Funny little story
Ok, I offically feel like part of the niche crowd here; and niche we are, make no mistake. At least publicly.
I decided to hunt around town and see if I can get any FTA equipment locally. My first stop was a comminucations place down the road, bristling with various antennas. When I entered, an eager associate ran to me and offerred his help. His smile turned confused as I explained what I was looking for. "Uhm... we don't sell anything like that... Ku band, I assume that's something to do with computers..?" I thanked the fellow and left, feeling a bit like a just tried ordering some chinese food at McDonald's.
My next stop was to the local thrift stores. They often get donations, and I've seen many old VideoCypherII systems, signal splitters, etc littering their shelves amidst VCR's and LaserDisc players. First one only had a Dish Network dish, with no LBN or mount.... for $5. About as useless as using dollar bills as toilet paper, wouldn't you say? I gave up poking about there and went to another one a few miles away. There were some signal splitters/combiners (LO/HI band) and all-in-one jobbies (+ UHF/VHF) on the shelves, so I was sure I'd find something good in back, where they keep the larger stuff. They
did have a dish... a DTV Dish 500. $7 or so. Another wasted trip...
On the way home, I saw an unused, neglected BUD in somone's yard. The wires were all rolled up; it certainly didn't look like they wanted it. I almost stopped, but remembered my wife's naggi- I mean, words... and just made a mental note so I could come back after we've moved. All bets are off then, you'd better believe
Just before I got to the house, only a few blocks away, I saw 2 BUD's and various 14-3x" dishes all over a little shop on the corner! Swerving across traffic (ok, just waiting in the way like a fool, but 'swerving' sounds cooler) I parked in back and went in. Dish parts galore! Shelves of LNB's, connectors, filters, and- DTV advertisements. Right in front was a DirecPC dish; hrm, I could play with it until my WineGard arrives... after waiting a few minutes, a very elderly gentleman comes out of the back and asks if he can help me.
I'm now ordering Chinese at McDonald's
while speaking Russian. This little old man had been doing TV/Satellite/Antenna sales and service for nigh on 20 years, and he had no idea what "Ku" referred to, or that there were free broadcasts avialable somewhere. I almost started speaking his language when we spoke of big C-Band dishes, but that wasn't what I was there for. I tried describing the dish I was ordering; blank looks. I explained what it was used for; the poor guy has no idea. I skipped all the explainations and directly asked for an old used DirecPC dish, like the one (pointing to it)
right there. Ah! he perked up. And launched into an obviously prepared shpeel about how the satellite is made just preciscely so, just that high, and just that wide, and it has to be set up by a professional technician to point just right at the little bitty satellite waaaay up there! Dishes are made for specific purposes and he wouldn't have some strange special-use dish... and no, we don't sell used dishes, just new, as part of a package.
He ended with the confused look again, probably terrified that I would try re-explaining what I wanted, so I just thanked him for his time and left. I officially no longer felt like a newbie; I was an FTA geek, and this town didn't understand me anymore.
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