Wanting to do FTA in spring when snow leaves

[AJV]

I've been reading a lot of reviews on receivers, but don't seem to be getting any personal point of veiws, PROS and CONS. I need to wait for spring, so I could install a dish,Mother Nature is not being nice to us in norther Michigan. I live in northern Michigan and get some pretty good winds in the winter. I would like to receive both bands (C and Ku), but would like to keep the size down if possible. I am interested in a receiver with 2 tuners and PVR. I don't here anything about SonicVeiw, except from the sellers. Is there any that I should steer away from, or are they all pretty much equal. I also notice, it seems like alot are using mulitple stationary dishes, instead of motorized. I am interested in hearing personnal point of veiws on this. You guys know what works and what doesn't. All the stores sale pitches seem to be the same. Will appreciate any help you guys can give me. I live inside the city limits, so I don't know if I have any antenna regulations I have to worry about. Is there any Northern Michigan FTAers out there?

 

[primestar31]

I've been reading a lot of reviews on receivers, but don't seem to be getting any personal point of veiws, PROS and CONS. I need to wait for spring, so I could install a dish,Mother Nature is not being nice to us in norther Michigan. I live in northern Michigan and get some pretty good winds in the winter. I would like to receive both bands (C and Ku), but would like to keep the size down if possible. I am interested in a receiver with 2 tuners and PVR. I don't here anything about SonicVeiw, except from the sellers. Is there any that I should steer away from, or are they all pretty much equal. I also notice, it seems like alot are using mulitple stationary dishes, instead of motorized. I am interested in hearing personnal point of veiws on this. You guys know what works and what doesn't. All the stores sale pitches seem to be the same. Will appreciate any help you guys can give me. I live inside the city limits, so I don't know if I have any antenna regulations I have to worry about. Is there any Northern Michigan FTAers out there?

Ah come-on. I live in Sanford Mich, probably not that far away from you, and just dug a 4ft hole for a new pole the other day. The ground isn't frozen yet!

My prevailing winds average 20 miles per hour all the time, and I have 1 meter dishes up. By the way, if you really want c-band, you'd be wise not to bother with a dish less than 6ft in diameter.

If you REALLY want to be an "FTA-GUY", you have to do these regardless of the amount of snow or ice or cold temp that's coming down right then! :

Stay away from SonicView and the like, as those are mostly used by the a-hem, "eye-patch" guys. You need a receiver with good BLINDSCAN ability. If it doesn't have that, don't even consider it, as that's just not an optional choice for real FTA viewing.

 

[turbosat]

starters

For a beginner, I'd say buy a simple, reliable receiver, and at least a 1m dish. Leave the motor off for a few days until you get used to the general operation of the receiver. The Traxis 3500 is a great box to start out with, it has one of the best blind-scanning tuners around--finds just about anything transmitting on a satellite.
(except the HD stuff, you'll need a more expensive rec for them, or a computer-card setup). Once you get a taste and some experience you may want a fancier box with pvr and dual tuners, etc, I have not needed one of those yet. A lot depends on what your viewing tastes are, most of what I enjoy are the news and sports feeds rather than the 24hr channels or regular tv network fare. There's plenty of both, but you won't find free 'cable' channels very often, nor PPV movies. It's a hobby and everyone can probably find something they love about it.
I believe federal law has made it legal to put up your fta dish as long as its not more than 39", but if you have a HOA, read your agreement to see if they try to restrict satellite dishes.
Keep reading the forum, you'll find the brand names that most people use and like here, there have been sev threads on 'favorite receiver' and 'best blindscanning receiver'. Sonicview and viewsat are comparable, in fact I think VS bought SV, I have a viewsat and overall it's ok for average use but not nearly as good at blind-scanning as some that cost 1/2 the price!

 

[AJV]

This is what I want to here, is personnal opinions. Live in Cadillac, Michigan and 2 ft. of snow on ground and roof. Will probably have some southern exposures issue, for some sats. Getting old, don't want to climb on snow cover roofs. Had 10 ft. mesh dish about 20 years ago at another place I lived. Want to retire in couple of years if 401k comes back.
I've had DVRs and like them. Reviews I find on net, seems to be just sales specs, and not personnal opinions.
I have a *irectv angle dish with 3 lnbs, with RCA Utimatetv unit, but from what I've been reading, will probably not work very well. Will keep reading hope I get it right the first time.

 

[turbosat]

Don't blame you for not wanting to climb icy roofs. Unless you have some serious obstructions that require raising the dish high to clear, put the dish on a little pole in the ground. Lots easier to work on/tweak the aim. It'll be chest-high and a cinch to operate on, if need be.

 

[primestar31]

This is what I want to here, is personnal opinions. Live in Cadillac, Michigan and 2 ft. of snow on ground and roof. Will probably have some southern exposures issue, for some sats. Getting old, don't want to climb on snow cover roofs. Had 10 ft. mesh dish about 20 years ago at another place I lived. Want to retire in couple of years if 401k comes back.
I've had DVRs and like them. Reviews I find on net, seems to be just sales specs, and not personnal opinions.
I have a *irectv angle dish with 3 lnbs, with RCA Utimatetv unit, but from what I've been reading, will probably not work very well. Will keep reading hope I get it right the first time.

