.


----------



## dahenny (Apr 16, 2007)

scooper said:


> If all your locals (HD and SD) are on the Eastern Arc, there is no reason to not go there...


I think the OP was suggesting that his SD locals were on the WA.


----------



## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Well of course the SD locals are on Western Arc - 

The question is whether the OP can get ALL his locals if he is switched to Eastern Arc. 

At worst, he can put up a 119 or 110 wing dish to get his SD locals to go along with that Eastern Arc dish. He'll probably find that he can't get the "Big 4" (ABC, CBS,NBC and FOX) in SD any more, but that's OK - the VIP receivers will down res to SD .


----------



## cditty (Nov 27, 2009)

If you record any SD, it will use less space on your DVR, because of the MPEG4 encoding. My market was converted to Eastern Arc for HD Locals, however, in an odd twist, Dish decided to install wing dishes for 77 if you already had a working Western Arc HD Setup. You only got an Eastern Arc dish if you were not a current HD customer. I thought that was weird. I just kept my WA setup, since I get my HD locals OTA anyway (I have a 722K with OTA module).

One day I'll switch.

I think you will be perfectly happy with your PQ. If anything, people usually comment that it is slightly better (SD, in particular) on EA. I pointed my Dish500 one day at 61.5 & 72.7 & I couldn't really see any difference switching back and forth.


----------



## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

Pardon my ignorance,

I'm buying a TurboHD 1000.4 EA dish for my trip from NY down to Florida. 

Next year we are going cross county from NY to CA.

My question is can you aim an EA dish at the WA, will this work, or do I have to buy a second dish?


----------



## cditty (Nov 27, 2009)

SingleAction said:


> Pardon my ignorance,
> 
> I'm buying a TurboHD 1000.4 EA dish for my trip from NY down to Florida.
> 
> ...


No, you can not. A different LNB is required for WA.


----------



## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

To bad, the 1000.4 has all parts keyed(I'm assuming the lnb too) so you can't use parts from other dishes.

That means I need 2 dishes, which I don't have room in or on top of the RV!

Thanks for the info.


----------



## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Get a dome.


----------



## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

From what I 've read the dome is not a very good option, and very expensive.

Thanks for the suggestion though!


----------



## HobbyTalk (Jul 14, 2007)

Why not just use a 1000.2 dish and use the western arc when in FL?


----------



## dahenny (Apr 16, 2007)

I don't know if it's been posted in here yet, but any time now you should be able to purchase a 1000.4 western arc LNBF. For those that need to switch back and forth between the 2 arcs, this would be a good way to do it using just one dish.
View attachment 16707


----------



## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

dahenny said:


> I don't know if it's been posted in here yet, but any time now you should be able to purchase a 1000.4 western arc LNBF. For those that need to switch back and forth between the 2 arcs, this would be a good way to do it using just one dish.
> View attachment 23701


Thank you!

That is very good news!

By the time we leave to go cross county it should be available on eBay, I would think!

dahenny you made my day!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## bnewt (Oct 2, 2003)

dahenny said:


> I think the OP was suggesting that his SD locals were on the WA.


Yes, my sd locals were on wa & hd locals on ea.

Dish suggested that I let them install a 2nd dish, but I told them no. They finally relented & installed a single dish this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only do I have the locals that are available in hd, but also the sd locals also. The installer did a nice job & took his time.


----------

