Any Big Dish Satellite Guys Here?

[902]

When I moved about 5 years ago, I would have given you my C-band dish, actuator, and receiver if I knew you back then. I would have even given you the galvanized mounting pipe. I had a videocypher decoder unit that was enabled, but wasn't getting much more than the Outdoor Channel and some other stuff that reminds me of cable TV right now (200 channels of crap and none of it worth the $180/mo. that cable TV wants to charge me). The high point of having that thing was watching the wild feeds of Hurricane Katrina. I have this feeling that I missed out. If I had that in the early 80s, I think I could have caught a bunch of really cool stuff.

 

[zzdiesel]

Oh man. The Katrina feeds would've been interesting back then for sure!

 

[WB4CS]

An update. I found a guy about 100 miles away. He was going to sell me a new C & KU-Band system last year. Then all of a sudden he just disappeared by ignoring my emails & calls. I'd still like to get into a system, but there's still not much to choose from. Installer guys are even harder to find unless it's Dish or DirecTV. I sure don't want those systems.

Glad to hear an update from you!

As a DIRECTV "fan boy" I can say that if you are in the market for Pay-TV via satellite, that would be the way to go. (Had to throw that out there )

While expensive, you can still find new C-Band dishes out there. There's one on Amazon for around $400. You hay have luck on Craigslist or FTA forums finding older, cheaper dishes.

While C-Band is mostly a vast wasteland of nothing, there are a few random things out there to pick up, but to me there's not enough to justify the cost of the equipment. A smaller Ku dish will actually get you a little bit more programming than C-Band will. But even the Ku band free-to-air is dwindling down slowly.

In this digital age we live in, content providers want to protect their content and their income. Long gone are the days of people with the know-how to watch almost anything for free. Content providers would rather keep their content encrypted and only allow the paying content disturbers access. 4DTV went by the wayside because of the success of DBS services like DIRECTV and Dish. Most people would rather have a small stationary dish to receive cable programming, than a big dish that has to move.

I'm sad to say, it's a technology that has hardly any use for the home consumer, there's not a consumer demand for the programming so there's not a need for content providers to provide content on satellite for consumers.

In case I failed to mention it early in the post, I'll add this warning. Stay away from this website and the guy that runs it: Rainier Satellite - HDTV - PowerVu - Activation Center - C Band HD / SD Subscription Satellite Receiver Sales - 4K Ultra HD - Multiplatform Programming - 4DTV - Horizon to Horizon - Dual Axis - Polarity changers - Termination Plates - Wave Guides - I
It's a scam artist, who claims to be relaunching subscription based C-Band programming. There are tons of posts on FTA Satellite websites about this guy taking money and not giving anything in return.

 

[902]

Oh man. The Katrina feeds would've been interesting back then for sure!

I wish I had the presence of mind to pop a tape in to record it, but what I recall were cameras that were locked down and feeding video of the storm in between the reporters. There was a lot of wind. I didn't see the flood walls breaking or people trapped scenes, though. Just lots of wind and rain, but not much action. The big shock came after I watched it, because of how everything ended up.

I had DirecTV for a long while after Primestar went under. I was outside of the TV stations' grade B contour, so I was very happy to be receiving the NYC feed (my home TV stations) and the LA feed a few hours afterward. Being in the central time zone, I was an hour off, but the shift worked well because the better shows were on at 7 instead of 8 PM. If we missed them, I could DVR them from the Los Angeles station.

Primestar was pretty cool because I had the Philadelphia Fox station on it. They had a colorful morning show crew that made them worth the watching.

One thing about having the NYC stations on DirecTV - I was watching the NY morning news on 9/11. Caught the reporters cutting away from their regular reports to turn the cameras on the smoke coming from the WTC with "rumors" of an airplane that crashed into the first tower. Then, WNYW-TV's traffic helicopter was feeding video when the second plane crashed into the building. I was completely devastated - along with others who watched it in real-time locally in NYC, except I was 1,000 miles away.

And, that said, after another weekend of "content" (the most entertaining seeming to be a family of neuvo riche faux hillbilly entrepreneurs), I'm ready for real life and real world activity again.

 

[kibler]

Still hanging on???

