New to FTA. Basics, Equipment, Costs?

Unfortunately, even wild feeds (sports and news) have diminished substantially since then (fiber the culprit for sports feeds). As well, we have lost a lot of satellite positions that use to be there which were good for wild feeds, as well as other channels: 72W, 74W, 79W, 83W, 93W, etc. And we are about to lose the ABC four channel newsfeed mux on 91 (it at one time also had the ABC News Now channel on it).

phlatwound: Yes, I too enjoyed the "Hotel Mux". If I remember correctly, it was usually the Biography Channel and the History Channel that were free (and who can forgot the History Channel's "frozen man on the beach" when it finally ended! LOL!)

I spend the majority of my time hanging out on 99W. I like the Fox feeds, the multiple CBS feeds, and the frequent teleprompter and sports feeds. The investment I made in my 1.2m was totally worth it if even for that one bird.

comfortably_numb said:

Even though there may be less content on Ku today verses 10 years ago, there are still many, many wild feeds up there. That's the bulk of what I'm interested in, and it never disappoints. I think eventually more and more wild feeds will be delivered by fiber, so I'm enjoying all the fun while I still can

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Which makes me wonder why anyone would enter the hobby today. Especially with the poaching of C band for mobile use.


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navychop said:

Which makes me wonder why anyone would enter the hobby today. Especially with the poaching of C band for mobile use.


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Because there are more free satellite channels available of excellent programming than I have hours in the day to watch....

Even if the 3.7-3.9GHz range is used for terrestrial distribution, the remaining spectrum provides bandwidth for hundreds of more channels that were available during the peak of C-band viewers.

The sky is not falling...

phlatwound said:

One of my favorites on Ku was the "Hotel Mux", on 101W I believe. It had 10 or 12 major cable channels IIRC, with 2(?) of them A/V ITC all the time. The ITC A/V channels would change occasionally, but all of the channels audio was unscrambled, good stuff.

That mux went away in the early 2010s maybe.

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Yeah the BIO and History channels. Those were a couple of the better ones at that time.

Keith Brannen said:

...(and who can forgot the History Channel's "frozen man on the beach" when it finally ended! LOL!)

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I had forgotten about that.

I had a dish set up on that mux for audio only in an outbuilding and would listen to one of the cable news channels for background noise.

Titanium said:

Because there are more free satellite channels available of excellent programming than I have hours in the day to watch....

Even if the 3.7-3.9GHz range is used for terrestrial distribution, the remaining spectrum provides bandwidth for hundreds of more channels that were available during the peak of C-band viewers.

The sky is not falling...

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The loss of 3.7-3.9GHz will mean a tightened up of the channels, but there are also a few slots available where new satellites (if someone wants to incur the expense to launch them). For example, looking at LyngSat, old slots (if still available) like 72,79, 83, 85, and 95 are available.

Of course, that is assuming that mobile "theft" (as I call it) of the C Band spectrum will be sated by the above spectrum. Unfortunately, I doubt they are done trying to get more of it. Reminds me of the "theft" of OTA frequencies to now where OTA is in a real crunch compared to before. Since the mobile companies seem to rule the roost at the FCC, the sky may not be falling, but I can definitely see a few cracks! LOL!

Anyhow, to answer navychop's question,I think the hobby is more restrictive or limited than it use to be. C Band offers the best as far as entertainment channels, but has a greater learning curve, as well as set-up issues (size of dish, location restrictions, including size of property), etc. than Ku band. However, Ku band doesn't have the entertainment channels (other than PBS, Cozi, NBC, etc.) that C band has. So for a newbie wanting to enter FTA (not for feeds) then things are not as easy as they were to get entertainment channels, and really requires a greater commitment to the obsession... I mean, hobby, of FTA!

This one is a bit out in the weeds but I read that Bitcoin is using satellite for their transactions. One is 123W Ku. Even heard that they use HF for some transactions.

navychop said:

I suspect it is a search for cheaper TV.

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And for most, I submit that FTA would be mostly a failed experiment if saving big money is the goal. Stepping up in equipment to get a little more costs a lot more.

And I believe many will discover it is more of a new hobby than just watching TV.

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Thats what it probably comes down to. You really have to think about why you're getting into it as the good TV per hours spent trying to find it surely isn't competitive with wandering around on YouTube.