[animalmuppet]

Hi Guys...

I've been reading all the threads regarding Dish Network losing distant stations & think that my Mom was likely one of those affected. My head is spinning after sorting through all the info on the site regarding this issue.

Mom is 83 years old & lives in Homer, Alaska. A few years back a friend up there installed the dish for her & she wasn't even sure what service she had until this happened. All this time I thought it was DirecTV but apparently not.

Here is the information that she has passed on to me. I know that she get's a bit confused so I'm hoping someone here can help me clarify what exactly her options might be. I think she had previously been getting a California feed as she mentioned enjoying the news from there. Apparently she spoke to someone up there (the installer?) who said that they would need to come out & reconfigure it so she would now get her local channels from Juneau instead (they have yet to do this) but that she still wouldn't be able to get FOX. I'm wondering exactly what they will be doing. Would this be an OTA antenna or would she be getting this Juneau signal directly from the satellite?

After reading the other threads on this subject, I also checked the mydistantnetworks.com site. It does show her as eligible for the service with no waiver needed. Would this be a good option (at least for FOX)? Any more info on the basics of how that service works? Is it as simple as submitting your order & the channels show up in the program guide?

Any help appreciated... Mom loves her "Amazing Race" and "Biggest Loser"!

 

[TonyM]

welcome

Your mom was probably getting locals from Los Angeles. But there is good news...the installer was wrong

Homer, AK would get Anchorage locals. Since AK needs a larger Dish, if she was in the Juneau area she would need another dish. Anchorage does not.

She could call in and add the locals. Here is what I got when I ran an address in Homer

HOMER, AK 99603-
Local channels currently available in this package:
Anchorage, AK Locals Package - $5.99 per month or $5.00 with a package
Station Local Channel Number Dish Channel Number
ANCHORAGE ABC-KIMO 13 7030
ANCHORAGE CBS-KTVA 11 7031
ANCHORAGE FOX-KTBY 4 7033
ANCHORAGE MNT-KYES 5 7035
ANCHORAGE NBC-KTUU 2 7032
ANCHORAGE PBS-KAKM 7 7036
ANCHORAGE PUBLIC INTEREST - ALSKA 70 7040
ANCHORAGE i TV-KDMD 33 7038

so she would get ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, My Network TV, I (Pax) and the Public Interest channel on 70 is "Gavel to Gavel". The channels would show up on their "normal" channels (2,4,5,7,11,13, etc)

the cool part is no additional equipment needed

 

[animalmuppet]

welcome

Your mom was probably getting locals from Los Angeles. But there is good news...the installer was wrong

Homer, AK would get Anchorage locals. Since AK needs a larger Dish, if she was in the Juneau area she would need another dish. Anchorage does not.

She could call in and add the locals. Here is what I got when I ran an address in Homer

HOMER, AK 99603-
Local channels currently available in this package:
Anchorage, AK Locals Package - $5.99 per month or $5.00 with a package
Station Local Channel Number Dish Channel Number
ANCHORAGE ABC-KIMO 13 7030
ANCHORAGE CBS-KTVA 11 7031
ANCHORAGE FOX-KTBY 4 7033
ANCHORAGE MNT-KYES 5 7035
ANCHORAGE NBC-KTUU 2 7032
ANCHORAGE PBS-KAKM 7 7036
ANCHORAGE PUBLIC INTEREST - ALSKA 70 7040
ANCHORAGE i TV-KDMD 33 7038

so she would get ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, My Network TV, I (Pax) and the Public Interest channel on 70 is "Gavel to Gavel". The channels would show up on their "normal" channels (2,4,5,7,11,13, etc)

the cool part is no additional equipment needed

Thanks, Tony... Assuming that is true, very good news indeed. One more question as I'm unfamiliar with how Dish Network works (I'm a Direct TV guy). Can I assume that is that something that I can do on my end by just calling Dish Network customer service? Would there be any reason that they would have to make a service call to my Mom or anything? Thanks again!

 

[TonyM]

nope. No service call needed

She would just call Dish and say she wants to add the local channels for her area. They will check their system and should be able to add the locals within 15 minutes.
Since she has a package (AT60, AT120, or something of the nature), its just $5 more a month to add locals

 

[animalmuppet]

nope. No service call needed

She would just call Dish and say she wants to add the local channels for her area. They will check their system and should be able to add the locals within 15 minutes.
Since she has a package (AT60, AT120, or something of the nature), its just $5 more a month to add locals

Thanks for all the help on this, I really appreciate it.

An update... I called Dish Network myself to try & get this sorted out. They did confirm that she does indeed get the locals from Anchorage. They also provided the channel numbers for them (all in the 9XXX's). I had my mom punch those into her remote & a different channel shows up (close in range though).

It's sounding to me like the old girl just needs to figure out how to add those channels into her channel guide so they show up. Does that sound right? I'm going under the assumption that the Dish Network setup is similar to D*TV and you have a custom channel guide based on the channels that you watch or is there an auto-scan function of some sort that will detect all active channels?

If anyone feels like being my personal hero today, maybe you could provide the exact steps that are needed to do that via the remote. I'm dealing with Mom over the phone & it's tricky at best with trying to guess what she should be doing. I'd hate to have to have her hire someone to come out just to program her remote if that's the issue...

 

[TNGTony]

Anchorage is NOT in the 9--- range. They are in the 7000 range Also on most receivers they map down to their "real" channel numbers like 12, 11, 2 and so on.

They will just show up on the guide, but just in case she is in a Favorite mode, have her press the guide button until "all chan" shows up on the upper left side. This is the "all channel" guide. "all sub" works too.

See ya
Tony


KIMO TV 13 (ABC) KIMO 7030 9s2 119° E*7 Map
Locals - Anchorage, AK
KTVA TV 11 (CBS) KTVA 7031 9s2 119° E*7
KTUU TV 2 (NBC) KTUU 7032 9s2 119° E*7
KTBY TV 4 (Fox) KTBY 7033 9s2 119° E*7
KYES TV 5(MyTV) KYES 7035 9s2 119° E*7
KAKM TV 7 (PBS) KAKM 7036 9s2 119° E*7
KDMD TV 33 ("i"/HSN) KDMD 7038 9s2 119° E*7
Alaska Public Affairs (local map ch # 70) ALSKA 7040 9s2 119° E*7

 

[JohnH]

She does have to subscibe to the local channels before they will showup in the EPG.