[psnarula]

yes, i know that the footprint for the satellite at 129 doesn't hit the northeast. But why can't they just change the footprint? maybe there is an engineering answer to this question. it just seems like an awful waste of bandwidth to mirror all those channels on 129 and 61.5...

 

[garys]

They would probably lose the West Coast then. Dish actually started it's HD on 61.5 long before they ever used 129 as an orbital location.

 

[RAD]

Before 129 they used to mirror the little HD that was on 61.5 at 148 for the left coast.

 

[grooves12]

Are long term plans to get another satellite up at 129 that is capable of reaching the entire US??

 

[eatonjb]

Are long term plans to get another satellite up at 129 that is capable of reaching the entire US??

that would not make sense. think about it. how many people are pointed to 61.5 for HD.. if they decided to make 129 for everyone for HD and moved off HD's @ 61.5 for something else, then there will be a lot of people needed new dishes , witch adds to cost to the consumer and to E*..

not sure why.. but they did.

 

[TBoneit]

It isn't that satellite as such it is the location too. IOWs My perspective would be it is the dish pointing that counts and the clearance over the horizon. My 61.5 and D500 shoot over the rooftop which keeps them from being a eyesore from teh street.

Having HD on 61.5 and 129 gives Dish a much better chance of getting a HD signal with out trees for example blocking the signal.

 

[lakebum431]

The problem for alot is the angle of 129. Here in Atlanta it is kinda tough to hit 129 because of the very tall trees and the low angle. I am lucky that I can hit 129, but my next door neighbor has no chance because of the trees on the next lot over. I still don't understand why they didn't put Atlanta on 61.5, but whatever.

 

[alebowgm]

And just to make a point rather blunt, even if they did find a way to change the footprint OR put a new dish up at 129 that could hit all of CONUS, the LOS and Look Angle's wouldn't necessairly work for many, the same reason why those on the West cant get 61.5 (LOS is hard) and vice versa with 148...

 

[psnarula]

none of these line of sight / look angle issues exist at 110 or 119. why can't they just put another CONUS satellite up there and use it for HD? i guess launching satellites is subject to a lot of regulatory oversight so it isn't as easy as just paying sealaunch to haul it out into the pacific ocean.

what about 105 and 121? both of them are CONUS. why not put HD content there and roll out superdishes all over the country (especially since so many people already have them)?

 

[Richard King]

They could put a dozen satellites at 110 and 119 and it wouldn't matter. They are using all the bandwidth available at those slots.

 

[Mike D-CO5]

THey are supposed to launch a stronger satellite for 129 in 2007. Hopefully it will work as good as 61.5 and people on the west coast and south Texas will be able to receive good reception . Maybe then maybe the footprint would hit the entire U. S.?

 

[alebowgm]

Also, in regards to 129, there is something to be said about the orbital location belonging to the Canadians and the agreement that Dish Network made with the Canadian governing commission (whatever their equivalent to the FCC is), and the company that owned the orbital location (I believe it was Telesat, but down quote me on that) stated that there were only allowed to be 'x' ammount of American Consumers who had access to viewing content on that orbital location, amongst other regulations the two sides agreed too. Now one can only assume that can't really be inforced, but there may be some regulations that can also be restricting them, including why a new dish may not appear at 129...

 

[bderouen]

The funny part, I found, was at least in my area, the techs don't always know about 61.5. I learned about it on these board!

When I signed up with Dish (a very happy DTV convertee), due to trees, they couldn't pull down 129. Well, after reading here, I called Dish back and said I wanted a tech to come out and put up a 'wing dish' (their term) and point it at 61.5. After getting a 'supervisor' (haha) that claimed that wouldn't work, I called back and got someone else to come out who just did what I asked him to do (imagine that!) But when he came down from mounting it, he said "so 61.5 is supposed to have your HD content?" I laughed and said I learned that on the forums and showed him! He said "learn something new every day!!"

I thought that was odd, but I sure was happy he did what I asked!