What Do You Think The Future Of FTA Will Be?

[wvman]

One of these days I will trade wvman for a 8 footer!

Funny you should mention that. Last night it went from rain to snow and ice in less than an hour. All the trees and bushes are hanging down like a willow tree. As you can imagine, all my dishes are covered with 3 inches of ice and snow. Last night, SES 2 went off first, then Galaxy 16 and then Galaxy 19. These three satellites are on a 12 foot and 2 ten foot dishes. SES 1 is the only one that remained on after the snow, and guess what, it's a 7 1/2 foot Unimesh dish. Go figure. Well, have to run, need to get to work. I'll bet the roads are a fright. Hopefully I can make it with my 4 wheel drive truck. Cheers! Wish me luck.

 

[Stargazer]

Here in WV there are companies that specialize in running fiber to new markets. We rent space to a company that's strung fiber to places out in the rural community. I'm 8 miles out in the county and in an area where there's no cable or DSL service and now high speed internet is within 3 1/2 miles of my home. The closest person to have it is the man I work for and he's got 100mbps/6mbps service right now.

I figured I'd be dead and gone before I saw it at my house, but now I'm more optimistic. I've spoke with the guy who mapped out this area and he's saying it will be where I live within the next year. I hope so, I'm sick to death of this horrible wireless internet service. I can barely get my email most of the time, let alone stream and at $39.95 a month, it's no bargain. 100mbps looks like a dream to me at this point.

You live in my general area. Who is the wireless internet provider that you go through? I used to be co-owner of one about ten years ago. I know that CAS cable has ran cable to rural areas and Lumos (used to be Fibernet) also runs fiber to rural areas.

 

[Horsepower]

Stargazer, what do you think of this? Is it possible that the company that ran the FO in my area did so with some sort of grant money? They then took the money and ran without following through? Just a thought as I know little about these things.

 

[Stargazer]

Stargazer, what do you think of this? Is it possible that the company that ran the FO in my area did so with some sort of grant money? They then took the money and ran without following through? Just a thought as I know little about these things.

A lot of companies run fibers for private use to cell towers, companies, schools, etc. Some do a buildout before they expand or launch DSL service but might run it for several miles to get to their destination. Just because they are running fiber in your area does not mean you will see any benefits from that fiber.

 

[Horsepower]

Thank you stargazer. I really don't think that was/is the case here. Supposedly was run to bring it to homes throughout a rural county. Was run everywhere and never offered.

 

[Magic Static]

Funny you should mention that. Last night it went from rain to snow and ice in less than an hour. All the trees and bushes are hanging down like a willow tree. As you can imagine, all my dishes are covered with 3 inches of ice and snow. Last night, SES 2 went off first, then Galaxy 16 and then Galaxy 19. These three satellites are on a 12 foot and 2 ten foot dishes. SES 1 is the only one that remained on after the snow, and guess what, it's a 7 1/2 foot Unimesh dish. Go figure. Well, have to run, need to get to work. I'll bet the roads are a fright. Hopefully I can make it with my 4 wheel drive truck. Cheers! Wish me luck.

Well I figure it this way; It was the weight of the snow and ice that pulled the dish out of alignment, not the accumulation blocking the signal. The smaller dish wasn't holding as much weight and was still focused.

 

[Brct203]

Well I figure it this way; It was the weight of the snow and ice that pulled the dish out of alignment, not the accumulation blocking the signal. The smaller dish wasn't holding as much weight and was still focused.

Interesting, I had a similar problem recently with the wet snow followed by ice. I lost most reception on my 10' Winegard Quadstar , in both C and Ku, but my 120cm Ku was only slightly affected.

 

[wvman]

Well I figure it this way; It was the weight of the snow and ice that pulled the dish out of alignment, not the accumulation blocking the signal. The smaller dish wasn't holding as much weight and was still focused.

I forgot to mention that the 12 footer was a Prodelin fiberglass dish. Those things are made like a tank and has I think, 8 metal supports on the back side of the dish. The Prodelin isn't visible in the profile picture. As soon as I scraped as much snow and ice off it as I could it came back on. As you can imagine, it isn't that easy with wire mesh dishes. I could be wrong, but I can't imagine it flexing under the weight as the wire mesh dish might do.

I'm not ruling out what you said either. Question: I spotted a fiberglass Ku dish, not sure of the size, sitting in front of a building a friend of mine has a few miles away. I haven't actually looked at it, but he says it's a Hughesnet dish. If I change the LNBF to a linear model, how well would that work on Ku satellites? Just looking at it, it doesn't look like a Hughesnet from the interstate, but I guess it could be.

