east west arc

I have DISH and an open-face eastern arc dish, since most of our camping is in the eastern half of the country. But I just got back from spending a month in Arizona and was able to bring in satellites just fine. Not sure whether they were eastern or western arc, but was able to pick up the local stations.

lryrob9301 wrote:

rk911 wrote:
I'm not the OP but am also looking to use DISH. do I have to subscribe to one arc or the other or can I use the eastern arc birds when out east and the western arc birds out west? do I need a different sat dish for each arc or is this just a matter of aiming the dish?

1) NO you do not subscribe to any arcs just to the programming package you want. You can access that programming off either of the arcs.

2) Depends on the equipment, open face antennas (1000.2 or 1000.4) are set up for specific arc configurations. Some automatic dome type antennas can be changed from one arc to the other, but not easily. Some portable automatic antennas like the Winegard Pathway x2 can be switched easily between arc settings.

we're having the Winegard Trav'ler installed at the factory on the new RV. it's automatic in terms of locking onto the sat but it's not an in-motion unit.

rk911 wrote:
I'm not the OP but am also looking to use DISH. do I have to subscribe to one arc or the other or can I use the eastern arc birds when out east and the western arc birds out west? do I need a different sat dish for each arc or is this just a matter of aiming the dish?

1) NO you do not subscribe to any arcs just to the programming package you want. You can access that programming off either of the arcs.

2) Depends on the equipment, open face antennas (1000.2 or 1000.4) are set up for specific arc configurations. Some automatic dome type antennas can be changed from one arc to the other, but not easily. Some portable automatic antennas like the Winegard Pathway x2 can be switched easily between arc settings.

Our Pathway X2 can get either arc...works fine.

I'm not the OP but am also looking to use DISH. do I have to subscribe to one arc or the other or can I use the eastern arc birds when out east and the western arc birds out west? do I need a different sat dish for each arc or is this just a matter of aiming the dish?

DISH Network has TWO separate sets of satellites. Eastern and Western arcs.

In New England, especially in Maine, the western arc sats sit very low to the horizon and are often too low for gaining access.

To fix that problem, the eastern arc satellites were launched which sit much higher in the sky on the east coast. I would expect that gaining access to the eastern arc out west, would result in similar issues as we easterners have with the western arc.

Lastly, I believe there are many LOCAL channels that are only broadcast from the arc that they reside in. Not sure if you can get California locals on the eastern arc sats.

The lnb setup is different for each arc, so if you have a multi-lnb tripod dish for one arc, it will not work on the other.

The popular Tailgater setup, I believe only operates on the Western arc. There are programmable (more expensive) versions that will allow selection of either arc. Like the VuCube 2000.