Ok what do I need?

[Stargazer]

I have had this in mind before and mentioned it. You could advertise this website on it and have satellite news and even sell advertisements on that FTA channel to make up for some of the costs. You may not have a huge viewing audience but the channel could be advertised on here and the FTA hardware that could be required may be able to be acquired with even the standard old C/Ku Band receivers but perhaps you should have it available for the MPEG-2 FTA receivers as well. I wonder what all kind of content could be put on it? You could get donations to keep it going and so forth. There are other FTA channels up there that continue to be going with different intentions so why not?

 

[Wholeshoe]

It could be the US version of Dr. Dish!!! You could start by only renting a transponder for say an hour each week or month and doing a show. Heck even an audio show like the used to do on C-Band would be great.

Wholeshoe

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah just think about it, I can sit there in my big easy chair, and wear a few pairs of glasses, smoke a pipe and scream get on the telephone....

Oh wait that was already done? Oh Dr Gene Scott? Whoops.

 

[Mr Tony]

Yeah just think about it, I can sit there in my big easy chair, and wear a few pairs of glasses, smoke a pipe and scream get on the telephone....

Oh wait that was already done? Oh Dr Gene Scott? Whoops.

sad part is he STILL is doing that....its funny especially on weekends....I occasionally flip through IA6 and hit his channel...guy ages with each show

 

[mattb]

We could have the "Greczkowski Chats" Where Scott sits on his FTA Channel and talks about FTA and DBS and other Satellite news and then takes phone calls and reads emails The Chatroom could be his "peanut galery"

 

[Wayn23]

Yeah just think about it, I can sit there in my big easy chair, and wear a few pairs of glasses, smoke a pipe and scream get on the telephone....

Oh wait that was already done? Oh Dr Gene Scott? Whoops.

If you ever want to seriously pursue putting on a weekly 1 hour or even monthly one hour show why not get in touch with Chuck Harder and try
and get a hour of his time on AMC 4, I am sure some of the people who have
put in dishes to recieve his channel would be interested in this type of show.

 

[mbarnes]

The thing about DVB (FTA) is, it's a multi-user channel. A bunch of channels are uplinked on one digital carrier from a teleport. So, first, you have to get your signal to the teleport, then have them add it to a DVB carrier. It's not like the old days, where you could get an hour here or there on a transponder and uplink your program or feed. For audio only, when I looked into it for our network, it was going to cost us $6000/month, plus whatever the backhaul cost. That's why we stuck with a single 200 kHz Ku SCPC channel for only $1500/month.

 

[TuxCoder]

For MCPC digital that's definitely true. As you mention SCPC is simpler (like analog in that sense) but I'm surprised that was cheaper, since doesn't it mean you essentially have a whole transponder to yourself?

Anyways, going along with Wayn23's idea, you could simplify and cut costs drastically by just injecting your content at a point prior to the uplink station. Just somehow feed your backhaul to Chuck for example, and at the right time his station will switch the source input over to your content. Then his station takes care of getting the signal to the uplink station and to the satellite. I always figured that's how Howard in Atlanta does it for the morning show.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok I have been reading about this over the weekend. PSB has supplied me with some pricing. And then I stumbled upon Computer FTA tuners. Has anyone tried these?

The price seems good but I can't tell if these do some things that I need such as Blind Scan.

I have seen a few that turns your computer into a DVR which is really cool a few of them said they even record HD! (Are there a lot of FTA HD channels up there?)

So should I be looking at these or should I just stick with the Fortech Star Ultra Lifetime for my receiver?

Thanks guys!

 

[Mr Tony]

The PC cards don't blind scan. So you'd have to input everything to pick it up

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sounds like its not for me. I want ease of use, and I want to sky surf and find wild news feeds.

Looks like the Foretech Ultra Lifetime is the receiver for me.

 

[Mr Tony]

for ease of use, go with a receiver

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

So I guess I will go with the Lifetime Ultra, however I want the ability to pick up the FTA channels on Dish Network (I know there is not a lot there)

So to do this I understand I need a Dish with 2 LNB's.
I guess I will need a switch as well.

How do I switch between the Universal LNB and the DBS LNB? And also how do I move the horizion to horizion dish?

(I think I am almost done with stupid questions)

 

[Mr Tony]

You would need a 4x1 DiSEqC switch. it allows you to hook up to 4 dishes to one receiver. As an example, I have a motorized unit, a fixed dish at Galaxy 10, and Dish 119 (for the audio) and ExpressVu 91 (for the audio) running to one receiver. You set it up in the system install screen.

As for the H-H motor, that is controlled by the cable coming from the dish. No extra lines needed.

 

[TuxCoder]

Use either a DiSEqC switch (2x1 or better) or a 22kHz tone switch or a 12V switch (if your receiver supports 12V switching). You need a H-to-H motor to move the dish, and the SG2100 is highly recommended. Any H-to-H motor is a DiSEqC device, so I would suggest also getting that kind of switch instead of tone or 12V. On second thought, if your Ku-FSS LNB is going to be universal instead of standard, the 22kHz tone switch wouldn't even work with it.

 

[Mr Tony]

I found out this past weekend that a 22KHZ switch doesnt work with a motor

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes I think PSB quoted me on a Universal LNB.

Now how do I switch between the DBS LNB and Universal LNB (Or does the receiver automatically do this?)

So many questions, but I want to get all setup so when it snows and I am stuck inside I can scan the skies.

 

[PSB]

Its done in the antenna set up screen!

You simply select what port on the switch you want to use for each satellite!

 

[TuxCoder]

I found out this past weekend that a 22KHZ switch doesnt work with a motor

If you had the switch between the receiver and motor, the motor won't work. If you had the switch between the motor and LNBs, both should work but there could be incompatibilities with specific controllers inside the certain brand of switch and motor used. Was this how you had it connected? If so, what brand were the switch and motor? As one who likes to dream about massive setups, I'd hope we could find a way to make DiSEqC (digital modulated onto 22kHz) and 22kHz (steady tone) equipment work together.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its done in the antenna set up screen!

You simply select what port on the switch you want to use for each satellite!

Ahh very cool, so if I got a 4 to 1 switch 2 ports would be unused correct?

I know another dumb question, I am for some strange reason just wiring this all in my head.