Need Help Identifying This Old Receiver Please

[Hazelwood]

First, thanks for all the great info I've got from your web site.
I recently bought a house that came with a C band dish. (Yes, it helped make the choice to buy it)
I found this old receiver in the basement. I've been looking around and can't find any information about it.
It's a Hughes model SVR 463. Sorry the pictures aren't any better than they are. If needed, I can drag it upstairs where the light is better. Thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

DAMN!!!

That is an old box. Looks like it might only do 12 chanels unless there is a switch for channels 13-24

 

[Hazelwood]

I couldn't find a date on it but from the looks of the board it's at least mid 80s. Here's a little better pic and some of the other components on the rack it's mounted to.

 

[Hazelwood]

Ok, finally got a pic. Thought it might be fun finding out the history of this thing and maybe even how to use it.

 

[caddata]

....the history ....

Probably an old cable system headend receiver judging from the rackmount. Appears to be 70MHZ input that used a dual LNB at the dish. One receiver for vert. and one for horiz. One even earlier than this one would have a 4GHZ input that would have used an "N" type connector..

Harold

 

[Hazelwood]

Probably an old cable system headend receiver judging from the rackmount. Appears to be 70MHZ input that used a dual LNB at the dish. One receiver for vert. and one for horiz. One even earlier than this one would have a 4GHZ input that would have used an "N" type connector..

Harold

Thanks. was driving me nuts not knowing what it was.

 

[ussexplroer]

That kicks arse

That is bad ass. I always love old stuff like that. To bad all you can probably get on it is analog feeds. You should check the dish and the lnb. See if it has one fo those C-band V/H connecors on it. For the rest of the stuff in the rack. Geeze. Some newer. The probably scoured the skys looking for stuff back in the day. Maybe he worked for a TV station.

I was told of a story of a guy who built his own dish and receiver in the later 60 or early 70's and got live feeds of the Johnny carson show and stuff. So when the local station would goto break. He would watch all the stuff in between. Since they just keeped everything going live from the cameras.

Later,

Josh

 

[PopcornNMore]

WOW, I am drooling. Looks like a nice receiver back in it's day.

 

[Inno]

I thought I'd seen some old receivers............that one most definitely takes the cake!!!!
Do NOT throw that out!
Would be nice to get some clearer pictures of it. Does your camera have a macro or was that from a cell phone camera or something?

 

[Covack]

I noticed it had baseband out, I've read in the past somewhere
You can use BB out to shortwave radio to find feeds
good find

 

[GreatFTA]

Wow, now THAT is a oldie! I haven't seen those kind of receiver since the mid 80's and with the dish and all, about $4000.
My, how technology came a long way, and how cheap satellite systems are now...
I still got a 120 degree Drake LNA, the old feedhorn, and the block downconverter (all still together!) And I am STILL using the 8 foot fiberglass dish that I bought back in 1986!!!

 

[GreatFTA]

How long has FTA satellite hobby been around? I remember several years ago seeing Skyvision advertising the receivers for something like $400 or more and wondered about it. Last year I lucked up on a Pansat 2000v receiver when I bought a 4DTV from a friend of mine. I have been hooked on FTA (and 4DTV) ever since!!!

 

[caddata]

...How long has FTA satellite hobby been around? ....

I began planning my first homebrew dish in 1979 (15 ft. dia. constructed from 3/4" EMT with window screen reflector). The FTA (TVRO those days) hobby had been around several years before that. By early 1981, I had the system completed including a horizon to horizon polar mount for the dish.

Took over a year to design and construct the dish and mount. The screened surface was destroyed in a hail storm and my homeowner's insurance company offered to allow me only $25.00 for damages. I was able to find a 10 ft. dia. fiberglass reject from a local manufacturer for $50.00 to replace it. Took a gallon bucket of "Bondo" to smooth out all the craters in it.

My first receiver was a collection of circuit boards (kit) from an old WWll radar system. The circuit boards were sold by Butch Simpson (Simcom Labs), an engineer who worked for Hewlett-Packard in Colorado. The circuit was superior to other kits of the day because of it's use of a "Travis Discriminator" instead of a "phased locked loop".

I purchased the circuit board components from various sources, installed them, and returned the assembled unit to Simpson for alignment and tweaking. Later purchased one of the early Automation Techniques (Autotech) GLR series receivers (still being used by a family member and it's been running 24/7 since 1984 . Simpson played a part in the design of those GLR receivers also.

Simpsons kit manual included pictures of his system. He used an old Bell telephone dish with a homebrew Cassagrain feed. He included information in the manual (sketches and engineering calculations) to duplicate his system.

This is the most interesting hobby anyone could dream of. The early days were especially exciting and allowed my electronics curiosity to extend further than one might believe.

Harold

 

[dfergie]

I noticed it had baseband out, I've read in the past somewhere
You can use BB out to shortwave radio to find feeds
good find

I have a tuner that I hooked to my Sat Tecs in order to get Stereo...

 

[Corrado]

How long has FTA satellite hobby been around? I remember several years ago seeing Skyvision advertising the receivers for something like $400 or more and wondered about it. Last year I lucked up on a Pansat 2000v receiver when I bought a 4DTV from a friend of mine. I have been hooked on FTA (and 4DTV) ever since!!!

I ran across an old Skyvision catalog from the 80s in a box of old magazines last year. Prices were crazy expensive then as compared to what is available today. They even used to uplink a show selling satellite equipment. I'll never forget the time they aired a photo of a VC module in a urinal. I guess they felt threatened.

 

[voomvoom]

DAMN!!!

That is an old box. Looks like it might only do 12 chanels unless there is a switch for channels 13-24

Tony, my original receiver was a Drake and it had an H/V button on the front (something like the button to the left of those 12 buttons), they only needed to go through 12 channels of one or the other. Then you had to use the Rotor (yes, an antenna rotor) to turn the feedhorn 90 degrees to change polarity and it didn't matter if you switched the H/V switch or not, you still had only 12 channels to go through. I think it was more to keep you aware of where you were? The Canadians used to list there sats with 1-12a and 1-12b channels ( one was H and one was V), they may still do it?

Al

 

[Hazelwood]

Then you had to use the Rotor (yes, an antenna rotor) to turn the feedhorn 90 degrees to change polarity and it didn't matter if you switched the H/V switch or not, you still had only 12 channels to go through.

That would explain the antenna rotor conrol box found next to it.
Took it outside and got a better pic. Daughter's camera and I haven't figured it out yet.

 

[Hazelwood]

I thought I'd seen some old receivers............that one most definitely takes the cake!!!!
Do NOT throw that out!
Would be nice to get some clearer pictures of it. Does your camera have a macro or was that from a cell phone camera or something?

It's defiantly a keeper. The camera is my daughter's. Just a cheapO one. Mine got lost when we moved and haven't replaced it yet. I'm working on getting the dish running now.

 

[tvropro]

That things pretty vintage. It don't even seem to have a 6.2 - 6.8 audio adj. It looks like it was used in a headend since it has the rack mount.

 

[GreatFTA]

I ran across an old Skyvision catalog from the 80s in a box of old magazines last year. Prices were crazy expensive then as compared to what is available today. They even used to uplink a show selling satellite equipment. I'll never forget the time they aired a photo of a VC module in a urinal. I guess they felt threatened.

Geeze... I remember seeing Skyvision showing their equipment on one of the satellite channels... I believe it was some guy with a beard and a nice lady showing off the receivers and accessories...
And all those monster dishes and arms....
I think Shop At Home did too...
Correct me if I am wrong...