FTA on Galaxy 19

[wbswetnam]

Memories of FTA

I got into FTA satellite watching when I was working in the Middle East 2006 - 2012. I watched Arabsat and Hotbird. I could get BBC World, CNN International, Al Jazeera English, France 24, Press TV (Iran), RT (Russia Today) plus other English language news stations. There is a good bit of turnover in the stations, they come and go rather quickly. Some of the Arabic stations were game shows of some sort.... there was a presenter, usually a very attractive female in tight-fitting clothes, fielding phone calls from viewers to answer silly trivia questions and possibly win a prize. Another station I remember back in 2007 or so was a Arab language station called Shahrazad, which featured fortune tellers! I thought it was so unusual that I made a screen grab of it.

 

[swm77662]

I was introduced to fta in 89 my dad bought a huge C band dish, it was cool.
In 09 I was working in Iraq and picked up a KU setup and I've been enjoying since I'll be installing a C band dish in a month or so, it is a fun hobby.

 

[fleef]

HahaHa missed the crystal ball lady- and I thought Ive seen them all! I do miss IraqTV- Saddam's channel. They had some great stuff on there that was unintentionally hilarious.

PressTV is still on Ku G196. European sats aren't carrying it thanks to the illustrious Michel 'de' Rosen who despises all things Iran.

Ku FTA is very big overseas especially in the Arabic speaking countries.There is a dish on every roof in the poorest of neighborhoods.

 

[brandon]

Speaking of English news channels, Russia Today and NHK World HD have been up for a couple weeks on Galaxy 16 (99W)

 

[wbswetnam]

A couple of weeks ago I was in Brazil, and practically everybody has access to FTA satellite TV. Even the smallest, flimsiest shacks sport a sat dish on top... don't want to miss their football games and telenovelas, you know?

 

[PJH]

So.... bumping....

Worth finding a C band dish and LNB, and trying to get K/Ku? I have the real estate to put one in but buying one new (not cheap) - (I am sure I can get a used dish locally) and just not having any real programming - to skip right to the smaller dishes..

Recommendation?

The first sat dealer in the previous page no longer carries the C band combo deal which would have been nice.

Sat forums on the interwebs are loaded with ad's and non-sense so its a tad difficult to find the information

 

[swm77662]

You can find free C band and KU band all over, I picked up a nice C band free from WWCC in Rock springs, they were giving several away,4 C bands and 2 KU's.
All you need is a 6ft dish for C band.
Sadoun Heavy Duty C-Band prime focus satellite dishes.
combined with a C/KU lnb and you have a sweet package.

 

[PJH]

I guess what I am getting at, what is the best combination of equipment. I am ideally looking for a one dish/one HD receiver combination that will blind search all supported bands, if possible.

Also, is there really anything left on C band worth trying to find

 

[swm77662]

Here is the link to the dual band LNB's offered

 

[swm77662]

C-Band LNBF LNB C/KU combination

 

[swm77662]

Oh yes a lot of good programming. I use a X2 Premium HD PVR FTA Satellite Receiver and it works great!

 

[kd2c]

Here are two sites that usually have the latest FTA news and info. Great resource for FTA!

LEGALFREETOAIR.COM - Index

<center>Ricks Satellite Wildfeed and Backhaul Forum</center>

 

[XTS3000]

Ok I have a few questions.

What receiver can do a true "blind scan" and is best for wild feeds like news links and other temporary feeds?

How much free channels are in HD nowdays?

Is PBS still on some bird in the clear?

 

[kd2c]

I'm using an Azbox Premium HD+ reciever. It has true blind scan, but many of the newer boxes will also do true bind scan. I only do Ku band as I don't have the room for a C band dish right now, I'm able to scan 30W - 125W with my current setup.
PBS is available on Ku band on AMC 21 at 125W Ku band. This link lists all available birds in North America with channel and TP listings: Satellites - North & South America
Just click on the satellite of your choice!

