# Dish HD Reception Problem in Oregon



## bruce2621 (May 30, 2006)

Getting a real runaround with Dish and the local installer. I ordered up an HD package last week. When the installer arrived, he told me there was a problem with receiving all the HD channels "north of the Calif border". Dish made no such mention of this problem when I ordered the package several weeks ago. The installer called his boss (on a walkie-talkie) at Linkus systems here in Eugene, OR and I overheard his boss tell him not to tell customers about this problem. Wow!

I let him install the Dish 1000 and receiver (211) anyways, figuring I could get the issue of missing channels resolved with DISH. He told me that he would need to install a second DISH (the 1000) and leave my existing Dish 500 in place; something about the 1000 needing a little better look at the sky, since my 500 was on the back corner of my house. I currently use the 500 on an SD TV upstairs and also in my theater room when I want to use the old SD DVR; the 1000 is strictly used for HD in my theater room.

When I contacted DISH, they asked me to run a test and we found that I'm only getting the 119 and 110 satellites. Apparently, the installer was trying to tell me that we couldn't pick up the 61 or 129 satellites here. I should mention that I have no obstructions between the house and the sky. DISH claimed to be unaware of this problem and referred me back to the installer who referred me back to DISH, who again referred me back to the installer. Great customer service, eh?

Is anyone else experiencing a similar problem? I noticed that some areas of the East Coast don't pick up the 61 or 129, but haven't heard of this problem out West. Unfortunately, none of my neighbors have HD, so I have no one to verify with. Would appreciate any and all inputs. Sorry about the wordiness, but wanted to describe the problem in as much detail as possible.


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## OinkinOregon (Feb 19, 2006)

I went through all of this with LinkUs out of Eugene. You have to get LinkUs to come out and do everything possible to get you the 61.5 Sat. The 129 is a P O S in our area, it drops signal and pixelates every 30 minutes or so. I had LinkUs out at my house 5 times in two weeks. I was lucky enough to have a clear enough view of the east to pickup 61.5, I get all available HD Channels.

Tell them you want them to come evaluate whether or not you can pickup 61.5 If you cannot you will be stuck with a nightmare because DISH refuses to admit that 129 has a problem in our area. It is getting to the point of a Class Action Lawsuit to get your money back.

Good Luck, press LinkUs to send you out a supervisor and someone that knows what they are doing, believe it or not there are some good people that work there. I also suggest that you call Dish and speak with the Executive Office about the problem.


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## Suriel (Apr 22, 2006)

I live in Spokane, WA, well "north of the Calif border" and my 1000 is receiving 129, granted signal strength is only 56-60, but strong enough to receive programing without any issues.


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## ekan (May 30, 2006)

I live in Beaverton, OR. I have a dish 500 pointed to 129. Though the signal strength is not that great and I do have occasional problems with losing the channels completely, but for the most part it is okay.
I thought 61.5 is real difficult to get from NW.


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

ekan said:


> I live in Beaverton, OR. I have a dish 500 pointed to 129. Though the signal strength is not that great and I do have occasional problems with losing the channels completely, but for the most part it is okay.
> I thought 61.5 is real difficult to get from NW.


61.5 is only difficult in that it's so low to the horizon. It's hard to get a clear shot. If you've got a clear shot the signal strength is in the 80s-90s. I reaimed my dish to 61.5 after having dropouts and other issues on 129 with strengths in the 50's.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

Your hitting the issue pretty much all of us in the WA/OR area are expierencing. Some transponders on 129 take a nose dive on signal strength every 30 - 45 minutes. My signal will go from the high 60's/low 70's to around 30, then creep their way back up, for no apparent reason. This is on a nice sunny day with no wind.

To work around it some have installed a seperate Dish500 for just 129, this typically adds about 10 points to the signal for 129. In some cases this is enough to prevent dropouts, in others it is not. Others have gone as far as to buy a bigger aftermarket Dish and rigged the Dish LNB to this Dish to get a strong enough signal. Me personally, I'm living with the signal droputs for now, hoping that Dish will have a solution before too long. This has been going on all year.
Here is a thread you might be interested in: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=53697


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## bruce2621 (May 30, 2006)

Thanks very much, all. When I called DISH a couple of days ago, they tried to connect me directly with Linkus and Linkus refused to take my call! They said a supervisor would call back, but it hasn't happened yet. I'm out of town, but think I'll go camp out in their parking lot when I return. Geez, I'm not at all impressed with their mediocre service, nor with DISH flat out lying to me. A note to the State Atty General is forthcoming if these bozos won't take care of me.

Thanks for posting the other link, Rob. A very informative read. It's truly amazing that DISH could lie like they do and expect to get away with it. Wonder how many tens of thousands of people have bought into their lies and just accepted that they were only going to get 1/2 of the HD channels promised.


