c or ku band want to make my own fta setup
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Tell me what attracted you to the idea of FTA, and what drew you here. You've landed in the perfect spot, rest assured. Everything you could possibly want to know is ... well, here!
To answer your question - you may set up to receive one, the other, or both! It all depends on why you are here.
To answer your question - you may set up to receive one, the other, or both! It all depends on why you are here.
Oh, yeah. You're in the right place to start all right. NOAAPORT, however, is a little on the advanced side of things, and I don't see much discussion about it on this site. As far as news station uplink trucks go - you'll get all you can handle plus some.
So I will welcome you, suggest you focus on Ku band for the time being - plenty of news uplinks and it's cost effective for the new user to find out if this is his true calling
and has at least half of what you're after.
So I will welcome you, suggest you focus on Ku band for the time being - plenty of news uplinks and it's cost effective for the new user to find out if this is his true calling
and has at least half of what you're after.
Most standard definition receivers can be had for very little, especially since Dish secured their system. Expect to pay $50 - $75 from Fleabay. I personally like the Visionsat IV-200, which has blind scan and a PVR option by adding an external USB hard drive.
You'll need at least a 30 inch (76 CM) dish, but bigger is better. Best value for size is the 36 inch (90 CM), since the shipping is still relatively cheap.
You'll need at least a 30 inch (76 CM) dish, but bigger is better. Best value for size is the 36 inch (90 CM), since the shipping is still relatively cheap.
Matt,
There is a lot of info on FTA here, probably more than anyplace else on the subject, but I dont know if you will find anything like an FAQ. You will likely have to gleen out the info from the posts, or ask questions, but once you have an idea what to ask, at least make a search thru the FTA forum and see if you can find an answer or info to allow you to ask the question the best possible way.
He's a few starting points.
This is by and large a hobby. It can be nearly plug and play to some extent, but still requires an ability and desire to perform occassional maintenance (repositioning dishes, rescanning for changes in channels) and equipment upgrades.
An FTA receiver is for rx'ing DVB digital satellite downlinks. Many styles and shapes are available. If they were cars you would have from Ford Aspires to Lincoln Zephers and everything inbetween. A new enty level unit should be ~$100 give or take (some even less and prices should be comming down on some models) A used of the same caliper from Fleabay, craigslist or garage sale etc, should be about half that or hopefully less. They can get up into the several hundred dollar range with all the features and modes ( and more complicated for a newcommer) All modern production FTA DVB receivers can receive both C and Ku band transmissions. Look for a feature called blind scan, or smart scan. It is one you will used frequently.
For Ku band (12 Ghz range), the accepted minimum standard for a dish is 30" and 36" or bigger is preffered. Some of the 'mad scientist' types here on the board have played around retrofitting smaller dishes, but that really isnt for the beginner.
For C band (4 Ghz range) the minimum is 5-6 ft, with a 'sky's the limit' perspective on what should be the max size. There is a 'mad scientist' group on this as well.
All FTA signals are of the linear polarization mode. Terrestial polarization being orientation with respect to the ground surface. The Horizontal would as it's name implies, be flat or parallel to the earth. Vertical is at a 90 deg angle to that flat plane. These planes and orientation relationships are carried to space, and are translated to horizontal being to parallel with the equator, and vertical being at a right angle to this (aligned with the longitude of the satellites position above the earth.)
The DBS industry (Dishnet, DTV,etc.) use a mode called circular, which is not compatible with FTA.
There are lists of available channels, you will need to have an updated one handy when programming your rx, positioning the dish, and aligning the lnb skew to know what to expect at a give freq/polarity and position.
There is on here on the board reffered to as "The List" and should be a tab at the top of every page.
Another is here -
http://www.global-cm.net/mpeg2central.html
It is broken into several sub catagories, by band, hemisphere etc.
A very good (used) source of FTA Ku dishes is the ones used by the now defunct Primestar satellite service. These things are often still mounted at peoples homes and can usually be had for hauling off. Take a ride thru some of the less urban neighborhoods, and look for an oval appx 27x39 inches or similar, or some are about 4 ft and round appearing. The factory color/composition is a med to dark gray FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) usually mounted on a ~2" pole at ground level but I've seen them atop structures as well. Once you start looking, you will probably be surprized how many you see. Actually, anything you see that is not a pizza pan ( DN,DTV type) dish is fair game and worth stopping and asking about if it appears to not be in use.