Hello...I can't say much that hasen't already been said, but I keep hanging on to my 10' mesh dish I bought back in 1985 with the Chaparral C/KU feed with H to H dish mover (Can't find that one anymore)! The equipment has survived three moves and a lot of hail storms during its life and currently the dish is out of adjustment due to the last extreme icy winter we just had! Anyway, I still use my 4DTV receiver to move the dish, I have changed the battery to extend its life, I bought the stuff and re-mapped the receiver but still not the greatest improvements as far as getting any wild feeds??..Some standard definition Showtime and HBO channels do go in the clear for a few days but, I don't mess with them anymore because I am just spoiled for the High Definition and the 4D can't provide that unless you have that "sidecar" add-on! Currently I am still into the FTA newer digital HD receivers because they do provide a lot of wild feeds in HD, a lot of Network feeds (and News and weather)...Just yesterday, I watched the USA soccer game on a Mexican satellite, was in standard def and in Spanish, but I didn't have to line the pockets of ESPN to watch it???....Yes the wild feeds are still there with the newer Digital receivers! You have to hunt for the feeds like always but plenty of College football and basketball can still be found! It is still a hobby that I am into and enjoy, but I am getting to old to mess with all those dish adjustments!HA!........Also, watchout for the scammers out there, it is a fact they do exist! Thanks

 

[n4yek]

I had one, i loved it too. I even done some experimenting with it. I took an LNB from my Dish Network satellite dish and mounted it on the feed point of the C band dish. Never had a problem with weather fade after that.
I also used it to re-broadcast NASA TV for Space Shuttle launches for my local area.
Boy I miss that dish...

 

[foxtail]

Check out fridge fta web and rick's satellite feeds. Still lots of stuff to be seen if you know where. Have a 10 foot 'C' and 4 foot 'Ku'...azbox, alien2, nano and tbs 6925.

 

[zzdiesel]

Thanks for the responses everyone!

 

[krokus]

I guess trying to set up the C/Ku stuff I have would be a waste of time.

Now to check out the links mentioned, to see what sounds interesting.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[prcguy]

I recently retired from the satellite broadcast engineering field where we had feeds looking at everything in the CONUS arc and beyond with hundreds of receivers humming away at any given time. I have not seen a Digicipher used in many years and analog is almost non existent.

There are some cool little digital receivers available for $100 that will pick up most of the non encrypted digital feeds out there. You will not find any prime feeds with current movies or other valuable things to watch but there is an amount of in the clear stuff to keep you busy at a hobby level with some live news feeds.

I agree with W4CBS, if you want to watch TV in a hassle free predictable manner then get Directv, they usually have the highest customer satisfaction ratings of the satellite carriers and they are light years ahead of any cable system.
prcguy

 

[WB4CS]

I agree with W4CBS, if you want to watch TV in a hassle free predictable manner then get Directv, they usually have the highest customer satisfaction ratings of the satellite carriers and they are light years ahead of any cable system.
prcguy

Agreed! Between the cable TV companies in my area, and the other satellite provider, DirecTV is simply the best. HD picture quality is great, and customer service is excellent. (And no I don't work for them, I'm just a happy customer.)

At the risk of spamming the forum, I would like to say that if the OP (or anyone) decides to sign up with DirecTV to please send me a PM first. DirecTV runs a good special with their "refer a friend" program, where you'll get $10 off a month for 10 months by being referred. I'd be glad to give anyone my account information so that they can receive the discount!

 

[zzdiesel]

I recently retired from the satellite broadcast engineering field where we had feeds looking at everything in the CONUS arc and beyond with hundreds of receivers humming away at any given time. I have not seen a Digicipher used in many years and analog is almost non existent.

There are some cool little digital receivers available for $100 that will pick up most of the non encrypted digital feeds out there. You will not find any prime feeds with current movies or other valuable things to watch but there is an amount of in the clear stuff to keep you busy at a hobby level with some live news feeds.

I agree with W4CBS, if you want to watch TV in a hassle free predictable manner then get Directv, they usually have the highest customer satisfaction ratings of the satellite carriers and they are light years ahead of any cable system.
prcguy

What $100 systems & dish would you suggest that I buy to get in on the non encrypted feeds?