 

[PJH]

Is setting up a Cband dish worth it these days before I go that route and put something that covers all three bands on it?

 

[WB4CS]

I haven't done FTA since the 1990s, but I do want to take this opportunity to point out one thing that I think anyone interested in FTA/C Band should know.

There is a person with a website claiming that he sells C-Band programming and that you'll get everything cable TV has for one low monthly fee. This person is a scam artist, and best to stay away from him and his site.

His website gets updated periodically, but for at least 2 years it's had a big "Coming Soon!" banner on it. About a year ago I contacted the site owner and asked when his programming package would launch. "Oh just in a few more weeks" he said. "Go ahead and buy one of our receivers, or buy your own and send it to me and I'll get it programmed so you'll be ready to go at launch." Over a year later, his receiver is in "Beta Testing" mode. He claims that Cisco is creating a special C-Band receiver just for his programming, which is false.

Most of the FTA forums have pages and pages about this guy stealing people's money or receivers, and that he's done this kind of thing for years.

The website is: Rainier Satellite but I have read that he has operated other website URLs under different names.

Moral of the story, before you buy anything that's C/Ku band related, be sure to thoroughly investigate who you're buying from.

Good luck!

 

[swm77662]

"Is setting up a C band dish worth it these days before I go that route and put something that covers all three bands on it?"

Yes, I sent you the links, a single C band antenna with the C/KU Lnb installed will give you C and KU band .
AS far as programming goes that's up to you and what you like, here is another link.

Galaxy 19 at 97.0°W - LyngSat

This link will show you what's on both C and KU bands for Galaxy 19 you can also navigate the site for the same type of information for various satellites.

 

[WB4CS]

"Is setting up a C band dish worth it these days before I go that route and put something that covers all three bands on it?"

Yes, I sent you the links, a single C band antenna with the C/KU Lnb installed will give you C and KU band .
AS far as programming goes that's up to you and what you like, here is another link.

Galaxy 19 at 97.0°W - LyngSat

This link will show you what's on both C and KU bands for Galaxy 19 you can also navigate the site for the same type of information for various satellites.

Question, I noticed on that link that most of the in-the-clear stations are shaded yellow, meaning they are in SD.

How much of FTA is in HD? I get that a majority of the stations are religious/foreign/news and are just find in SD, but come on! It's 2014 and the majority of the US has a TV that's capable of at least 720p, if not 1080i. I also imagine that the network feeds (CBS/PBS, etc) would have HD feeds for their affiliates, but what about wild feeds? Any of those in HD?

 

[SCPD]

Is setting up a Cband dish worth it these days before I go that route and put something that covers all three bands on it?

You bet!. If you have the room and time to set it up, go for it!. Lots to see up there on C-band sometimes something new everyday. If you want it for reliably watching CNN, Discovery, HBO, etc then no. For wild feeds and specialty programming then that's the way to go.

 

[Jim_Shaffer]

Question, I noticed on that link that most of the in-the-clear stations are shaded yellow, meaning they are in SD.

How much of FTA is in HD? I get that a majority of the stations are religious/foreign/news and are just find in SD, but come on! It's 2014 and the majority of the US has a TV that's capable of at least 720p, if not 1080i. I also imagine that the network feeds (CBS/PBS, etc) would have HD feeds for their affiliates, but what about wild feeds? Any of those in HD?

Yes, there are a lot of wild feeds in HD these days. Some are MPEG2, some are MPEG4, some are DVB-S, some are DVB-S2 -- but if you buy a modern receiver, it should be capable of handling anything. (EXCEPT 4:2:2 chroma encoding. Thankfully, only a few feeds are using that yet -- although it sucks if it's one you really want to watch. If you really want to watch one, and you don't have one of the few receivers that handle it [and I don't recommend them because they're not well-supported], you can either record it and watch it on your PC, or if you have a receiver that will stream to your PC over your network you can watch it live that way.)