International channels (Free to air)

[frenchi]

Hello guys,
I'm a newbie here. I was recently in Florida visiting a friend and noticed that he had all the channels for Europe/Africa/middle east/asia and few american channels. He says he pays nothing for cable tv or satellite tv.

Well, I've been trying to get a satellite to pick up these channels.
I'm from France and would like to get french tv. I'm not sure how this guy can pick all these channels and even Direct tv or Dish don't offer that many international channels.

I tried to sign up with dish but they want 2 yrs contrac, I'm in the states 6 months out of the year. then They say I have to pay 500+ to get hd.
So i'm crossing everything out and trying to do it myself.

The question is : How do I start? What do I need? Satellite Dish, Receiver.

Channels I watch:
beIN sports, Tennis channel, Fox soccer, french24, canal plus.


Also he's on the East coast and I'm in California.

I have a general idea of how satellites works and I'm pretty good with things. Please help a rookie.

Thanks in advance

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hi Frenchi!

Welcome to SatelliteGuys!

The bulk of foreign / international and ethnic as well as religious FTA channels will be available on the Ku band satellite Galaxy 19 @ 97.0°W. This is a satellite that you can pull in easily from California on a 36" or larger stationary (fixed point or non-motorized) dish. There are other satellites up there which may have more of the specific channels like the ones you are looking for, but you might have to adopt a larger dish for C band to get them to pull in.

I would like to suggest that you start out with the quick and easy Ku band satellite Galaxy 19 on a fixed point dish first, but plan ahead to incorporate a motor later to pull even more diverse Ku band satellites in. This is the least expensive route to take for the cost of equipment and provides the most immediate results without a lot of setup headaches, time and research. It is really quite easily accomplished and you won't strangle your wallet. I estimate that from total scratch, you can have a high quality, fully operational system setup with less than $300 for everything and of course, no contracts or monthly subscription fees. That estimate is for a motorized system.

While you are enjoying the FREE channels on this one satellite, you can be researching what else is up there and what the equipment required is going to be to get more, and especially from C band. You won't get EVERYTHING you want from just the one Ku band sat that I mentioned, but it is a really great start.

A 1.2M GeosatPro offset dish would be an excellent store-bought item for Ku band reception. A MicroHD receiver is an excellent new piece of equipment as well.
But, you can also be a scrounger like a lot of the rest of us and piece your system together from other peoples junk. Don't be afraid to do this, there are lots of
used equipment out there which will work very well for this purpose and you can get a lot of it for FREE or virtually next to dirt cheap.

If you stick around here, you'll discover all sorts of tips and tricks and all the instructions you will need to get set up. Also, you'll enjoy the heck out of it, too!

RADAR

 

[AcWxRadar]

Frenchi,

I noticed that you posted within the thread started by NorthGeorgia regarding his acquisition of Hispasat @ 30.0°W. This is a satellite which, unfortunately, you won't be able to receive in California.
The theoretical limit for this satellite ends somewhere down the middle of Arizona and I really don't think that anyone can really obtain it even that far unless they live atop a mountain peak.
I live on the east end of Nebraska and Hispasat is just barely in range for me. If I moved to the western end of my state, I'd probably be worrying about bushes and shrubs being in my LOS (Line Of Sight) for this satellite. I certainly wouldn't be able to acquire it with a motorized dish system as the mechanical limits would be out of range, but could possibly manage it with an ingeniously aimed fixed point dish from the top of a knoll out on the prairie. In CA, you'll just be too far out of range as this sat will be below the horizon for sure. But, that is not to worry. Most of the channels on Hispasat are duplicates of what is on Galaxy 19 @ 97.0°W, so you will only miss out on a few. Unfortunately, one of those few channels will be CubaVision, sorry.

RADAR

 

[northgeorgia]

Yes, and once spring comes, I'm sure the leaves on the trees will block out my reception of 30W, too!

 

[northgeorgia]

Ah yes, the other great thing is that you like sports! Although you can get a few middle eastern sports channels on 97W, what is really nice is that since this is free-to-air satellite, you will many times find (although on other satellites) what is called "wild feeds." These are unpublished, in the clear news or sports satellite uplinks direct from the location! So the result is a great, first-generation picture of the event that is intended for rebroadcast through the networks or sports channels! Here in North America, you will mostly find baseball, football, hockey, and basketball. However, you can also find soccer, volleyball, tennis, golf, boxing, wrestling, water polo, racing, and all kinds of other sports, too! There is always something on with FTA satellite

 

[frenchi]

Thanks very much RADAR!
That really helped. That note really got some great ideas to get started.

Do you by any chance know if I can pull in "Astra1kR" at 19.2 E or "Eutelsat Hotbird 13A" at 13.0 E with the 1.2M GeosatPro offset dish from California?

Sorry for all the silly questions.

 

[northgeorgia]

Thanks very much RADAR!
That really helped. That note really got some great ideas to get started.

Do you by any chance know if I can pull in "Astra1kR" at 19.2 E or "Eutelsat Hotbird 13A" at 13.0 E with the 1.2M GeosatPro offset dish from California?

Sorry for all the silly questions.

No such thing as a silly question! We're glad to help

You won't get any of those satellites in California, simply because the satellite is located below the eastern horizon. Here is a great website that might help you see what satellites are possible to view from California: www.dishpointer.com

You can enter your address, and then choose different satellites. It will show you a green line if it is possible, with an ideal line of sight to the satellite. Otherwise, a red line will appear, which means it is below the horizon and would not be possible to get that satellite

 

[danristheman]

Frenchi you can look up dishpointer and lyngsat to help you when you get a dish setup and see what channels and satellites you can pick up. Since you are french look up the channel on 97w called 2M Marco its a french Moroccan channel out of Morocco. 97w Galaxy 19 would be a great satellite for you lot of different stuff on there I have my dish set on that one now. So if ever need advice just ask we are here to help one another out.

Dan Rose

 

[DJdish]

Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your FTA project.
On the sat at 97w even though there are no channels from France (that I know of) in addition to the Moroccan channel, I´ve also come across a channel from Mali and Algeria with french speaking programming, not sure if there is stll also a Haitian channel. Nonetheless I´m sure you´ll enjoy FTA.