As the battle for bandwidth increases to meet the growing demand for HDTV, the boys in the back room at Dish Network have once again created another dish. Their latest creation is the Dish 1000. This dish combines a Dish 500 with a Dish 300, which makes us wonder why it is not a Dish 800?
This latest design is for reception of 119, 100 and 129. Satellite 129 is latest satellite for Dish Network, and shall primarily be used for more local channels, including some HDTV locals for the some major cities.
Actually, with the move to MPEG4's higher compression ability, this dish may very well be capable of 1000 channels .
The dish uses the same 1-5/8 O. D. mast as most dishes and uses the proven DishPro Plus Twin LNB (DPP). The 129 LNB is a single port, single satellite DPP LNB and connects to the DPP Twin through the 3rd port.
The Dish 1000 mount and adjustments are not much different then the Dish 500. There are a few note worthy changes to the Dish. The plastic yoke which hold the LNB is stronger and grabs the feed tube with 4 small pegs that fit into holes at the end of the tube. Unlike the Dish 500, this yoke is fairly stable when secured. The price for this improved yoke is the addition of plastic ridges inside the yoke which seem to act as a cable guides to aid in routing cables up through the arm to the LNB's. However, if you have a connector on the cable you cannot fit it through the yoke.
This requires the loosening of the yoke mount bolts to get enough room to slide the cable though(with connectors) for installation. This brings up another issue. Those nice little pegs pop out of the holes and can be harder to put back in place, when your on a ladder, then trying to put a new 4-man tent back it's bag.
Another concern with the Dish 1000 is the effectiveness of using a single dish to receive signals from three satellites covering 19 degrees, and using two LNB's with an interconnect cable. DirecTV's Phase III dish does a great job receiving 101, 110 and 119, but they use a single LNB unit. With time and attention to detail, a decent technician can achieve almost the same results as if they used a Dish 500 for 110 /119 and an 18" dish for 129.
The 129 satellite is also new and not all is known about what a good single really is across the country. In the NW, our test showed that only two transponders were received above the usual minimum signal level of 70.
We suspect that over the next few months we will learn more about 129. From our early test however, the Dish 1000 seems to be able to get the job the done.
The Dish 1000 may be a good dish, but the 129 Satellite may have some coverage problems. In the Pacific Northwest (Seattle area), the Dish 1000 does not provide an adequate signal level for 129. Signal strengths for 129 have not been much higher than the mid 60's.
DISH Network has recommended that a 2nd Dish, 24 inches in size be used along side a DISH 500 with a DPP LNB. The 24 inch dish provides signal levels from 70 to the high 80's.
09-21-2009, 06:16 PM
DISH 1000 Satellite Dish Review
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