I have DirecTV and Hughes.net. It comes in on one dish.
Had it for a long time. Originally just DirecTV. I upgraded to also get internet off of it about 8 years ago. They replaced the dish and it has two sat receivers on it. The dish is not round but more of an elongated oval. Wider on the X plane. One receiver is about 5"s off to the side of the other.
I think It’s looking at two different satellites. One is for DirecTV and one for Hughes internet.
I want to (got no other choice) upgrade to Hughes Gen5. I was hoping that I could get it all on one dish - DirecTV and Hughes. I THINK the dish is already pointing to the Hughes Sat because of the offset receiver and wide dish that I get Hughes on now. They just need to throw the switch to go to Gen 5.
I’ve talked to Hughes four times now. Two people said no problem. Two said I will need an extra dish for the Gen 5. They all “talked to their supervisors”. :rolleyes:
This is a bit of an issue, because I REALLY don’t want another dish. We get 30 feet of snow a year. There really isn’t another good place to put an extra dish on the house that I can get to to brush snow off of.
I’m concerned if I pull the trigger for this, they are just going to send out an installer and he will slap on another dish, when it isn’t needed at all.
Pheewww. After all that. My Question. Is it possible that my one dish is picking up signals from two different close together satellites (looks like 3-4 degrees different when looking at where the receivers are pointing)
While I can’t answer your specific question, it is absolutely possible and almost certain that you’re looking at two different satellites. Here for instance is a 5-LNB assembly that can pick up 5 DirecTV satellites simultaneously when correctly mounted on the right dish. But these are designed for the specific positioning of DirecTV’s own satellites. The tricky thing in your case may be getting a multi-LNB that can pick up specific satellites from different providers.
They do make heaters that install on the dish. That would melt ice and snow before it builds up. Does the snow on the roof get deep enough to block the signal if the dish itself was clear of snow?
I spend a lot if time at a place with DirecTV and Hughes.net Gen4 and it does use 2 different dishes. After a recent roof replacement, the roofers managed to align the TV dish correctly, but failed with the other so there was a week without the internet until a Hughes guy came out to align it. No idea how your system works with one dish while this one requires two.
Yes. That’s what they put up to get both DirecTV and Hughes Sat. Those companies have seemed to be diverging. So, I suspect I’m screwed and will need two dishes.
I’ve been looking at Off-Axis reflectors (dishes). I suspect that I’m am talking to people that are even less knowledgeable than I am (I’m talking to salesman). Gonna talk to Tech support tomorrow just because I LOVE being put on hold.
Unconventional passive solar house. It’s not to be mounted on the roof, but exterior wall. Still the snow builds up. A heater? I’d rather not use the electricity. I have heat tape on a few points of the roof. No choice on that. Eh… I have a 10’ piece of 3/4 copper pipe with a snow brush on the end of it. We can get to our current dish with that off our deck. Looking for a spot for a new dish that is not only easy for snow issues, but wiring as well.
Seriously, anything away from our 22 foot wide deck in winter requires snow shoes, six months out of the year. A real bitch before your coffee
The more correct terminology is “LNB – low noise block downconverter”, since the receiver (more typical name, the IRD, or integrated receiver/decoder) is the box in your living room. But yes, the off-axis part is right, that’s how a single dish with multiple LNBs aims at different satellites. The idea of the LNB is that the satellite signal is so faint that it requires first-stage amplification right at the antenna just to be able to make it down the cable to the IRD. The LNB is powered by the IRD through a power insertion scheme right through the same cable. Ordinary antenna-mounted preamps work the same way.
Directv and Hughes were originally the same company. Directv is now owned by ATT and Hughes by EchoStar/Dish. Sounds like you have an old DirectWay dish. I had one for about a year and grew to hate it…the Directv guy would come out to peak the dish and then I would lose internet. The Hughes tech would come out and then my Directv would get rain fade. After about two years Directv sold Hughes and that ended the DirectWay dish.
With Gen 5 Hughes you’ll probably need a new dish so you’ll be stuck with two. The upside is you’ll get peak signal from each dish. A low voltage heater that only kicks on in sub freezing temps is a great investment. It uses very little power. Patented and called a Hotshot, it’s about $140.00. Speaking from personal experence with an eve mount (trees) it beats putting deicer in a super soaker when it’s miserable outside and doing a spray and pray hoping to get internet or Directv back on in the living room.
We have had great TV reception from it. No problems with rain fade or snow fade until it gets covered with about 4"s of snow or so. Hughes Gen(whatever I have) sucks. So does Verizon. I have a friend about a mile away that is on the Gen5 50gb plan and it works great for him (And he works from home).
I will have to re-think the idea of a heater. Don’t like the idea of extra wires though. It does seem sure that I will need two dishes. Trying to figure out where to put them. As it’s all going to be WiFi, that changes things a bit.