 

[wvman]

Interesting, I had a similar problem recently with the wet snow followed by ice. I lost most reception on my 10' Winegard Quadstar , in both C and Ku, but my 120cm Ku was only slightly affected.

FTA is a great hobby and Ilike messing with it as much as anything. I've been kicking around the idea of swapping out some of my wire mesh dishes with fiberglass since all but one of mine is stationary. I think I've got a handle on 2 more 12 foot Prodelin dishes I could pick up this summer. Fiberglass dishes are like wild flowers here, it's the wire mesh dishes that are getting scarce.

I have a mid size Telehandler over at my brother's house, so changing them out won't be an issue. this summer would be a good time to switch them since I'm taking down part of my chain link fence and re-routing it to go around more of the property. This project is still in the planning stage at this point in time. Can't help but think it would be a good move considering.

 

[harshness]

Regarding the apparent abundance of glass dishes, consider that since the desirable stuff gets picked over first, what remains is everyone's subsequent choice.

I suspect that FTA will be a memory by 2025 and it will die at the hands of the Internet as it will no longer have the coverage advantage that it enjoys now.

 

[phlatwound]

Regarding the apparent abundance of glass dishes, consider that since the desirable stuff gets picked over first, what remains is everyone's subsequent choice...

One of the reasons the mesh/perf and solid metal dishes are "desirable stuff", and seem to disappear quicker, is their scrap metal value.

Untold thousands have met that untimely fate.

 

[harshness]

Aluminum isn't worth much and perforated steel is just too bulky to mess with. A full dumpster isn't worth the transport costs.

My local scrap yard won't accept aluminum or stainless because they can't handle it with electromagnets.

 

[Magic Static]

One of the reasons the mesh/perf and solid metal dishes are "desirable stuff", and seem to disappear quicker, is their scrap metal value.

Untold thousands have met that untimely fate.

My deceased neighbor professed to recycling dozens of mesh dishes. He was always offering to take my dishes. I told him to stick with the cardboard, it's safer

 

[harshness]

My deceased neighbor professed to recycling dozens of mesh dishes. He was always offering to take my dishes. I told him to stick with the cardboard, it's safer

I don't suppose that neighbor died of suspicious circumstances.

We have a cardboard dumpster where I work and home cardboard goes into the recycle cart. Oregon scavengers make bank on cans and bottles.

 

[Magic Static]

I don't suppose that neighbor died of suspicious circumstances.

No nothing nefarious, he died of rather eat than buy his meds. He was turning 65 and though he could wait until he got on SS. Turned out to be the wrong choice.

 

[phlatwound]

My deceased neighbor professed to recycling dozens of mesh dishes. He was always offering to take my dishes. I told him to stick with the cardboard, it's safer

At 50 or 60 cents a pound most mesh dishes won't bring 20 bucks for the aluminum, it's a damn shame how many have ended up in the scrap piles.

 

[phlatwound]

Aluminum isn't worth much and perforated steel is just too bulky to mess with. A full dumpster isn't worth the transport costs.

My local scrap yard won't accept aluminum or stainless because they can't handle it with electromagnets.

We did a lot of big commercial demolition projects in the past, I've put thousands of dollars in my pockets from aluminum scrapping, other metals also.

No dishes though.

Let me know if you know of any full dumpsters of aluminum, perforated steel, unperforated steel (or copper, platinum and unobtanium) in my area...I will provide transport.

 

[Phalaenopsis]

FTA is a great hobby and Ilike messing with it as much as anything. I've been kicking around the idea of swapping out some of my wire mesh dishes with fiberglass since all but one of mine is stationary. I think I've got a handle on 2 more 12 foot Prodelin dishes I could pick up this summer. Fiberglass dishes are like wild flowers here, it's the wire mesh dishes that are getting scarce.

I have a mid size Telehandler over at my brother's house, so changing them out won't be an issue. this summer would be a good time to switch them since I'm taking down part of my chain link fence and re-routing it to go around more of the property. This project is still in the planning stage at this point in time. Can't help but think it would be a good move considering.

It quite the opposite for me. There are mesh dishes everywhere, but no fiberglass dishes. This is the only fiberglass dish I saw

 

[wvman]

It quite the opposite for me. There are mesh dishes everywhere, but no fiberglass dishes. This is the only fiberglass dish I saw View attachment 131447View attachment 131448

That's a nice dish. Looks like a commercial dish. In one picture, the pole looks off plumb, but in the other it doesn't. Could be an optical illusion due to the camera angle. I'd go after that one if I were you. Have you looked across the face of the dish to see if it mishapened? I'd bet breakfast it isn't. Wish there were still a lot of wire mesh dishes here. Too many scrap dealers in the area.

 

[Phalaenopsis]

The old man there let me have it, but I just cant