Satelliteguys 4th Anniversary thoughts

[Mr Tony]

As most of you know, today is Satelliteguys 4th anniversary. Although I was not here on day 1 (signed up in November)....here are some thoughts from me


When I first came here in 2003 (November) all I had was Dish. 4 receivers and a Dish quad Legacy..Came from bstalk & dbsforums. Heard about Satelliteguys

The I got into something called free to air...and holy sh*t did my life change.

We didn't have a FTA section...we were delegated to "General Satellite"...was a few of us people who had free to air (this is right before hackers started with it). Scott was nice enough about 4-5 months later to give us the free to air area...but it was being ruined by hackers...and the mods that were there really didnt do much (they were never here). Scott almost banned the word "Pansat" here because that was the "big" FTA hacker box (long before 90% of these boxes now are around)....I convinced Scott to allow us to keep it and even offered to be a mod.

The rest...as you say...is history.

We have gone from a few hard core FTA'ers to THE best legal; free to air site out there. Sure we had some bumps but we go those straightened out and now we have a good group of people. Heck without Scott's guidance on creating a free to air area I would have never learned so much about how it works and what is truly up there

oh and 27500 posts later

Scott thanks for creating the FTA area and letting me run it like my own little area (Scott usually just leaves me alone in that area and lets me do what I need to do) Much appreciated.

Also want to thank all the members here in the FTA area. I think we have all learned a lot from each other (even me) Until last year I had no idea how C-Band worked as I was always KU. But with the help of dfergie, voomvoom, Diamond Jim, iammike, mikekohl, wyrtwister, drhydro and a few others I got my C-Band system up and running

Without the members here, I would have never thought about some of the crazy projects that we come up with..

Once again, thanks to all of YOU who make this the BEST free to air forum on the net

 

[dfergie]

Your Welcome! and Thank You Iceberg, for without you the FTA forum wouldn't be here... you were not named SatelliteGuy of the Year for nothing I try to help in this forum and thank you all for being SatelliteGuy FTA'ers... I have kinda neglected the C-Band section lately, but with everyone heres help it still lives... again Thanks Guys!

 

[iafirebuff]

I would like to take credit for helping Iceberg obtain his high post count - afterall he got me going with my 10001 questions!

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sat Guys! And THANK YOU to EVERYONE who makes this possible!

 

[duchen]

Happy Birthday & Thank You!

I am new to FTA, adding it recently to my C/KU BUD.

As a BUD owner, I tried to learn about FTA from the internet because I had general ideas how it worked. I learned how to hook up the unit and set the lnb LO from the internet.

But, of course, there are the nuances.

Before I joined, I joined another site (because I did not know about this one) I kept coming across postings and other websites which promoted bins and keys etc. I then figured out what those were. UGH! That is NOT what I wanted.

Early on, I sent an email to FTA list because I saw they promoted honesty and I thanked them (and aqsked advice about something).

I had my installer out to help me with something. My installer told me about this website because it promotes an honest exchange of information.

You guys have been a big help to me and I respect your integrity. I hope that your exponential growth in such a short time means that there are many more people out there like us, who just want to "do it right."

Maybe things will even revert to the old days, when announcers would talk to those of us watching backhauls while the network was showing a commercial.

Ice, I can see in my short time here that you enjoy helping people with this hobby. You have certainly been a help to me. I hope you reward yourself with that HDTV.

FTA should have its "niche" in the scheme of things. If enough people were interested, maybe more providers would put up FTA programs and sell advertising.

It is certainly a great addition to my OTA antenna and Directv.

I hope my comments have occasionally helped.

 

[voomvoom]

Thanks for those kind words Tony, but you've helped me much more than I've helped you. I came along in November of 2003 and lurked for about 6 months before I finally joined up. Voom is what got me in the door, I was doing a search on something about my receiver and was directed to Sat Guys, and kept coming back. I don't remember what prompted me to join, but I remember someone had wrote something that wasn't correct and I guess I wanted to get them straight. Anyway, I've enjoyed the 3.5 years I've been involved, and I assure you that I've read more of Iceberg's post than anybody else's post. I wonder why? Happy Birthday SatelliteGuys.US !!!

