I just canceled my Dish service because I don't have a lot of time to watch TV and want to save money. I am looking for a good motorized dish setup so I can connect to as many satellites as possible. I would like a receiver that can automatically control the sat.motor. I am not sure if they have this but I would like that. I would also like a receiver that I can plug my OTA antenna to and hopefully they have receivers that put the OTA channels in the lineup with the satellite ones like my old dish receiver. I am not looking into C band yet because I don't know where I can put a larger dish. I have the old Dish Network Dish 500 dish on my house still. If anyone can point me in the right direction for equipment it would help a lot. I really would like to get regional news from different cities. I am not sure if this is possible with FTA but I will buy other receivers in order to do this. I just want a good HD FTA setup for now. I have 4 tvs in the house right now and NO channels. I have a few trees that could be causing signal issues but other than that the sky is clear where I am and I want all the channels I can get.
Rob,
You have a lot of options here, as far as FTA receivers go. However, you should not expect to use your DN antenna for this endeavor, it won't work for the free (true FTA) linear satellite signals. The dish itself is too small and won't amplify the satellite signals from the FTA satellites sufficiently and the LNBFs on the dish are designed for circular polarized signals. The bulk of the FTA channels are linear polarized signals of lower power. This requires you to use a larger dish and a different LNBF designed for linear polarity signals.
If you are in a pinch regarding financial concerns, this may not be the benefit you are looking for. The hobby of FTA, although it is free (no subscriptions to pay) can be expensive. You must buy all the equipment and set it up yourself. You can use the cabling from your existing DN setup, but that is about all. So, prepare yourself for this, it might not be what you expect.
First of all, you will not get the programming that you were used to with DN. There are very few "movie" channels on FTA. Those we do get are few and sometimes don't remain open for long or they are not of the quality that you might desire.
FTA is more of a "hobby" than it is a replacement for DN or DirecTV. You will be required to work at this endeavor. It will demand a lot of your time to keep it operating.
I don't mean to disuade you or steer you away from FTA, but I do not want to mislead you. You must know everything that is involved before you get into this hobby, once you jump into the pool, you will have to swim to stay afloat. It isn't a free ride, just because the word FREE is in FTA.
That being said, we can probably help you if you are certain that you wish to pursue FTA satellite television. There is a lot of wonderful programming up there that should satisfy most people who aren't too much of a couch potato. Since the good Ku band FTA channels are dispersed or sprinkeled over many satellites across the horizon, you would probably desire a motorized dish. With a motorized dish you have one antenna that can be rotated to find all the good channels from all the satellites. This costs more for equipment and you will be required to spend the time to learn how to set this up. It isn't simple for beginners. But, it is a lot of fun for a person with the right mind to do so. If you are not up to a motorized dish at first, you can use a single, fixed point dish to get one satellite and try it out to see if you really like it well enough to warrant the purchase of a motor and obtain more satellites.
Once you get into this hobby, you will find it addictive and you may find yourself spending more money than you expected. So, you must spend very little money at first so that you can simply test the waters to learn for yourself if you truly like it. I don't think anyone will argue this point, even if we want you to join our "FTA" club - so to speak. No one would want to rope you into this venture only to find that it isn't your cup of tea.
I know that you mentioned HD as one of your criteria. Obtaining HD signals from the FTA channels is going to require some additional expense as the receivers that must be used to process HD signals are higher priced than just a simple SD receiver.
Just so that you don't get too involved and too overboard monetarily, I am going to suggest the lowest price system I can think of that is user friendly and simple to operate. Once you have learned the ropes and feel that FTA is suited to your desires, you can move upwards.
Here is my personal recommendations:
Receiver: Coolsat 5000 (or 6000)
LNBF: Invacom QPH-031
DISH: Winegard DS-2076
The approximate price for this equipment would be $50 for a used Coolsat 5K/6K receiver, ~$70 for a new QPH-031 LNBF and ~$80 for a new winegard 76 cm dish = $200.
The Coolsat receivers (the 5000 and the 6000) are no longer manufactured, but you can find them on EBay as used equipment. They are the best starter receivers ever made. I still own 7 or more and I won't part with them. They are really sweet! But, they don't process HD or DVB-S2 signals. They will get you started with minimal front money, though. I got my feet wet in FTA with them and I still use them because they are so good.
Now, you can go to our Gold Sponsors (see the top of the page) and write to them and they will offer an entire kit for FTA at a very reasonable price. You can trust all of them. I have purchased from each one (and others). They are all great to work with and they will work with you and they will help you with set up advice and questions. Most of the sponsors are also members of this forum and they often chime in in cases like this.
Here is a nice site to check the channels that you might be able to receive:
SATHINT - Satellite Charts, Packages, Footprints
Do some research of your own and browse around here on this forum before you buy anything. Get comfortable with the jargon and become acquainted with the members here and observe their notions and recommendations on the receivers of choice. Then let that information digest in your mind and make your decision based on good facts.
I hope I have presented the world of FTA to you sufficiently so that you realize what it is about before you jump in. I would like you to join us in this hobby, I only watch FTA and I am satisfied and I think it is better than many other choices that are available. My Mother has cable TV and my FTA system beats that without question, and I don't have to pay the monthly subscription. She doesn't either, my brother pays it as it was a gift for her from him. I'd like to talk her into switching to FTA, but that would be rude to my brother's gift, so I just leave it the way they have it.
RADAR
