E* Tuning SPOTS or having TP issues?

I am seriously starting to think something is wrong with the Echostar Spotbeam satellite.

For a satellite which was supposed to be ready for use in Mid April, turned into a satellite that was suppose to be ready on May 1st. Its now May 7th and the satelllite is still not fully online yet.

The first people who were supposed to see a big improvement was Hawaii and Alaska, those folks are not seeing any difference.

When DirecTV launched the DirecTV 4 Spot beam satellite, everything was done quickly and except for some satellite receiver software glitches did not even notice that the spot beams we put online, thats how seamless and quick everything was.

What is the problem with this satellite?

When I checked my receiver this morning, I got the following readings:

1, 3 - Normal signal
5 - No signal
7 - On spotbeam and getting 125 This happened overnight.
9 - No Signal

1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 are all spotbeams.

Does any one kmnow which transpondr is supposed to be used for the Boston locals?

I still get transponders 1 and 3 on my system.

WHen I check the boston channels on my units they show up on 110 usualy.

Thanks for any nfo.

In southwestern Alaska we did benefit from E7 by getting those transponders that were on E6 - all of which were zero signal level before. However, those transponders from E4 (Alaska 70 pak) used to peg the meter, now average about 20% less. The signal from all E7 transponders suffer greatly from rain fade, which lasts several days as the Bering Sea lows lumber by.

As of this morning in Sacramento...

1 - Normal signal
3 - No Signal
5 - No Signal (supposed to be a Sacramento slot)
7 - Spotbeam @ 125 (slot used for San Francisco locals)
9 - No Signal

As of this Morning in Connecticut, no signal on Transponder 3, 5, 7, and 9.

Yet with a quick scan of channels, the PQ still looks decent even though 4 transponders have been removed from service.

I thought New York / Mass would be getting hit by at least one of the spots, but so far it don't look that way.

Scott, give it time I'm actually amazed they got it together enough early this morning to move 33 stations in one day. Last week it was just a few channels at a time. Maybe tonight a city on the North-East beam will be activated on TP3. I'll have a cow tomorrow if TP1 goes to spots.

I would gather that the rest of Miami, another Florida city, Sacramento, another Texas city, and Kansas City go up this week.

I do wonder what the hold up for Anchorage and Honolulu is. What I think is funny is that Charlie said that although there is a spot for Puerto Rico on E-8 it is too expensive and too far to fiber the locals back to the uplink. Honolulu and Anchorage are much farther than Puerto Rico. I speculate that Honolulu and Anchorage won't be fibered to the uplink center and will either be uplinked to an international sat first or directly uplinked from the POP.