Noob needing advice

[FaT Air]

Just for 'giggles' I connected the 'tube' to a 30 inch (ground mounted) and got one station. The very powerful PBS (UHF) at around 20 miles. The much weaker co-located VHF(10) was AWOL.
I agree, there's got to be an OTA antenna in there somewhere.
I wanna see the 'fool' report, both your location, and your friends.

 

[. Raine]

Maybe the coax he is hooking up to the dish is long and not shielded very well, thus acting as an antenna? Doesn't really make much sense else wise, to me.

 

[JamesI]

I've got to admit I just stuck my head up in the attic and shined a flashlight around. I didn't see anything. Next time I visit him, I'll crawl up in the attic and have a good look. I was shocked when we plugged the cable directly into his tv and got the channels. When I started researching dishes to figure out how that was possible, I guess a little info and my ignorance led to a wrong conclusion. I read something about unencrypted signals from satellites and just figured the only way he was getting the OTA channels after dropping his DirecTV service was that he was still receiving some unencrypted signals. Anyway, FaT Air seems to have the best solution. I'll aim the dish to pick up PBS. I get ABC, NBC, and Fox okay with rabbit ears. CBS is weak at times. I'll either do a DIY antenna in the window at some point or buy a motor for the dish.

 

[FaT Air]

Digital Video Broadcast - Satellite
Even if the satellite signal is unencrypted, a television wouldn't know how to "play it', as the satellite signals use DVB modulation. The TV only understands NTSC(analog[what the 'OTA standard was]) or QAM(cable), and ATSC(the 'new' OTA digital)
DVB is now in 'two flavors'. DVB-S - the first 'standard' and now which many are changing to, DVB-S2 -2nd generation.
There's also DSS (digital) used by DiwreckedTV and Motorola's DigiCipher 2. Shortened often to DCII