Based on feedback from an earlier post, I plan to pick up a 30” to 36” dish for FTA. Given the size, my understanding is that this will restrict me to the Ku band only, which is fine – since a 6’ dish would probably be impractical for me at the moment. I live in the Midwest, by the Wisconsin / Illinois border and my question is, does it make more sense for me to look into a motorized or fixed dish?

From the perspective of basing this decision on what I’m trying to pull in, I looked at a current listing of FTA channels. I imported them into a spreadsheet and sorted, filtering on TV broadcast, Ku Band and English language. The sort indicates that the most bang-for-the-buck in terms of channels are on Sat 123W. Additionally, there are a handful of channels on Sats 101W, 110W, 119W, 125W, and 129W that would also be of interest to me, if possible.

So, there are a few things I’m trying to sort out in my head with regard to motorized or fixed dish setup.

1. If I use a fixed dish, can I pull in 123W from where I live?

2. If #1 is true, could I also pull in any of the other Sats mentioned? (They are not must-have’s)

3. Probably the best question to ask is ‘what’ can I pull in with a fixed dish in my area?

4. Would a motorized dish bring me any additional benefit over a fixed dish?

I realize a blind scan will detect everything available to me when the time comes, but I’m trying to get an idea of this prior to the setup itself. Thanks in advance.
Warning: This is an Old Thread
This discussion is older than 90 days. information contained in it may no longer be current