# Old School Satelitte Dishes



## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

I always drive by a neighbor on my way home, who has a old-school style Satellite Dish. Old School in this case meaning a big, about 2 feet in diameter Satellite Dish, before there was DirectTV, or any of it's predecessors, Primestar, Dish Network, etc.

As I understand it, these were different than those services Whereas those are like cable, where you get a fixed and static selection of TV Channels (some available only for an additional fee) with these, it's more like having over-the-air broadcast television, and can be even a hobby of sorts, kind of like being a Radio Ham, in that you can't send, but you can definitely explore, and see what you can pick up with your Satellite Dish. I'm saying Old-School to kind of differentiate them from the service I mentioned in the first paragraph, but I believe you can still get these kinds of Satellite Dishes, Anyone know ever had one before, what was it like?

Another thing also, are there any Satellites that function as relays? For example, If you lived in the Continental US, there's so no way you could pick up a signal from a satellite in Geosynchronous orbit above Iran or Pakistan because you're dish couldn't pick up the signal, but that Satellite can transmit to another, closer one which your dish could pick up the signal from.


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## BenHolliday (Jul 23, 2011)

If you're asking about a BUD (Big Ugly Dish) that is between 5' and 10' in diameter, then it would be a "hobby" that would be expensive. The BUD's are a very big heavy dish that have sat out in the weather for years without movement so the motor is probably bad and the LNB is C-Band. Then figuring the cost of buying the specialty cable to replace the stuff on the dish and you're way in the hole without even pulling it out of the ground for relocation.

If you were however to go with a 90cm motorized with a dual band Linear/circular, an inexpensive FTA receiver, you'd be good to go for several hundred "free legal" FTA channel. 

Link to a dish with motor randomly picked from google. (Not affiliated with any satellite dish sales site.)


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http://tinyurl.com/Dish-w-motor
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You can find 20 different FTA receivers in 30 seconds with a Google search.

If you'd like to know what channels are out there check out Lyngsat


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http://tinyurl.com/Lyngsat
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If you're wanting foreign languages, check out 97.0W - Galaxy 19, which has 204 free channels including several different languages from all over the world.

But if you invest 200 to 300 dollars, you can get several hundred channels for free, totally legal, and with a dish that is 3' in diameter. Needs to be 3' to to get linear.


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

Maybe I should take a picture of some I see with my phone so you'll know what I mean. 

So, what you're saying is it isn't exactly like radio, you can't just tune into any frequency your dish can pick up?


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## BenHolliday (Jul 23, 2011)

If you were to take your average DirecTV single dish and point it, you'd be limited to 1 satellite and it would have to be Circular polarity because of the lnb.

The BUD would be the same deal, it would pick up only 1 satellite unless the motor works by some miracle, and that satellite would be restricted to C-Band satellite. However, if I'm wrong and I often am, the motor may work and the cable may be good/long enough to work. You'd then just have to hope you could get it out and moved to your home. Then you'd have to find a C-Band dish lnb add-on that would allow you to mount a second cir/lin lnb on the dish. Then it would just be diseqc settings in the stb (set top box) assigning port 1 and port 2 to the two lnbs.

Don't get me wrong, C-Bands were super high tech back in the day and I made lots of money installing them. Today they are just imho outdated technology that are an eye sore and expensive to bring back from a life of neglect. With a Fortec motorized dish, a good clear line of site, and an inexpensive fta stb, you can remove from box, install, and be watching tele in a single afternoon for just a couple hundred.

With FTA you have to be prepared for the fact that you might not get all the channels you want and get 20X the ones you don't. You'll have a ton of 24 hour religious, Shopping, obscure programming, and languages you will not understand. On the other hand, there is the potential for a lot of channels you will enjoy.

The link I provided for Lyngsat will tell you what's on each satellite, the polarity required, size of deflector, and amount of Free and amount of encrypted channels.,


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## PC person (Feb 2, 2006)

Yes, I do have a lot to learn about them. Actually, I just started! What fascinated me about them was the huge amount of channels they could get, since you can tune into the satellites, but I suppose this is less of an issue nowadays with digital cable.



> The link I provided for Lyngsat will tell you what's on each satellite, the polarity required, size of deflector, and amount of Free and amount of encrypted channels.,


I've followed that link, but I'm completely sure what all that information means, take Galaxy 12 for example, those channels must be encrypted, since normally on our cable system, Charter, you have to pay for HBO.


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## BenHolliday (Jul 23, 2011)

PC person said:


> take Galaxy 12 for example, those channels must be encrypted, since normally on our cable system, Charter, you have to pay for HBO.


Galaxy 12 which is located at 133.0 W is a good example of a bird you could scan in with the BUD and utilize the actual C-Band lnb. However, if you'll look just below the bottom of the list you'll see:


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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]Colour codes on this satellite chart:[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]analog/clear[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]analog/encrypted[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]digital/clear[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]digital/encrypted[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]HD/clear[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]HD/encrypted[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]internet/interactive[/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial][SIZE=1]feeds[/SIZE][/FONT]
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(Those do have colour but not sure if they'll remain after post)

The box below that shows Clear/Encrypted & Analog/Digital.

On Galaxy 13 you get a total of 2 Analog and 3 Digital clear, free, while there are 132 encrypted, cant watch, channels. 

Here's a better idea of what all you can get.


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http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html
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You can get free radio also but it's no big deal. The put some Eastern birds on list for some reason... who know. But, unless you live in the middle of a desert with flat ground in the dead center of the satellite belt (name of belt escapes me right now), you will not get all the satellites from a ground position. The higher in elevation the dish goes above surrounding vegetation, terrain, structures and the likes, the better your chances of picking up more satellites.

If you'd like to see what where the satellites are in the sky and you have an Android or an iCrap... sorry iPhone, you can get an app called DishPointer Pro put out by Augmented Realities. Then go into list and select all the Western sats and deselect all the Eastern satellites. Go back to the main screen and point back of phone to the sky and scan it till you see a red line with red dots. That is the Arc and the satellites. If there is a tree in the picture behind the red dot, you can not get that satellite from where you are standing. Move to another spot and scan the arc again.


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