# Signal loss on 129° (Problem resolved)



## Lincoln6Echo

Anybody have no signal now when everything should be fine weather wise?

Uplink is in Cheyenne, isn't it? Ain't much going on there. Some small rain showers, nothing major...

EDIT: Sat 129 is out across the entire country.


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## Heisenberg

Out for me in Oregon. Checking the "other" forum, it seems to be widespread, across the country.


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## icmoney

I'm showing complete signal loss right now. I think it is just on Sat 129. I was on SD channel and when I switched to HD Hist, I got signal loss screen.

Is it time yet for solar outages?

Just my luck this would happen while I'm installing new receiver.


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## InstallerIssues

129 Orbital is out nation wide. No ETA from DISH as of yet. But at least they are aware of it.


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## cliburn

Out for me in Minnesota.... good to have this forum to check this out.


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## rcadss

Out here in utah. I can't even pull up my program guide to watch locals


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## CeeWoo

LOL-I love these boards

First thing I did was check to see if both my receivers blacked out (and they had of course). Then I ran a check switch and see 129 is out (110 & 119 still fine)

Then I logged in here to see if it was the satellite or my LNB

So now-it's just wait & see when it's back (since I had just upgraded my system a couple weeks ago, my heart did miss a couple beats when it first happened LOL)


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## tuck2694

In South Carolina and am experiencing "Complete Signal Loss"


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## dbconsultant

Out here in Temecula, CA as well. You guys saved me a call to Customer Service!


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## TulsaOK

Yeah, here in Atlanta too. I'm getting Satellite 110 Tps. 7 OK. Satellite 129 is out. Satellite 119 Tps. 11 is strong but I'm not picking up programming.


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## mick70

Out in Washington State also


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## tcatdbs

Out in Austin TX


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## Greg D

The wife just called and it's out in Birmingham, AL as well. Also Dish's site is down, wonder if it's related to the outage, or "because" of the outage :lol:

Any news as to when it might be back?


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## Lincoln6Echo

Yep, the signal just went blank about 3:50 pm CT. 

Plus did anybody notice the SD feeds of all the HD channels are no longer on your guides?


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## Steve H

rcadss said:


> Out here in utah. I can't even pull up my program guide to watch locals


Same here in Southern Utah. The only thing on the screen it the Complete signal loss message. No guide, no menu......................


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## siwsiw

Can not call dish neither, I tried with multiple numbers!!!


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## 4bama

rcadss said:


> Out here in utah. I can't even pull up my program guide to watch locals


You can press "Menu" and select "1" to bring up your guide...then select another channel...OTA or another Dish channel.

129 also out here in Alabama...110 and 119 OK..


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## Rogernet

Yep.....Sats 110 and 119 are ok, but 129 just went SOL about 30 minutes ago. Dish Customer Service number is busy and website is down.....typical of when their sats go astray or lose their signal....Cannot get anything on my VIP612, but my wife's old VIP211k works just fine with sats 110 and 119.....Let's see how long before they can get 129 back:nono:


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## Willh

i'm on the 110/119/129 setup everything except 129 is working, sounds like the 129 satellite has failed.


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## mick70

To get SD feed of channel go to MENU oress 8 then 1 look at lower left you willl see HD only checked change it to SD Ans HD and save it

You can then use the program guide and selected the SD feed.


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## [email protected]

129 satellite is down currently. We are working on correcting this issue ASAP!


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## Capfacsurf

Out in Malibu, California. Complete signal loss. Dish phones are either continual busy or circuit busy when I dial. Went to the support page and tried to chat, was 850th in queue.


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## CeeWoo

[email protected] said:


> 129 satellite is down currently. We are working on correcting this issue ASAP!


Love the new 'systems' you helped me get Mary!!!


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## Steve H

4bama said:


> You can press "Menu" and select "1" to bring up your guide...then select another channel...OTA or another Dish channel.
> 
> 129 also out here in Alabama...110 and 119 OK..


Thanks MUCH that works


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## valvestud

Out in Tucson as well.


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## treesyjo

4bama said:


> You can press "Menu" and select "1" to bring up your guide...then select another channel...OTA or another Dish channel.
> 
> 129 also out here in Alabama...110 and 119 OK..


Mine says unable to access this feature at this time. And just about all my recordings are now showing as "Locked Event". Fun times! :nono2:


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## archer75

Complete signal loss in Gresham, Oregon

Looks like sat 129 is out.


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## mike1977

Signal loss here in Auburn, Alabama.


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## mick70

MaryB maybe if you cleaned out my Post #20 it might help


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## Grampa67

Al-Qaeda ?


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## treesyjo

mick70 said:


> To get SD feed of channel go to MENU oress 8 then 1 look at lower left you willl see HD only checked change it to SD Ans HD and save it
> 
> You can then use the program guide and selected the SD feed.


You're a lifesaver.  Now that my Guide is showing up, I can fix it so I can view SD and at least watch some tv.


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## mick70

Glad to help, but should have checked my spelling first


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## DF Wavelength

We have a tech on a roof with a Spectrum Analyzer.

He says there is nothing at orbital slot 129. Just noise floor. The lights are out.


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## SharonSRV

I have no signal in Ca...complete loss. I am on line with dish chat and started in chat queue at 1380 and am now in position 693. I am at 658 now but it has stopped moving. I thought i might find out what has happened but I guess not.


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## archer75

Dish website appears to be down.


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## fudpucker

Hmmm. I can't get the network SD feeds either.


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## tcatdbs

Not able to connect to their site either... I think one of the DirectTV Sats launched a missile at 129.


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## kucharsk

Out in Denver as well, DISH Customer Service number is just busy.

It looks like the satellite at 129 may be toast - I can still get some channels like 299 and 300 from 110 and 119.

Note a switch check shows 129 to be working as far as receiving the satellite ID, it just doesn't seem to be relaying content…


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## valvestud

How does one find out which channels are on 129?


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## festivus

Wow. This is weird. Of course nothing here in Columbus, Ohio either.


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## TulsaOK

[email protected] said:


> 129 satellite is down currently. We are working on correcting this issue ASAP!


Well Mary, you've got 40 minutes to get this fixed before the Braves games comes on. No pressure though.


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## magz

129 out in tulsa, ok

seems like the 6-1-1 point page takes extremely long time to pull up signal strength on sat 119.

i got home today and thought it was something i did cause i was hiding some coaxial wires behind my siding last night lol


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## kucharsk

Steve H said:


> Same here in Southern Utah. The only thing on the screen it the Complete signal loss message. No guide, no menu......................


To work around this, you *can* go to Menu, then select Program Guide, and select a channel from there, but just pressing "Guide" won't work.

At the very least it seems like 110 and 119 are OK.


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## Stevie

I called someone else with DISH and confirmed that they were not receiving 129. Then I remembered this forum.

DISH really needs a way to shoot a message to its customers using the receivers so at least they know the problem is on DISH's end and not the end user. Man... I sure hope there aren't too many people tweaking their alignment trying to get their HD channels back. There goes their "sweet spot".


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## InstallerIssues

can you imagine all the TC's that are going to be generated due to reps not realizing its a DISH problem and not an actual trouble call?


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## Bill L

Down in Dallas. Complete signal loss.


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## fudpucker

So what do they do if the satellite itself is just "broken?" I assume they can't quickly reroute channels, etc.


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## altidude

I have a 6-year-old in So. California currently suffering severe withdrawal symptoms. No DisneyXD/Nick/Cartoon Network? It's the end of his world as he knows it!


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## Davenlr

fudpucker said:


> So what do they do if the satellite itself is just "broken?" I assume they can't quickly reroute channels, etc.


They can if they can make room on the other two satellites, or they can compress the heck out of the signal temporarily to cram them in. That is assuming the source is available at the uplink facility. Im not sure how Dish does its uplinks/sites.


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## SayWhat?

> Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 348 (71 members and 277 guests)


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## John58543

Complete signal loss in Lubbock as well, dish website down as well...

Seems to be nationwide, wonder if there will be an announcement from Dish Network...

SD works as well as ANT (of course).


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## sigma1914

The other forum crashed, too. Yikes!


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## dennispap

This is per dish's facebook page...

We are currently experiencing technical issues with the satellite location 129. This has caused signal loss on some channels. We apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused our customers and we are working to resolve this issue. Please direct any further questions to our DISH Answers facebook page or send a private message to DISH Answers.


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## jrtexas

Ditto in Dallas area. However, I get signal on second TV. Not sure if it's missing any channels. Dish website response is dreadful.


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## kucharsk

fudpucker said:


> So what do they do if the satellite itself is just "broken?" I assume they can't quickly reroute channels, etc.


A big channel map reshuffle on their part.


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## fudpucker

Hmmm. Wonder why some people can get the SD channels and we can't? We are getting USA and WGN, though (Iowa.)


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## kucharsk

dennispap said:


> This is per dish's facebook page...
> 
> We are currently experiencing technical issues with the satellite location 129. This has caused signal loss on some channels. We apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused our customers and we are working to resolve this issue. Please direct any further questions to our DISH Answers facebook page or send a private message to DISH Answers.


Funny how they apparently don't have the technology to post that to their own home page. 

Update: They just *deleted* the posting about it from Facebook. Huh?


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## archer75

jrtexas said:


> Ditto in Dallas area. However, I get signal on second TV. Not sure if it's missing any channels. Dish website response is dreadful.


You won't get any channels from sat 129 on either TV. But you will get all the rest. Just bring up your program guide and start selecting.


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## Davenlr

Dont know if this is related:
Sunspot 1283 Is Bristling With Flares-UPDATED

The first of what will likely be several CME hits occurred this morning sparking a strong geomagnetic storm. Additional hits will occur over the weekend.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News090811-X1.8flare.html


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## Stevie

Davenlr said:


> Dont know if this is related:
> Sunspot 1283 Is Bristling With Flares-UPDATED
> 
> The first of what will likely be several CME hits occurred this morning sparking a strong geomagnetic storm. Additional hits will occur over the weekend.


