D* installed today - a few questions about the install...

[vtvette]

I had DirecTV installed today. I live in a condo so I can only place a dish on the front or rear porch. I was told by the installer that the HD dish is 34" round and could not be installed in a location facing the proper direction to receive HD signal from the satellite so I opted with standard service. This sucks as I just spent $2,000 on a HD TV the other day.

I found dishpointer.com today. I also searched around here and from what I can tell the HD satellite is 101.0 DirecTV 1R, 4, 8.

From what I can tell all signals come from the southern sky. Is this true? The installer also told me that the complication with the HD satellite is it has to receive signal from 5 different satellites while standard satellite only comes from one.

34" would be a bit big for my front porch. Is there a smaller dish that I could get to receive HD signals?

Is 101.0 DirecTV 1R,4,8 in fact the HD satellite or are there actually 5 HD satellites?

thanks everyone,

[doubleatheman]

I had DirecTV installed today. I live in a condo so I can only place a dish on the front or rear porch. I was told by the installer that the HD dish is 34" round and could not be installed in a location facing the proper direction to receive HD signal from the satellite so I opted with standard service. This sucks as I just spent $2,000 on a HD TV the other day.

I found dishpointer.com today. I also searched around here and from what I can tell the HD satellite is 101.0 DirecTV 1R, 4, 8.

From what I can tell all signals come from the southern sky. Is this true? The installer also told me that the complication with the HD satellite is it has to receive signal from 5 different satellites while standard satellite only comes from one.

34" would be a bit big for my front porch. Is there a smaller dish that I could get to receive HD signals?

Is 101.0 DirecTV 1R,4,8 in fact the HD satellite or are there actually 5 HD satellites?

thanks everyone,


Yes there are 5 Satellites, not all hd, 2 of them are hd (I think)

This one dish looks at several satellite positions

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=942518#post942518

The way the installer words it it makes it sound larger, really its wider kinda like an oval, its not as big as it sounds.

[houskamp]

all the "new" hd is on 103..

[vtvette]

At this point could I just buy a AU9, and install it myself, then call D* and upgrade to a HD receiver?

Will this dish pick up local channels as well? That's the other issue - I didn't realize until after the installers left and searched this forum there was a 2nd dish is required for local channels with my current setup :mad:

At this point I just assume do the install/upgrade work myself. I've done a lot of work to my condo (I've changed the floor plan by relocated walls and such so I'm very familiar with what walls I can run wires etc).

thanks again,

[houskamp]

You very well could mount your own 5 lnb.. but you will need a meter to see all 5 sats to verify that it works before upgrading your reciever.. your sd box can't show the sat meters for all 5 sats...

[vtvette]

The technician who came out to my condo had a small plastic hand held device (similar in appearance to a compass) that he pointed to the sky and looked through to determine where the dish could be mounted and still receive signal from the satellite.

Could someone tell me what the hand held device was, and where I could purchase one so I know if I can receive the HD signal before mounting a dish?

Also, with the HD dish so I still need a smaller dish for local channels the way I do with standard service?

thanks a lot for all the info so far!

[carl6]

You use a compass (for direction) and inclinometer (for elevation) to determine line of sight.

Carl

[vtvette]

You use a compass (for direction) and inclinometer (for elevation) to determine line of sight.

Carl

And I will need to find out the location of the 5 satellites I need to hit for HD with Choice plus, and from the same position make sure I have line of site for all 5?

[fusion04]

And I will need to find out the location of the 5 satellites I need to hit for HD with Choice plus, and from the same position make sure I have line of site for all 5?

Here is a useful site for finding the azimuth and elevation of all of the D* satellites from your location. http://gjullien.fr/satellite.htm Enter your latitude and longitude and the location of each satellite (99.2, 101.0, 102.8, 109.8, and 119.0). You will see that within a few days, the moon will probably be within a degree or so of the location of each satellite. So, you can use our moon to determine where the D* satellites are.

Here is a post with more details: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=63277 (The post is mainly about using the sun for precise locations, but that can only be done 2x each year.)

Yes, you do need to make sure you can 'see' all 5 satellites from one location.

[carl6]

Also check out www.dishpointer.com

Carl