AMC-2 on move to 105 slot

[fv3]

...

[Mike Richardson]

Hehe, so DISH Network is gonna be using Primestar's old dish to deliver their HDTV? Sorta neat.

[Jacob S]

Their old dishes and their old satellite.

[Cyclone]

Recycling in Space. Does this count towards Earth Day?

Well, Dish will likely run the satellite system through testing for a few weeks. I wonder if they are ramping up inventory of the SuperDish stocks yet?

[Jacob S]

Those with Primestar dishes would need a switch to use that lnbf on a Dish receiver wouldn't they since it has Vertical and Horizontal outputs on the lnbf?

[Mike123abc]

Anyone have info yet on the LNB/switches needed for 105 release date... I really would like to get mine going, but I would need an LNB and the new DPP switch.

[DenR]

AMC-2 is at 105 now. I wonder how long it will take Dish to start sending test signals through? is there anyone here who will be able to verify if they are doing this?

[JohnH]

Perhaps.:)

Nothing last nite. The 8PSK will be a bit trickey, since nothing I have receives that, but should be able to see a signal in any case.

BTW: They should be checking out E*4 at 157w, also. Can't see that one from here.

[JohnH]

I expect that E*4 will be visible in the ConUS wherever it is not below the horizon.

[JohnH]

Don't know, but they apparently have a 120 day deadline to offer some service there. They may ignore that, much the same as they seem to be ignoring the service requirement at 148 for the transponders 18-32 even, which they recently received licensing for.

[JohnH]

Seeing test carrier on about 4 different transponders so far. One at a time. :)

[Mike123abc]

Dish really needs to inform their retailers on what is needed for 105/121 reception (without superdish) I would really like to get a transponder and a switch hooked up before programming starts. I have a dish, I can point it in the right direction, but hard to lock on without the LNB. I would assume they would be using HV polarization Ku-FSS...

oops meant FSS I know it is not on the DBS band

[JohnH]

I don't think AMC 2 can do anything But HV standard Ku FSS

[JohnH]

The original Philly LNBFs were standard Ku FSS linear and came in dual configuration to work with the SW64 3-sat/4-sat cascade configuration. I suspect they are still the same and only legacy compatible. The SuperDISH appears to have its LNBF integrated into a configuration similar to the Twin or Quad.

[JohnH]

Well, at the time it was the only choice they had for Philly. No room elsewhere that fit the grand scheme of things.

[JohnH]

Perhaps only in the sense that it was a test to see if a larger dish would be accepted.

[DenR]

What is the size of the Philadelphia dish?

[JohnH]

The originals were Starband dishes. Not exactly sure of the dimensions. Perhaps a bit smaller than a Primestar dish.

[DenR]

Now that AMC-2 is in position, I wounder how long it will be before Dish starts to manufacture the Superdish. Maybe by the end of August.

[JohnH]

Not really. Just carriers. Tp 3 was on all night. Went off a couple of times this morning for short periods. Still up there now.

Maunfacturing without testing a protoype in actual conditions would not seem good.

[DenR]

Unless they have a US manufacturer lined up and waiting for them to press the button, with all the required parts already at hand, beginning manufacturing in late August almost guarantees they will not be able to deliver the SuperDish to consumers until late October, at best.

More likely, the manufacturing is being done overseas, which means mid- to late November.

That's why I am hoping they have already manufactured at least a batch of these. Sometimes you do not have the luxury of waiting for "actual conditions" because of time-to-market constraints. So you check, and re-check, and check again, and hope you don't make a Hubble Space Telescope class mistake....

You would think that they would have things modeled enough that they could design a dish and not have to worry about whether its going to work. I suppose that they could have some testing even without all the satellites being in the correct position. ie testing against another FSS salelite and then shifting the aim to 110 and 119. Then do some final testing when the AMC-2 in final position.

I am really hoping that there will be an announcement on the next chat.

[Jacob S]

If they did not already start manufacturing these dishes then heck, it could be as late as next year until we start seeing them, but seeing that there will not be as many needed at first that will give them time to ramp up production as they would not need to make as many at first.

I do not think it would take that long to test the dish since the dish used for bringing in the 129 slot should be similar to the SuperDish.

[wcswett]

I repointed my 90 cm. Ku band dish to AMC 2 this morning. Transponder 18 is active with 10 local network channels, only one of them with sound. My FTA receiver gives a signal strength of 77 (out of 100) for AMC 2 using this (relatively) big dish in clear weather.

--- WCS

[Darkman]

Thanks for that update/info wcswett - nice to know that people are keeping an eye on it :)

[wcswett]

Thanks for that update/info wcswett - nice to know that people are keeping an eye on it :)

Heh heh... no problem! :) I was getting tired of 50 channels of Arabic and Chinese on Telstar 5, just so I could watch Euronews. Now I'd like to see Echo IX in the air so I can repoint my Galaxy 10 dish. I sure hope Dish Depot will be stocking a new 5x4 or 6x4 switch! ;)

--- WCS

[JohnH]

Those ten channels are in the clear. All have sound. If they were encrypted, they encrypt the sound as well.

[Darkman]

Heh heh... no problem! :) I was getting tired of 50 channels of Arabic and Chinese on Telstar 5, just so I could watch Euronews. Now I'd like to see Echo IX in the air so I can repoint my Galaxy 10 dish. I sure hope Dish Depot will be stocking a new 5x4 or 6x4 switch! ;)

--- WCS

Hey, hey - that Telstar 5 is Kewl :)
That is where my non-movable Ku Dish with Benjamin (BEC 6600+) ird is currently at...

