First FTA receiver?

[rv1pop]

Fortec Mercury II, I let my sister talk me out of it. She still uses it 4 or more hours a day. I was able to get a replacement and am using that one, but not too often as power to building that setup is in is by long extension cord, and it has no heat.

 

[freezy]

Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra. I got it from a buddy. I tried j-Tagging it back to life and no joy. I may have over heated the board soldering the header in. frown

 

[WhyMe1]

A Pansat 2500A but it's long gone.

 

[Tron]

My first FTA receiver was a Pansat 2700A, purchased in May of 2005. It still works, and I currently use it for dish aiming purposes. It will probably be replaced for that duty by my Visionsat IV-200s when they are retired from everyday use and replaced by microHDs. The Visionsats have a far better meter for aiming a dish than the Pansat 2700 does, since Pansat meters tend to jump around quite a bit.

 

[Magic Static]

I started in FTA with a DVB card for the PC, a Twinhan 102g. I have had many PC satellite receivers (USB, PCI, PCIe) since. My first STB was a Captive Works Ultima I bought to supplement my PC stuff with Blind Scan. I was a terrible scanner and I put it away. It does work however aa a receiver. My first usable STB I bought last year. Azbox Ultra.

 

[markbone100]

Satworks St-3618. Still have it and works good. Used for aiming now

 

[eurosport]

Pansat 2500a.
Still have it & use it with the small TV for dish pointing duties.
Paid $65 (yeah too much now) for it at the Lake City flea market.
When I got it home I did a factory reset, since the channel/satellite list was loaded with Dish Network stuff!
ABC News Now, was my first FTA channel I got, when they were still on 89w.

 

[KE4EST]

You know that is what I was doing was trying to think what was the first channel I got to come in. I know that CCTV on 95 was close but I don't think that was first.

 

[vanalex]

Fortec Mercury II. I do not still have it as it was damaged.

 

[mikelib]

You know that is what I was doing was trying to think what was the first channel I got to come in. I know that CCTV on 95 was close but I don't think that was first.

I got the Ohio News Network on 74 W, ONN went to internet streaming and 74 W went the sat grave yard in the sky.

I have not taken 74W and 79W out of the sat line up yet, oh the nostalgia.

 

[Cham]

Pansat 2500. Traded it with a friend who had a 2700 that he didn't like. Gave that one away and bought a new 3500 with the skew control. Still have two working 3500s, great to check LNB setups with the servo. Original 3500 took a lightning strike that burned it up pretty bad. Lots of 2500s as the first DVB; interesting thread!

 

[ynnedibanez]

manhattan skyline 1000, but didnt hook it up till after i got a pansat 2700a up and running
gave the manhattan to my sister for the glorystar channels and the luken mux on 83
still got the pansat, but its in storage
currently using an openbox s9

 

[xtgold]

Microyal mrx900 that I wrecked trying to help others out.
Sliding the tuner cover off to see what the chips were, I knocked a surface mount cap off the mainboard.
I had to use a regular size cap and leads tacked on.There were versions with 2 different rev of tuners and
people would complain the latest firmware didn't work.No blindscan but it did have the signal beep function.
I just stripped the varistor off it recently in case I need it for my openbox s10.

 

[avenger]

Fortec Lifetime Ultra (2) still using one of them, and a Viewsat Ultra at the moment is collecting dust.

 

[lost_mesa]

Prosat 3500. Purchased in 2000. It died about 6 months ago.

 

[SatPhreak]

Pansat 2500A that is long gone, but I have a different 2500A that I still use for dish aiming. Actually a Bell IRD was used to get my first FTA channels on 97W while I was waiting for my 2500 to arrive. There was 4 or 5 channels that could be gotten with a Bell or Dish IRD at the time.

 

[Dishman Dan]

Pansat 1500 got from Panarex for free since I knew the workers there and they are 15 miles from me.

A.K.A. LunchBOX receiver!

 

[Mr Tony]

Mine was the Viacast 2000 that I paid $60 for back in 03 and boy what a pile it is now compared to other machines

But very limited...no motor, 10 transponder entry...yes 10 TRANSPONDER entry, no channel edit option, loads the whole transponder so if scrambled channels are involved it logs them too, the meter sucked. It only showed signal if you were on the satellite and the TP is programmed in and working....

Bought a Pansat 1500 in early 04 for $150 but it had blind scan and a motor option

still have both

 

[empiretc]

Visionsat IV200.

same here. got it early 08 and it's still sitting around. not sure when/if it will be put back into action.

 

[mikekohl]

Hyundai HSS-100 (September 1997).
Pansat made an agreement for Hyundai to make their receivers in Feb 1998, and the rest is history.
The above model had the ability to store 99 "bouquets" (we now know as transponders).
Blind scan was about 7 years into the future.