Superdish

[Zach2]

Did they say anything on the tech chat about what will happen to Alaska residents when the superdish comes out? We need a 30" dish for each satellite (I have one on 119 and one on 148). Dish network emailed me back last week saying the superdish won't work in Alaska. So does anyone know if they'll mirror HD on 148 or not?

Also, any word on HD programming additions or upgrades to the 921 for model 6000 owners?

[boba]

Seeing 105 will be a lower powered satellite and a FSS frequency you should need a much larger dish to get any signal, Existing HD programming will continue on 148 but new programming will not be added to 61.5 or 148

[BobMurdoch]

Sounds like Alaska and Hawaii being left behind on HD.


Here come the state lawsuits..........

[Mike123abc]

AMC-15 going up next year will take care of AK/HI: http://www.ses-americom.com/satellites/amc-15.html

Note it has them nicely blanketed in coverage.

[Charles Oliva]

Actually AMC2 which Dish will use to start, does cover Hawaii, but not Alaska. Echo9 which dish will launch to 121 will also serve Hawaii. There is some issues about Alaska, remember this is a KU-band sat and the signal pattern may have to be augmented to prevent spill over into Siberia.

[Jacob S]

This reminds me of when they could not serve Alaska and Hawaii with locals at first then come up with a solution later on and I believe that same MAY be done with HD channels.

[DISHjanitor]

are there any plans on relocating some international channels from 148/61.5 to 121 or at least simulcast them? i'm extremely interested in getting Brazilian channel Globo TV from the Hawaiian islands. currently the only option is a 4-meter dish pointed to 148, even so it's not too stable. if i had a farm, i'd do it, but a 4-meter dish on my backyard would probably have to be used as a pool as well. ;)

[lmcid]

Thanks for the link Mike123abc. It seems the Caribbean will be covered by the new satellite in 2004. I live in Puerto Rico and have three 60" dishes on my roof. Will I be able to change the LNB and repoint from 61.5 to 105 or would you guys recommend using my dish as a giant freesby until next year?

[Mike123abc]

Echostar 4 has recently arrived at 157 degrees. It has been speculated by some that Dish intends to serve AK/HI from this orbital slot.

Well they only have 3 transponders at this time on 157. That would be enough for 6-9 HDTV, or 30 standard def channels. Probably not enough to do much serving for AK/HI. It will be interesting to see what they put on there.

[Charles Oliva]

:cough: Sky Angel :cough:

[Jacob S]

Sky Angel wants to serve the whole planet in which 3 orbital slots are needed to do so. Perhaps this would be the second slot they would need.

[Charles Oliva]

I assume you are joking. It will not happen. Dominion owns the rights to 8 transponder frequencies at 61.5, and is not about to give that up. They have a cozy relationship with Dish (although recently made more rocky by the Dish/Daystar situation) that I think neither really wants to rock. [Dominion gets transponders in orbit and Dish gets to use 6 frequencies they are not licensed for....]

Who ever said that Dish needs to put Dish Network programming on those transponders?

"Pure Speculation" but since Sky Angel isn't available in AK/HI, why not? If anything Dish may just let them use the space at 157 since the 121/105 slot will provide Hawaii, and possibly Alaska in the future, HD and International programming. They would also get the AG's of both states and the FCC somewhat off Echostar's back by "improving" service in both states.

[Jacob S]

And perhaps allowing Dominion to use that slot could benefit Dish in allowing them more time to possibly broadcast channels from that slot in the future and allow Dominion so much space on that satellite to do so.