Contest - Two Free GEOSATpro SL2 Bullet LNBFs - Enter to Win! Ends 2.2.2009

[MasterOfNone]

My first exposure to FTA was from a friend in college who was building his own satellite receiver. He aso built his own BUD as a project in one of our classes. I lost interest when I heard that most everything on satellite had been scrambled. I also didn't have anywhere to set up a BUD.

While searching for an HDTV antenna last year, I stumbled across Ku Band FTA and have been hooked ever since.

 

[mbarnes]

I have always been intrigued with finding and listening to other than broadcast signals. I got started in the 60's when I got a shortwave radio. While I did listen to many broadcast stations like Radio Sweden, HCJB, Radio japan, etc. I also look for other interesting things. I listened to ATC, military, marine, and all kinds of stuff. As time went on I put together a system to receive weather satellite pictures on 137 MHz. In 1979 I got some great downlinks from TIROS-N of hurricanes David and Frederic as they went up either side of Florida when I lived in Tampa. In the 80's I listened to Space Shuttle comms. Somewhere down the line, my folks, who live in a rural area with little TV available got a BUD and analog receiver. When I would visit, I'd sit up all night going from bird to bird looking for feeds and unusual channels. At that time we lived in an RV full time and didn't have much room for such goodies. We eventually got Dish on the RV. But that was just broadcast and no fun stuff.

In 1997 I went into missionary radio and we had our own Ku uplink to distribute programming. We had around a dozen dishes around the station. I came across an old analog receiver and would hook it up to the various dishes and look for feeds and whatever. I started Googling for information on satellite feeds and programming. Many of the searches referred me to posts here on Satellite Guys. This is where I learned the term Free-To-Air. I asked lots of questions and looked forward to the day I could actually pick up some current equipment. In 2006 we moved to Dallas and bought a house. I found a large dish DirecPC system for free on Craig's list and got one of those Coolsat 6000 clones on eBay. I found a few channels on one bird so I knew the Coolsat worked. But I just had the dish set on some blocks in the yard waiting for time to get it mounted. Saturday I'm picking up a BUD from some folks who bought a house and found it in the backyard and want it to go away. I've got some vacation coming up, so I'm looking forward to getting some dishes mounted, cables run, etc. and get into some real FTA'ing.

So, that's my entry into the great world of FTA and this forum.

 

[rjc3895]

Chuck Harder "For the People" introduced me to FTA

During college I worked at a radio station that aired Chuck Harder's "For the People" program. This was during the Clinton administration and Chuck was all over the Clinton Chronicals videos and suspicious black helicopters over Florida. I loved his show - he was anti . . . everything.

Anyway almost 10 years later, I was talking to someone about my radio days and Chuck Harder. I did a google search to see if he was stil around and discovered that he could be seen on satellite tv. He talked about hoe FTA was the future of television and had a special package that included a Traxis reciver, a dish, and an LNB. I bought a complete system and love this hobby.

 

[Conky]

I became interested after seeing the multi feed antennas on the Global Communications site

 

[andyb2]

I actually first learned about FTA via my cable tv and wiki.I was watching my fave program(csi) and the channel went black.I checked my bills to see if I had paid that month lol and sure enough I had.After a bit of waiting the screen said signal poor.I was like what?It's a direct cable link.So I searched online and found I can get most anything I wanna see from fta(basically a news feed and csi is all I watch).Now I'm hooked and spending more than I would of on cable just to get more stuff lol.Having the option pay a bill or buy something new is priceless.

 

[706Tom]

A few years ago I bought a house in north Georgia. It came with a B.U.D. and an old analog receiver. I played around with the system and found that I could get some network feeds. Soon the analog feeds began to go from analog to digital and my old system was becoming a lot of metal. I started looking for a digital receiver to keep getting the network feeds I was use to receiving. I then found out about FTA. I soon bought a Coolsat 5000 and now a Coolsat 6000. I became hooked. Here in the mountains I do not receive broadcast TV. Dishnet and Dirctv are getting way to expensive and there is no cable TV available. FTA is great.

 

[jcbender]

back in 1992 a guy wanted to buy my camper to sweeten the deal he threw in a 8 ft solid dish and a cband reciever i,ve been hooked ever since this guy used to own the cable company in a small town nearby ,jaycee

 

[ckt]

About four years ago my sister in-law gave me an old DTV dish, being in the radio monitoring hobby, I started searching online for what I could receive. Thats when I came across this site, and I became hooked. I purchased my first system, Twinhan 1020A and 76cm hotdish. Then I added Pansat 2500 and sg 2100 motor. Now I have fortec merc II and 1m Wineguard. I am now working on mini-bud. Thanks to everybody at this great site

 

[Gray1]

Well I had C-Band for years but I fell to the dark side. Started getting back into C-band and then started with KU.
Been into satellite for 20 years but have just recently got up the courage to install myself.

Gray1

 

[pmasterp]

Let's see FTA or Free-To-Air, when I start seeing this was about 5 years ago and start following up the appeareances or new channels coming by. But why are no more people purchasing this legal equipment to watch FTA signals, answer simple is because they don't know.

