F\T service? Or F/T service? What's That??!!

[Christopher Cromwell]

Has anyone head of this or know what it is? Does anyone know of the correct website name? I am posting this on behalf of Danristheman. He called a satellite uplink facility or satellite operator one day to find out about why a channel was no longer being broadcast on the satellite on a particular transponder. Dan was asked if he was a customer, he said he kind of was; just a hobbiest who enjoyed watching their signals. Dan was then provided with a F/T Service or F\T Service name from the satellite operator, but that was all he was told. I don't normally like to call a satellite broadcast or uplink facility operator in fear of having all channels suddenly scrambled or transponders suddenly changed around to different ones; since these signals are originally meant for local broadcast stations or cable operators to carry if they wish in my opinion. I know everyone will scream that any clear Free To Air satellite signals are for the taking for anyone to get with the right equipment, but I much rather keep a low profile from the satellite operator or uplink facility about what I am doing. Anyway, does anyone out there know of what the satellite operator was talking about? I am not really able to find anything in Google or browser search. Dan thinks it means Future Transponder Service, but that's the best guess I can think of, I never heard of it myself. Thanks for your suggestions or ideas.

 

[Titanium]

FT service is not a term that I am familiar with in satellite distribution other than Full Time vs occasional use. Maybe some more information to provide context for the term might help. What was the service?

In any case ... VERY concerning to hear of a seasoned hobbyist calling a service or uplinker.

DanisNOTtheman.... LOL!!!

 

[KE4EST]

Agreed that was a very un-wise decision to make.

 

[77TA]

In any case ... VERY concerning to hear of a seasoned hobbyist calling a service or uplinker.

DanisNOTtheman.... LOL!!!

Agreed!

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

Danristheman asked me to.toss out the F\T service name to see if anyone knew about it, so he could check it out himself. I think Dan asked them over the phone about some of the Caribbean channels that are no longer coming in, so he might have reached the company that runs the C-Band 99W satellite someway. He probably didn't mean any harm, but I wouldn't want to call them either, I'm afraid they will take away all the free channels from us in revenge. I'm afraid to even send NHK World an email to let them know how much I love their channel as it gets beamed straight to my house. I don't want to tip them off as to what I am doing, their site mentions their signals can only be received on major cable outlets and the like. I don't dare to tell them otherwise, I much rather keep a low profile and enjoy everything that I can.

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[danristheman]

I didn't call them I sent a email, plus it makes it sound like you are doing something wrong told them they have a great satellite.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@danristheman, Sorry, my mistake, I forgot you sent them in email to contact them instead. I don't think you meant any harm Dan, I'm sure they appreciated the compliments, but I always figured with my research, if a channel goes out we like, it's just the way it goes; and keep undercover.

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[Titanium]

Those channels did not go away and he knew that. The channels had a lower signal strength for the last 9 days, but were coming in without problems on a 10ft dish. During this time, they weren't strong enough to lock on my 1.2. The channels came back up to regular signal quality in the past few days and are once again coming in fine on my 1.2m.

Dan had also called me yesterday to ask what was wrong with this MUX. I checked while he was on the phone and let him know that they were coming in fine on my 10ft, but had not been locking on my 1.2M at home. I told him that because an undersized MicroBUD had such a low signal to noise ratio that even a 1dB reduction in a signal could bring a service to the noise threshold and not be received.

There was absolutely ZERO reason to call or email because a 1m dish had problems receiving a C-band channel! Perfect example of one of the reasons channels scramble or go to fiber.

DON'T CALL OR EMAIL BROADCASTERS OR UPLINKERS!!!

Doesn't matter if you want to send them roses! DON'T!

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@Titanium, no arguments from me over here. I did try to explain to Dan the other day on the phone that the broadcaster could scramble if they were contacted. He said they wouldn't do that because it costs them too much money, I gave up after that. Oh well, hopefully nothing bad will happen on 99W C-Band in the next 6 months.

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[77TA]

Except for about 2 hours yesterday evening they have been easily receivable on a 6ft dish.

 

[T134]

People posting that they call uplinkers or operators is one of the few reason I'll ban people from my site. I've listened to the stories from guy trying to work and do their jobs only to have end users (who aren't the actual customers) interrupting them. There are guys that repeatedly harass certain operators. How would you like to be at your job and be harassed by some idiot that is not your customer and has nothing to do with your job? Not cool!

