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    Global Warming ... Part 2

    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...
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    Contest: Free Fortec Star Dynamic Satellite Receiver

    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...
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    BUT WILL IT WORK?

    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...
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    Let it snow, let it snow, let it snoooow!

    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...
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    Rescan time: PBS HD and more up on AMC21

    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...
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    Gosatellite.com owes me a big thank you

    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...
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    Contest: Free Fortec Star Dynamic Satellite Receiver

    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...
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    Happy Birthday RV1POP!

    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. ;)
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    How to downlink SatMex 6 in PAL?

    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...
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    AMC 21

    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...
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    STRANGE OCCURANCE

    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?
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    STRANGE OCCURANCE

    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?
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    Wow G25

    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...
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    Newbie saying Hello and seeking advice

    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...
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    Newbie saying Hello and seeking advice

    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...
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    Galaxy 19

    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. ;)
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    Newbie saying Hello and seeking advice

    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...
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    Newbie saying Hello and seeking advice

    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)...
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    Mercury II >>> DYNAMIC

    SatelliteAV & Sadoun I am a repeat customer of both Sadoun & SatelliteAV. All of my purchases have gone well from both outfits. Both produce a fair bit of their own "help" material to support their products. Often one has an item that the other doesn't carry, and vice-versa. The nice...
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    Mercury II SPDIF problem

    I am getting AC-3 just fine with my Merc-II on Retrojams. This is with Merc-II firmware revision V1.53, into a relatively cheap Onkyo receiver and bookshelf speakers dedicated to the satellite hookup and playing DVDs. Since you've pretty much eliminated fault outside the box, we're down to...
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    Strangest thing you bolted a FTA dish to?

    Childrens' slide. After the second time my tripod blew over in very high local winds (this was with cinderblocks weighing each leg down!), I decided to come up with a more solid mounting option. So I recently mounted my 90 cm Geosat Pro dish to a children's metal slide in the back yard. (I'm...
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    Buying a reciever for thr first time,Help me out

    I have both a Merc II and Visionsat IV-200, and agree 100% with that assessment. The Merc II has good blind scan (it could be faster, but in my experience it's thorough and consistent.) User interface is simple, and if you want to manually create memories with PIDs from Lyngsat, you can with...
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    Galaxy 17 on the move

    Oh. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation! They really are playing it safe then. Good deal. To paraphrase Barry Goldwater, Extremism in pursuit of uninterrupted RTN reception is no vice. ;) I hope they find something useful for G17 to do after/assuming G18 deploys ok though.
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    Galaxy 17 on the move

    Is G10R "sick"? It seems odd to me to move G17 into G10R's slot to take over for it when G18 is scheduled for G10R replacement the same month. Is G10R on life support or something, that it needed urgent decommissioning? Or perhaps G17 will move to a nearby orbital slot once G18 is up and...
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    what do you have for your FTA setup dish wise?

    Hi! How does that 1.2 centimeter dish work for G10R? ;) I'm guessing you mean 120 cm, but just in case not, what's your secret? :)
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