It's not 2012 yet.


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## kucharsk

fudpucker said:


> Hmmm. Wonder why some people can get the SD channels and we can't? We are getting USA and WGN, though (Iowa.)


Some SD channels are on 129 as well.


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## hjhjr

If complete loss of signal appears press the menu button then guide and select non-hd channels. The locals are in the 7000 channel number range


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## tedb3rd

I'm humming the theme to the movie, "Independence Day."


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## satcrazy

appears to be back up................................

My bad,

Only some of them [ was using CNN as a point of reference]


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## John W

satcrazy said:


> appears to be back up................................


Think they're just rearranging things.


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## Lincoln6Echo

If you think this thread is interesting, check out the Twitter topic #DISHnetwork. People are going bonkers. "Can't get thru to #customerservice"....panick panick panic..


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## forkman

6pm here in Austin TX.

We have two receivers and four TVs. One SD TV was on when the outage started and it continues to work (haven't changed channels though).

All three of the other TVs, SD and two HD, are showing Complete Signal Loss, then Partial Signal Loss, and sometimes get all the way to downloading program guide, but always go back to Complete Signal Loss.


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## John W

John W said:


> Think they're just rearranging things.


Just checked and while we have NFL Network HD it now says 119 where it used to be 129.

We had issues with 129 ourselves last week and a reboot that ended up being a bootstrap reboot seems to help since then.

Scratch the first line, was looking at SD, HD not in guide currently.


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## Lincoln6Echo

John W said:


> Think they're just rearranging things.


Yeah, not all channels are up. Some HD are showing in the Guide, but not many.


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## bnborg

satcrazy said:


> appears to be back up................................
> 
> My bad,
> 
> Only some of them [ was using CNN as a point of reference]


Not as far as I can tell. No signal on 129.


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## John W

Lincoln6Echo said:


> Yeah, not all channels are up. Some HD are showing in the Guide, but not many.


You're right. When I punched in 154 it went to NFL Net SD so scratch what I posted above.


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## satcrazy

John W said:


> Just checked and while we have NFL Network HD it now says 119 where it used to be 129.
> 
> We had issues with 129 ourselves last week and a reboot that ended up being a bootstrap reboot seems to help since then.


How do you check what sat a station is on?


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## John W

satcrazy said:


> How do you check what sat a station is on?


Press info twice when you're on the channel. But, my post you quoted is wrong, HD version isn't even in my guide anymore was actually looking at SD.


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## satcrazy

John W said:


> Press info twice when you're on the channel. But, my post you quoted is wrong, HD version isn't even in my guide anymore was actually looking at SD.


Thanks, never really noticed that before. Your right, no HD anymore, but at least we're watching tv.


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## rjcc

kucharsk said:


> Funny how they apparently don't have the technology to post that to their own home page.
> 
> Update: They just *deleted* the posting about it from Facebook. Huh?


Looks like they deleted and posted a new update. No idea why they'd do that, except to clear out the many, many complaints.

(would link, but, lurker so not enough posts)

Richard Lawler - Engadget HD


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## Bob Ketcham

Sat 129 provides three primary services - 
1) HDTV version of many "cable channels". SD versions of these channel are usually on 110 or 119.
2) HDTV locals for some markets. See the channel list from the link below to determine if your local market is on 129.
3) SDTV local for some markets. Ditto.

Channel list is here...
http://dishuser.org/129list.php


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## tymekeeper

Out in El Paso Texas as well. "complete signal lose" and some times "partial signal lose"


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## BobaBird

Channels on Dish Network 129°W
http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?search=dn129&sub=true (nationals by channel number)

and
http://uplink.jameslong.name/chan129.html (locals grouped by spot beam)


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## bnborg

This really sucks!

It's starting to go into primetime.


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## Bob Ketcham

If you can't get SD channels that are on 110 and 119, you probably need to do one or more of the following three things...
1) Make sure the guide is set to show the SD versions of the channels in the guide. Select Menu, then 8 (Preferences), then 1 (Guide Format), then HD & SD. The select Save.
2) Call up the Guide. If the Guide button does not work (it doesn't when the signal loss screen is being displayed), press Menu, then 1 (Program Guide). The guide should appear.
3) Make sure the guide you have selected is not one of your "Favorites" lists. You may have deleted the SD channels from the list. Go to the guide (see step 2) then press the guide button again. Select My Channels. 

Your guide should now display all channels you are subscribed to. The list will include the 129 channels (until you reboot?). Avoid selecting the 129 channels unless you want to get stuck on the signal loss screen again.


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## Nashcat

I can't even get to the Program Guide. I get another msg that says,

"Unable to access this feature at this time. Please select OK and try again in 5 minutes."

I've waited 5 min and more several times, but I always get this same msg. I've unplugged it, too, but still can't get to the guide.


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## epokopac

Kent Taylor said:


> Well Mary, you've got 40 minutes to get this fixed before the Braves games comes on. No pressure though.


Might be worth skipping the Braves for a night the way they've been playing lately.


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## Bob Ketcham

My guide has updated and no longer displays any channels carried by 129.


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## fudpucker

Thanks for the 129 Sat guide links - showed that my locals, HD and SD, are on 129. Yuck.


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## festivus

Bob Ketcham said:


> My guide has updated and no longer displays any channels carried by 129.


Same with my guide. I'm assuming any recordings scheduled for a channel on 129 will not record on the SD channel and we'll have to create a recording for it.


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## TulsaOK

epokopac said:


> Might be worth skipping the Braves for a night the way they've been playing lately.


You may be right. :lol:


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## kucharsk

My Guide is a combo; regular channels on 129 are gone but many pay channels on 129 (e.g. Starz! HD at 350) are still listed.


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## John W

kucharsk said:


> My Guide is a combo; regular channels on 129 are gone but many pay channels on 129 (e.g. Starz! HD at 350) are still listed.


RSN's as well although they indicate total signal loss if you go there.


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## Jim5506

Luckily I have a dish pointed at 61.5 so the Rangers/Indians game in HD is now on 61.5 instead of 129.

From the total loss of signal screen you MUST hit menu then 1 to get guide.


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## CeeWoo

kucharsk said:


> My Guide is a combo; regular channels on 129 are gone but many pay channels on 129 (e.g. Starz! HD at 350) are still listed.


Some HD channels, (such as one from Starz HBO, SHO, ESPN) are actually on one of the other Sats. I found that out when I used my dish500 & HD receiver (set for only 100 & 119) in my RV

I can't remember which of the other sats they were on...so long as I was getting them, it didn't matter to me


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## tymekeeper

Back on in El Paso, HD channels and guide OK


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## John W

tymekeeper said:


> Back on in El Paso, HD channels and guide OK


Did you have to do anything to get the guide right?


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## John W

tymekeeper said:


> Back on in El Paso, HD channels and guide OK


Not back here in Northern Indiana.


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## sts7049

lost some HD channels here in houston.


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## tymekeeper

John W said:


> Did you have to do anything to get the guide right?


I just turned my receiver a 722 off and then back on. Only have partial guide data.


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## John W

tymekeeper said:


> I just turned my receiver a 722 off and then back on. Every thing appears to be back to normal


That didn't work here and the channels still in the guide still showing total signal loss.


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## Bob Ketcham

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 13, 2011 - We are currently experiencing an interruption affecting the 129 orbital satellite location causing an HD signal outage in some areas. We have identified the issue and are working as quickly as possible to get your channels restored. We apologize for the inconvenience. 

In the meantime, change your HD settings to receive channels in Standard Definition: 

211, 411, 211k, 222, 222k, 622, 722, 722k receivers: Press Menu Select Preferences Select Guide Display Set Channel Preference to HD & SD Select Save 

922 receiver: Press Menu Select Settings Select Guide Display Set Channel Preference to HD & SD Select Save Verify that the SD version of their locals is now visible in the guide


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## levibluewa

Still 0 signal on the west coast.


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## treesyjo

Only a couple HD channels are showing up in my Guide. But I can view the SD channels. I'm in Lexington, KY.


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## satcrazy

John W said:


> Not back here in Northern Indiana.


I noticed a few channels in the guide listed as HD, but, they are actually on 110.


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## MysteryMan

:nono2:


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## nmetro

As of 6:10 PM the signal is still out. Also, they just reported the issue on KUSA (9news,Denver). Reports still says they are working on it and it affects "several states, including Colorado".


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## Galaxie6411

Well I am glad it isn't just my dish crapping out, after cleaning the dish, LNB's, tightening connections and doing hard resets I thought I'd check in here and what do you know. I know I had a busy night of recordings and can't find them all now, also going on vaca the rest of the week so hope it fixes itself without me needing to do any resets.


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## Marriner

list of channels on 129 here... http://dishuser.org/129list.php


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## nmetro

Galaxie6411 said:


> Well I am glad it isn't just my dish crapping out, after cleaning the dish, LNB's, tightening connections and doing hard resets I thought I'd check in here and what do you know. I know I had a busy night of recordings and can't find them all now, also going on vaca the rest of the week so hope it fixes itself without me needing to do any resets.


One would think that DISH would have at least posted a slate on Channel 101 indicating there was a problem. As of this moment they are still running their normal Channel 101 Info" videos.


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## fudpucker

Since no news, a question based on a comment here - my 722 has the option for selecting HD only or HD and SD but my 622 does not. Should it?


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## razorbackfan

Out here in Colorado also. Funny how Dish will burn my phone up with your bill is due messages but can't let customers know one of their sats is out. I hope we can find a cable repaiman to warn the President before it's too late.


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## Mokanic

My parents and brother-in-law are out in Johnston County, NC. They are on WA. I was on the way to parent's house to troubleshoot their signal and brother-in-law called and told me he was out too. I finally got both households TV to watch and gave them a list of the non mapped locals to watch, thanks to the links in this thread for 129 and then I found 110 and 119 listings.