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## bruce2621 (May 30, 2006)

Linkus, the local DISH installer, sent a guy out today and he fixed the problem in about 30 minutes by simply installing a DISH 500 right above my DISH 1000. The 500 is set to pick up 129; so far, so good. The installer indicated that the first installer didn't know what he was doing. Perhaps, but I doubt if this problem would have been fixed if I hadn't *****ed loudly at both DISH and Linkus. A bit of subway advertising irony seen on a train in NYC: "IF YOU DON'T HAVE DISH, YOU'RE MISSING HALF THE HD CHANNELS"....when I saw that, I thought, "But I DO have DISH and I'm STILL missing half the HD channels".


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## jonm42 (Apr 27, 2006)

bruce2621 said:


> Linkus, the local DISH installer, sent a guy out today and he fixed the problem in about 30 minutes by simply installing a DISH 500 right above my DISH 1000. The 500 is set to pick up 129; so far, so good. The installer indicated that the first installer didn't know what he was doing. Perhaps, but I doubt if this problem would have been fixed if I hadn't *****ed loudly at both DISH and Linkus.


So what sort of switches, etc. did he use to double stack things? Did he move one your LNBs from the 1000 to the 500? This is precisely the question I'm asking over in the 622 forum. Thanks!


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## cbcampbell (Jan 13, 2006)

fwiw.... I live in (north) Eugene. simplysat mounted the dish 1000 for me. i put in the 622. 129 is weaker than 110 and 119 (55-60 vs 85-90 or so), but it's fine near 100% of the time. pixellation for a couple of seconds maybe 3-4 times per week. not really a problem.



OinkinOregon said:


> I went through all of this with LinkUs out of Eugene. You have to get LinkUs to come out and do everything possible to get you the 61.5 Sat. The 129 is a P O S in our area, it drops signal and pixelates every 30 minutes or so. I had LinkUs out at my house 5 times in two weeks. I was lucky enough to have a clear enough view of the east to pickup 61.5, I get all available HD Channels.
> 
> Tell them you want them to come evaluate whether or not you can pickup 61.5 If you cannot you will be stuck with a nightmare because DISH refuses to admit that 129 has a problem in our area. It is getting to the point of a Class Action Lawsuit to get your money back.
> 
> Good Luck, press LinkUs to send you out a supervisor and someone that knows what they are doing, believe it or not there are some good people that work there. I also suggest that you call Dish and speak with the Executive Office about the problem.


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

jonm42 said:


> So what sort of switches, etc. did he use to double stack things? Did he move one your LNBs from the 1000 to the 500? This is precisely the question I'm asking over in the 622 forum. Thanks!


Don't need any extra switches. The Dish 1000 uses 1 lnb for 129 and another for 110/119. The latter has an input port and a built in switch.

So you just take the feed from the separate 129 dish and run it into the 'in' port on the 110/119 lnb.

If you're going to do this I also suggest a single lnb adapter for the Dish500 (which further optimizes the signal).

http://www.dishstore.net/product_info.php?products_id=146

If you can hold out for 2-3 months, the Dish 1000.2 may be another solution.


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## bruce2621 (May 30, 2006)

jonm42 said:


> So what sort of switches, etc. did he use to double stack things? Did he move one your LNBs from the 1000 to the 500? This is precisely the question I'm asking over in the 622 forum. Thanks!


As one of the above posters indicated, there was no need to use a different switch. The installer took the single LNB off the 1000 and put it onto the 500. My setup is as follows:

1. I have two receivers in my theater room, an older SD PVR (I'm waiting for the price on the HD PVRs to come down) and a 211 HD Receiver.
2. I now have three Dishs on the house; a 500 which is hooked into the older PVR and a ED TV upstairs, the new 500 which is used for sat 129, and the Dish 1000 which is used for 110 and 119.
3. Signal strength as follows:
a) Old 500: 119 (88) and 110 (99). This Dish is positioned in the rear corner of my house and pretty invisible from the street.
b) New 500: 129 (66)
c) New 1000: 119 (75) and 110 (77).

While I won't say that the double dish on the front of the house looks particulary attractive, at least I'm up and running. I had hoped that the double dish setup could have been placed on the roof, but they didn't want to walk across the tile and the fascia board in the back of the house is about 25' off the ground and they didn't want to work that high off a ladder. Can't say I blame them.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

bruce2621 said:


> 3. Signal strength as follows:
> a) Old 500: 119 (88) and 110 (99). This Dish is positioned in the rear corner of my house and pretty invisible from the street.
> b) New 500: 129 (66)
> c) New 1000: 119 (75) and 110 (77).


I would think you could get higher signal strengths on at least b and c.

I'm up in the Seattle area so I can't imagine strengths would be much different. With my single Dish1000 setup I am in the hight 60's - low 70's on the various transponders from 129 (I would expect 5 - 10 points higher for a Dish500, based on other members expierences). For 119 I am anywhere from the 90's to maxed out, 120 or 125, whatever that is. As for 110 I'm usually in the low to mid 80's I think I might actually hit the low 90's on a couple stations.

Don't get your hopes on a higher signal strength for 129 keeping you from losing stations. Every 30 - 45 minutes there is a massive signal drop on 129, for the higher numbered transponders this is usually 30 - 40 points, causing you to lose lock on those transponders. It is not as large of a drop on the lower transponders.


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