2nd Dish needed to get all my locals...

[IndyMichael]

To get all my locals, they say I need to have two dishes. Odd they don't have all the locals for each city on the same satellite. I'm Just wondering how they will hook it up and how easy it is to switch between the two. Also, Dish says you get the 2nd satellite free, but is the installation free too?

[Mark Holtz]

Short answer: If you live in a city that has a locals package AND has some stations on a side satellite (either 61.5, 148, or Philadelphia 129), Dish will install upon request a second dish in order to receive the additional locals without additional equipment fee or installation fee. The receiver handles all of the switching work. If all that you are interested in is ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/UPN/WB/PBS, those will be carried on either 110 or 119.

Yes, this includes the replacement of the switch if necessary. Having 3 receivers, they replaced a SW-44 with a SW-64 in my install.

[Steve Mehs]

By law Dish is supposed to have all locals from the same market on the same bird, but due to bandwidth concerns and some dealing with the FCC Dish is able to do the two dish solution, which was only supposed to be a temporary solution. But nearly 17 months later it's still around. Typically the only locals on the side slots are Spanish, independent or shopping, but here in Buffalo our main PBS and UPN or on 61.5. I could do with out PBS and UPN is no big deal because of the supers. But since everything was free, there was no reason for us not to take advantage.

[BobaBird]

From http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2000/fcc00417.txt paragraph 87...bars satellite carriers from requiring subscribers to purchase additional equipment when television stations from one market are segregated and carried on separate satellites.The law does allow a market's channels to be delivered from different birds. What got Dish in hot water was not making the availability of those channels known and making subscribers jump through hoops when they found out and asked for them.

[Cyclone]

I was able to get the 61.5 dish installed for free. I was able to pick up a few new channels, but it was mostly used for HDTV channels.

Dish and installation were free. I did tip the installer $20 though cause it was February.

[FTA Michael]

Originally posted by IndyMichael
I'm Just wondering ... how easy it is to switch between the two.Switching is as easy and invisible as switching between 110 and 119 on your primary dish.

And with your free extra dish, you'll be able to get your extra locals, HDTV and:

* An extra channel of Dish PPV (533)
* Lots of international channels, often previewed for free
* TV Japan (640), which allows us to watch its news shows for free
* Two more shopping channels (woo hoo!)
* Daystar (9408), lots of "Spring Sharathon" this week
* Educating Everyone (9413), which most listing services insist is Mayerson Academy, but it isn't
* FamilyNet (9414), which has INN news, public domain movies, and some moldy reruns mixed in with its religious stuff
* Good Samaritan Network (9416)
* SafetyNet (9417), lots of educational stuff, but good luck getting a schedule
* Panhandle Area Education Consortium (9418), seems to be mostly education for teachers, but in my house, that beats Lifetime.

All this for free? What a deal! ;)

[IndyMichael]

Thanks for the replies. I called Dish today, and sometime between 12 and 5 this Friday, they will have someone come out and install the 2nd dish. Free 2nd Dish, free installation and coming out within 3 days of when I asked for it, sounds like good customer service to me.

[music_beans]

I have another question on 2nd dish installation. Our house already has 2 Dishes for our 4 reciever DHP. How can they install a THIRD dish?

[Cyclone]

You already have two dishes? That will be a good one. Make sure to insist on having those locals on all 4 of your receivers. They'll either fix your system and get all 4 running off just two dishes.

Or if your installer is simple, you'll get two wing dishes. :D

Seriously? Why do you have two dishes for your 4 receivers? Was this before the DishPro days?

[music_beans]

I don't know. We got the Digital Home Plan from our local Radio Shack on 9/10/02. The install guys came out, put in the 4 recievers, and hooked 2 dishes on the house for some reason. (each dish controls 2 recievers)

Did they do the installation wrong?

[lgnaclo]

what you probably have is 2 dish 300s, one at 119 and one at 110, what dish will most likely do(if the installer is smart and has the equipment with him) is they will probably replace one of those dishes with a dish500, so that 1 dish is aiming at 119 & 110 and one of your old dish 300s will be reaimed at 61.5 or 148.
And they WILL provide the 64 switch.

[music_beans]

No, that is not it. See, Each dish is a D500, serving 2 recievers. They are not single-LNB dishes. But you are right on the old dish being used for locals, but the CSR said that we need a 24 inch dish since we are in the fringe area of 148.

[Steve Mehs]

So you have two Dish500s, each with the twin LNB. Since the legacy twin can only support 2 boxes max no matter what, that would kind of make sence. But it would have been better for them just to install a quad or 2 duals and a SW64. Doesn't really matter now though.

[lgnaclo]

yeah, either way, when the installer is done, he should have all your locals showing on all 4 recievers and using only 2 dishes, if you have a low signal on 148, then ask the installer if he can get better signal at 61.5.

[Steve Mehs]

The additional locals are not on both slots, only on 148. So the dish must be pointed at 148, since the whole point of the second dish is for locals. After the installer is gone you could always repoint to 61.5, but you won't get the additional local channels.

[IndyMichael]

We got our 2nd Dish, nice to have two local channels we missed having. One is a college PBS station, which has a different lineup than the Indy one. Also got a an independent local channel that shows most of the High School sports championships.

Cyclone, I took your lead, and also tipped $20, better it was him on our roof than me, so a tip seemed in order.

[Cyclone]

You're a good man. :D Now you are also set for HDTV if you want it. ;)

[abospaum]

When I got my second Dish installed it was a 24" Dish but they also left my original Dish 500 up. The new Dish has 3LNB's with a SW-64 and has outputs for four receivers. My original Dish which I'm not using now can output to 2 other receivers. This leaves me set up great for expansion.

I don't currently have any of the dual receiver PVR units yet on any of the three TV's that I have hooked up but when I do make the decision to purchase the 721 or 921 receivers all I need to do is hook up the cables.

The SW-64 also saved me money because I was going from 2 to 3 receivers at the time and it didn't cost me anything.