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## Mokanic

fudpucker said:


> Since no news, a question based on a comment here - my 722 has the option for selecting HD only or HD and SD but my 622 does not. Should it?


Yes, it does. Menu,8,1. I finally found it after about five minuted of searching to see if there was a SD only option for parents 622.


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## oldschoolecw

Sorry to hear about this outage, it's not nation wide as far as I can tell. I have not lost any of these channels in question, I hope they fix this for you guys soon.


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## skyway

HD still out in Tulsa. SD is working. I'll be watching the OTA tonight.


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## Marriner

oldschoolecw said:


> Sorry to hear about this outage, it's not nation wide as far as I can tell. I have not lost any of these channels in question, I hope they fix this for you guys soon.


it is system wide. They are rearranging some channels now. Your guide has been modified to delete channels not available due to the outage.


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## archer75

oldschoolecw said:


> Sorry to hear about this outage, it's not nation wide as far as I can tell. I have not lost any of these channels in question, I hope they fix this for you guys soon.


It should affect everyone using the same satellites. You may be in a part of the country that doesn't use the 129 satellite? Here we use 110, 119 and 129.


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## fudpucker

Mokanic said:


> Yes, it does. Menu,8,1. I finally found it after about five minuted of searching to see if there was a SD only option for parents 622.


Yeah, my bad. I have a 722 and a 612, not a 622. And it does not have that option (which I wish it did!)


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## oldschoolecw

archer75 said:


> It should affect everyone using the same satellites. You may be in a part of the country that doesn't use the 129 satellite? Here we use 110, 119 and 129.


Yeah, mine are 61.5 and 72


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## oldschoolecw

129 is a newer Satellite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dish_Network
Replaced Echostar-V at the 129°W orbital location. Owned by Canadian Ciel Satellite Group, EchoStar leases the entire bandwidth of the Ciel-2 satellite. Provides national HD programming and HD spotbeam locals.


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## tedb3rd

Pulled this off a link from Dish Network's main site:

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 13, 2011 - We are currently experiencing an interruption affecting the 129 orbital satellite location causing an HD signal outage in some areas. We have identified the issue and are working as quickly as possible to get your channels restored. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Until these channels are restored you can watch most Standard Definition channels by pressing the menu button on your remote control, and selecting Program Guide. Or you can access your DVR content by pressing the DVR button.

If SD channels are not visible in your Program Guide you can enable them by pressing the Menu button on your remote control, selecting Preferences and then Guide Format. Select HD and SD in the Channel Preferences field in the bottom right corner of the screen.


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## fudpucker

Which pisses me off because for a lot of us our SD networks are also on 129.


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## Skootch

Way to go Dish Network! I just wasted 1.5 hours on a ladder trying to adjust my dish antenna. How freaking hard would it be for Dish to display a message when I turn on my TV that would state they are having problems? This is really upsetting. Thank God for this forum. I really thought my antenna or switch crapped out.


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## John W

Skootch said:


> Way to go Dish Network! I just wasted 1.5 hours on a ladder trying to adjust my dish antenna. How freaking hard would it be for Dish to display a message when I turn on my TV that would state they are having problems? This is really upsetting. Thank God for this forum. I really thought my antenna or switch crapped out.


We had trouble with this very sat a week or so ago. We thought it could have been growth of a sycamore tree until we looked closer after the fact. Did an online chat and had me do the pull the plug "reboot" and saw a screen I'd never seen before, like a safe mode on a pc. Said it was doing a bootstrap reboot, don't touch a thing. Well, right after the chat we were still losing signal on 129 channels but beginning the next morning until this outage we have not. It''s the lowest of the signals of our three sats and I'll be interested if they ever get it back to see what that signal is then. Weird, I think.


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## satlover25

Galaxie6411 said:


> Well I am glad it isn't just my dish crapping out, after cleaning the dish, LNB's, tightening connections and doing hard resets I thought I'd check in here and what do you know. I know I had a busy night of recordings and can't find them all now, also going on vaca the rest of the week so hope it fixes itself without me needing to do any resets.


Sorry you went through all of that Galaxie6411. First thing as I walked through the door...

"Honey, something is wrong with the satellite on all the tv's.". 
"all the tv's Love?"
"yes"
<grabbed the iPad, clicked on the dbstalk link>
"Love, the satellite is out nationwide. Dish is suffering from a major issue. Nothing I can do about it. I'm going to have a beer, surf the web and read a book. Holla at me if you want to "pretend" to make a baby".


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## flyingsquid

$10 says that if this becomes a long-term problem and they can't restore HD service (and my local SD service, for which there is no OTA option) they'll pull the "we reserve the right to change your service and programing at any time" crap when I try to cancel.

Dish isn't exacltly world-famous for customer service.


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## archer75

I wonder if a solar flare or meteor knocked it out? Could happen.


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## John W

archer75 said:


> I wonder if a solar flare or meteor knocked it out? Could happen.


http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News090811-X1.8flare.html


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## archer75

John W said:


> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News090811-X1.8flare.html


Yep, read that. Just wonder if that's what happened here? If it was a solar flare I would have expected it to knock out more satellites and thus make major news. So far it seems to just be this one....


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## nmetro

flyingsquid said:


> $10 says that if this becomes a long-term problem and they can't restore HD service (and my local SD service, for which there is no OTA option) they'll pull the "we reserve the right to change your service and programing at any time" crap when I try to cancel.
> 
> Dish isn't exacltly world-famous for customer service.


If it does become Long Term, then they will have to deal with the courts to get permission to turn on National Network Feeds (HD and SD) for those who can no longer get their locals.

As for HD for those on 129, All the RSN HD feed and PPV HD feeds are working, as they are either on 119 and 110.Also, USA, ESPN, GREEN, SYFY, TNT, CBSSN, VERIA, WGN, Univision, TeleFutura, Galavision, Encore, StarzW, Starz Edge, MAV TV, HDNET, HD Theatre, CI, CRTC, Logo, Shorts, IndiePlex, RetroPlex, HD Movie, MGM, Sony Movie, Gold, Tennis, NBA, NHL, and the HD PPV are active.


----------



## flyingsquid

Yay...so I can watch crap I never watch...or Spanish-language Tv...:nono2:


----------



## nmetro

flyingsquid said:


> Yay...so I can watch crap I never watch...or Spanish-language Tv...:nono2:


Unfortunately, you're right. But then again, there was not much on tonight to begin with.


----------



## John W

nmetro said:


> If it does become Long Term, then they will have to deal with the courts to get permission to turn on National Network Feeds (HD and SD) for those who can no longer get their locals.
> 
> As for HD for those on 129, All the RSN HD feed and PPV HD feeds are working, as they are either on 119 and 110.Also, USA, ESPN, GREEN, SYFY, TNT, CBSSN, VERIA, WGN, Univision, TeleFutura, Galavision, Encore, StarzW, Starz Edge, MAV TV, HDNET, HD Theatre, CI, CRTC, Logo, Shorts, IndiePlex, RetroPlex, HD Movie, MGM, Sony Movie, Gold, Tennis, NBA, NHL, and the HD PPV are active.


One of our RSN's comes to us via 129 for the HD version.


----------



## davidmg1

Thankfully no problems in Greenville, SC. We have all of our HD channels, at least the ones I checked.


----------



## nmetro

John W said:


> One of our RSN's comes to us via 129 for the HD version.


OK. Most of the RSN's are there. Altitude and Root Rocky Mountain are showing up. The Rockies are playing the Brewers on Root RM.


----------



## 356B

flyingsquid said:


> Yay...so I can watch crap I never watch...or Spanish-language Tv...:nono2:


 Talk about borrowing at Jack......God! stuff breaks.....where you been? in a office somewhere yelling at working people who actually know how to fix things. Dish will fix it...write it down...breath... now doesn't that feel better?


----------



## nmetro

As for those wondering about weather issues in Cheyenne, WY and Northern Colorado; it was pretty much like it was here in Longmont, CO. Sunny, in the low 80s Partly Cloudy skies. Calm winds. And no power outages or the like reported in Cheyenne. This looks like it is an issue with the 129 satellite proper, at this point. We had rain go through last night, but no thunder storms reported anywhere between Denver and Cheyenne proper.


----------



## flyingsquid

356B said:


> Talk about borrowing at Jack......God! stuff breaks.....where you been? in a office somewhere yelling at working people who actually know how to fix things. Dish will fix it...write it down...breath... now doesn't that feel better?


You're the only hysterical person I've seen here...I expect they will fix it. And if they don't, or can't, I expect they will release me from an extraordinarily lop-sided contract that allows them to bend customers over a barrel at will with no recourse.


----------



## mlcarson

It's obviously not a weather problem but did something at the uplink break or is the satellite hosed?


----------



## nmetro

mlcarson said:


> It's obviously not a weather problem but did something at the uplink break or is the satellite hosed?


Denver news sources only indicated that there was a problem and DISH is working on it.

http://www.9news.com/news/article/219080/71/DISH-Network-having-signal-issues-with-several-channels-


----------



## fudpucker

On the Dish FB page there are some people reporting their channels coming back. Wonder how they are doing that/what they are doing?


----------



## bigcementpond

Looks like they're remapping some channels to other satellites.


----------



## nmetro

fudpucker said:


> On the Dish FB page there are some people reporting their channels coming back. Wonder how they are doing that/what they are doing?


Nothing has been added to thechannels I posted earlier.


----------



## vbravia

From the Dish Network site:

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 13, 2011 - We are currently experiencing an interruption affecting the 129 orbital satellite location causing an HD signal outage in some areas. We have identified the issue and based on our current estimates, the situation should be corrected overnight and your HD channels should be restored in the morning. In the meantime, you can unplug your receiver from the main power source and plug it back in to see your standard definition channels. We apologize for this inconvenience.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/signal/


----------



## chouseman

fudpucker said:


> On the Dish FB page there are some people reporting their channels coming back. Wonder how they are doing that/what they are doing?


