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Posted By: CRW Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/21/04 11:03 PM
I am installing a Dish Network satellite dish for a friend. However this is kind of different because they are using the dish to pick up "Sky Angel", a Christian satellite network instead of regular Dish, and there are a couple questions I have about compatibility. This is legit, SkyAngel uses one of Dish's satellites, but I have some technical questions still.

If any of you are knowledgeable about Dish Network style hook-ups and equipment, and might answer a few of my questions via email, AIM or Windows Messenger, drop me a line at chris@pixelpaper.net

Thanx,
Chris
Posted By: maintenanceguy Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/21/04 11:28 PM
post your questions here. That way everybody can learn something new.
Posted By: hbiss Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/22/04 12:37 AM
Apparently the Sky Angel network only uses the Dish Network receiver. You have to aim the dish at 61.5 deg W.L. (Echostar 3) rather than 110 or 119 deg for the Dish network satellites.

What else do you need to know?

-Hal
Posted By: CRW Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/22/04 02:43 AM
I was looking for someone to converse with about this, and thought that it may be confusing to just dump all the info on the forum, not knowing if anyone knows about sky angel or dish. but since you guys responded....

Typically the Dish points to 119 and 110, like Hal said. These folks are going to use Sky Angel, which is at 61.5. They aren't using Dish at all, just Sky Angel. so instead of 2 or more satellites to aim at, they're just shooting for one. Now, the kit they have has 2 receivers, so they can run them in 2 different rooms. And they have a DishPro twin LNBF, which is the part that picks up the signal from the parabolic dish. The LNBF has 2 jacks, one labled "1" and "119" and the other "2" and "110". So if I'm aiming it for just the one at 61.5, and I run cables from both jacks to the receivers, will that work, to send the same 61.5 signal where I need it? I think there would have to be some kind of technology in the twin LNBF or the receivers to do this without any kind of external switches. Which very well could be, since this all came in a kit and even with the Dish Network's 2 signals, they should both be going to the 2 receivers in the 2 rooms. The DishPro Twin LNBF is supposed to be some of the newer stuff too, so maybe it will do this.

This satellite stuff is new to me, but I've been trying to read up on as much as I can on the web, from Dish Network's site, Sky Angel's as well as a big forum specifically for satellite dish users. I called the support lines at both Dish and Sky Angel today, and they were useless. All the answers contradicted each other, and even though one of them could have correct, they all gave the impression that they didn't have any idea about it. I would think that to answer technical support calls, the person should sort of know how it works.


[This message has been edited by CRW (edited 07-21-2004).]
Posted By: JCooper Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/22/04 03:16 AM
I am fairly knowledgable on Dish setup, but I am not sure how the reciever is going to like having the dish 500 dual lnb only getting one satellite. Normally you would use the dual lnb to hit the 110 and 119 and add a second dish with a single lnb to hit 61.5 It may work but I think the software on the rediever wants a dual lnb to only go to 110 and 119. You can get a single lnb dish setup fairly cheaply off ebay, I think a direct tv dish would also do the trick since they are single lnb. I am actually working on reaiming my dish tomorrow so I will see if you can just hit one satellite off the dual lnb.

Jim
Posted By: CRW Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/22/04 03:54 AM
Actually Sky Angel only works with Dish, not Direct TV for some reason. And supposedly people have been using this DishPro Twin LNBF for Sky Angel's 61.5 satellite. In fact I'm supposed to talk to a guy that has one tomorrow. The problem though, is that I believe he only has one receiver hooked up, and maybe only one cable, running from jack #1. I want to run 2 cables, one from #1 and one from #2, to my 2 receivers, w/o any external switches. I don't know anyone who has this exact set-up; most people have, like you said, a separate dish for the 61.5. If we need to switch to a single LNB we'll just have to do it I guess. I just want to see if this twin will do what we want it to, since they already bought it. Thanx for your input Jim...

Chris
Posted By: hbiss Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/22/04 04:24 AM
Not that familiar with Dish but it sounds like it is just a single LNB dish times two. Two LNB's with a cable from each to two inputs on the receiver. The receiver decides which satellite (input) to use depending on the channel and then tells the respective LNB what polarity to send down with a change of voltage on the cable.

Normaly this type of LNB can't be used with more than one receiver because it uses only one cable and switches polarity according to the voltage on it from the receiver. For multiple receivers you need a LNB that will send both polarities at the same time on two cables (this is not what you have). You then use a multi-switch to to connect the receivers. A multi-switch has inputs for those two cables (both polarities) from the LNB and single outputs for the receivers. The multi-switch performs the switching function required by the receivers, sending the required polarity signal to each receiver via a single cable.

As to your case, you should be able to aim the dish to acquire the signal on one LNB. The other will do nothing. This means that you will have (or need) only one cable to the receiver.

As to the receiver logic, I'm a bit confused there also. I'm going to assume that either Sky Angel has their channels arranged the same as the Dish network channels on one of their satellites (problem is which one)or they are (and the receiver is) capable of remapping the receiver to their channel assignments.

...Actually Sky Angel only works with Dish, not Direct TV for some reason.

It will only work with a Dish network receiver because DBS receivers are addressable and each use different methods of compression, decoding, channel frequencies etc. Apparently Dish is what they decided to use for whatever reason. They could just as easily utilized a Direct TV receiver. This is an either-or situation, no way to accommodate both systems at the same time since each are different.

-Hal

[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 07-22-2004).]
Posted By: LK Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/23/04 01:29 AM
Sky Ang is on 119 transponder 11, and 61.5 so you can just point the dish at 242 west and hook one cable to each connector on the LNB and run one to each receiver, that's it.
Posted By: classicsat Re: Dish Network satellite equipment - 07/23/04 11:19 PM
This is what:

The Dishpro LNBF is stacked, that basically means to you that for single satellite use such as SkyAngel, you simply need to use a satellite grade power passing splitter. Use the 119 LNBF to aim at 61.5. Ignore the 110 port.

The receiver will automatically dowload maps for the Skyangel service.

Quote
They could just as easily utilized a Direct TV receiver.
Not that easy. Technologically they probably could have (and IMO, the FCC should have decreed so), but the suits decided to use different formats.

BTW, a plain round DirecTV dish will work with Sky angel.
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