Why can't we have a SuperDuper Dish with 121/119/110/105

[rowdymon]

Why do people have to choose between getting internationals or getting HD channels? What if we want both (and don't want to put up two superdishes)?

[rowdymon]

Having one dish was only partly my point. My main concern is why Dish seems to have decided to 'split' up people who want HD from people who want Internationals.

[rowdymon]

To allow for future expansion.

Care to elaborate?

[Jacob S]

Do not for the two-way internet by satellite that will be used at once of these slots as well. I think they can still use this one dish (or maybe one slighly bigger) to get slots 105 110 119 121 in. They just wanted to be able to use a little smaller dish and/or focus more on those slots to keep the signal higher.

[dswallow]

The physical spacing required between two adjacent LNB's pretty much limits the use of a single dish to satellites at least 4 degrees apart. It might be possible to make a single phyiscal LNB aimed for two adjacent satellites 2 degrees apart, but there still might not be enough room, depending on just how much room is required for components inside that little white glob of plastic.

[Jacob S]

119 and 121 are less than 4 degrees apart. That would not be what made the difference on picking up an addional slot for 105-121.

[dswallow]

Larger dishes can resolve finer spacings. Also, 119 is DBS, and 121 is (mainly) C and Ku; i.e. different frequencies.
I didn't mean to imply larger dishes couldn't resolve the signal; I was saying the physical dimensions of the LNB prevent them from getting close enough together. A new physical LNB package would be required. Or a more complex dish design allowing LNB's to be mounted above/behind other LNB's such that it was still close to the proper focal point.

[Jacob S]

I thought I seen one of the prototypes show what looked like a lot closer spacing on the combo lnbf for two of the three lnbf's where one was closer than the other.

[ari_c]

Anyone know if the Toroidal dish would be compaitble with the new SAT? On the web site it showed that in 2001 it was configured for the GE-2 and 110 and 119 birds at the same time. I was looking into this some time ago but decided it was simpler with my farm of dishes (and cheaper). The polarity is different so you will need to get new LNBs for this dish (you can't reuse the ones from dishnetwork).

http://www.wavefrontier.com/wave/toroidal.htm

[Jacob S]

Looks like some including myself may need to do some experimentation once this new dish comes out. Some may be able to even make their own SuperDish but the one thing that makes me think that it may not be possible to do yourself is the switching and if they will have built in switches like they do on the twin lnbf's for Dish500.

[dswallow]

Looks like some including myself may need to do some experimentation once this new dish comes out. Some may be able to even make their own SuperDish but the one thing that makes me think that it may not be possible to do yourself is the switching and if they will have built in switches like they do on the twin lnbf's for Dish500.
I'm sure there would not-too-soon-after-release be third party products available if that were the case. Most of the electronics in such switches isn't really rocket science; it just takes a perceived market for someone to make product available.

[Peluso]

So is the answer YES or NO?

[dswallow]

We are not disagreeing.

On a larger dish, the arm(s) holding the LNBs are longer, so the LNBs will have, for the same physical spacing, closer orbital position spacing.
Well, the Wave Frontier 90, a toroidal dish with an effective 90cm round dish performance per LNB requires specific LNB's, which are thinner than those used by DirecTV, Dish Network and ExpressVu, and even it is limited to 3-degree spacing because of it. So while it's possible to form a dish so the focal points are further away, allowing closer spacing, nobody seems yet to be doing it with a "practical" size dish yet. The Wave Frontier 90 is already rather large, approaching the FCC-specified maximum dish size that their rules allow to be mounted without regard to rules or restrictions by towns, homeowners associations, etc.

[Peluso]

If a theoretical 4 position dish was released at the same time as the "super dish" product for a moderate price premium (with in $200) I'd probably purchase it just for future opportunity. That leads me to two questions:

How many folks out there would do the same and buy one at a premium if the product existed?

also

If their was this theoretical 4 position satellite, what would the total number of channels be that could be received by a 921.

[Bobby94928]

If their was this theoretical 4 position satellite, what would the total number of channels be that could be received by a 921.

I guess that would depend on whether you wanted quality of picture or quanitity of channels. If everyone had a 921 or 811 with an 8PSK module and Echostar decided to pump up the channels using that modulation scheme, you would be able to get over 1000 channels, if they really pushed the envelope without caring about quality of picture.

[Jacob S]

They would have cose to 800-1000 channels if they put up the top 100 DMA markets like they said they would without compressing to the extreme with modulation schemes.