# the 129 satellite working now.



## Andy64 (May 4, 2006)

Due to problems with the 129 bird (drop outs and freezes, etc) I finally put up a second dish pointed at 61.5 (very low on the horizon here in Oregon). It worked well all summer and fall but now its winter in Oregon (fog, rain, etc) and I'm having frequent problems with the 61.5 satellite.

I'm wondering if the performance of the 129 sat has changed over the past 4 or 5 months. I need to decide if I need to install a larger dish for it - looking a 33inches.

Anyone seen improvements from 129?

Thanks


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## ASOT (Apr 7, 2006)

Andy64 said:


> I finally put up a second dish pointed at 61.5 (very low on the horizon here in Oregon). Thanks


So you only had 1 dish before? 1 dish when you had the 129 problems?

Just a though.... Have you tried to point this new second dish at 129? I have heard others here have good luck by having a single dish pointed at 129 and use the other for 110 and 119.

I am in Roseburg and have one dish for all 3 birds and have some problems when it snows or very bad whether. I have a dish 500 that I have not installed yet, but plan on doing it someday... point it right at 129.

To answer your question... I seemed to have had more problems this summer than I do now, but this may only be a perception thing.

Ron


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## whatchel1 (Jan 11, 2006)

I would suggest re-point the 61.5 at 129 to see how well it comes in for you. seperate dish should be better than than the D1000. Some in the Pac NW are using a 24" dish for 129 but that is mostly to your north in WA.


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## Miner (Oct 29, 2004)

Andy,

I would verify your aim for the 61.5 dish is good. I used to have a dish pointed that way and after several months the signal dropped. I thought it might be trees so I went up on the roof and somehow, even though the bolts were tight, the dish had dropped a touch. After re-peaking, the signal strength was back up into the 90s.

I now have a 24" dish pointed at 129 and the signal is not quite what a friend gets with a standard dish 500 pointed at 61.5. I used to have the standard dish 500 pointed at 129 and I would say it's signal did improve slightly a couple of months ago, but it was not enough to eliminate dropouts on a couple of channels.

Miner


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## Andy64 (May 4, 2006)

Originally I had a dish 1000 for all three (110, 119, 129). As soon as the tech finished the install we started having problems with 129. Eventually, pulled the 129 lnb from the 1000 dish, installed it in a single satellite dish and pointed that at 129. Maybe a little better than the dish 1000 but still a lot of drop outs.

So I aimed it at 61.5 and that was fine until the past few weeks with all the rain and fog.

I'll take a look at its alignment to make sure its peaked OK. I use a "spectrum monitor" that my engineering group at Tektronix design several years ago. Not as convenient as a peaker but.... its what I have. All the wind we've had recently might have shifted it a little bit. It that doesn't work, I try it with 129 again. If that doesn't do it -- bigger dish (not sure which bird to point it at).

Thanks for the responses.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

I have not noticed any improvements on 129 signals. In fact I noticed some dropouts last night on Nat. Geographic HD. Since going to a bigger dish (Dish1000+) my dropouts are rarer but they are still there.


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## EricM1 (Nov 25, 2006)

I'm in Seattle, and have a Dish 500 pointed at 129. (A second Dish 500 picks up 110 and 119). I continue to have 3-4 dropouts per evening and low signal strength on some of the transponders on 129. This morning, transponder 6 showed a signal strength of 0 for a while, then went all the way up to 32. Will a larger dish help with this problem?


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## Andy64 (May 4, 2006)

Eric,

When I first started having problems with 129 it seems like there were several posts around here that indicated a larger dish solved the problem. That's one of the reasons I started this thread - a local guy is selling 33 inch dishes on ebay, I'm wondering if I should go that way. My wife isn't very happy about the idea of a larger dish on the roof - actually I'm not either and we're both amazed at how Dish Network is willing to essentially ignore this problem. You'd think that they would be out here installing a larger dish - or, better yet, fixing the problem at its source.

Anyway, I repeaked my dishes yesterday evening and improved all three of the satellites I'm using (61.5, 110, and 119) a little. We're supposed to get back into a rainey spell starting tonight so we'll see how it goes.


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## steeliebob (Jan 10, 2006)

I was picking up 148 on a separate Dish300/500 and 110, 119, and 129 on a Dish 1000. Had Dish come out and try to re-aim. Useless, still dropped every 10 minutes or so ... couldn't watch jack on 129/

Got way sick of HD not being watching on the 129. With the demise of CBS-HD, I think there is only one or two off the wall channels I get from 148. So, a few days back I went out and looked for line of sight for 61.5,

Found it just fine, spun the Dish 300/500 around and pinned it on 61.5 ... signal is mostly in mid 90's. I have not had a bit of dropout since.

I'm less than 20 miles by air from the most NW point in the continental US.

Life is much better now ... thanks for the help Dish Network, I'll fix it myself.


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## Miner (Oct 29, 2004)

Andy,

Hopefully the repeak will solve the problem. As steeliebob indicates, signal strength from 61.5 is very good, and being south and east of him, your signal strength should be equal or better than his.

One thing about the Voom boys, they didn't skimp on their satellite power. Its location makes it bad for those of us on the west coast, but its signal is great.

Miner


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## Andy64 (May 4, 2006)

Well, when I did the repeak, I had signals in the 80's. During the rain today it tended to be down in the 20s to 50s and dropped out a lot.


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

It appears to me that Dish increased the power to TP31 as that transponder gives me a signal strength of 75-80. The other TP's are around 50. I haven't had dropout issues for a couple of months now. Can anyone confirm that Dish upped the power on at least TP31?


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Andy64 said:


> It worked well all summer and fall but now its winter in Oregon (fog, rain, etc) and I'm having frequent problems with the 61.5 satellite.


You have to cut through a whole lot more atmosphere with the 61.5 slot. Sometimes the fads turn out to be ill-conceived.

I think the real solution is the larger dish pointed at 129.


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## gregc5985 (Jul 3, 2006)

I live just west of Seattle on Puget Sound and my local dealer installed a 24 inch dish for 129 a couple of weeks ago when I upgraded to HD. The worst transponders for me on 129 are TP6 and TP18 with a strength of about 60. The best is TP31 at a strength of 96. All the rest are in the 75-90 range.


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## steeliebob (Jan 10, 2006)

Some pretty nasty weather the last few days with 60+ mph winds and upwards of 3 inches of rain daily ... still not a drop one looking at 61.5


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

I tried 129 with the dish1000, some of the transponder signals were to weak causing lost signals. I changed to a dish 500, the signals slightly improved. I then aimed the dish500 at 61.5. I was very impressed by the signal strengths but weather causes sharp signal drop-offs (from the 90's down 40's) and at times zero signals. 61.5 is to the East. I have mountains beginning about 15 miles East and about 50 miles to the East is Mt. Lassen. It generates some very nasty storms killing the signals because (I guess) the dish elevation is quite low and is close to level respective to the horizon. Concerning storms and rain fade, 129 to the South, it is clear of mountainous terrain. It has less signal loss as compared to 61.5.

I installed a Winegard 30" dish that I got from DishDepot.com. I aimed it at 129. With it the weakest transponder signal is 85 the strongest transponder signal is 105. This is much better than the dish1000 53 and 75. So far this dish has proved exceptional. Even with the worst of storms the weakest transponder signal only dropped to 72.


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