New to FTA Dish suggestions please

[PKII]

Removed my BUD today. bye bye C band.... Looking to buy a small KU dish. Not sure if I want a motorized dish or not. What do you guys have? If I get a non-motorized dish is it easy to move to a different satellite if I get bored with the one I point to first? What is a good brand dish to get and receiver. Are there HDTV channels on FTA? I plan on mounting it on the old C band pole if possible. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[Pepper]

I think you've just made your first mistake and will regret getting rid of that C-band dish.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.

 

[ng54]

Wow - No more BUD! Motorized with 90cm dish and good blind scan receiver, if you like to
chase wildfeeds, backhauls and newsfeeds. Iam using a Diamond 8000p receiver, Ariza 90cm dish, and a Satcontrol motor. Whats your programming interests.

 

[boomer_106]

Removed my BUD today. bye bye C band.... Looking to buy a small KU dish. Not sure if I want a motorized dish or not. What do you guys have? If I get a non-motorized dish is it easy to move to a different satellite if I get bored with the one I point to first? What is a good brand dish to get and receiver. Are there HDTV channels on FTA? I plan on mounting it on the old C band pole if possible. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

Yeah, not sure why you would get rid of C band. Anyhow to answer your questions,

I think you definitely want motorized. You don't want to have to move it by hand all the time. You really don't want to move it during a monsoon or, frigid weather or, have to keep trying to check a TV for peaking the signal etc.

Good brand? I'll leave that to the other guys here.

Yes there are HD channels occasionally. I think the only full time KU HD channel is PBS on AMC 3. There are sports feeds in HD from time to time.

I'm not sure the size of that C band pole but, I think most KU dishes are made for about 1 5/8 masts.

 

[PKII]

I think you've just made your first mistake and will regret getting rid of that C-band dish.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.

Well it needed major repair and it was just too big to work on. A C/Ku band replacement would work.

 

[Anole]

What are you interested in watching?
There are birds with really old movies, birds with favorite re-run TV shows from the 70's, many foreign language shows, news in English from many foreign countries (points of view).
Then you have wild feeds, with such things as: news covering disasters; sports backhauls.
And I'm sure I've just scratched the surface.

Here are some sites with more info on the satellites and their programming.
Look them all over, as each has a different perspective.
SatelliteGuys.US - TheList
Menu of Channel Lists - FTAList.com
Global CM: MPEG
and of course: North & South America - LyngSat

 

[Lak7]

It seems to me that most HD stuff is C Band. I would look around the 'hoods for another BUD. I have had great luck by just asking. Get a VBox, BSC621 LNB and an HD FTA Box and away you go.

 

[PKII]

It seems to me that most HD stuff is C Band. I would look around the 'hoods for another BUD. I have had great luck by just asking. Get a VBox, BSC621 LNB and an HD FTA Box and away you go.

Well a smaller C/Ku dish would be good. I knew there were FTA on C band but not exactly what kinds of channels...

I'm looking for distant channels like nbc, abc, cbs, The CW, a few sports news channels would be ok. Canadian channels, wild feeds like C band used to have a lot of. I liked watching the news people fixing their hair and makeup before they went officially live... on a feed.

 

[Mr Tony]

KU band has a bunch of news feeds at night
ABC, Fox, My are on G10 KU (123W)
CBS, ABC, NBC, CW, Fox are on G4/16 C-band (99W)

 

[Corrado]

I'm sure you can be creative and mount to the existing pole. Hopefully you can utilize the existing wiring. If KU is the goal, I would get at least a 1m dish with a motor.

I would start out with satellite G10 for the Equity channels.

 

[Babadem]

KU band has a bunch of news feeds at night
ABC, Fox, My are on G10 KU (123W)
CBS, ABC, NBC, CW, Fox are on G4/16 C-band (99W)

Seems 123°w has more action than 74°w and or 79°w? Hmmmm? I may point my New 3ABN dish to it when I do my install. How often do you see action on 74°w and 79°W?

 

[Mr Tony]

on 74 & 79?
bunch of feeds nightly

 

[Tron]

Seems 123°w has more action than 74°w and or 79°w?

Those on 123w are the network affiliates owned by Equity. They're up there all the time, not occasional feeds.

 

[empiretc]

it would be nice if more major networks were on 123w. at least NBC. i just cannot convince the wife to let me put up a bud (3 have been given to me). "2 geosatpro 90s are enough" she says.

 

[Lak7]

-empiretc - ""2 geosatpro 90s are enough" she says"
I always mumble "....it could be 6-packs......." and walk away..

 

[PKII]

I think to start off with.. I am going with just a Ku band system. Later after I get into the Ku thing I can add another new C Band dish. Two Dishes along with the ole Dish Network Dish will look better in the yard anyways...

I've had good service with Sadoun in the past and will be purchasing from them. I am looking at a Fortec Star 100CM with a HH motor (never used a HH before nice I don't need extra wires like on a autuator)

More questions:

Now which LNBF to get I am not sure. Some say Standard others say Universal. I'm not familar with these terms. Which is better? How many LNBF's go there I see some that has mulitiple units.

Also a receiver I'm not sure about. Are there any receivers that also have a Positioner built in?

 

[schlever]

All new DVB recievers will be able to control a H-H motor, so there is no need to worry about that. Some do it better than others.

As for LNBF's, most people here use a standard, as the majority of signals require only a standard LNB. IA9 is one of the only birds that requires you to use a universal.

As for multiple LNBs, if you have a motor it is not really needed, as you can simply move the dish to the satellite rather than trying to tune it in using a side mounted LNB. Most people use them on fixed dishes in order to have more than one satellite without the use of a motor. I personally have a circular lnb mounted to the side of my standard on my motorized setup in order to bring in the free stuff on 119.

I'm sure others will add more to this ......

 

[Tron]

I would advise a standard LNBF, especially if you plan on multiple receivers and/or multiple LNBFs. A universal LNBF uses internal 22k switching, which limits your external switching options since you won't be able to use a 22k switch with it.

 

[PKII]

Hmm shipping on the dish I wanted is $10 less than the cost of the dish. Guess I gotta wait till gas prices come down. lol

Oh Because of trees I can only get any satellites between 87 W to 125 W Hopefully a few KU band satellites are in the range.

 

[rv1pop]

Hmm shipping on the dish I wanted is $10 less than the cost of the dish. Guess I gotta wait till gas prices come down. lol

Oh Because of trees I can only get any satellites between 87 W to 125 W Hopefully a few KU band satellites are in the range.

Most of the birds I want are in that range, there is a great program selection in that range - more than my two eyes can watch!