Receiving locals without investing in hardware

[crmanriq]

Hi. I'm trying to accomplish the minimalist approch to receiving locals on Dish Network.

The locals that I'm trying to receive are on the Ku sat at 105. I have a DN receiver, and a dish pointed at 119 right now. (Right now I don't have an active account, and am trying to set up the hardware before I activate.)

I have a Ku dish that I can dedicate to pointing at 105, but I'm trying to find out if I really need the switchbox and the dbs dish, of if I point at 105 and connect directly to the DN receiver, can I receiver authorizations through this sat, and be ready to go? Or do I have to have the switch.

Right now we have a 12' Paraclipse, a fixed position Ku, a few DBS for Directv, so I can tinker around, but I don't really want to make much of an investment in DN if I can do it on the cheap.

Any ideas/insights would be appreciated.

Chris

[James Long]

You need a decent sized dish to get 105 since it is lower power. The quickest and *cheapest* way to get the dish and get it installed is to call Dish or your favorite retailer and order AT50+locals. The SuperDish is free, along with the switches and LNBs to get it running. Can't beat that for price!

The dish you point at 105º needs to be 30" (although you don't say where you are, if your locals are on 105º you should have a decent signal). Any old 18" or better DBS dish will pull in 119º if you don't want 110º programming - but you will need a switch.

Plus you will need a receiver. I assume you have one in the stream that has recently seen a software update? Look at the setup screens and see if 105º is listed. If it isn't get a software upgrade and try again. If you have the most recent update and still can't get 105º on the setup menu you will need a new receiver.

SuperDish *free* from Dish still seems to be the quickest way to get going.

JL

[crmanriq]

I'm told that it's not exactly free. We're not current customers, and we would not be new customers. (We had DN for a while, and dropped it because at the time, DTV had better sound. DN was overcompressing.) Receiving 105 is not a problem. I'm trying to find out if the DBS dish is _necessary_.

I have a receiver that has received a software update, and knows that 105 is out there. I've had the 12' connected to the DN receiver so that the receiver knew it was looking at 105. But the program guide did not list any locals. Where/when does it get this info? Does it need to be authorized before they show up in the guide, or does it need to get the info on the locals from the dbs dish?

Chris

[James Long]

Does it need to be authorized before they show up in the guide, or does it need to get the info on the locals from the dbs dish?
Both. It needs to be authorized and have the locals turned on, plus you must be receiving a signal from 105º for your receiver to show the EPG.

It sounds like you might have found a bad loophole. E* is offering free upgrades to existing customers (on a long waiting list in some places) and puts a priority on new customer installs. Being a former customer places you out of both catagories, and E* doesn't usually do winbacks.

JL

[crmanriq]

Both. It needs to be authorized and have the locals turned on, plus you must be receiving a signal from 105º for your receiver to show the EPG.
JL

Then it sounds like I could possibly skip the dbs dish and the switch, and just hook the Ku dish to the DN receiver. Then get authorized and hopefully have the locals. Could it be that I wasn't getting a program guide because the C/Ku 12' doesn't do voltage switching like a straight Ku lnbf will, so it was only able to see vertical or horizontal, but not switch to whichever it wanted?

It sounds like you might have found a bad loophole. E* is offering free upgrades to existing customers (on a long waiting list in some places) and puts a priority on new customer installs. Being a former customer places you out of both catagories, and E* doesn't usually do winbacks.
JL

Yeah, that kinda sucks. Local electronics store and dish were having a special, DISH + DVR + Superdish + Free install, nothing down, 1 year contract at $40/month. I was ready to sign up. Oh, but wait, you had dish before? Sorry, no. Argh.

Thanks

Chris

[JohnH]

If you are connected and get both odd and even transponders from 105 in the signal test screen, you likely will get channel 7000 in the EPG. You should be able to see this channel as well.

Authorizations are supposed to be sent on all transponders in the entire system. This is because they have no way of knowing what you are watching at the time.

$5 access fee + $5.99 locals + any reconnect fee.

[bigrick]

goto switchinfo.info and look at the superdish setup, I'll tell you how to hook up your own with a simple 2x4 multiswitch. add the dbs for the119 and combine with sw21 and reup your sub.

[Tasydra]

goto switchinfo.info and look at the superdish setup, I'll tell you how to hook up your own with a simple 2x4 multiswitch. add the dbs for the119 and combine with sw21 and reup your sub.

You will NOT BE ABLE to hook up a Ku band dish to the rec and pick up 105 and add locals.

There is a not so technical reason.

You won't be able to add locals to your account. I can't exactly tell you why... it would be talking too much about company information, but rest assured, unless you have a superdish, you can't do it, sorry.


-Tasy