New setup

[maineman]

Nub question. I live in Maine, is a 30" dish doable for fta? Im not seeing but a few channels of Arabic religion. (Looking for English content like movies, shows and music for my cousin) (for me I'd be happy with the same or british or german)This is my first time of setting up sat tv. Im thing i may need to upgrade my box to do description. Im setting up 2 locations for me and my cousin. His has a south and sw view of the horizon. Im on a mountain but until i move up higher I have a north/ne horizon. I was a sat tech in the army in the early 80s but that was over 40 years ago. Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Brct203]

Nub question. I live in Maine, is a 30" dish doable for fta? Im not seeing but a few channels of Arabic religion. (Looking for English content like movies, shows and music for my cousin) (for me I'd be happy with the same or british or german)This is my first time of setting up sat tv. Im thing i may need to upgrade my box to do description. Im setting up 2 locations for me and my cousin. His has a south and sw view of the horizon. Im on a mountain but until i move up higher I have a north/ne horizon. I was a sat tech in the army in the early 80s but that was over 40 years ago. Any advice would be appreciated

Welcome to Satellite Guys!

30"is a bit small, particularly for Maine which is a bit on the edge of some footprints. It is doable but you might miss some of the more interesting channels, and lose the rest when there's heavy rain. If you can find a 36"or 1 meter dish that would be much better.

Sounds like you have found 97W, which indeed has many religious channels, Muslim and Christian alike. Or maybe you found 30W, which also has a few Middle-Eastern channels, including some religious content. That one also has a few channels from Spain and Cuba..

what box are you using? If it's more than 10 years old, then it's likely it does not receive the newer formats and you would be missing a lot.

Now, let's be clear, you won't find much movies and shows, especially in Ku band. there are a few exceptions though. Cubavision on 30 W plays movies, often in original soundtrack with spanish subtitles. Unfortunately there's nothing from the UK these days, and from Germany there's only DW TV (mostly news and cultural stuff in English and Spanish, not in German). There are however channels from other European countries (France, Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Hungary, Portugal, etc.). There is also PBS (national feeds and Louisiana PBS)

Now about the location... North and Northeastern horizon won't do you any good, as the satellites are above the equator. So they are all in an arc that touches the horizon in the east-southeast and west- southwest, and peaks at about 35-40 degrees elevation (from your area). so you might be able to get a few satellites without having clear horizon. Most satellites for us are in the western half of that arc.

I hope I did not discourage you but also don't want to set you up for unrealistic expectations

 

[c-spand]

BVN is on 113w KU. Try this for stations www.lygsat.com
this will get you satellite look angle www.satbeams.com

 

[Lee60]

Doable ... maybe. I started with a 30" dish maybe 15 years ago. It was free.
Now days I would say a 36" dish is a better choice for reliable reception on KU. Most programming is now DVB-S2 so a stronger signal will give better results.
With that said a 30" could be reliable for radio.
97W is mostly DVB-S so easier to Lock.

While typing this I see others have replied.
Good Luck

 

[c-spand]

97w should be easiest to get. 100plus foriegn tv and radio channels.

 

[maineman]

Welcome to Satellite Guys!

30"is a bit small, particularly for Maine which is a bit on the edge of some footprints. It is doable but you might miss some of the more interesting channels, and lose the rest when there's heavy rain. If you can find a 36"or 1 meter dish that would be much better.

Sounds like you have found 97W, which indeed has many religious channels, Muslim and Christian alike. Or maybe you found 30W, which also has a few Middle-Eastern channels, including some religious content. That one also has a few channels from Spain and Cuba..

what box are you using? If it's more than 10 years old, then it's likely it does not receive the newer formats and you would be missing a lot.

Now, let's be clear, you won't find much movies and shows, especially in Ku band. there are a few exceptions though. Cubavision on 30 W plays movies, often in original soundtrack with spanish subtitles. Unfortunately there's nothing from the UK these days, and from Germany there's only DW TV (mostly news and cultural stuff in English and Spanish, not in German). There are however channels from other European countries (France, Netherlands, Spain, Romania, Hungary, Portugal, etc.). There is also PBS (national feeds and Louisiana PBS)

Now about the location... North and Northeastern horizon won't do you any good, as the satellites are above the equator. So they are all in an arc that touches the horizon in the east-southeast and west- southwest, and peaks at about 35-40 degrees elevation (from your area). so you might be able to get a few satellites without having clear horizon. Most satellites for us are in the western half of that arc.