Probably moving some channels from 129 over to another sat. I have 2 Starz HD channels (usually 5), but not sure whether those came from 129 previously or not.

Going this long without an official explanation or fix is troubling though. Has a critical bird ever failed, irreparably, before? And what was the outcome of that?


----------



## SayWhat?

^^ That almost sounds like the bird is cooked. Somebody posted that they lease the whole bird, so there may not be any other commercial communications services affected.


----------



## Skeeterman

I have 12 HD channels working here is southern Kansas. 364 HDTHR, 362 HDNET, 352 SEDGE, 351 STRZW, 340 ENCOR, 239 WGN, 194 GREEN, 158 NFL Red Zone, 152 CBSSN, 140 ESPN, 138 TNT, and 105 USA. There may be more that I didn't check.
I have all my SD channels working.


----------



## SayWhat?

chouseman said:


> Has a critical bird ever failed, irreparably, before? And what was the outcome of that?


I remember one frying that took out a bunch of telephone and paging services a few years back. I think it's still floating out there dead somewhere.


----------



## chouseman

SayWhat? said:


> I remember one frying that took out a bunch of telephone and paging services a few years back. I think it's still floating out there dead somewhere.


I meant, has as a E* bird ever failed causing subscribers to lose channels before, and how was that dealt with?

Would think they would try to have some redundancy or DR plan to deal with a sudden unrecoverable failure.


----------



## [email protected]

DISH Network has set the work around to display by just doing a front panel reset. Please do not run a check switch test as this will not resolve the issue. We are working to get the 129 satellite back as quickly as possible! Thank you for your patience!!


----------



## nmetro

Skeeterman said:


> I have 12 HD channels working here is southern Kansas. 364 HDTHR, 362 HDNET, 352 SEDGE, 351 STRZW, 340 ENCOR, 239 WGN, 194 GREEN, 158 NFL Red Zone, 152 CBSSN, 140 ESPN, 138 TNT, and 105 USA. There may be more that I didn't check.
> I have all my SD channels working.


I did not include NFL RedZone, because it is inactive. I forgot to mention Fox Soccer Channel.


----------



## Stewart Vernon

If it is an overnight thing... I expect we won't find out until tomorrow what happened...

IF it was a total failure, then the reshuffling to backups means several bad things... no more backup for the next failure and likely impact to any more new channels being added any time soon.

Hopefully it is not a total failure... I don't know when the next scheduled replacement for 129 orbital would be.


----------



## siwsiw

Dish Telephone system is live again and is stating that they are aware of the issue and based on their estimate, it should be corrected overnight and the HD programming will be back by morning.


----------



## dirtyblueshirt

Ouch, Sorry to hear that for Dish customers. I hope they get things fixed soon.


----------



## njk986

"satlover25" said:


> Sorry you went through all of that Galaxie6411. First thing as I walked through the door...
> 
> "Honey, something is wrong with the satellite on all the tv's.".
> "all the tv's Love?"
> "yes"
> <grabbed the iPad, clicked on the dbstalk link>
> "Love, the satellite is out nationwide. Dish is suffering from a major issue. Nothing I can do about it. I'm going to have a beer, surf the web and read a book. Holla at me if you want to "pretend" to make a baby".


I almost choked laughing when I read this. Was eating crackers.


----------



## SayWhat?

> Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 738 (134 members and 604 guests)


Popular place, this.


----------



## Albie

Stewart Vernon said:


> Hopefully it is not a total failure... I don't know when the next scheduled replacement for 129 orbital would be.


Considering 129 just went up about two years ago. I would imagine it would be about 10+ years out as of today. Would be some major scrambling to get a replacement on line in a hurry.


----------



## ENDContra

You know, part of me wants to call and complain and try to get a service credit...but I actually have a DirecTV installer coming tomorrow morning...great timing!


----------



## TXD16

Stewart Vernon said:


> ...and likely impact to any more new channels being added any time soon.


So you mean it would be just like DIRECTV? :lol:


----------



## nmetro

Still, after all of this time, almost 5 hours and DISH has yet to put at least a crawl on Channel 101 indicating that there is a problem. 

If nothing else, DISH is getting a huge black eye for keeping their subscribers in the dark. One has to wonder how many people, tried to repair their DISH installation, sat on hold to DISH Network Customer Service, etc. While the HD channels could be back in the morning, the decision by DISH to not widely inform customers was a very bad move.; especially when they have Channel 101 and Pop-ups at their disposal. Not everyone knows about this forums or where to look for Press Releases.


----------



## Michael P

Why is it that I get a "complete signal loss" error when 110 & 119 signals are live? Shouldn't the error be "partial signal loss"? 

Before I came here I did check my signal strengths. Tuner 2 was not getting any signal on any satellite, then the audio cut out and the 622 rebooted. I then trimmed my forsythia which had some extra tall shoots between my dish and approximate direction of 129. Finally I came here for the news.

I'm sorry I let my installer talk me out of an EA dish. My DMA is one of the lucky ones that has locals on both arcs (with the exception of the "big 4" locals in SD that are only on 110).


----------



## Michael P

nmetro said:


> Still, after all of this time, almost 5 hours and DISH has yet to put at least a crawl on Channel 101 indicating that there is a problem.
> 
> If nothing else, DISH is getting a huge black eye for keeping their subscribers in the dark. One has to wonder how many people, tried to repair their DISH installation, sat on hold to DISH Network Customer Service, etc. While the HD channels could be back in the morning, the decision by DISH to not widely inform customers was a very bad move.; especially when they have Channel 101 and Pop-ups at their disposal. Not everyone knows about this forums or where to look for Press Releases.


When I turned on my 622 it was tuned to 101. I never leave it on 101, so I presumed that another advertizing video got recorded on the DVR. I went to my recordings to find and delete it. Finding no recording, I wondered why my tuner was on 101.

It would have been so easy for E* to post the news on 101. I would have seen the message as soon as I turned on the receiver.


----------



## nmetro

Michael P said:


> Why is it that I get a "complete signal loss" error when 110 & 119 signals are live? Shouldn't the error be "partial signal loss"?
> 
> Before I came here I did check my signal strengths. Tuner 2 was not getting any signal on any satellite, then the audio cut out and the 622 rebooted. I then trimmed my forsythia which had some extra tall shoots between my dish and approximate direction of 129. Finally I came here for the news.
> 
> I'm sorry I let my installer talk me out of an EA dish. My DMA is one of the lucky ones that has locals on both arcs (with the exception of the "big 4" locals in SD that are only on 110).


I did not go as far as cutting a bush. I did a "check switch" and made sure that nothing was on the Dish (a bird for example). Then I went to Guide Set up (via the menu 8-1) and made sure the setting was set to SD & HD. I next went to the Guide and just went to an SD channel. Eventually, all the 129 HD channels went away from the Guide.


----------



## Michael P

ENDContra said:


> You know, part of me wants to call and complain and try to get a service credit...but I actually have a DirecTV installer coming tomorrow morning...great timing!


We all deserve service credit for this one. More so for the aggravation of not knowing what happened when they could have put something up on ch101.


----------



## [email protected] Network

nmetro said:


> I did not go as far as cutting a bush. I did a "check switch" and made sure that nothing was on the Dish (a bird for example). Then I went to Guide Set up (via the menu 8-1) and made sure the setting was set to SD & HD. I next went to the Guide and just went to an SD channel. Eventually, all the 129 HD channels went away from the Guide.


We *do not* rocommend running a check switch test. At this time if you are having trouble viewing your SD channels, we recommend resetting the receiver by holding the power button down for 10 seconds. We are working to restore signal from 129 as soon as we can.


----------



## Nashcat

[email protected] Network said:


> We *do not* rocommend running a check switch test. At this time if you are having trouble viewing your SD channels, we recommend resetting the receiver by holding the power button down for 10 seconds. We are working to restore signal from 129 as soon as we can.


If we DID do a Check Switch what harm could have been done?


----------



## poppo

nmetro said:


> One has to wonder how many people, tried to repair their DISH installation, sat on hold to DISH Network Customer Service, etc.


While not making any excuses, as a general rule of thumb, I find that if you call about a problem (any service provider) and end up on hold for a long time, that there is most likely a widespread problem.


----------



## John W

Nashcat said:


> If we DID do a Check Switch what harm could have been done?


I've found in the past if you do one when you have a known problem then if it's corrected you'll have to do another check switch before your system recognizes the change.


----------



## archer75

nmetro said:


> Still, after all of this time, almost 5 hours and DISH has yet to put at least a crawl on Channel 101 indicating that there is a problem.
> 
> If nothing else, DISH is getting a huge black eye for keeping their subscribers in the dark. One has to wonder how many people, tried to repair their DISH installation, sat on hold to DISH Network Customer Service, etc. While the HD channels could be back in the morning, the decision by DISH to not widely inform customers was a very bad move.; especially when they have Channel 101 and Pop-ups at their disposal. Not everyone knows about this forums or where to look for Press Releases.


It's on their website, it's on this site, it's on facebook, it's on twitter. It's also now looping on the call in line.

And honestly, i'd look at all those places. I'd never even think to look on channel 101.


----------



## [email protected] Network

Nashcat said:


> If we DID do a Check Switch what harm could have been done?


If you ran a check switch test, which we are not recommending at this time you would have received an error message that stated that you have fewer satellites than previously detected. If you saved the settings it would cause problems once 129 is restored. That is why we are only making the recommendation to do a front panel reset by holding down the power button for 10 secconds.


----------



## Nashcat

[email protected] Network said:


> If you ran a check switch test, which we are not recommending at this time you would have received an error message that stated that you have fewer satellites than previously detected. If you saved the settings it would cause problems once 129 is restored. That is why we are only making the recommendation to do a front panel reset by holding down the power button for 10 secconds.


