This is pretty much why I registered here. You guys obviously know your stuff pretty well.
Here is the long story leading up to this. Skip this paragraph if you aren't interested in these gory details. We've had DTV in HI since 2004 when we moved here. We've had two of the 1.2 m dishes since I think 2009 when we were allowed to upgrade to the HDTV package and get the local channels. Since we went to the 2 dishes we do not ever lose our signal any more unless there is a huge downpour. The one dish is on the top of the house, above "habital area". I don't remember how I convinced the installer to go there but he did. The other was right below that one but on the overhang. They both face basically SE - where there is a hill/ mountain in our back yard- separating us from the ocean. We decided this fall to go to photovoltaic solar. I'll save you the issues there but leave it to say it makes a lot of sense in HI. When we finally agreed on a lay out on our roof, the dishes were going to cast a shadow on the panels and we can't have that so we had a guy out to look to see if we could move the dishes. He said yes and also said that we should be able to go to 1 dish. 1-2 months go by and we need to move the dishes. A new guy comes out and sez we can move and we can get down to one dish. Because of his egregious estimate ($4-500) we went with the DTV guy since he was $50 under the protection plan.
He gets here and moves the dish to the north end of the house. He puts a new LNB on and a new SWM (the device that adds power to the cable line- right?). There are channels missing. He soon figures out that there are a handful of channels missing from a satellite that we can't get any longer (as above 119 is one of them I believe). We lost our local channels and high def versions of several others (Fox News, HBO east, ESPN, 701 (sports mix, red-zone channel, Masters mix), and several others. However the only channels we actually lost were the locals.
The guy sez that is all they can do- he can put the dishes back and we have to reconfigure the solar panels or he can leave the dish where it is now and I have to watch non-HD a lot of the time. At first we had trouble getting the guide to work but that appears to have worked itself out. We get the LA ABC, CBS, FOX etc feeds (always have) but have lost the HD versions of those too.
That is where I am: My question is- is there anywhere to go from here? Can I do anything to get back the 119 satellite? If I put up another dish behind the other can I get the signal that I lost? I realize that there are some details that'd be useful that I can't give- how much of the horizon is blocked by the mountain and the trees on it, etc. However the top of the house and the overhang where the dish is now- the difference is 5-7 ft at the most. The dish pointing is approximately the same and is the lowest part of the mountain.
Thanks for any help that you can give- I can live with the channels we have now for the rest of the time we are here although it is a bit gauling to watch ESPN in SD and Fox news in SD when I can watch channels I have no interest in (Palladium etc) in HD. In addition the installer was pretty up front that DTV may move the signals to different sats without notice and I could lose channels without warning.
GBR!
