Dish signal strength stinks

[festivus]

Believe it or not, I had the Dish flunkies out to my place yesterday and they allegedly fixed my problem with the lost signal. Repointed the Dish, tightened a bolt, etc. Well, today while watching the news on local ch 4, I was losing the signal. No rain, no wind. My signal strength on sat 129 (transponder 32, cmh locals) is only around 50 right now. I called Dish and let the tech guy have it. Of course, I now had to schedule yet another 12-5 service call. This is Dish's last chance with me. If they don't fix it this time I'm going to do what I can to get out of the contract. Seems that Dish can't live up to its end of the contract so why should I live up to my end of the contract? I know, I'll need lots of luck fighting these idiots.

In my opinion, Dish Network is more trouble than it's worth.

[MeHDTV]

My nextdoor neighbor and I have had zero problems with our Dish;s. Then again I installed both. Dish and Direc are full of flunkies.

[ja5477]

Festivus, I switched from Direct tv about the same time you switched, I have had no problems at all, in fact, dish imop is the superior service. Just remind yourself why you switched in the 1st place. That being said, it is bull s that you are going thru this, somethings gotta be goin' on there. No trees or other line of sight problems? Could be the box or the coax. Just guessing, of course.
If you go back to cable, you miss out, and if you go to direct tv, well, my bro has the hr20 and believe me, it doesn't compare to the 622, and crashes all the time. He needs to swap it out, but direct tv told him that they are not putting anymore out in the field until corrections are made. Of course on the direct tv website theyare claiming that they are sold out due to popular demand, ha ha. So as of now there is no hd dvr for direct tv unless you want to pay $400.00 for a hr10-250 on ebay, and that is a whole other issue in itself. I guess no matter how you slice it there always will be something to be mad about, just pick your battles.

[festivus]

Yep, I need to keep reminding myself about the twc/sinclair spat, etc.

When they come again to check it out tomorrow, I'm going to mention maybe positioning the dish on the other side of my house. The guys, on Sat, mentioned that they thought that a tree in the distance was causing an issue with sat 129 (locals) but upon looking further they didn't think so. I think that this tree might be an issue since sat 129 is the lowest. We'll see tomorrow.

[ja5477]

My dish installer was good but I seemed to know much more about the service than he. He told me that they work out of an office on orange road and they will hire anyone. He also told me that alot of the techs smoke weed on the job, they do not test.
Funny stuff

[festivus]

Hah! That's great! I know that on saturday, the guy was changing my transponder# for sat 129. Trying to find a transponder with a better signal strength. I did some reading online and found that transponders are the wings on the sat. A group of channels are beamed from that wing. I think that half of our locals use transponder 32, period. You can't change that, it's where the channels are. It always goes back to 32 even if you change it to 31 on the screen.

Maybe what I've read is incorrect, but if it isn't the guy on saturday didn't know what he was talking about. Maybe he was stoned!

[MeHDTV]

He didn't know what he was talking about. You are correct.

[ja5477]

Thats the kind of thing I am talking about. I learned that 10 years ago wiring my 1st directv setup that you can't switch them.

He also enjoyed some Hippie Lettuce in his van before he rang your doorbell.:eek:

[festivus]

In these clouds today I've totally lost contact with bird 129. When I connect briefly, the signal is at only 43. 110 is at 82, 119 is at 81. At least it's isolated to my locals. But it still stinks. Hopefully I'll get an educated, sober tech out here today.

[festivus]

The tech guy just left. The last tech left an adjustment bolt loose and the dish moved. Now my readings are approx 100, 80 and 80 through the clouds. Make sure that the bolts are tight when they leave!

[ja5477]

Lets hope alls well now!

[nakedeye]

i have heard that the 129 bird is a bitch to point at by even the most experianced techs

[festivus]

This tech knew his stuff. He was a supervisor and very experienced. Apparently I complained enough to get the best.

He said that 129 is only 23 degrees high here in Columbus. So it has a ton of atmosphere to filter through and can easily be obstructed by an otherwise far away structure or tree. When the weather is bad the problem is multiplied. He didn't know the answer but I'm assuming that this thing carries channels for South America. Seems to be the only reason why it would be positioned where it is. (in the southern hemisphere)

[MeHDTV]

Use a second dedicated dish (either an old Derr 18" of a Dish 500) for 129 and it will help alot.

[festivus]

Sounds like a great idea. I just don't know enough about installing, pointing, wiring, and configuring a second dish. Not something that Dish would pay for I assume. I've read that a bigger dish (like a super dish) would be a big help too.

[MeHDTV]

PM me festivus.