Trav’ler/Dish/WA LNB issues in Eastern states

[KeepingUpWithTheJoneses]

I’ve spent several hours with at least 8 Dish and Winegard CS reps, not to mention several more hours searching the internet. Probably should have come here first. So I’ve got two questions:

1) I could swear when we visited the East Coast in 2018 my WA programming worked everywhere but Maine. This year, though, I can’t get HD locals in several Eastern states. Did something change, am I misremembering, or is this a solvable issue?

2) I can get HD locals by manually acquiring sat 61.5, but my guide info is spotty. Most of the time it only shows the next hour of programming. A Dish CSR said it’s because guide info is only transmitted by sat 72. Aside from the idiocy of having the guide on a different satellite than its programming, it doesn’t explain why I sometimes get guide info for the next 24-48 hours, but never a week. I’ve never encountered this issue in the West, even when I couldn’t lock onto all 3 sats.

[Dutch_12078]

You didn't mention which DMA's are involved, but the list linked below will tell you which satellites which locals are on. Many are on both arcs, although often only HD on one of them. Dish has done some satellite shuffling in the past few years that moved a number locals from 72.7 to 61.5. If you stay with 61.5 while you're in the northeast, you might find one of the online channel guides worthwhile.

http://uplink.jameslong.name/locallist.html

[KeepingUpWithTheJoneses]

Thanks, Dutch. It’s been happening everywhere I’ve gone since April: KY, IN, MI, OH, NY, PA, MD, VA, NC, SC.

That link was incredibly helpful!

It’s not that I can’t FIND guide information online, but it would be nice to set my DVR to record a movie  at 3 a.m. without having to sit in front of the TV no earlier than 2 a.m. to set the timer.

Edited September 13, 2022 by KeepingUpWithTheJoneses

[Dutch_12078]

Most of those states have locals on both the eastern and western arcs, although Roanoke, VA is western arc only.  Have you tried tuning directly to a local channel without using the guide? If that works, you have a guide issue, not a signal issue. I'm assuming of course, that you're changing your service address with Dish when you change locations.

[KeepingUpWithTheJoneses]

Yes, I can get local channels on my western sats, but only in SD (so Prime Time Any Time doesn’t work on the Western Arc). But that is consistent with the info on the link you kindly provided, so thank you for answering my first question.

Now I’m trying to figure out why, when I’m manually locked onto sat 61, my guide only shows programming for an hour, or sometimes a day, instead of the full week. Does anyone else have that problem? I’ve reset the Hopper and also run the Guide Update several times.

[Dutch_12078]

8 hours ago, KeepingUpWithTheJoneses said:

Yes, I can get local channels on my western sats, but only in SD (so Prime Time Any Time doesn’t work on the Western Arc). But that is consistent with the info on the link you kindly provided, so thank you for answering my first question.

Now I’m trying to figure out why, when I’m manually locked onto sat 61, my guide only shows programming for an hour, or sometimes a day, instead of the full week. Does anyone else have that problem? I’ve reset the Hopper and also run the Guide Update several times.

As the CSR or tech said, the guide info comes from the 72.7 sat. Folks using a standard eastern arc LNB setup don't have the guide problem. I'm using an eastern arc LNB on my tripod mounted dish right now near the Canadian border in upstate NY, and the guide is fine.

[KeepingUpWithTheJoneses]

Quote

the guide info comes from the 72.7 sat.

Then how am I seeing it at all when I’m only getting 61?

[Dutch_12078]

12 hours ago, KeepingUpWithTheJoneses said:

Then how am I seeing it at all when I’m only getting 61?

The short term guide info may be coming from the PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol) data  from the individual channels that supply it.