Dish Network currently has 9 satellites in geo-stationary orbit 22 300 miles above the Earth. Of these, 2 of them are used to deliver "core" programming services. These are the "America's Top X" packages.
The primary core satellite location is the 119° location, which delievers the America's Top 60, America's Top 60 Plus as well as the America's Top 120 packages and some others. If you only want to receive one of these 3 packages, you do not need the DISH 500 system, and only need a single dish solution.
However, the other "core" satellite location is the 110° location, which is used to deliver the remaining channels in the America's Top 180 package as well as local channel programming for most existing markets.
Because the complete "core" programming and local channel services are delivered from 2 different satellites, you need to receive signal from both satellites in order to receive the programming. In the past, this required the use of a second dish. However it was discovered that the satellites are close enough to each other to receive signals from both on a sigle, redesigned oval dish with 2 LNBF's.
As you can see from the above photo, the newest generation of DISH 500 dishes have a single, twin LNBF design. Older DISH 500 systems had 2 seperate LNBF's. The oval off-set design allows adequate signal to be collected from both the 119° satellite as well as the 110° satellite. As both satellites use the same frequencies, a satellite multi-switch is required to combine the signal from both satellites.
If you are a current single dish Dish subscriber, Dish Network has a special upgrade offer for people wanting to upgrade.
Wiring Diagrams