The Test 3 of 3 was taking so long I canx it before it finished and never saw an error msg. Just backed out till it tried to look for sats. Never got to the Program Guide download, either, but could not get my Guide to display until maybe 30 minutes later. Got all my SD's now.

Think I'll need to run another Check Switch when HD's are back up?


----------



## ally68

A few things to remember in this time of crisis

1 everything breaks it is a fact of life
2 the people working at dish are doing the best they can just like 
The rest of us do at our jobs 40 hours a week for penny's.

3 it is only tv(really only hd) not like we woke up and someone turned
Off the sun

4 last if you don't like dish then switch no one here really cares if you do.


----------



## Nashcat

ally68 said:


> A few things to remember in this time of crisis
> 
> 1 everything breaks it is a fact of life
> 2 the people working at dish are doing the best they can just like
> The rest of us do at our jobs 40 hours a week for penny's.
> 
> 3 it is only tv(really only hd) not like we woke up and someone turned
> Off the sun
> 
> 4 last if you don't like dish then switch no one here really cares if you do.


RaymondG might differ with you on #4


----------



## Phantom6795

[email protected] Network said:


> If you ran a check switch test, which we are not recommending at this time you would have received an error message that stated that you have fewer satellites than previously detected. If you saved the settings it would cause problems once 129 is restored. That is why we are only making the recommendation to do a front panel reset by holding down the power button for 10 secconds.


Nice to know this now. Every time someone calls you people with a problem its one of the first things we are led through after the 10 second reset. So what will the problem be when this is all over if someone did save the settings? Like the previous poster stated, locking up on 3. So what's next? Thank you.


----------



## steveT

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet: all the timers I had set to run on the channels that are affected, are now gone. Does that mean that once the channels are restored, those timers will have to be recreated?

Second question: Would it be best NOT to have the receiver automatically reboot at 3am tonight, as it usually does? Since I currently have working channels, and never lost signal (I'm assuming that's because both tuners were set to non-129 channels when the failure occurred), I'd rather not take the chance of having things screwed up by an unnecessary auto reboot overnight...


----------



## [email protected] Network

Phantom6795 said:


> Nice to know this now. Every time someone calls you people with a problem its one of the first things we are led through after the 10 second reset. So what will the problem be when this is all over if someone did save the settings? Like the previous poster stated, locking up on 3. So what's next? Thank you.


If you did run a check switch test you want to cancel it and back out of the menu screens. If for whatever reason you saved the settings after getting the message stating you have fewer satellites than previously detected, you will need to run a check switch test after the 129 technical issue is resolved. The receiver will not automatically lock onto 129 because the settings were changed. As I said if you are having issues with viewing your SD channels just do a front panel reset by holding the power button down for 10 seconds. Once the receiver resets you will have access to your SD channels.


----------



## SMosher

Thanks for being here dbstalk.com. Also thanks DishNET for the internet response team.

Just replaced the LNB and that didnt help ... Logged into dbstalk.com and poof. Here is the issue... 

Note to self ... ALWAYS CHECK DBSTALK.COM FIRST! 

Have a good evening folks.


----------



## 356B

I'm getting a funny feeling about all this.......hopefully all will be well by this time tomorrow....if not, it could be a while......


----------



## fudpucker

[email protected] Network said:


> As I said if you are having issues with viewing your SD channels just do a front panel reset by holding the power button down for 10 seconds. Once the receiver resets you will have access to your SD channels.


Except for those of use who get network locals SD on 129, correct?


----------



## oldanbo

yes


----------



## John W

356B said:


> I'm getting a funny feeling about all this.......hopefully all will be well by this time tomorrow....if not, it could be a while......


Same feeling here. Some type of catastrophic failure seems likely to me at this point. We'll see.


----------



## oldanbo

fudpucker said:


> Since no news, a question based on a comment here - my 722 has the option for selecting HD only or HD and SD but my 622 does not. Should it?


my previous yes was trying to answer you. 622 and 612(or is it 621) here.

I can't type tonight


----------



## Michael1

I wonder if Dish updated some code to clear the Signal Failure screen. My receiver just came back to life, WITHOUT 129. Before, it wouldn't even start up.

I wouldn't want to be working in the Dish Operations Center right now. The heat is on!

I will say this, though. I have had Dish for 14 years, and it has never gone down once. If I had cable that would be typical for a month or two or three. In fact, my Dish service still is not totally dead.

Michael


----------



## [email protected] Network

fudpucker said:


> Except for those of use who get network locals SD on 129, correct?


You are correct, the locals that are on 129 only will be back once we resolve the technical issue.


----------



## mike1977

ally68 said:


> A few things to remember in this time of crisis
> 
> 1 everything breaks it is a fact of life
> 2 the people working at dish are doing the best they can just like
> The rest of us do at our jobs 40 hours a week for penny's.
> 
> 3 it is only tv(really only hd) not like we woke up and someone turned
> Off the sun
> 
> 4 last if you don't like dish then switch no one here really cares if you do.


Yeah, everything breaks. It's not impossible for the same thing to happen to Directv.


----------



## ckgrick

satlover25 said:


> Sorry you went through all of that Galaxie6411. First thing as I walked through the door...
> 
> "Honey, something is wrong with the satellite on all the tv's.".
> "all the tv's Love?"
> "yes"
> <grabbed the iPad, clicked on the dbstalk link>
> "Love, the satellite is out nationwide. Dish is suffering from a major issue. Nothing I can do about it. I'm going to have a beer, surf the web and read a book. Holla at me if you want to "pretend" to make a baby".


:lol:That is one of the best posts of all time, anywhere, anytime. I slapped the arm of my computer chair laughing out loud. I hope you and your wife made good use of the sat 129 down time. Thanks for the reality check.


----------



## Lincoln6Echo

SMosher said:


> Thanks for being here dbstalk.com. Also thanks DishNET for the internet response team.
> 
> Just replaced the LNB and that didnt help ... Logged into dbstalk.com and poof. Here is the issue...
> 
> Note to self ... ALWAYS CHECK DBSTALK.COM FIRST!
> 
> Have a good evening folks.


Thanks to me for starting this thread. I was suprised that no one did before that, as I didn't start it for about 15 minutes after the outage hit.


----------



## RMichals

When you gamble you lose, bet somebody is wishing they had not wasted the last 3 years doing nothing about converting the WA to all MPEG4 8PSK receivers. Now they have lost a bird and have few options if they can't recover it.


----------



## runner861

In Los Angeles, all 129 HD is gone, both that carried on CONUS and that carried on spotbeam. At this time my rooftop antenna is coming in useful. I am still able to receive all locals in HD OTA.


----------



## SeaBeagle

"siwsiw" said:


> Can not call dish neither, I tried with multiple numbers!!!


I did and there was no problem connecting to a live help agent. That is how I found out what is going on. I just arrived home and rang up DISH to see what the problem is.


----------



## 356B

Satellite Guys is reporting they have a "strong rumor" things will be fixed soon.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/


----------



## John W

356B said:


> Satellite Guys is reporting they have a "strong rumor" things will be fixed soon.
> http://www.satelliteguys.us/


Well, that appears to be an 8 PM EDT update that says hope it will be fixed in four hours. They're an hour and twenty minutes late right now.


----------



## SeaBeagle

"Eksynyt" said:


> One more step toward Dish Network going bankrupt. Come on over to DirecTV, guys. So much better and if you sign up now, you get Sunday Ticket for free.
> 
> Plus we don't have these outages as well as the constant pulling of channels that Dish always has. No one in NYC with Dish Network can see any of their local teams except for the Giants and the Jets.
> 
> Time to switch.


No because their phone support is sucky. After certain hours phone help support shuts down.


----------



## inkahauts

356B said:


> Satellite Guys is reporting they have a "strong rumor" things will be fixed soon.
> http://www.satelliteguys.us/


!rolling

Since soon now would be when the dish network web site said they would have it fixed, like latter tonight, that's really not much of a rumor.

Directv had a sat loose several transponders on 101 a few years ago. Took a few hours to get them all back...

I hope its just a glitch, nothing long term...


----------



## John W

From the other site and verified this reception myself just now.

"Get signal now from tp21, lower then normal, able to watch 9901 from 129 no other tp's are back it appears good work dish so far!!"


----------



## mtncat

signal is back... not seeing the channels yet


----------



## 356B

John W said:


> Well, that appears to be an 8 PM EDT update that says hope it will be fixed in four hours. They're an hour and twenty minutes late right now.


Yea.......their late...and your point is?!pepsi!


----------



## HD IS MY LIFE

Once they fix the problem is there a possiblity the Sat will go down again?
I really want to watch the Mayweather Vs. Ortiz boxing match this Saturday and it will suck to pay $64.99 for nothing.


----------



## bnborg

I just ran a test switch, and it said 129 was back!

I waited for the Program Guide to see what I had. I don't see my HD locals yet but the HD channels from 200 to 388 seem to be back.


----------



## Steeloc15

I'm getting a signal on 129 now, although the strength is lower than normal.


----------



## RMichals

besides 21 tps 16, 17, 18, 19 also have signal in the meter now


----------



## Steeloc15

RMichals said:


> besides 21 tps 16, 17, 18, 19 also have signal in the meter now


16,17, and 18 have extremely low signal strength for me... In the 20's :/


----------



## godsend1

Since single transponders are coming back slowly, it doesn't sound like an off pointing issue with the satellite. 

It sounds more like the entire spacecraft suffered an SSO or spontaneous shut off. I've seen this happen dozens of times on single transponders but never for an entire spacecraft.


----------



## Steeloc15

Steeloc15 said:


> 16,17, and 18 have extremely low signal strength for me... In the 20's :/


Signal seems to be getting stronger... Welcome back E* 129 West


----------



## RMichals

QPSK tp 21 is now at signal strength 84 on my 1000+

8PSK transponders
tp 17- 19 at 67
tp 16 at 60


----------



## RMichals

At 2:00 eastern transponders 16-32 are now back online.


----------



## John W

Now, how will the missing channels be returned to the guide?


