Getting back into the FTA game

[kittyhas1000legs]

It's been a year of vague non-answers from my landlord, so I decided to say "heck with it" and put up my dish.

I'm on the south side of Missoula, MT, where the hills block my signal for Montana PBS OTA. For now I've had an antenna on my porch (north facing) to get KSPS (Spokane PBS) plus the rest of the locals. It's alright, but I've been using a flat coax through the sliding glass door, which kills the signal a bit. Sometimes there are some ugly blips that can kill a recording.

I set up my Geosatpro 90cm on an NPRM, with 100 feet of quad-shielded RG6 run straight from the LNBF to my receiver. It's juuuuuust enough to reach. The weather strip under my door is flexible enough to let the door open and close with the cable run underneath (until I get proper permission to run the wire through the damaged spot on the exterior wall). Apparently I'm not too rusty, since it only took 10-15 minutes to lock in 125W. My "meter" was using Facebook video chat to watch the TV as I moved the dish I can get the main PBS TP, but of course Montana PBS gives me 0% signal. Are there any particular tricks to getting Montana, besides having a bigger dish?

Or, if the landlord is fine with the setup, I might put the antenna on the same post, so I can get Montana PBS OTA. Then I'll move the dish and go for my old setup of 103/97/91 or 103/99/95/91. Is 91 still worth shooting for? Besides NHK and the four time zones of NBC, is there much left on 103 or is the rest all IP now?

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

Curious, what big changes have there been (if any) in Ku band over the past year? I'll be adding a second dish soon, but don't want to waste too much time and effort. I saw some NBC feeds went IP recently. Is the four-channel NBC mux still there on 103? ABC still on 91w?

 

[KE4EST]

Off hand I cannot answer your question as I hang out mostly on C-Band. Just wanted to reply so you know we care.
I noticed no one responded to your first post. Glad to see you back in the game!

 

[comfortably_numb]

Curious, what big changes have there been (if any) in Ku band over the past year? I'll be adding a second dish soon, but don't want to waste too much time and effort. I saw some NBC feeds went IP recently. Is the four-channel NBC mux still there on 103? ABC still on 91w?

The NC 1-12 feeds on 103 went away, but the 4-channel NBC mux is still there. Other than that, I can't think of any major changes at the moment-

 

[FTA4PA]

Curious, what big changes have there been (if any) in Ku band over the past year? I'll be adding a second dish soon, but don't want to waste too much time and effort. I saw some NBC feeds went IP recently. Is the four-channel NBC mux still there on 103? ABC still on 91w?

ABC NewsOne feeds on 91W were supposed to switch to IP distribution near the end of August 2019 but last word is that is now pushed back until Feb 2020. More here:

ABC NewsOne Live Channels Leaving Satellite

ABC just sent out a notice to stations letting them know that the 4-channel mux of live news channels on 91W Ku is being discontinued on August 28, 2019. After that date, stations will receive the live channels over the internet using TVU Grid technology. For the general public, ABC has run a...

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[Keith Brannen]

Four channel NBC mux on 103 is now at 11910 H 4600 (see sathint.com). On 91 there is a two channel mux from Grand Junction, CO (Fox and CBS, both are listed at sathint.com and lyngsat.com).

Good luck with Montana PBS on 125! Back in November some of us had problems with the PBS mux, which eventually was corrected. Actually, the same day that you first posted was the second or third day that I had completely lost Montana PBS, which was a first for me losing it for so long. It did come back, but not at previous levels, and I am experiencing a nightly complete loss (at around 11 pm EST) and it returns each morning.

My 80cm dish is maximized for Montana PBS which, if I remember correctly, is ever so slightly towards 123, so there is a slight loss to the main PBS mux (5 or so %). You might try that, but with the recent signal loss on Montana PBS, it might not help.

Good to see you back in the game!

 

[spongella]

Kitty glad to see you back. Hope your station gets up and running. Landlords are funny, years back I wanted to put a ham radio vertical on the roof of our apartment house. Landlord said okay but he'd have to raise the rent a bit to cover wear and tear on the roof hi hi. I decided to pay the bribe.

Not much has changed on Ku 30W or Ku 97W to write home to Mom about. As stated by previous members, the ABC News Channels are still there after reports of their early demise. 34.5W Ku now has some FTA to the French Caribbean, but you'll need a Universal LNB for those.

Feeds still come and go. As a sidebar, there haven't been as many new FTA receivers coming out as there were several years ago, not sure what that means. Well have fun.

 

[kittyhas1000legs]

Four channel NBC mux on 103 is now at 11910 H 4600 (see sathint.com). On 91 there is a two channel mux from Grand Junction, CO (Fox and CBS, both are listed at sathint.com and lyngsat.com).

I was surprised to see that on Lyngsat. I moved from GJ to here in January. The local CBS station is good at screwing up commercials and cutting off bits of the Late Show, so I may record from that instead.

If I can't get Montana PBS on the dish but everything else is rock solid, I may *gasp* use a diplexer and put the antenna out with the dish(es). It came in fairly well when the antenna was inside, but putting it on the porch killed that PBS (one extra wall in the way). I just need to double-check whether the coax is copper clad or solid copper inside.