I hope I did not discourage you but also don't want to set you up for unrealistic expectations

Thanks for the info. Right now i have a ne amiko mini HD265 but I have a GTMEDIA V8 UHD 4K Ultra HD Digital Satellite Receiver, FTA H.265 TV Sat Decoder DVB-S/S2/S2X+T/T2/Cable/ISDB-T/ATSC-C, Built-in 2.4G WiFi, Supports CA Smart Card, Biss Auto-roll. Showing up tomorrow. I'm hoping it will give me more options.

 

[norman881]

Nub question. I live in Maine, is a 30" dish doable for fta? Im not seeing but a few channels of Arabic religion. (Looking for English content like movies, shows and music for my cousin) (for me I'd be happy with the same or british or german)This is my first time of setting up sat tv. Im thing i may need to upgrade my box to do description. Im setting up 2 locations for me and my cousin. His has a south and sw view of the horizon. Im on a mountain but until i move up higher I have a north/ne horizon. I was a sat tech in the army in the early 80s but that was over 40 years ago. Any advice would be appreciated

I was a 26Y in the US Army from 1982-1986. When and where did you serve?

 

[maineman]

I was a 26Y in the US Army from 1982-1986. When and where did you serve?

I was 31EV9. I aced the radio repair and then got pulled into v9 which is sat repair. 14 months at ait in ft gordon and the rest in German.

 

[iBoston]

I find dishpointer.com the best for finding the look angles and location to point the dish. I use the map to see line of site, a tree, some marker to help align the dish.

IMHO, i think 103w is a must if your interested in news and/or music channels. It also has an entertainment channel. There is debate as to whether PBS might be on the move from 125 to 99.

Lyngsat.com is a place to jump through the KU satellite positions and look at the KU frequencies and see what stuff you would like to capture. (Your looking for the unencrypted dvbs/dvbs2 signals)

30w and 97w are the most forgiving for small dishes, as many of the signals are still DVBs or Low FEC DVBs2 signals. If you are attempting any other satellite positions, SIZE is the gonna make a huge difference. I would say for your location, you really should not touch anything smaller than a 39 inch dish... You can still order those without loosing bank. But, if you can catch one, a 1.2meter inch is king. Anything lower than 39 inches, and with everything perfect - no weather conditions, no wind and a perfectly aligned dish and LNBF, - Still there are some signals, you just wont be able to LOCK.

I would say since your new to this, start with one dish (39") and then determine which satellite position interest you the most. Ie, the ones that send signal to your location (satbeams.com) , and have FreeToAir (Un encrypted) status for you to be able to watch (lyngsat.com - Which also has footprint images for many of the satellite positions, but satbeams has pretty much all)

You will also want to post questions regarding to specifics on whats available to watch in the "FTA - Whats up there?" thread. People won't get into much detail about whats out there free to catch, as sometimes that has ended in signals being scrambled/encrypted.

If you catch the bug, it can be fun and addictive. I went from one KU USALS moveable dish to 10+ KU dishes catching just about every FTA KU signal available at my location.

 

[norman881]

I was 31EV9. I aced the radio repair and then got pulled into v9 which is sat repair. 14 months at ait in ft gordon and the rest in German.

I spent 13 months at Ft Gordon, then went to Landstuhl West Germany in 1983 (60 foot FSC-78 & 38 foot GSC-39). I spent my last year with a 10 foot TSC-93 in Honduras. Where were you in Germany?

 

[maineman]

I was a 26Y in the US Army from 1982-1986. When and where did you serve?

I spent 13 months at Ft Gordon, then went to Landstuhl West Germany in 1983 (60 foot FSC-78 & 38 foot GSC-39). I spent my last year with a 10 foot TSC-93 in Honduras. Where were you in Germany?

I was in Gunzberg. A small German post in Bavaria. The equipment never failed so most the time we were in the battle of the beerstine lol

 

[norman881]

I'm very familiar to your location. DCA Satellite HQ was close to Stuttgart, plus we provided equipment to the TSC-54 at Augsburg.

Small World!

 

[c-spand]

maineman and norman881 Thank you for your service! Salute