OK who has been a E sub the longest?

Echostar Historical Dates:
1980: Echostar founded (as a C-Band Retailer) by Charlie, his wife and Jim

Somewhere in here they started to brand their own equipment then have it buit to spec as their house brand.

1987: Echostar applies for DBS license with FCC for "Digital Sky Highway" (DiSH)

1992: FCC Awarded 21 Transponder DBS Licenses at the 119° location to Echostar for DiSH)

1994 (Early): Echostar orders two Lockheed-Martin Satellites (E*1 and E*2)
1994 (November14): Echostar breaks gound on the Cheyenne uplink center.

1995 (December 28): Echostar 1 launched from Xichang , China.

1996 (March 16): Dish Network service launched to the public with a massive 40 or so video channels (America's Top 40) and 30 audio channels (Muzak) for 19.95/mo.

See ya
Tony

Great historical timeline, thanks for sharing:)
 
I think it was October of 1996. Had a 3000 and a 2700 if I remember correctly. Had the top programming package with all the premiums at the time, with the East and West coast feeds which was the BEST!

Switched over from Direct since Dish was the only one that carried the international channels that I wanted.

To comment one one of the previous posts, SD in my opinion, is a lot worse than it was back then.
 
We have had Dish Network since June 1996. Receiver was "I think" a 3000 and a Dish 300. You could pick your channels at that time.
 
For us it has been continuous since about August 1997, just after we repatriated from Mexico where we had C-band for eight years. We had two 5000's initially.
 
For me...it was August of '97. I had been with Direct for about 6 months. They stopped offering local channels because of the SHIVA act...remember that fiasco??

Went to TJ Max (a small mom n pop electronics store) and they were selling model 2700's with a free self install kit, along with 1 free roll of 100' cable for a measly $50 bucks!! Swear!! Customers were coming in left and right with me as I came in when they opened.

Been with Dish forever continously. Started out with 2700, moved to 3700(?) then got free 501(s) through recruiting subscribers with Dish. Stayed with 501 for about 8 years and JUST NOW upgraded to 722 HD!

It's been a good ride. Never had problems and I dont expect to have any more problems. Only way I will jump ship is if prices skyrocket ridiculously high and/or far more superior technology emerges that Dish is lagging behind on.

Here's to 13 more years!! :D:D
 
Since April 1996, bought the self install kit and installed myself. My wife and I were both amazed that we were able to get so many channels (I think it was 40) via our new satellite system.
Prior to DISH for 10 years we only received two local channels well and a couple more that barely came in with a large outdoor antenna with one of those radio shack rotaters to help bring the channels in. DISH was like wow for us, it didn't matter about the locals that much either because we couldn't hardly see them any way with the antenna.

Believe the receiver was a 3000?

Have always loved DISH, and still do, currently VIP 211 with EHD, a 322G and 301E. Getting ready to add a 722k.
 
August 1996. Self installed 2000 receiver, dish mounted on pine tree in back yard.
Hurricane Fran uninstalled dish on Sept. 5, reinstalled on rocking chair on front porch and with generator blaring watched tv for a week while neighbors suffered :).
 
This was a fun thread to read through at least for a dish "old-timer". I got Dish as soon as it was available in Alaska. Must have been early '97. Before that you had to have a massive C-band dish (or two) that cost thousands. Or you could also have cable, which in my town was often tape delayed, so sometimes we would watch the superbowl a week after it happened. I ordered a kit right from dish that even came with a little 18" dish which of course was worthless up here. Probably cost me almost $500 to get set up then. Soon after, they started giving stuff away for free. Still using that little 18" dish by the way...makes a great wind reflector for my Toyo stove exhaust.
 
Started out with them when the first 18" came out. Think the receiver was a 1000. I was a BUD user at the time and remained one for a few years even after I had the my first 2600. Still have the BUD and Echo 4000.
Must have been 94 or 95

used to do BUD installs and even worked for a company that repaired satellite receivers and dish arms etc. even repaired a few LNBs back then.

As I think about it, if we are talking Echostar, it might be even longer ago then that. I was working on BUD stuff back in the early 80s. graduated HS in 83 and I can remember messing around with a BUD back then even. Not too much subscripting goin on back then tho.

sorry, failing memory. that was echosphere way back then. i always thought they were related.
 
I started with Direct in the early 90's and Wasn't to impressed. Anything with a lot of dark colors was almost unwatchable. So when I heard about Echostar on the net, I was all over it.
I preordered my first receiver from some company in Wisconsin? About 6 months later I got the receiver and a fairly good size dish. I think the dish was about 32 inches wide. It came with all the cables, but it had just one problem. The only channel that came in was channel 100. The others hadn't even been turned on.
So I played with it every now and then and then one day I found a mailing list group of people like me who had the equipment but nothing to watch.
Every so often someone would be scanning thru the channels and find a broadcast and alert everyone on the list of its number and what it was. Most of the time it was Walmart meetings or retailer broadcast from echostar, but every once in a while we would catch a feed from either ABC, NBC or CBS.
It was more like a hobby than anything else.
Then one day someone on the list came across a group that had made a small box that constantly scanned all the channels for a signal.
Then it got even more fun because we were finding all kinds of broadcast. Everything from military communications to porn.
In late 95 and early 96 stations started to come on at random and stay on. very soon after that the "you are not subscribed to this channel" messages started to appear.
Then, I think it was around May or June of 96 a message appeared with an 800 number to call and subscribe to programing.
At first the picture quality was super great, but then as they kept adding more stations the image quality started to suffer. But it was still much better than Directs picture.
In 98 I dropped Direct all together and went only with Dish, thats when they started to have pretty much equal programing.

In the beginning most experts stayed away from Dish/ Echostar because they figured the company would be bankrupt before they ever got off the ground.
At the time two other sat start-ups had just went under. Both of those companies were subsidiaries of the big aerospace firms and eventually most of the satellites were leased or sold to dish and direct.

Over the years I have bounced between dish and direct, but I have always preferred dish. Only things made me switch to Direct was huge amounts of free programing.
So thats my story.

The dates may be off a bit, memory sucks. I am the guy that can't remember what the buttons on my remote do:(
 
I'm sorry I am sounding like a broken record here but I have to repeat and add to my previous posts:

Dish Network did not have a satellite in the sky until December 28 1995. It wasn't in geo orbit until mid January 1996.
Until the launch of Dish Network Echostar was STRICTLY AN EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANY.

Hughs launched their satellite December 1993. It wasn't in geo orbit until about Jan 1 1994.
DirecTV/USSB became available June 17, 1994. This company NEVER broadcast any signals before this time on any other satellite.

NO ONE was receiving Dish Network (legitamately or not--no matter what dish or receiver they owned) before Jan. 1996.

NO ONE was receiving DirecTV until (Legitamately or not-no matter what dish or receiver they owned) before Jan. 1994.

NO ONE was receiving PrimeStar before 1991 (Analog) 1994 (Digital) - or after 1999 no matter how big a dish or advanced the receiver.

NO ONE was receiving Alphastar before 1995 or after August 1997.

NO ONE ever received a signal from "Sky Cable" or "Sky Pix" since both companies folded before they broadcast a single pixel of programming.

NO ONE was receiving any regular TV broadcasts via satellite until 1975

NO ONE had any kind of satellite reception before 1963 - The first telecommunications satellite.

No one can receive what wasn't there. :)
 

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