Dish Network Trouble II - Gilbert, AZ Is 100% Backup Per E* Tech

[Nick]

There has been some debate here and elsewhere as to whether Dish's
uplink facility at Gilbert, AZ could function as backup to the primary
uplink center at Cheyenne, WY. In a Charlie Chat a couple of years ago,
a video clip of the then new Gilbert uplink center was shown and it was
stated that Gilbert would serve as a backup to Cheyenne.

Following Monday morning's outage, I emailed E* tech support. Their
reply confirms that during a prolonged disruption at Cheyenne, their
Gilbert facility could uplink all programming to 110W and 119W.

"Monday, August 26, 2002 8:36 AM
From: Tech Support
Subject: Technical Support

Dear Nick,

Thank you for your e-mail correspondence. This morning we did lose
our uplink signal going to the 119 and 110 satellites at our Cheyenne,
WY uplink center. The call was made to wait this out as opposed to
transferring all services to our Gilbert, Arizona facility. The time that it
would have taken after power was lost at our Cheyenne facility to the
time that we had the Cheyenne links back up was shorter than if we
would have had to re-route all programming down to Gilbert. If you
have any further questions feel free to e-mail or call us at 1-800-333-3474.

Sincerely,

(Name deleted)
Technical Support
Dish Network"

[SParker]

I always wondered why they had their primary location in WY and the secondary in AZ. Wouldn't the weather be much better in AZ more consistently than in WY?

[JohnH]

Nowhere in the Email do they claim Gilbert is a 100% backup for Cheyenne. Some spotbeams would have to go in order to bring up all of the conus in Gilbert and 110 would probably become a locals compression nightmare again.

Notice, they do not specify how long it would take to reroute all of the programming to Gilbert.

[JohnH]

Originally posted by SParker
I always wondered why they had their primary location in WY and the secondary in AZ. Wouldn't the weather be much better in AZ more consistently than in WY?

The Gilbert location was acquired, long after the Cheyenne location.

[Nick]

"Nowhere in the Email do they claim Gilbert is a 100% backup for Cheyenne
"

"...re-route all programming down to Gilbert."

John, what is it about "all" that you don't understand?

[Geronimo]

Cheyenne is bit closer to Littleton, CO as well. Still quite a haul by east Coast standards but closer. they may simply want the primary uplink to be close to home.

[JohnH]

Yeah, they can get it there, but where are they going to put it, Cartainly not on 25 spotbeam transponders and 16 conus transponders on EchoStar 7 from the same place.

I'll grant that Gilbert could be a 100% backup for cheyanne if Gilbert stopped doing the primary service it is doing now, long after the Charlie Chat is done and over with.

[James_F]

But the Gilbert location is about just down the street from me. (couple of miles) Maybe I should just run some wires and save on the dish.... :grin:

[Nick]

John, you remind me of my ex-wife. :D

Years ago, I was just about finished packing the car for a trip when she came out with another suitcase. Looking at the full trunk, she asked "Where in the world are you going to put this?" Without a word, I moved a few things around and slipped the new suitcase in with no problem. She asked "How did you do that?" I replied "It's a man thing."

Take a deep breath and relax. I think you are anticipating a problem that doesn't exist.

[JohnH]

Okay, i'm relaxed. EchoStar 7, EchoStar 8 and DirectTV 4S all require 2 uplink centers which are goegraphically separated by many miles in order to be 100% operational. That is all.

[Geronimo]

You are not getting anywhere guys. Maybe everybody needs a deep breath.

[Nick]

Thanks, Geronimo, but can we exhale now??? :D

[Geronimo]

You will exhale when I tell you to. Not a moment before. I personally think you are getting oxygen through that lollipop but I could be wrong. Mr. Hodgson on the other hand is a lovely shade of blue.

[Geronimo]

OK exhale!

[Nick]

Whew! Thanks, Geronimo, I needed that. A new Guinness World Record for holding one's breath.

The last 16 hours have been very difficult, but it just goes to prove the old adage "Bad breath is better than no breath at all." :D

[JohnH]

BTW: I am not the Famous John Hodgson.He uses his full name. :)

[TomCat]

Originally posted by SParker
I always wondered why they had their primary location in WY and the secondary in AZ. Wouldn't the weather be much better in AZ more consistently than in WY?

The weather was why the original owner, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, built this then-130-mil facility where they did in the first place. Murdoch had grand ideas about expanding his empire and becoming the pre-eminent US DBS vendor with AskyB.

One way of making this happen was to jump in bed with Charlie Ergen, who later sued Murdoch for his back teeth, and two years later won big, effectively killing AskyB and any US DBS plans for NewsCorp. Charlie got a couple of sats sitting in storage, some very sweet sat berths giving DISH a huge advantage over DTV at the time by allowing the creation of the 119/110 DISH 500 sat pair, and this facility, which continued to sit dark for a few more years before they finally decided to make it a backup.

About all Rupert got was a seat on the board. I think that if EchoStar had not been gifted with this facility they might have eventually created a backup somewhere, but this was basically an inherited white elephant, and they made the best of the cards that they were dealt. Dish Added 60,000 sq. ft. of facilities to the 72,000 sq. ft. of existing facilities in Cheyenne a couple years before they eventually populated the empty uplink facility in AZ, so it was probably not an ideal situation for them.

If you've been wondering why relations between FOX outlets and EchoStar have been strained for some time, this mid-nineties court battle could be a clue.