For me it was a challenge as I start as hobby trying to AIM a satellite which I still enjoy a G18 and really love they programming that I don't see anywhere else.

I know this industry will always has good things for us the users. Maybe it's like a Windows - Linux dispute but until you don't try a good software (and of course FREE) as Linux you didn't know what you are missing.

 

[avenger]

I made the transition from cable TV to FTA, after one of my friends showed me his seup. He gave me an old 30" dish, I bought a Linear LNB, a Fortec Lifetime Ultra receiver, and he helped me set it up. Got rid of my expensive Cable TV subscription. I just bought a motor drive for the dish, and will see if I can get it to point at all the available True FTA satellites.
Wish me luck.
avenger

 

[Pepper]

Like mbarnes, I started years ago with a shortwave radio listening to anything that sounded different than what you could get with a normal radio. My uncle was into HAM radio, before he died I visited his house a couple of times and he showed me his motorized C-band system. I am pretty sure it was all analog at the time.

Fast forward 15 years and I subscribe to dish network and sky angel. I always knew there was some free stuff up there but always had thought you had to have a huge dish to get it. I find dbsforums, then dbstalk, then satelliteguys, searching for tech info on the dish stuff, and end up catching the FTA fever.

 

[9999]

Count me in!

Someone gave me on old BUD and rcvr. I was fascinated by the C-Band feeds and later added Ku. I first got interested in digital when the games started going 420 digital and I got a pansat.

 

[andyb2]

I first learned of it while at a local veterans club.I couldn't understand why so many happened to be there that day and when I asked the bartender he told me of the soccer game coming on.I asked why they don't watch it at home and he replied that it was only on satellite at 97w.Curious, I went through his channels and was amazed at the amount of tv and it also had al jazeraa a station I always wanted to watch in english.Asking how much it cost he told me it cost the price of a reciever and a dish.After a bit of researching here I not only got the reciever and dish but added a motor and a bunch of stationary dish's

 

[whiplash123]

Back in the 80’s my best friend purchased a bud and we would all visit to watch programming that was just not available in my city with cable tv. A little under a year ago I drove past his old house and saw the dish still standing in the back yard and with a little search discovered the satellite guys website and with a little more reading found that fta is alive and well with my favourite shows from the 60's & 70's available on G10r. I quickly ordered a receiver and a 33"dish and only after a few posts on sat guys it was quickly determined that my dish was warped and a week later I was watching my favourite reruns on g18. Two months later I decided to get a motor and again received advice on motors and now enjoy finding new channels & blind scans. It reminds me of the fun I had in the 70~80 with computers and wish I had of done this long ago.

 

[Dishman Dan]

I actually learned of FTA back in 1990 but was very slow in putting the pieces of the puzzle together. In 1973 we had an exchange worker from Poland that worked on my parents farm. He returned to the U.S. for a visit in 1990 and spoke of this "free tv" in Europe while laughing at my brother-in-laws 10 foot BUD. "Mike" would say "bad business" (One of his favorite lines) small dish is better. He went on saying, "Back home I get Sweden, Russia, Germany, Spain"... and on and on with a little dish that he did not have to even move because the satellites were close together he said. On top of all that it was free! My dad then hit my brother-in-laws BUD with a combine (R.I.P.!) while picking corn! It was after that I started hunting BUDs for some unknown reason and it was some time before I actually did something with one. I put up with Directv for a few years and one year of Dish and was facinated by the little dishes picking up a signal from so far but did not like the cost. I also got the Skyvision catalogs that my dad threw away and pondered through them over and over. Finally after all that I started looking on Ebay for stuff and I also found this site. My 922 receiver from Ebay got me and my BUD into 4dtv and some FTA along with a Pansat 3500. I have been up and running for 2 years now and have lots more equipment to install and play with and am always looking for more!!!

 

[Zorak]

The LNBFs are very nice. I got to look one over the last time I picked up my order at SatelliteAV.

I found out about the existence of FTA TV when I saw receivers when walking through a local surplus electronics store. Had to buy one to see what it was all about.

I was aware of the old satellite radio (SPSC?) via my ham radio magazines but that was analog and along time ago.

Thanks for another fun contest!

 

[migold]

I first learned of FTA by advertisements in the SKYVISION catalog, and began to search the web for more information. I found more information about the hardware required from dvbhardware.com, emantechnology.com and Sadoun.com. I have enjoyed setting up the FTA system that I have to this point and plan to expand a little more during the next year. The changeover to digital format has certainly provided much opportunity for OTA and FTA experimentation for those of us living in non-urban areas.

 

[corey006]

I first learned about FTA through a friend that told me he started using his OLD C-Band dish to get wild feeds, and non-encrypted sports events.

Ever since then it has been an interesting hobby to occupy my time when its Cold outside.

Being from Northern Sask. we have long cold winters. I like surfing and scanning the different birds and just finding satellites and scanning to see what you can pick up.

Cool Hobby....

 

[Skyscanner]

I was an orphaned Sky Angel lifer, too far in the sticks to get cable, and refused to pay to have sat programming in my house I found objectionable. Internet searching helped me find out about FTA and this website, been hooked ever since, and imagine my shock to find most of the Sky Angel channels for free!