----------



## 356B

John W said:


> Now, how will the missing channels be returned to the guide?


The same way they went away.


----------



## RMichals

tp 15 also testing


----------



## kstuart

Channels are back on my 622 !


----------



## ku-band

Most channels back, Still missing some channels

ESPN2HD
FX-HD

etc..


----------



## phrelin

Congrats to the Dish tech folks (I'm hoping that wasn't premature). 

We'll all have to get our guides restored (the overnight update should take care of that if you don't want to mess with things right now). And my 722 lost some timers though my 612 did not so I'll have to deal with those in the morning.

I did have a peculiar glitch with my 612 - input 1 kept saying it was disconnected or the cabling was bad no matter what I did until I did a hard reboot.

Since this did seem like a total shutdown of the satellite, I feel lucky that they restored it.


----------



## altidude

I'm still missing HD locals in So. California but most of the other channels are back.


----------



## Stewart Vernon

_There has been some thread cleanup due to off topic posts and replies to off-topic posts.

Please stay on-topic. This is a thread about a Dish Network service outage and people who are experiencing that problem AND reporting as service is restored.

This is NOT a Dish vs DirecTV thread.

Further off-topic posts will be removed without warning, and infractions may be issued if it continues.

Thanks... and now back to topic!_


----------



## RMichals

Spotbeams returning now


----------



## palerider

2:10 AM here in Los Angeles and all is well now. All channels are back including local HD. Thanks Dish. Good job!


----------



## kucharsk

Lots of techs at DISH going home after a really long day, I suspect.


----------



## Stewart Vernon

kucharsk said:


> Lots of techs at DISH going home after a really long day, I suspect.


Yep... When something major like this happens, you know there is a LOT of pressure on them to get things up again as fast as possible.

I wasn't keeping tabs too often... so I noticed all but my LiLs were back sometime shortly before 3am EDT... then noticed my LiLs are back now.

FYI... for future reference... My receiver was on and not tuned to anything on 129 when it failed... so no receiver lockup.

Even better... Since I didn't do a receiver reset or checkswitch or anything... everything came back in my EPG and my custom favorites lists and all of my timers and daily schedule are again populated correctly... and I haven't had the receiver in standby or the nightly update happen yet.

So... whenever something like this happens... give it a few minutes then check DBSTalk and see if others are asking... then if you know it is a Dish outage, don't bother with checkswitches and stuff that might cause you more grief later when you have to do it again.

Just let it ride and play videogames or watch a Blu-ray (or DVD) or something!


----------



## scooper

Stewart Vernon said:


> Yep... When something major like this happens, you know there is a LOT of pressure on them to get things up again as fast as possible.
> 
> I wasn't keeping tabs too often... so I noticed all but my LiLs were back sometime shortly before 3am EDT... then noticed my LiLs are back now.
> 
> FYI... for future reference... My receiver was on and not tuned to anything on 129 when it failed... so no receiver lockup.
> 
> Even better... Since I didn't do a receiver reset or checkswitch or anything... everything came back in my EPG and my custom favorites lists and all of my timers and daily schedule are again populated correctly... and I haven't had the receiver in standby or the nightly update happen yet.
> 
> So... whenever something like this happens... give it a few minutes then check DBSTalk and see if others are asking... then if you know it is a Dish outage, don't bother with checkswitches and stuff that might cause you more grief later when you have to do it again.
> 
> Just let it ride and play videogames or watch a Blu-ray (or DVD) or something!


Lots of wisdom in that post Stewart -

To amplify -
When you see what could be a major satellite outage - check your favorite DBS site FIRST before you go messing with your equipment. You are also likely to find workarounds faster at said DBS sites.

I see the DiRT team was on here with information as soon as they had it available as well. Kudos to them.


----------



## OceanaJones

Here is how I found out what the problem was.
Came home to find Service was out.
Reset receiver. (no joy)
Checked cables at dish and connections (no joy)
Trimmed neighbor's bushes (no joy)
Reset reciever again (no joy)
Called Dish support, busy line
Tried to access Dish Online (no joy)
Logged on to this site and got the scoop
Followed MaryB's instructions (Eurika)


----------



## dakeeney

:grin: Here in upstate SC I'm on the EA and the only thing I noticed is that I lost my locals from the guide. As of now everything looks back to normal.


----------



## BillJ

129 is back. Sys Info status check has a green box instead of a red one with an X through it. CNBC (ch 208) info screen now shows 129. Yeah!!

Actually think DISH handled this pretty well. Got channels switched over to other satellites once they understood they had a major problem. Maybe they could have put a message up on 101 or something, although I never thought to look there. When I called the Help line and it was busy I figured out it wasn't just me.

I thought 129 might have been the victim a solar storm strong enough to knock it out completely or hit debris. Glad it was a recoverable issue.

Amused by those on the board who saw the loss of their TV for a few hours as a national emergency. It is only TV after all. Maybe we need to adjust our priorities. Lot of people in the northeast still recovering from long term power outages and flooding. Bet TV is the least of their worries.


----------



## godsend1

Well, after a switch check, I am locked to 129, however I still have no local HD channels, I'm in the Atlanta area. I've done multiple resets etc... 

I'm using a 722. Any body else having problems with local HD in the Atlanta area?


----------



## Steve H

It's 6:15 AM here in southern Utah. It appears all is back except for the HD locals.


----------



## tymekeeper

all seems well in El Paso. Have HD channels like HLN in HD now abd guide seen complete.


----------



## tcatdbs

7:30 AM Austin. All channels up except (4) HD locals. Hopefully those will be back by the time I get home tonight for recording.

If you missed the 1st Parenthood episode, you can watch it here: http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/video/i-dont-want-to-do-this-without-you/1354838/


----------



## MPH711

No HD locals here in Chicago.


----------



## SDWC

No HD locals in Pittsburgh yet either.


----------



## festivus

scooper said:


> Lots of wisdom in that post Stewart -
> 
> To amplify -
> When you see what could be a major satellite outage - check your favorite DBS site FIRST before you go messing with your equipment. You are also likely to find workarounds faster at said DBS sites.
> 
> I see the DiRT team was on here with information as soon as they had it available as well. Kudos to them.


Great advice for those of us that know about dbstalk.

But for those customers that rely on the provider (maybe rightly so) I wouldn't mind dish being proactive somehow. Maybe a dvr recording with a quick message. They do it when they're promoting something. Maybe a tiny scrolling message at the bottom of the screen. Something to let people know that it's not their equipment.

I did a soft boot of one of my receivers before I logged on this site myself.


----------



## tcatdbs

I agree, I would have liked to see a message within an hour of the outage (I'm sure Dish knew about it much sooner). I do come here (eventually).... but I rebooted, heard a sparking in my electrical strip that I have 5 things plugged into, so at first thought it was that. Decided to put a back-up PS there I had laying around, no luck, finally came here. This stuff doesn't bother me much, but if the wife has a soap scheduled to record.... forget it!



festivus said:


> Great advice for those of us that know about dbstalk.
> 
> But for those customers that rely on the provider (maybe rightly so) I wouldn't mind dish being proactive somehow. Maybe a dvr recording with a quick message. They do it when they're promoting something. Maybe a tiny scrolling message at the bottom of the screen. Something to let people know that it's not their equipment.
> 
> I did a soft boot of one of my receivers before I logged on this site myself.


----------



## altidude

palerider said:


> 2:10 AM here in Los Angeles and all is well now. All channels are back including local HD. Thanks Dish. Good job!


Still no HD locals here in Ventura CA. Weird that Los Angeles has HD locals and we don't. I thought we were on the same spot beam.


----------



## levibluewa

One post indicated they've taken down locals to adjust the spotbeams.


----------



## SayWhat?

Be curious to find out what happened.


----------



## fudpucker

Yeah, we had no locals at all last night in the Sioux City, IA area; this morning just the SD local networks. Hopefully all will be back to normal this evening.

I do hope we find out what actually happened.


----------



## runner861

The HD locals in Los Angeles are not on as of 6:30 this morning.


----------



## Chris Blount

Good to see DISH is getting this issue resolved. 

Many thanks to the DISH Internet Response Team for helping folks out here on DBSTalk.

...and of course to the users here for helping eachother. You guys really make this community great!


----------



## dmspen

I found out about this issue yesterday from Facebook. Dish posted very quickly tat 129 was out and the message repeated every once in a while. If you are a Facebook user, 'like' DISH and you'll receive updates from them.


----------



## kruser

The regular HD stations came back here in St. Louis, MO around 2 AM this morning and the HD locals just now came back at 9:15 AM CT.


----------



## Lincoln6Echo

I was watching a BD between the hours of mindnight and sometime after 1am CT, and when I shut'er off, I switched back to satellite and the HD channels on 129 were back up. Never lost HD locals as they're on our 61.5 arc.


----------



## Kaessinger

The Los Angeles HD Locals are back.


----------



## chris83

All HD back here in the Twin Cities; however, the program guide is showing "No Info Available" on anything more than 90 minutes out.


----------



## kruser

Update your guide info - Guide/999/right arrow


----------



## EricfromTx

All HD Locals back in Deep South Texas on 129!


----------



## RadarSadie

Lancaster, CA. (LA County) -All HD channels are back including locals.


----------



## VDP07

An unexpected but welcome side effect of the outage. Besides the many customer calls I received yesterday afternoon from my existing customers, I picked up 4 new customers who found and called us when they couldn't get through to Dish's 800 number to set up service.


----------



## JSIsabella

Check all your timers!

Mine were really off.

I did a power off reset to get the program guide to reload, but there was some strange timers set to fire. Many old episodes got scheduled to re-record, and there were some random 4 hour blocks of HBO and BBC that were in the schedule. I have no idea why.

I went through the entire nine day schedule and cleaned it up.

Did any of you have this problem?


----------



## chris83

kruser said:


> Update your guide info - Guide/999/right arrow


Did so; it's gradually filling in. Thank you!