I know one operator that has a special term for one of these harassers. Could be that F/T is a special term. If so I bet I know what the "F" stands for.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Yeah, several years ago I caught the wrath of the FTA world and RTV when I contacted them and complained about the picture quality after they butchered the resolution and cranked down hard on the compression.
It looked bloody awful and I made a lot of noise about it. Luken told me directly to STFU and enjoy what ever they gave us for free or they would flip the scramble switch, BECAUSE OF ME.

Many, many people were very unhappy with me for a long time. Some still are.
I was also told flat out by pretty much everyone in FTA to STFU and leave things alone.
Had they flipped the switch I’m sure there would have been a pitchfork and torches party headed my way.

 

[primestar31]

People posting that they call uplinkers or operators is one of the few reason I'll ban people from my site. I've listened to the stories from guy trying to work and do their jobs only to have end users (who aren't the actual customers) interrupting them. There are guys that repeatedly harass certain operators. How would you like to be at your job and be harassed by some idiot that is not your customer and has nothing to do with your job? Not cool!

I know one operator that has a special term for one of these harassers. Could be that F/T is a special term. If so I bet I know what the "F" stands for.

Does the "T" end in -ARD?

As a former computer tech, I used to sometimes tell "special" people that their problem was an "I/O" error. I didn't explain that meant "Idiot Operator"

I thought everybody that's been doing FTA for even the smallest amount of time knew better than to ever contact on of these uplinkers.

 

[wallyhts]

I have never banned anyone but Dan is going to be the 1st one. I'm going to ask the other mods if there cool with banning him this is just plain BS.



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[goaliebob99]

Working in an uplink facility myself, if danistheman would have called me that would have been the end of it. The encryption code would have been put in very quickly. It's not hard to enable BISS and call the distant end with the BISS code. And then I would make sure that every event afterwards was encrypted. I remember a certain online FTA forum that also has some motor sports enthusiasts, some of there members were calling the NASCAR uplink that PSSI runs. That ended up going encrypted because of this reason and also the open availability some sites had with the information. Majority of those feeds are still encrypted and its been over two years sense that happened. Broadcast is a petty business. Once you screw up and the word gets out, your done for! The only people whom I know who can freely talk about what goes on and call other guys are people who work in the industry and are known. Outside of that, good luck. Even the guys who are known, dont ask for the info. They already have it!

 

[. Raine]

F/T? Financial transactions? maybe they'll send him a bill.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I think he should get a second chance. I was given one when I did my dumby stuff. I don’t think it was malicious what he did.
I would think now he should know not to do it again. I messed up and was read the riot act and learned my lesson.

 

[Kraven]

Rookie mistake...big deal. cant be any worse than a certain site revealing feeds in the open....


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[primestar31]

I think he should get a second chance. I was given one when I did my dumby stuff. I don’t think it was malicious what he did.
I would think now he should know not to do it again. I messed up and was read the riot act and learned my lesson.

The problem is that he already knew he shouldn't have called, but he did it anyway. There's NO WAY he could have been a member here this long (and at other sites) and NOT have read what happens when other people have done this and then posted that fact. I know this issue with this PR mux fading in and out for him really bothered him, but it's just tv, and a couple weeks of it being off just gives time to watch something else.

I say give him a first warning that counts in some way (maybe a few days off, not sure what's available), but a permanent ban at this point seems to be too much.

 

[Christopher Cromwell]

@T134 @wallyhts, As long as nothing on 99W C-Band turns scrambled over the next several months or so, I wouldn't ban Dan The Man. I wish there was a way to sincerely apologize to the operator or uplink facility for what happened and please don't scramble, but that would make things much worse. Hopefully this will serve as a much needed reminder to everyone as to what NOT to do as a lesson learned. You know Dan much better than I do, so the decision is ultimately up to you, I probably lost a friend in the process either way or the other. It would suck pretty bad to have spent all the money, time and energy on the big C-Band Dish to only have everything scrambled soon, alot of good stuff are scrambled already. Sometimes the wild news feeds to the local TV station are cool to watch, but imagine how horrified the woman reporter would be to learn hundreds or thousands of people are watching her do her personal business "off-air" when someone calls her about it. Ouch! The wild news feeds would turn scrambled too before long for that. Not trying to be mean, but it is a business we are getting a free peek at, whoever they are.

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