Need help with selecting what I should get for FTA

[Dishman420]

Ok background here I worked as a Dish installer so I have plenty of dish 500's DirecTV swms 1000.2 EA-WA's and all that jazz I figure then that I don't need a dish that has a motor to lock on to satellites i'll just tune into everyone of those bastards and if I want I can just go outside and use my superbuddy and tune it in real quick like to pick up something else if needed would that work? And um you guys that are into the whole FTA deal and have a dual tuner that can record or hell can't record any recommendations for a good receiver that would work with say 3 or 4dishs hooked up through the lmb-in port im curious as to what you guys have set up and if you like it is it about the same as DirecTV or Dish I don't care much for the monthly bill and no u don't get free dish as a subcontractor.

Free to Air does sound nice

 

[turbosat]

If you have dishes big enough that you want to use, yes they can be converted. Even an old dish 500 dish will receive some fta signals, but its just an interesting hobby, not really for reliable use. If you have any of the pay-tv dishes that were bigger, like the ellipticals dish had on 121, I think, at one time, those can be converted. You just have to finagle the linear lnbf in place of the circular lnbf. FTA is fun, but for most of us it is a working hobby, not replacement for pay tv though. You'll find a few cable channels unscrambled once in a while but those usually don't last long so we can't get too used to them! The variety is what its about, you would really want a motorized dish, with 20+satellites up there with programming to view...moving dishes manually gets tiresome. The fta signals are much weaker , of course, than the pay-tv birds' signals, most of us use 1m dish or bigger to get good reliability. MicroHD is a nice receiver-will record tv if you add USB drive, and there's a little import called X2 PremiumHD , will also record.
Check ebay , amazon, other places to see what's out there for receivers, post your questions here and somebody will likely have an answer/opinion. Welcome to Satelliteguys!

 

[Lone Gunman]

The Micro HD is probably the best choice for a receiver right now as this is a USA designed unit and it has USA support through Satellite AV here on this forum. They also they have a toll free number to call to speak with a tech support rep at their place of business.

I'd steer clear of the X2 receivers at this point as their tech support is in China and although that receiver has some nice features, their tech support people don't seem to have a clue as to how a linear actuated BUD system here in the USA works, and I've got first hand info on that shortcoming. Seems that many people use that receiver's USALS function with H to H Ku dishes without much of a problem though.

The Amko Nano is another "new kid on the block" that is sold by ke4est who is one of the moderators here. I don't have an opinion on this one as I've never used one but I do think that several members here have purchased one of those and may be able to give you some feedback on it.

I use the older Openbox S9 receivers and I really like them a lot. It's got a few quirks but once I leaned those it's been a good unit and they are also still available on fleabay for a decent price.

As far as FTA goes, it's NOT right for everyone and is in fact more suited for a hobby than something to depend on for every day TV. Example, my darling Wife doesn't even know how to turn my systems on let alone find a channel to watch. She will watch some stuff that I bring up but she doesn't have a clue or the desire to learn how to use this equipment, ie, IT'S A MAN THING for the most part I guess as I only know of one woman on here that fools with the stuff. My systems are seeing satellites from 37W all the way back to 139W and "most" of those are hybrids so there's more to it than the 4 or 5 satellites you've been use to dealing with.

And BTW, I have a "NO SUBSCRIPTION TV" home. I get 19 channels from an OTA antenna on the roof and then lord only knows how many FTA off of satellites.

Ennywho, I'll leave you with this suggestion. BIGGER IS BETTER AND ALWAYS BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A LARGER DISH NO MATTER HOW BIG THE ONE YOU HAVE IS!!

 

[Dishman420]

Ah well that does make me lose interest in it especially knowing that I'll need a bigger satellite to get good signal I think i'll just go and get a $50 HDMI local channel antenna and call it good.. so much for using my dish pyramid...
But as always thanks for your Replies Lone Gunman and
TURBOSAT

 

[turbosat]

Not knowing what kind of tv you want to watch, that's what we came up with. Sure you can use dishes that you have, but they'll need new linear lnbfs. You can use multiswitches and diseqc switches to combine bunches of dishes, I think up to 16 different lnbfs or dishes, maybe more. Good luck with whatever you choose, its only tv!