----------



## ZBoomer

tcatdbs said:


> 7:30 AM Austin. All channels up except (4) HD locals. Hopefully those will be back by the time I get home tonight for recording.
> 
> If you missed the 1st Parenthood episode, you can watch it here: http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/video/hard-times-come-again-no-more/1321398


Thanks for the link, I forgot it was the season premier...just a note however that your link is to the season finale from last season...the new episode is there however.


----------



## MPH711

Local HD's are back in Chicago...uploading new guides now since locals only showed 90 minutes of listings.


----------



## 722921

ZBoomer said:


> Thanks for the link, I forgot it was the season premier...just a note however that your link is to the season finale from last season...the new episode is there however.


Yet another reason for OTA locals as a recording preference, besides better signal and picture quality.


----------



## Dave

The scroll would be a good idea but! Mine and just about all Dish receivers just say to do a hard reset. Unliug receiver for 10 seconds and plug back in. Then if no help this way call Dish. I don't believe Dish can send out a message to the receiver when they are down like this. So therein lies the problem in these situations with a major outage. Remember only the 129 sat was effected.


----------



## prm1177

Does anyone here, besides me, think it is semi-miraculous that we can beam hundreds of TV channels 22,236 miles into space and back, to a 1 meter dish consistently and reliably?

The fact is, it's amazing to me stuff like this doesn't happen more often. Congrats to the DISH team for diagnosing the issue and repairing as quickly as they did. 

I'm betting one of the signals they sent to the bird was, "A repair technician will be there between 8AM and 1PM".


----------



## 4bama

Got this message from Dish Network a few minutes ago...and, btw, all HD locals from B'ham were restored about 10am.

"Good news! DISH Network has successfully resolved the interruption affecting the 129 orbital satellite location. Your HD channels have been fully restored. Again, we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience and loyalty with DISH Network."

Hopefully we will eventually be told what caused the outage..


----------



## phrelin

4bama said:


> Hopefully we will eventually be told what caused the outage..


If it was some exotic event, I'd find it interesting to know. If it was because someone's elbow brushed the wrong switch, I'd rather not know.


----------



## Paul Secic

Lincoln6Echo said:


> Anybody have no signal now when everything should be fine weather wise?
> 
> Uplink is in Cheyenne, isn't it? Ain't much going on there. Some small rain showers, nothing major...
> 
> EDIT: Sat 129 is out across the entire country.


My HD channels went out at 5PM until 7:30 PM. However I had SD.


----------



## EdJ

Is the 129 satellite working or dead? I see that a lot of channels are being switched around. Are they putting all the channels that were on 129 on other satellites in the Western Arc?


----------



## rmwjrsc

I had 61.5 go out three times last night....was that related?


----------



## Stewart Vernon

For what it's worth...

Early this morning everything was back... including LiLs... but then at some point during the morning I noticed my LiLs were gone again.

Eventually they came back, but no EPG for them. That's weird, because when they originally came back they still had EPG.

Anyway, fingers crossed they are done with the tinkering now.


----------



## 4bama

EdJ said:


> Is the 129 satellite working or dead? I see that a lot of channels are being switched around. Are they putting all the channels that were on 129 on other satellites in the Western Arc?


Everything on 129 is working the way it was before the outage, including HD locals...it took a little longer to get all the HD locals going because of the many spot beams involved...the CONUS channels were fixed before daylight.

After my HD locals were restored I had to do a check-switch and get a new guide downloaded, after that things are the same as before the outage.

Still hope someone finds out and posts the cause of the outage, whether operator error, solar flares, failure at the up-link facility or an on-board satellite problem...


----------



## runner861

I have a 211 and two 622's with the locals mapped down and HD-only preference for the display of the locals on mapdown. When 129 was down, my mapdowns shifted to the SD stations. However, timers that I had during the period that 129 was down did not record. The timers were set to HD-preference and were tied to the mapped down numbers.

Does this mirror the situation with others?


----------



## bnborg

Although I seemed to have all my channels, I was still seeing "no-info" on a lot of them. So this afternoon I did a test-switch to force an EPG DL. Now, I not only have the guide information but all my timers came back.


----------



## 4bama

runner861 said:


> I have a 211 and two 622's with the locals mapped down and HD-only preference for the display of the locals on mapdown. When 129 was down, my mapdowns shifted to the SD stations. However, timers that I had during the period that 129 was down did not record. The timers were set to HD-preference and were tied to the mapped down numbers.
> 
> Does this mirror the situation with others?


Yes, I have the local CBS HD channel set to record the Ferguson late-late show (11:35pm local time) and it did not switch to the SD channel, so the show did not record. My OTA timers for Leno and Fallon did record correctly.


----------



## runner861

4bama said:


> Yes, I have the local CBS HD channel set to record the Ferguson late-late show (11:35pm local time) and it did not switch to the SD channel, so the show did not record. My OTA timers for Leno and Fallon did record correctly.


I notice you have a Winegard on a 70-foot tower. Can you post a picture? How did you build it? Over what distance can you receive reliable reception?


----------



## Stewart Vernon

I should have mentioned this yesterday... but for those of you (like me) who have a 922 receiver... there is no way to force an EPG download... so you just have to wait until the nightly update to refresh EPG.

I think the 922 is the only current model in service that you can't force an EPG update by running the checkswitch OR skipping ahead in the EPG on a "No Info" channel.

I don't know why that feature is not in the 922... but if you have a 922, don't beat your head into the ground trying to force your EPG to update.


----------



## l8er

Stewart Vernon said:


> I should have mentioned this yesterday... but for those of you (like me) who have a 922 receiver... there is no way to force an EPG download...


 That's not true. I had a VIP922 replaced last week and had used the remote to backup the timers. When the new VIP922 was up and running and I restored the timers, none were shown because the guide info wasn't totally updated. And at that point the guide only showed info for the next hour or two, then did a red button reset, power off reset, check switch. The guide info was then populated out 10 days.

And all of my timers were now displayed from the restore process.

I didn't have to wait for the overnight update.

-Gary


----------



## godsend1

4bama said:


> Everything on 129 is working the way it was before the outage, including HD locals...it took a little longer to get all the HD locals going because of the many spot beams involved...the CONUS channels were fixed before daylight.
> 
> After my HD locals were restored I had to do a check-switch and get a new guide downloaded, after that things are the same as before the outage.
> 
> Still hope someone finds out and posts the cause of the outage, whether operator error, solar flares, failure at the up-link facility or an on-board satellite problem...


The cause of the outage will be called an "Anomaly" which is the generic term used when something unexpected happens onboard the spacecraft.

We will most likely never know the true cause of the outage as the satellite owners usually do not release that information, or they are unable to determine the cause of the issue.

I've worked for Panamsat/Intelsat for 10 years and have been through many anomalies, the source of most of them was never identified.


----------



## Stewart Vernon

l8er said:


> That's not true. I had a VIP922 replaced last week and had used the remote to backup the timers. When the new VIP922 was up and running and I restored the timers, none were shown because the guide info wasn't totally updated. And at that point the guide only showed info for the next hour or two, then did a red button reset, power off reset, check switch. The guide info was then populated out 10 days.
> 
> And all of my timers were now displayed from the restore process.
> 
> I didn't have to wait for the overnight update.
> 
> -Gary


Apples and oranges.

You are talking about a replacement 922 that you just connected and had not yet performed any updates.

When you first connect a new (or replacement) 922 it will update its firmware and perform EPG updates.

What I'm talking about is an already-installed 922 where a channel is taken off of the satellite and then put back later. You can force a 922 to update the EPG info for those re-added channels until its normal nightly update.

The special-case of a newly installed 922 behaves differently that first time because it will perform those functions upon initial setup.

You can't make the 922 do an EPG update otherwise like you can the other Dish receivers.

Having said that... it *may* be possible to unplug a 922 for a while and then see what happens...


----------



## l8er

Stewart Vernon said:


> Apples and oranges.
> 
> You are talking about a replacement 922 that you just connected and had not yet performed any updates.


No, I'm talking about a 922 that had already done all of its "new" updating - that part took about an hour - and when that was done, I left it alone for 20 minutes.

At that point the guide info still only went out an hour or two.

Nothing would have changed until the overnight update - if I had not gone ahead and done the reboot and check switch.

It was only after I forced the reboot and check switch that it had guide data out 10 days.


----------



## ciware

We were actually at the uplink center in Cheyenne this morning. They told us some debris hit the Ciel-2. I don't know what damage it did nor how they got it back online.


----------



## godsend1

ciware said:


> We were actually at the uplink center in Cheyenne this morning. They told us some debris hit the Ciel-2. I don't know what damage it did nor how they got it back online.


Wow! If that's the case I am really surprised they were able to recover the spacecraft. There's not a whole lot that can be physically damaged and have it still function normally.


----------



## ciware

Me too, but that's what we were told. Short of flying up there, what can you do?


----------



## godsend1

The satellites are manufactured with spare components that can be remotely switched if necessary. Like receivers,transponders, SCP's etc...


----------



## jrseh

Could be the debris simply changed the orientation of the spacecraft. If so, lucky they were able to regain control of the satellite and re-orient it. No wonder it took so much time to bring everything back online.

John


----------



## godsend1

Here's an informative site regarding past failures/anomalies etc...http://www.sat-index.co.uk/failures/


----------



## ciware

Interesting stuff. It looks like E has been pretty open with its failure reports in the past. I'm sure we will see this one listed soon.


----------



## Paul Secic

BillJ said:


> 129 is back. Sys Info status check has a green box instead of a red one with an X through it. CNBC (ch 208) info screen now shows 129. Yeah!!
> 
> Actually think DISH handled this pretty well. Got channels switched over to other satellites once they understood they had a major problem. Maybe they could have put a message up on 101 or something, although I never thought to look there. When I called the Help line and it was busy I figured out it wasn't just me.
> 
> I thought 129 might have been the victim a solar storm strong enough to knock it out completely or hit debris. Glad it was a recoverable issue.
> 
> Amused by those on the board who saw the loss of their TV for a few hours as a national emergency. It is only TV after all. Maybe we need to adjust our priorities. Lot of people in the northeast still recovering from long term power outages and flooding. Bet TV is the least of their worries.