Al

 

[Tron]

When I first came across this site, I had no idea that there was anything up there except Dish and Direct. I knew about the "Old C-band days", but thought unencrypted satellite signals were a thing of the past. I figured that anything still up there probably required a BUD. Boy was I wrong!

Satelliteguys brought me up to date with what was happening "up there", and thanks to this site I realized that there is still plenty of free TV coming at us from space. It is a friendly place where we can all gather and chat about all things satellite (and even digital OTA, BD, and HD-DVD!) There are many industry professionals (engineers, programming personnel, and equipment dealers and developers) who offer their knowledge as well.

Happy Birthday Satelliteguys.US! It's a great place to be!

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

Congrats to Satellite Guys and thanks to Iceberg and all the helpful members here!

 

[turbosat]

Best forum on the net

I'm still a rookie, came over from satforums 4DTV site, they have a mpeg forum but it doesn't compare to this one. And some of the people there seem to know everything, and berate any newbie who posts any question at all. Plus there were lots of long tirades about one thing or another, seemed like not much got done. Been in the c-band hobby since the late 80s (back when there was a Hartford Whalers team , and the Minnesota team was still the Northstars)
My first fta box only held 16satellites, was painfully slow at blind searching, so I searched the net for the fastest, newest non-hd box I could find. That USB update thing sounded cool, I didn't know if rec needed firmware updates often or not, or how you did it. During my searches for technical info on the newest fta receivers I found this site. It's been great to be a member, most here have been into fta much longer than me and have all the answers.
It bugs me that the hackers have made the term 'fta' a codeword for theft, and all the search engines key in on it-people who are ignorant of real fta, like I was at first, are getting the wrong impression of the hobby. I see it as just the natural progression of big-dish tv, analog goes to digital , c=band signals switch to ku, etc. I have hopes the hobby will grow and the word gets out that there is real variety with true free-to-air. Satelliteguys will grow right along with it because it deals with the honest side of satellite tv.

 

[Wescopc]

This has been/is a great learning place! I appreciate that the same question (what FTA can I get on a 18" dish, for example) can be asked time and time again by a newbie - and with patience everyone chips in and answers again and again. It is hard for some to ask questions (like directions) but this place makes it as easy as possible.
Bob

 

[duchen]

True!

Well said above! "of real fta, like I was at first, are getting the wrong impression of the hobby. I see it as just the natural progression of big-dish tv, analog goes to digital , c=band signals switch to ku, etc. I have hopes the hobby will grow and the word gets out that there is real variety with true free-to-air. Satelliteguys will grow right along with it because it deals with the honest side of satellite tv."
__________________

Agree! I was so late getting an MPEG receiver because I did not know what I was doing. I thought everything was fibre . The involvement of the operators of this site with the industry is important, too. It shows them that there is an honest market out there (instead of worms hiding under rocks!).


What a great addition for watching college football!

 

[GreatFTA]

Hmmmm... let me see....
27,500 diviided by...
times 24 hours... 7 days a week...
Oh, what the hell.
Congrats to you, Iceberg!!! You have been a great inspiration to me the year since I joined and hope you continue to be for years to come.
Now, let me try again... (I don't see how the hell he does this...)
27,500 divided....

 

[GreatFTA]

I am going to end up lookin' like that monkey on my picture (if I keep this up...)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have nothing to do with the success of the FTA forum here, thats all Icebergs doing.

I just press the buttons which bring the forums to life, Iceberg is the man who breathed life into these FTA forums.

Thanks Iceberg!

 

[Mr Tony]

Hmmmm... let me see....
27,500 diviided by...
times 24 hours... 7 days a week...
Oh, what the hell.
Congrats to you, Iceberg!!! You have been a great inspiration to me the year since I joined and hope you continue to be for years to come.
Now, let me try again... (I don't see how the hell he does this...)
27,500 divided....

its easy...click on my name and see profile. It shows

Total Posts: 27,768 (19.87 posts per day)

 

[GreatFTA]

its easy...click on my name and see profile. It shows

I know, Iceberg. I am just picking on you.
Keep up the great work. In time you will be FTA man of the decade :up