Hello Hell Raider - WELCOME! You have come to the right place! There is plenty to see! Although I have a Ku Band dish, I spend most of my time on C-Band. I've never counted them but there's a fair amount of HD Channels, especially on the big dish. I have something like 47 birds programmed into my X2 (both C & Ku). After throwing out channels that I didn't want to see, I came up with a total of around 150 channels in English, and around 150 channels in Spanish. I watch PBS allot, all of it (PBS, Montanna PBS, OETA, LPB, 360 North), MeTv, Movies, RT, DW, ABC, NBC, NHK, COZI, etc. Regarding a C Band Dish, Craigs List is a good resource of course, along with just keeping your eyes open while driving around town. My C-Band Dish is a 10' Winegard Pinnacle. I bought it just down the street for $140. It was filthy, had an old servo horn on it, and had been shot up with a BB gun by the neighborhood kids. I disassembled it, cleaned it, got all the BB dings out, put new hardware on it, installed a new Ortho Mode Feed, two Norsat 8115 LNB's, dug a hole, planted my pipe, and mounted it and aligned it. I've been watching it every night since and love it.
Putting up a Big Dish isn't easy. Digging the correctly sized hole, calculating how much concrete you'll need, the best kind of pipe to use, how much pipe to put in the ground, how to secure it and keep it straight while the mud dries. Finally, mounting and aligning the dish. It's heavy and can get away from you easily. I had 4 guys help me mount the dish on the pole. The guys here on the board are the Satellite God's. Whatever you need to know, you can get it answered here. So, take your time. Ask questions, listen, get it all working, then kick back and enjoy free TV!