What satellite was this? One other question.

[coinmaster32]

At one time radioshack and a few other retailers sold a small 5 foot wide dish for a fixed position. It was a solid dish.

Since it was a fixed position, I assume one could get most programming off one satellite.

I think this was around 92-96. Just to clarify, I know for sure it was c-band and not primestar. (Pstar didnt use a 5 foot dish).

So which "bird" had a bunch of programming on it?

One other question, back then when you bought programming, did all providers have the same channels, or did some not have as many?

What I mean is, out of all the VC2 channels there were back then, were they provider based, or did every provider allow you to subscribe to all of them?

 

[Mr Tony]

G5 which had at the time alot of the cable type channels
125W

 

[Mr Tony]

back in the day there were numerous C-Band companies that you could subscribe to. So you could have 3 channels with say NPS and 4 channels with Turner (there was a C-Band company called Turner....nothing to do with Ted Turner or his company)

 

[coinmaster32]

So in other words, if you went to say turner, their "packages" would maybe not have a channel or two that say NPS would?

Also, was there more ala-carte back then?

 

[Mr Tony]

At one time radioshack and a few other retailers sold a small 5 foot wide dish for a fixed position. It was a solid dish.

Since it was a fixed position, I assume one could get most programming off one satellite.

I think this was around 92-96. Just to clarify, I know for sure it was c-band and not primestar. (Pstar didnt use a 5 foot dish).

you do know you could have just googled it right?
There is a site that has Radio Shack catalogs from days gone by
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

 

[Mr Tony]

ad from Rat Shack

 

[Mr Tony]

So in other words, if you went to say turner, their "packages" would maybe not have a channel or two that say NPS would?

correct. Each provider could do the packages as they pleased

Also, was there more ala-carte back then?

yup

 

[Mr Tony]

channel list around that time (24 TP's)
1. Disney
2. Playboy
3. TBN (ITC)
4. Sci-Fi
5. CNN
6. WTBS
7. WGN
8. HBO W
9. ESPN
10. Mor Music (ITC)
11. Family Channel
12. Discovery West
13. CNBC
14. ESPN2
15. HBO E
16. Cinemax W
17. TNT
18. TNN
19. USA
20. BET
21. Knowledge (ITC)
22. HLN
23. A&E
24. Showtime

 

[madmadworld]

with a 5' polar mount you could get all the pay channels
still have one had to buy it for the wife
she had all the movie/basic stuff and i the sports

 

[coinmaster32]

Thanks for the info. Looks like the programming was sold by "private cable club". After a search I could not find out much about it.

I wonder if there was any other providers that had a G5 only package? I know I've seen a couple cheap solid aluminum dishes that were fixed position. They used a piece of channeled steel on the back to adjust elevation. They did not even go on a pole, just a huge ring that anchored to the ground.

 

[Mr Tony]

all of the C-Band providers back in the day had a "G5" package available

 

[coinmaster32]

Would be cool if one had a list of all the providers there were at one time.

 

[Mr Tony]

there were probably a few "main" providers and a bunch of resellers at the time.

 

[waylew]

My first programmer was Turner,had the best prices/deals and were great to deal with.Charlie bought em and ruined em,moved to NPS.NPS had good prices and were great to deal with,got in bed with Charlie and ruined the place.Moved to SRL,good to deal with and pricing was okay but they couldn't do a whole lot about that.Subs ran out last May and for various reasons haven't resubbed and haven't really missed it.
Now due to other circumstances in the next week I'll be with Charlie ,resistance is futile.

 

[madmadworld]

the old days there were nearly 2 million of us then
http://www.sbca.com/high-speed-news/1998/nov13-98.htm

most big installers sold programing in a pyramid thing too.

 

[T4Runner]

I've got a five foot solid prime focus dish that I finally replaced with another 7.5ft mesh. Mainly because of the satellite transition to S2 making it impossible to get those channels. It worked quite well on most satellites, but took me a couple months of tweaking and fine tuning to get there. For whatever reason, 91W and REELZ came in great but no other S2 channel that I remember. That dish was given to me by a member and he said the owner told him it was called an ECHOSTAR dish. It had a tendency to pick up two satellites at once though... Like 99W and 101W or 101W and 103W.

 

[Mr Tony]

Here was Superstars G5 pack dated 10/13/97
http://web.archive.org/web/19971013231028/http://www.superstar.com/HTML/g5.htm

10.95 a month (more savings if you got a years worth)
A&E Entertainment CNBC CNN Discovery
ESPN* ESPN2* Family Channel Headline News
The Nashville Network TNT* USA Network WGN
WTBS

 

[Mr Tony]

12.50 a month and you chose 12 channels
http://web.archive.org/web/19971013231042/http://www.superstar.com/HTML/selectvw.htm

Choose 12 Channel Selections
Arts & Entertainment, American Movie Classics, BET, Bravo, Cartoon Network, Country Music Television, CNBC, CNNI/CNNfn, CNNSI, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, E! Entertainment, ESPN*, ESPN2*, ESPNNEWS, Family Channel, FOX-NET*, FOX-KDVR*, fXM, Game Show Network, HGTV, The History Channel, Independent Film Channel, KTLA, Lifetime, MSNBC, MTV/VH1, MuchMusic, Nickelodeon, Prime, Romance Classics, Sci-Fi Channel, TBS, Turner Classic Movies, The Nashville Network, TNT†, The Travel Channel, USA Network, The Weather Channel, WGN, WPIX, WSBK

CNN/Headline News (2 selections)
PT East† plus Fox-NET† (3 selections)
PT West† plus Fox-NET† (3 selections)
Denver 5† (5 selections)

 

[Kraven]

back in the day there were numerous C-Band companies that you could subscribe to. So you could have 3 channels with say NPS and 4 channels with Turner (there was a C-Band company called Turner....nothing to do with Ted Turner or his company)

I miss the good ol' days.