There see? You are only about 65 miles north-west of me, and I just turned 50 last week AND had major spinal-surgery on my neck last year the end of July (4 vertibrae pinned with titanium). I still dug that hole, and stuck a 2.5 inch pole in it 2 weeks ago. Granted, we did get 14 inches of snow Sunday night, hehe. Lucky that was after I got everything set up.

By all means, do a ground-pole instead of a roof mount. With a larger dish, you don't want your roof ripping off some night when you are sleeping. You probably have some nice sandy-loam type soil up there, which is real easy to dig with a post hole digger. I can do the 4 feet here in about 10 minutes. I just bell-out the bottom, chuck a flat patio block in the bottom (to set the pole on, so it can't keep sinking down in the soft ground) and use quick-crete bags of cement. Then use a nice pole level device, and make sure the pole doesn't shift while the cement sets up for about 5 days or so.

I'll bet if you do some looking around, you'll find some Primestar dishes still in peoples yards up there. If so, knock on the door, and ask them if you can have them. You only need an adjustible wrench to get them off the pole, and a wire cutters if they are still wired. If you also want the pole, you'll need a shovel, and a fence post popper to pop it out of the ground. Or a guy with a bucket-tractor and a chain. That's much easier on the back.

Try to get the bigger 1 meter dish. They are rarer, but they are around. Apparently, a lot of Michigan people had Primestar back in the day... At least in the mid-Michigan area, and I've seen them up as far as Houghton lake, and even more north. The ellipitical Primestar dishes were about 10 to 1 installed in the field over the older 1 meter one, and they also are usable, but not as much gain. But, you have to start somewhere...

 

[AJV]

getting my list together

Is there much differance in satellite dishes, other than size? Does one seem to out perform the others. For KU band.s

 

[Blindowl1234]

Primestar dish Also

Hey Everyone, I recently got my first FTA setup. Yeah it's cold here in Ohio too!
I have a couple of questions. 1. Anyone have any experience with a receiver Sonset DTH6500? I got it at G-Mktg. I've had good luck so far. Just looking if anyone has an opinion on it. The price was right for a starter system.
2. I have a 30" Winegard dish WS7630 mounted on a pole aimed at one sat and another pole with an old 1meter Prime* aimed at a second sat. Question there is I have an SG2100 Motor I want to install on one of the two dishes. Will the motor handle the weight of the Prime*. Currently the reception on both dishes is fine. No apparent difference between the 30" and 36" dishes. I'd prefer to put the motor on the lighter weight dish. Thanks! Blind

 

[brentb636]

Is there much differance in satellite dishes, other than size? Does one seem to out perform the others. For KU band.s

There are differences, but a lot depends upon how much you want to spend. If I had a big budget, I'd buy a couple Patriot dishes from Mike Kohl, and drive over to Albion, Mi to pick them up. Realistically, unless you can find a nice free dish locally, mostly we get Winegard, FortecStar or Geosat dishes, if we have to actually PAY, and shipping. I'm happy enough with my Fortec 90cm dish ( even with the heavy Invacom lnbf) , but ideally again, I'd prefer supports for the lnbf holder on a dish. My new 1.2 m Fortec has those support struts, and it certainly makes it feel more solid. Lighter weight dishes are less of a motor load, but conversely, they seem less solid and substantial. It's a tradeoff, but on a calm day, all 90cm dishes have about the same gain, and all 1.0M dishes have about the same gain,... etc.

 

[primestar31]

Hey Everyone, I recently got my first FTA setup. Yeah it's cold here in Ohio too!
I have a couple of questions. 1. Anyone have any experience with a receiver Sonset DTH6500? I got it at G-Mktg. I've had good luck so far. Just looking if anyone has an opinion on it. The price was right for a starter system.
2. I have a 30" Winegard dish WS7630 mounted on a pole aimed at one sat and another pole with an old 1meter Prime* aimed at a second sat. Question there is I have an SG2100 Motor I want to install on one of the two dishes. Will the motor handle the weight of the Prime*. Currently the reception on both dishes is fine. No apparent difference between the 30" and 36" dishes. I'd prefer to put the motor on the lighter weight dish. Thanks! Blind

Primestar dishes are Winegards, and are pretty HOT for signal if the lnb is mounted where it should be, and everything is tweaked up. You can mount one with a motor, but you need a larger motor. Most people also remove the heavy fixed mount, and replace it with angle iron that's lighter. There's quite a few posts in here about doing just that, so search around and look at the pretty pictures.

 

[turbosat]

blindow check your pm (private messages)

 

[AJV]

Thanx for the info. Planning on using a invacom lnbf on a motorized system. Also planning on getting the Sonicview Elite. Had dvrs and can't seem to do without.

 

[brentb636]

Think about a Coolsat 8100 HD PVR . There are new ones available on ebay for about $260 + shipping , and used ones under $200.
DVB-S2 out of the box is one big reason.

 

[AJV]

Is it worth going HD? Is there enough HD channels?

 

[Tron]

Not much full-time HD on Ku-Band yet, PBS-HD and some wild feeds that come and go. C-Band has more full-time HD than Ku-Band, but you would need at least a 6 foot dish.

 

[AJV]

When you run a pvr reciever with two tuners, (two cables) which cable do you use to run the dish motor? Will there be problems here?

 

[Mr Tony]

you run one to the motor. I use to have a dual tuner unit which was nice but had issues when there was 2 things on 2 different satellites. You would need a dual LNB and setup would be as such

LNB output 1----motor--------------------tuner 1 of receiver
LNB output 2-------------------------------tuner 2 of receiver