You're right! It's just TV. I watched SD.


----------



## DoyleS

Yeah, it really wouldn't have been an emergency until next week when all of the new fall shows start up.


----------



## epokopac

godsend1 said:


> The satellites are manufactured with spare components that can be remotely switched if necessary. Like receivers,transponders, SCP's etc...


Perhaps for really bad failures they release tiny advanced nanobots that they hide in a satellite part labeled "Contains acid; do not open". 

Thumbs up for getting it fixed as fast as they did!


----------



## 4bama

runner861 said:


> I notice you have a Winegard on a 70-foot tower. Can you post a picture? How did you build it? Over what distance can you receive reliable reception?


The tower was here when I bought the house in 1995...I had the Winegard installed on it, as with the Dish Network TV dish mounted near the roof on the tower...you can also see my Wildblue Satellite internet dish on the pole mount...living in the boonies requires these technologies...☺☺

I can receive TV stations from 100 miles away, or more. I can rotor and pick up Atlanta stations, Columbus, Ga, Mississippi stations...it's the best Winegard I could find, and well worth it..


----------



## thomasjk

ciware said:


> Interesting stuff. It looks like E has been pretty open with its failure reports in the past. I'm sure we will see this one listed soon.


See http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=916910 for the details.


----------



## SeaBeagle

"thomasjk" said:


> See http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=916910 for the details.


That was interesting to read. Thank you for putting that here in the forum.


----------



## Jhon69

ciware said:


> We were actually at the uplink center in Cheyenne this morning. They told us some debris hit the Ciel-2. I don't know what damage it did nor how they got it back online.


It may have been the one who did a boo boo that told you that.


----------



## MysteryMan

ciware said:


> We were actually at the uplink center in Cheyenne this morning. They told us some debris hit the Ciel-2. I don't know what damage it did nor how they got it back online.


I'm surprised this hasn't sooner. I read a article recently on the amount of space debris. It's estimated to be in the tens of millions of various size.


----------



## Jhon69

MysteryMan said:


> I'm surprised this hasn't sooner. I read a article recently on the amount of space debris. It's estimated to be in the tens of millions of various size.


Well when you read the fcc post it wasn't space debris.


----------



## jadebox

Jhon69 said:


> Well when you read the fcc post it wasn't space debris.


Yep ... it was human error.



MysteryMan said:


> I'm surprised this hasn't sooner. I read a article recently on the amount of space debris. It's estimated to be in the tens of millions of various size.


Those articles are talking about Low Earth orbit (LEO). That's where the International Space Station lives. It's a much more crowded, and messy, place than the higher altitudes where the Dish satellites are located.

The chance of space debris damaging a Dish satellite is pretty low. The chance of something hitting a satellite are much lower at the higher-orbits, where the Dish satellites are located, than in lower orbits such as where the International Space Station travels.

Not only is there much more space between things at the higher altitude, but most everything launched into that orbit is put on a trajectory to go into a geostationary orbit. So, the relative velocities of anything at that altitude are very low. And there's much more control over what goes into the higher orbits.

LEO, on the other hand, is where there's a lot of junk. Parts of rockets that carry satellites into orbit sometimes become satellites themselves. And it doesn't help when China crashes one satellite into another on purpose.

Solar flares on the other hand .....

This problem happened just after NASA announced the possibility of a major solar event. So, my first thought was that a solar flare might have done something to the satellite or that the operators of the satellite might have put the satellite in a "safe mode" to avoid damage.

-- Roger


----------



## fudpucker

How do you do a check switch and what does that do?


----------



## Jhon69

fudpucker said:


> How do you do a check switch and what does that do?


Menu-6-1-1.Verifies you are receiving the satellite signals from each satellite.It will also reload the programming guide.


----------



## phrelin

On my ViP 722 and 612 DVR's, it is Menu, 6, 1, 1, Check Switch, Test. It will do a test. When you back your way out through all the menus and it will do a satellite acquisition and then download a menu update.

It tests the switch to see which satellite signals are being passed from the switch to your receiver. I don't know why it goes through the menu update after backing out through the menus, but it does.


----------



## BillJ

SeaBeagle said:


> That was interesting to read. Thank you for putting that here in the forum.


So the South Park guys were right. Blame it on Canada.


----------



## kenglish

4bama said:


> The tower was here when I bought the house in 1995...I had the Winegard installed on it, as with the Dish Network TV dish mounted near the roof on the tower...you can also see my Wildblue Satellite internet dish on the pole mount...living in the boonies requires these technologies...☺☺
> 
> I can receive TV stations from 100 miles away, or more. I can rotor and pick up Atlanta stations, Columbus, Ga, Mississippi stations...it's the best Winegard I could find, and well worth it..


That's how us Southerners do things...big, and right.


----------



## Dave

So how long before the Sat quits moving around and I can get a steady signal? 129 is still a problem. Keep getting the unplug receiver to do a reset. Or I may just have a bad receiver. Guess I'll have to call Dish arg!!!!!


----------



## Dave

Will the Sat find its right orbit by Mon.?


----------



## runner861

4bama said:


> The tower was here when I bought the house in 1995...I had the Winegard installed on it, as with the Dish Network TV dish mounted near the roof on the tower...you can also see my Wildblue Satellite internet dish on the pole mount...living in the boonies requires these technologies...☺☺
> 
> I can receive TV stations from 100 miles away, or more. I can rotor and pick up Atlanta stations, Columbus, Ga, Mississippi stations...it's the best Winegard I could find, and well worth it..


This is a very nice residential setup, probably the best that I have seen. Thanks for posting it. If I ever live in the right location I will try to set up something like this.


----------



## levibluewa

Signal has been ok here. Haven't noticed any fluctuation or loss of signal. 

Has there been a statement as to the cause of the 9 hour signal loss? Sorry, I haven't read thru the many posts.


----------



## kenglish

I think the FCC report says the satellite is within about 2/10 of a degree of it's assigned position...that should be plenty close enough for any dish other than a huge (30 foot) commercial dish.
It takes a few days for a satellite to move that far, after getting an initial "nudge" from it's thrusters.


----------



## Jhon69

levibluewa said:


> Signal has been ok here. Haven't noticed any fluctuation or loss of signal.
> 
> Has there been a statement as to the cause of the 9 hour signal loss? Sorry, I haven't read thru the many posts.





thomasjk said:


> See http://licensing.fcc.gov/myibfs/download.do?attachment_key=916910 for the details.


----------



## SayWhat?

> During the evening of Tuesday, September 13, 2011, an operational problem at the Canadian satellite Ciel-2 ground control station, located in Canada, caused the satellite to lose earth pointing. This, in turn, resulted in the disruption of service to some DISH Network DBS subscribers.


Gee, wonder who'll get the bill for that one?


----------



## kenglish

The satellite company (SES) will probably eat any costs involved. Most services that lease space sign some form of "standard" contracts that limit the carrier's liability, unless you purchase a "protected" service where they have to get you back on-line quickly.

The LDS Church has been using satellites for about 25 years, and has grown to an extensive 24/7 worldwide network. An early use was to broadcast the twice yearly General Conference weekends. I think it was Westar 4 that we were on many years ago. Just prior to the end of the morning session, the satellite signal was lost for about 20 seconds. Of course, people all over the world panicked. Some said it was out for several minutes.

After we started our lunch break, and things quieted down, I called the Satellite Control Station, and asked what REALLY happened:
They do "ranging" measurements on each bird several times a day, triangulating the signal from two or three different earth stations. That's how they know exactly where each satellite is, and how far it's moved. On that particular morning, the potentiometer (variable resistor, like a "volume control") that reads back the position of the 15-meter Control and Tracking Dish had a dirty spot on it. When they went to peak up the dish prior to making the ranging measurement, it went wild and moved off the satellite.
That particular satellite was a spin-stabilized one, which spins like a gyro (about one turn per minute), while it's antennas "de-spin" in the opposite direction.
This particular dish was the one that uplinks the command signal that the "de-spin" system uses to point the antennas toward the earth.....oops!

As the satellite began to roll slightly, the signals were lost. But, as soon as it turned far enough around to see the earth again, the backup "Earth Sensor", which looks for the big, warm ground locked it back on. A few minutes later, the 15-m dish was back in service, and all was well.

I explained it all to the big-wigs after lunch, using a Planters Peanut can (the "satellite body") and the plastic lid (the "antennas"). Told them that it was "like a kid losing sight of his mother in the grocery store...he notices she's gone, starts to cry as he turns around to look, then see's her and shuts up". Everything worked like it was supposed to.

Everybody got a good laugh out of the explanation, shrugged their shoulders, and (presumably) went home to tell their friends what happened.

I wonder if it was just as simple a problem as that on Ciel-2?


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## AVJohnnie

Since the 129 “excursion event” I’ve been noticing a lot of momentary signal drops on programming coming off the 129 bird. This manifests as a one-second-or-so clump of macro blocking and audio dropouts or garbling. This may happen two or three times in a 1 hour show. I’m wondering if my 129 dish will now need to be realigned to compensate. FWIW, My other two dishes don’t seem to be having this problem.


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## Jim5506

AVJohnnie said:


> Since the 129 "excursion event" I've been noticing a lot of momentary signal drops on programming coming off the 129 bird. This manifests as a one-second-or-so clump of macro blocking and audio dropouts or garbling. This may happen two or three times in a 1 hour show. I'm wondering if my 129 dish will now need to be realigned to compensate. FWIW, My other two dishes don't seem to be having this problem.


What are your signal levels on 129?

Momentary dropouts probably are not due to misalignment especially if your signal is strong.

Are there tree branches growing into the path of the signal?


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