NASA TV on DirecTV with round dish

[MJamesDunn]

Is it absolutely necessary to have the multi-satellite dish with DirecTV to get NASA TV (at 119.)

I have the DirecTV "Plus" receiver with a round dish, and if I set the receiver to 2-satellite dish, I get a strong signal at both 101 and 119. Yet, when I go to channel 376, the display acknowledges that it's NASA TV, but the screen says to call customer service to order this channel (while all of the "core" channels are fine.)

So, I guess the question is...does it sound like I'm not getting NASA TV because I have a round dish...or because DirecTV simply needs to turn on the channel for me?

[timf]

You aren't getting 119. What seems like the signal from 119 is really just the same transponders on 101. When you tune to a 119 channel, the receiver looks for the channel where it would be on 119, but it only sees the 101 channel. So, you are seeing ordering information for whatever channel is on 101 at the same frequency as Nasa is at 119.

In short, yes it is necessary to have a dish pointed at 119 to get Nasa.

[MJamesDunn]

I was hoping that wasn't a fluke, but I figured it might be. I usually don't get that lucky. :)