Best FTA Satellite and other questions

[kelleyga]

A friend of mine is building a small resort in Nicaragua. Where he is at (forest) there is no cable or internet,etc available. He was talking to me about and I was thinking he could get TV to his rooms by using a Free to Air setup.
I will welcome any help from you guys on this.

Requirements:

1) 10 rooms or cabins need to be feed with the FTA signal
2) Best FTA satellite with US channels, as most customers will be US, Europe people, so FTA channels such as ABC, CBS, CNN, ESP etc that we could access for free.
3) If possible use only 1 LNB and switches??? to feed the 10 rooms?
4) What is best receiver?
5) If possible NOT moving the satellite
6) I have a BUD here in the US that I can ship down there for him but it will be kind of expensive. So how small of a dish could I use down there to point to this FTA Satellite located at ?? degrees? Or should I use my 10 feet BUD?
7) It will be needed that if I am pointed to satellite X, then all rooms could have the freedom to select different channels. Can I do that with a LNBF? So that room one will be watching Channel 1 with is V frequency and can room 2 be watching Channel 2 from the same satellite which will be H frequency?
8) What else should I consider?

THis sounds like a good project. Thanks for your help.

 

[kymics]

I know that some people on this board use a 1.8m dish to access G16 at 99W. It has CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and CW from the carribbean within the C-band range.

I looked at the coverage map though for Nicaragua and it looks like only half the country has coverage so he probably couldn't even get it.

G10R has lots of English programming but the coverage map is even worse so I'd rule it out right away.

The Fortec 1.8m dish is actually assembled in pieces so it's fairly small to ship. A 2x16 multiswitch would feed that one dish to up to 16 receivers, so it wouldn't require a ton of equipment.

Satmex 5 at 116.8W seems to have a lot of Hispanic channels available in C-band and it carries a strong signal in Nicaragua so a 1.8M dish would likely do the trick. Maybe he could even buy that Fortec dish locally in Central America.

 

[kelleyga]

Hi Kymics, thanks for your answer. About that 2x16 switch, it will allow each receiver to change to a different channel? What about the H-V Frequencies? Do i need a LNBF? That is where it gets confusing for me. Satmex 6 is a good choise also, I could use that one.

 

[kymics]

The two inputs on the 2x16 are the H and V from the same LNB (has to be a dual) i.e. two coax cables connected from one LNB to the multiswitch.

The multiswitch 'multiplexes' the H and V and makes all channels available to all the receivers. What one receiver is tuned to won't restrict another receiver.

 

[lumpkin666]

I'm not sure about the laws where you're setting this up, but don't forget that if it's going into a commercial business, you'll need permission from the broadcasters to redistribute their channels.

 

[kymics]

I'm not sure about the laws where you're setting this up, but don't forget that if it's going into a commercial business, you'll need permission from the broadcasters to redistribute their channels.

Good point, I was thinking about that too. FTA is intended as a hobby for individual users and not to prop up companies. That said though, some channels (for example, the religious channels) would likely be happy to distribute their channels to as many homes/businesses as possible.

 

[kelleyga]

Well, I never thought about that. I will have to ask my friend to check for the local law over there.

If it comes to not being able to do it because of the law, then Religious will be ok.

So, how does it work for the here in the US. What about if I were to put a small hotel with 10 rooms. Then, I install air antenas for each room? Will that be ilegal?

 

[ELMWOOD]

Well, I never thought about that. I will have to ask my friend to check for the local law over there.

If it comes to not being able to do it because of the law, then Religious will be ok.

So, how does it work for the here in the US. What about if I were to put a small hotel with 10 rooms. Then, I install air antenas for each room? Will that be ilegal?

I don't think many people would enjoy watching fta in their American hotel rooms.

 

[bloomdog]

This is like an FTA final exam, ; )