If you find a DVB rx you're interested in at a price in your budget, post the info before you buy it and I'm sure you will get some input on it's usability.
You've got a lot of reading ahead of you, stock up on Visine and dig in.
Welcome to the hobby.
There is a lot of info on FTA here, probably more than anyplace else on the subject, but I dont know if you will find anything like an FAQ. You will likely have to gleen out the info from the posts, or ask questions, but once you have an idea what to ask, at least make a search thru the FTA forum and see if you can find an answer or info to allow you to ask the question the best possible way.
He's a few starting points.
This is by and large a hobby. It can be nearly plug and play to some extent, but still requires an ability and desire to perform occassional maintenance (repositioning dishes, rescanning for changes in channels) and equipment upgrades.
An FTA receiver is for rx'ing DVB digital satellite downlinks. Many styles and shapes are available. If they were cars you would have from Ford Aspires to Lincoln Zephers and everything inbetween. A new enty level unit should be ~$100 give or take (some even less and prices should be comming down on some models) A used of the same caliper from Fleabay, craigslist or garage sale etc, should be about half that or hopefully less. They can get up into the several hundred dollar range with all the features and modes ( and more complicated for a newcommer) All modern production FTA DVB receivers can receive both C and Ku band transmissions. Look for a feature called blind scan, or smart scan. It is one you will used frequently.
For Ku band (12 Ghz range), the accepted minimum standard for a dish is 30" and 36" or bigger is preffered. Some of the 'mad scientist' types here on the board have played around retrofitting smaller dishes, but that really isnt for the beginner.
For C band (4 Ghz range) the minimum is 5-6 ft, with a 'sky's the limit' perspective on what should be the max size. There is a 'mad scientist' group on this as well.
All FTA signals are of the linear polarization mode. Terrestial polarization being orientation with respect to the ground surface. The Horizontal would as it's name implies, be flat or parallel to the earth. Vertical is at a 90 deg angle to that flat plane. These planes and orientation relationships are carried to space, and are translated to horizontal being to parallel with the equator, and vertical being at a right angle to this (aligned with the longitude of the satellites position above the earth.)
The DBS industry (Dishnet, DTV,etc.) use a mode called circular, which is not compatible with FTA.
There are lists of available channels, you will need to have an updated one handy when programming your rx, positioning the dish, and aligning the lnb skew to know what to expect at a give freq/polarity and position.
There is on here on the board reffered to as "The List" and should be a tab at the top of every page.
Another is here -
http://www.global-cm.net/mpeg2central.html
It is broken into several sub catagories, by band, hemisphere etc.
A very good (used) source of FTA Ku dishes is the ones used by the now defunct Primestar satellite service. These things are often still mounted at peoples homes and can usually be had for hauling off. Take a ride thru some of the less urban neighborhoods, and look for an oval appx 27x39 inches or similar, or some are about 4 ft and round appearing. The factory color/composition is a med to dark gray FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) usually mounted on a ~2" pole at ground level but I've seen them atop structures as well. Once you start looking, you will probably be surprized how many you see. Actually, anything you see that is not a pizza pan ( DN,DTV type) dish is fair game and worth stopping and asking about if it appears to not be in use.
If you find a DVB rx you're interested in at a price in your budget, post the info before you buy it and I'm sure you will get some input on it's usability.
You've got a lot of reading ahead of you, stock up on Visine and dig in.
Welcome to the hobby.
So THAT'a how ya get 3500+ posts.........
Yankin' yer chain Tron....lol
I have had dup posts issues on dialup when the connection goes to lala land and I think it's not going thru, but never THAT many. When it does that, I usually copy the posted text, then back out and re-load the entire thread. My post usually appears even though it never 'completed' the post as far as I saw. If it doesnt, I can repost again from the txt I copied before backing out.
I don't know what the duplicate post issue is... It has happened before, and I never figured out what caused it. On my end, I only posted once. Somehow, the post gets re-posted repeatedly every few minutes afterward. I need to get to the bottom of it...
Tron, I have seen that happen with your posts 2 or 3 times, really weird. I don't know if this is a clue but it seems like your repeating posts appear every 5 minutes for some reason.
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