# My buddy is ticked



## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

When his old 45" TV died last month he bought a 50" plasma HDTV. So he decided it was also time to upgrade his Dish service to HD. They brought the new HD DVR Saturday but instead of installing a Dish 1000, they installed a 2nd Dish 500 for 61.5. We live in north central Illinois and get the Chicago locals with the HD locals on 129. After calling me to ask why he couldn't get his locals in HD, he called Dish. and they agreed he needed a Dish 1000. Today another installer came out and spent quite a while on the roof trying to get a signal from 129. It seems that even though he has very strong signals from 110 and 119, 129 is too low and is blocked by a pine tree. Two options: 1. take the top off the pine, which my buddy's wife is not agreeable to or 2. watch only the national HD channels off 61.5. Dish told him he has 6 months of free HD and if he decides to cancel the HD after that they will convert him back to his old service for $6.

I feel bad for him. And I'm concerned about my own service too. My neighbor has a couple trees that will probably block my view of 129 in 4 or 5 years. 129 is already a weak signal for us while 61.5, which I have on an old Dish 500 is gangbusters. Why didn't Dish put our HD locials on 61.5? Most existing customers already had a 61.5 dish because before 129 was activated we needed it to get the Chicago side channels.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

What about getting an OTA for locals....maybe another option?


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## tedb3rd (Feb 2, 2006)

OTA locals is an option. Is it possible to mount a standard dish at another position on his property to just shoot at 129? They could potentially use the dish currently pointed at 61.5 to get the signal from 129 (assuming there is no obstruction).

Why did they point a dish at 61.5 in the first place? There are HD channels on 129 that aren't on 61.5 so they are already missing some channels. Is 129 that low on the horizon for you?


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## MadScientist (Dec 1, 2004)

I think he needs to ask for the dish 1000+ for locals.

One dish with 110,119, 118.7 on the dish 1000+ 

and 500+ dish for 61.5

I also think he will need to add a DDP44 switch also.


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

Have them see if they can find 129 by moving the 61.5 to a different location. That woukd be much better than a 1000* since it is a single dish. It will have same LOS with it as a 1000, just larger.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

If its the top one pine tree (or redwood tree in my case), it is possible to have the dishes only about 20' apart to get 129. Cable run is another issue, though.


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## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

I'm going to have to get over there and take a look but apparently the installer did try to find a place in the yard to move the dish. Besides lowering the dish 10 feet, that also created problems with some neighbors' trees. I'm wondering if there might be a place on the far side of the house near the lot line. I'm sure the installer wasn't interested in running cable all over the place. We have a local guy who handles E* and D* but is not a registered installer. He did a nice job for me a few years ago when I had to move my dish out to a storage shed about 40 feet from the house due to tree problems. Might suggest my buddy have him take a look at it. 

Of course the real problem is E* using a satellite so much lower that 110/119, as many customers around the country have discovered. We had a heavy rain last night and I lost the HD feed of NCIS from 129. I switched to the SD channel on 110 and had no problem. This happens fairly often with 129.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

129° has problems other than line of sight.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

The best solution for the 129 problem I can see , is use the 148 sat for a duplicate of hd national programming. Especially if they are going to move all internationals off to 118.5 sat. We are using two sat dishes for the east coast with 61.5 sat and many people with the 129 sat are having to use a bigger side sat dish and a dish 500 anyway , so the argument that the dish 1000.2 lets you see all hd & regular programming using one dish won't matter anyway. OF course by this time next year we will either have a new sat at 129 anyway or a new sat company to point at to get all our programming anyway. So either way 2008 will be the pivotal year for DISH .


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

That is more of a long term solution ... and out of the control of those who just want their HD _TODAY_.


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