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With all due respect, the globe is warming, human activity is largely responsible, and this is a matter of settled science which is not controversial. Scientific opinion on climate change - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://www.grist.org/article/series/skeptics/ From the latter...

Just one favorite channel? Such a tough choice. :) While I really enjoy a lot of channels (especially RTN, Russia Today, WRN English, UWTV, KEXP, and all the PBS feeds), I guess what I value most is that bits arriving from space are "cooler" than terrestrial bits. They have cool Faraday...

Good luck and enjoy! Given your past experience and your Birddog meter, I'm sure you'll be successful. A larger dish is fussier about accurate pointing, and the signals are a lot lower than the DSS satellites, but you're way ahead of where I was when I set up my first FTA dish. I think G18 at...

I'm especially fond of the Ella Fitzgerald version of this song. :) No snow here (but it would be headlines if there were) and the weather outside ain't frightful, but the price of gas still is. I just paid about $3.80/gal. on my last fill-up. Silly-cone valley's still too damn expensive...

This is probably "old news", but the transition to AMC-21 appears to be moving ahead at full speed. Blind scan picks up : 12140/V/29997 PBS HD x 2 channels (1 is 24/7 colorbars saying "All downlinks should move to AMC-21 at 125 degrees W.L. AS SOON AS...

Some would say, "their mistake, my gain", others would call it stealing, and in fact I don't think it's as important to argue which attitude is right or wrong, as it is that: You followed the dictates of your conscience. Knowing you did what you feel is right is worth a whole lot more than a...

Choosing just one. That's a toughie :) I love RTN, KEXP Seattle, UWTV, Russia Today. But I suppose the one I find most generally on is World Radio Network (WRN) English service, with news from various shortwave broadcasters. I often listen to that on the way to sleep after shutting off the...

Happy Burpday! Congrats on the Birthday! Have a great YEAR! I always enjoy your posts and we expect you'll continue to participate in the forum for at least 60 more years, and that's an order. ;)

It's true that NTSC and PAL are output formats, but they are also source/input formats before the MPEG-2 is encoded and uplinked. MPEG-2 takes individual video "frames" for input. The number of frames per second and the resolution of each frame is different between PAL and NTSC. The MPEG-2...

Montana PBS Maybe the reason the signal works better when pointing a little bit west of 125, especially with smaller dishes, is that the signal strength of the interfering signal on 123 *probably* drops off much faster, being on the edge of the beamwidth, than the desired signal on 125, which...

Is it just me? Look at the lower right section of each picture, where various shades of dark grey to black are displayed. I can make out much more detail on the analog side. Am I just imagining this, or has some of the fine shade detail been "compressed out" of the digital image?

Interesting! The analog signal seems to have better definition on the number edges, and lower color saturation, to my eyes. I suspect the analog image is "better", but then again it takes up quite a lot more bandwidth than the digital channel?

Addendum: After moving the dish around to different satellites, there is one feature of this dish which is fantastic. I am very impressed with the elevation mechanism on this dish. It's possible to set the elevation very accurately with the threaded elevation screw. Taking the magnetic angle...

Yeah. Unfortunately, 12115 hosts the "Access America" feed, which is kind of how I got into the whole hobby in the first place, so that sucks. Oh well. There's always Kossovar(?)/Albanian pop music on RTV21 plus :D

There is no doubt that the arrangement holds the LNBF in place securely. You'd need a hammer to make it rotate when it's fully locked in place. :) Thanks for explaining how it works. I probably will just remain at 97W (or possibly 101 W) until my motor arrives, at which time skew will remain...

Yeah, actually I should have pointed the 90cm at G25 for comparison. It's just a matter of the broken motor. I'll probably take the measurements you suggest fairly soon, because I want to have a baseline (G25 is "mid-arc" for me) to determine I'm pointing pretty well at west, mid, and east...

An addendum: I am expecting an HH120 motor to arrive from Canada in a week or so. At that time I'll put the dish to work on G18 on the weaker transponders (like California Community College). In the meantime, my 90cm dish is unintentionally fixed at nothing due to a burnt-out SG2100 motor. :(

I recently received GeosatPro's 1.2 meter solid dish, purchased from SatelliteAV. This is my informal review. The package arrived in a *large*, *heavy* box. It was exceptionally well-packaged, and took the better part of half-an-hour to remove everything from the box. I was pleased at the...

Did you change the skew (tilt angle) of the LNB to match the value listed in dish pointer tables produced for your location (see: Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com). Or, just carefully twist the LNB slowly back and forth until you see a signal peak...

Check out THIS list: FTAList.com - Lists by Language

If my experience is any indication, that first high-pitched beep-beep-beep when you FINALLY locate your satellite is pretty neat stuff. Don't be discouraged if it takes an hour or two. Tiny movements only when you fnd it :) It's amazing how a hair up, down, left, or right once you've grabbed...

Fortec Firmware - old but stable Damn shame Fortec can't graft the rock-solid firmware to a sexy Conaxsat-like box. I concur that the best feature of the Merc II is everything always works as expected. If there are glitches, check your switches and other external hardware. :) On a whim, I...

Does anyone know what happens to G25 when G19 takes over? G10R and G25, we will miss you. They should get a service medal before being de-orbited or whatever. ;)

Good deal! "Dish pointing" is a skill you'll develop with practice. It can be frustrating at first, but I'd venture to say becomes almost fun once you get the hang of it. My advice is to temporarily leave a motor out of your setup, and just mount the dish without the motor, point it at G25 or...

Welcome! Welcome. I hope you'll find, as I did, that this community is nearly always willing to fall all over itself to be helpful to new FTA initiates. I would echo USDownlink's sentiments on dish size. For my first system, I paid for the upgrade from 31" to a 36" dish (from Sadoun)...