Among those mentioned by you, and some others, I get there 2 Russian Language ones after all:

Georgian Ajara - (with Russian spoken or Russian Translation Movies)

And Russian Euronews (mentioned by you above)
LOL - it has 7 language Support that one, on it's 2 channels there... - So i got one always at Russian, and the 2nd one at English :)
Euronews is leaving that TP though Aug 4 now (should have been July 28, but extension i guess)...
And who knows what will happen to it's state on a different TP after the move... :confused:

[wcswett]

Hey, hey - that Telstar 5 is Kewl :)
That is where my non-movable Ku Dish with Benjamin (BEC 6600+) ird is currently at...

Among those mentioned by you, and some others, I get there 2 Russian Language ones after all:

Georgian Ajara - (with Russian spoken or Russian Translation Movies)

And Russian Euronews (mentioned by you above)
LOL - it has 7 language Support that one, on it's 2 channels there... - So i got one always at Russian, and the 2nd one at English :)
Euronews is leaving that TP though Aug 4 now (should have been July 28, but extension i guess)...
And who knows what will happen to it's state on a different TP after the move... :confused:

Per JohnH's note, I tried the second audio channel on each of those locals and after a few seconds, the audio came through. Some day I need to get a decent FTA receiver. :) I've ordered another 90 cm. dish and LNBF so I can put Telstar 5 back on the switch. For now, though, I'm happy scanning free distant locals.

On Euronews, I noticed on Lyngsat that another transponder with Euronews has it encrypted. I hope it's not going to disappear from the free channel list on 4 Aug.

I want Japanese channels! :)

--- WCS

[Jacob S]

This is making me wanting to get an FTA receiver even more and more. Where can I find info on different ones available, features, and prices? I dont want to get one that is too cheap if there is another one capable of doing other things as well that is worth spending more money on. Also what all can you pick up on FTA? I heard a while back that some of the channels that Dish has up on their satellite but do not offer subscribers yet are available on the FTA receivers.

[wcswett]

This is making me wanting to get an FTA receiver even more and more. Where can I find info on different ones available, features, and prices? I dont want to get one that is too cheap if there is another one capable of doing other things as well that is worth spending more money on. Also what all can you pick up on FTA? I heard a while back that some of the channels that Dish has up on their satellite but do not offer subscribers yet are available on the FTA receivers.

I've only been doing FTA for about 8 months, and only DBS and Ku-band, so I'm a real newbie. Still, I can recommend checking out http://www.lyngsat.com to find out what's available free on different satellites. Check the five-digit frequencies as some satellites have C-band channels as well (the four digit freq's). Telstar 5 at 97W is probably the richest source of free Ku-band content in conus (Chinese, Russian, Korean, many Arabic, Multi-lingual Euronews, etc.), but I also have a dish pointed at Galaxy 10R at 123W (TARBS World TV, some Korean channels and some UPN/WB/PAX/Univision channels). All of the music channels are free on DISH 119W and ExpressVu 91W and 82W, and ExpressVu 91W has one free Canadian news channel weekdays. Typically new local channels can be found for free on DISH sats until they make them available to subscribers.

I got my receiver, 4x1 switch and some of my dishes from Mike and Laurel Kohl at http://global-cm.net/. They have 6 or 7 different receivers in stock, from the cheap DMT-1050 I have, on up to a 60 gig PVR model.

--- WCS

[apologies for leaving this in a DISH thread]

[Darkman]

I read somewhere that yesturday another TP at 105 was alive (with no PID though),
Not sure if it went dead after or not - 11980 H 26000

[wcswett]

I read somewhere that yesturday another TP at 105 was alive (with no PID though),
Not sure if it went dead after or not - 11980 H 26000

I tried it just now and couldn't find anything there (transponder 14). I tried symbol rates every 1000 between 20000 and 28000 but got no lock-on. I've been scanning all transponders every hour or so, assuming SR=20000, but haven't found anything else up yet.

--- WCS

[Darkman]

Ya.. i read it disappeared after...

John - were you able to catch this TP (11980 H 26000) yesturday?

[JohnH]

Nah.

[Darkman]

i hear now:

"SR is now 26000 with the PIDs 4130/4131/4130 showing "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please Stand By...".

and:

"There's two muxes now:

AMC2 12040 V 26000 2/3 DVBQ IQ Dish Network
AMC2 12060 H 26000 2/3 DVBQ IQ Dish Network"

"Add 11840V 26000 to that and you get the complete set! :-) "

[JohnH]

Yeah, that's it.

[wcswett]

i hear now:

"SR is now 26000 with the PIDs 4130/4131/4130 showing "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please Stand By...".

and:

"There's two muxes now:

AMC2 12040 V 26000 2/3 DVBQ IQ Dish Network
AMC2 12060 H 26000 2/3 DVBQ IQ Dish Network"

"Add 11840V 26000 to that and you get the complete set! :-) "

I'm not getting a signal lock on anything but TP 18 right now. On the other two I have nada.

--- WCS

[JohnH]

All 3 are still there.

[wcswett]

All 3 are still there.

Hmmm... must be me then... or the weather...

--- WCS

[Mike D-CO5]

I talked to Kip Wilcoxson who is an assistant manager of the engineering department of Dish and he said they are testing channels at the new 105 location right now and have been for the last week . He also added that my locals from Beaumont were on the list for next year. I hope he is right.

[JohnH]

I have been watching KUIL FOX 54(I think it is) on AMC 6 Ku recently. Don't know why it is there by itself.

[Darkman]

It got lost maybe :)