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bigmutt
Last reply · posted in Free To Air (FTA) Discussion
Well, after MONTHS of reading these forums & doing my research, you guys ALMOST convinced me to jump in to FTA (probably with a Fortec receiver) but the sort of antenna I'll need is still an open question.

I live in Mexico City, fairly high with unobstructed view of sky, and I need to know how big the dish has to be to pick up the main satellites with English programming.

Please help:
I'm dying here, due to lack of english-language programming. (Sky sat service here has a few english channels and I subscribed previously, but they have no provision for suspending service for the 5 months out of each year that I'm in the U.S.; their 18-month minimum is totally inflexible, so to hell with them!).

btw, I do subscribe to DishNet in San Diego and tried to figure out how to continue receiving their programming here (legally) but when I brought my DishNet box here, it was unable to receive any Dish signal, even though a local "satellite guy" screwed around with it for an hour, using a Sky TV satellite dish. Anyone have any suggestions with THAT?

I don't want to steal any signals or get something for nothing; I just want some english-language programming (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, HistoryChannel, etc.), and am willing to pay the going rate for it.

please help.

Rick
4 Replies · 2188 views
PSB
PSB
WELCOME to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum.

Moving to the MAIN FTA area....
PSB
PSB
Have a look at the footprint for the G10R satellite, thats where you will get the most US Networks FTA....

http://www.panamsat.com/global_network/galaxy10R_ku.asp

Then have a look at Sadouns Satellite Dish size area....

http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Dish-Size.htm
jayelem
EIRP looks like 40-42 in D.F. , what are your chances of picking up a 120 cm or bigger dish.
A
bigmutt said:
I don't want to steal any signals or get something for nothing; I just want some english-language programming (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, HistoryChannel, etc.), and am willing to pay the going rate for it.
please help.
Rick
It's not stealing signals if they are up there unscrambled - that's what we talk about here, the Free-To-Air stuff.
Now, if you had a big C-band dish, with a C & Ku band feedhorn, and a clear view to the south, you could pick up at least Eastern time zone feeds of all of the networks, free (plus feeds of at least some of the networks form other time zones). They won't necessarily have the greatest quality video or sound, but they will be free.
But if you don't want to get a big dish and don't mind paying, I would suggest you look at getting "grey market" satellite service using a broker in either the U.S. or Canada. Note, I do NOT know if it is legal to do this in Mexico. I think only one of the Canadian services (can't remember which one) has coverage that includes Mexico, the other has a "footprint" that only covers the northern part of North America, again if I remember correctly.
So you can either go the free route or the pay route. For free and with a single Ku band dish pointed at G10R you can get some network stations but not all of them (no CBS or NBC). For free and with a big C-band dish and positioner, you can get all the networks and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff (even more if you also have an analog receiver, though those analog feeds may soon go away). Free stations are NOT guaranteed to stay free, as we discovered the hard way late last fall - they can start scrambling at any time.
With pay service you can get by with one or two small dishes that stay fixed on single satellites, but since you are not in the U.S. or Canada you're looking at "grey market" service and that may or may not be illegal where you are. For info on the Canadian "grey market" see this area: http://www.satelliteguys.us/forumdisplay.php?f=28
Again, bear in mind that at least one, and possibly both of the Canadian services may not put a usable signal into your location.
I'm sure others will have more to add to this...
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68565 Replies · 2675552 views
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dishstaller
Little Miss Dangerous - Ted Nugent
RaiderPower
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong - Spin Doctors
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sdfntx
Jump Down, Spin Around - Harry Belafonte
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long_time_Dish
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around - Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks
H
This Old HEART Of Mine(Is Weak For You)-The Isley Brothers
iJustine
Last reply · posted in iJustine
1 Replies · 8 views
T
It's not even where it folds!
SuperDish_Fan23
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
Why are ViP922s So rare? like its crazy how ebay has none, i checked everywhere, also, i got a ViP222k now, which is actually activated!
20 Replies · 496 views
S
That's not really unusual. Cable companies like to the provide the box too. The phone company provided the phones in until the government forced them to allow third-party phones.
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Almighty1
That's not really unusual. Cable companies like to the provide the box too. The phone company provided the phones in until the government forced them to allow third-party phones.
Yes, the Western Electric phones that says "Bell System Property, NOT FOR SALE, Western Electric".
AZ.
AZ.
Yes, the Western Electric phones that says "Bell System Property, NOT FOR SALE, Western Electric".
someone is showing their age
Almighty1
someone is showing their age
LOL. It depends if the person saw it during the years when they were actually still available which is 1968 to 1983 meaning the person could be 43-58 years old or they can even be a few years old if they learned to read and write at a young age and actually saw a telephone with that label somewhere recently just like even here in San Francisco, payphone still exist physically in public places but whether they can be used or not is a different issue. It still looks like this even today:
1792633296785.webp
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dishstaller
I opened my Radio Shack in Sept 1984 and right about that time they did the whole deregulation thing with the phone companies. I bought TONS of those phones that had been refurbished with a new outer shell. You could throw one of those out of a 3 story high window and it would still work.
That was an interesting time in history. I would have older customers come in and ask about phones.....they were terrified that they were going to get into trouble hooking up a second phone without the phone company knowing about it. One of the funniest episodes of WKRP was the one where Johnny thought the cops were showing up because they had an unregistered phone. I guess younger folks can't conceive of a time when you were limited to the number of phones you could have in your house....and limited to the length of the cord 🤣
navychop
someone is showing their age

You should hear his stories about when rocks were soft and pterodactyls were the new kid on the block!
dishstaller
One of the funniest episodes of WKRP was the one where Johnny thought the cops were showing up because they had an unregistered phone.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA0yZ1nrm6M&pp=ygUPd2tycCBwaG9uZSBjb3Bz
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
He was 71 yrs old. One of my favorite songs is Seminole Wind....the violin is killer.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8sh9P3X33w
5 Replies · 45 views
FTA4PA
Rest In Peace
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M
I Wish I Could Have Been There is an amazing song. Rest in peace Mr Anderson.
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Bobby
Rest in peace.
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comfortably_numb
Hope you're out there Swingin', John.
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dishstaller
I Wish I Could Have Been There is an amazing song.
That's one of those songs that hits a little too close to home for me. I like the song but just can't listen to it. It's kinda like that song "Daddy never was the Cadillac kind".....reminds me too much of my Grandfather who died Feb 18, 1995.
N
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
My OTA is not working anymore. This started after the latest update. I have the OTA dongle with a OTA antenna that I've been using for years. My hopper does not recognize the dongle anymore and when I go to the OTA setting, it has a screen that says to plug a dongle into the USB. I tried unplugging and plugging back, in the same usb port and other ports. The Hopper does not recognize it. Anyone have same issue?
201 Replies · 5110 views
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Scott Greczkowski
Did you people having this issue contact Brittany yet? Shes trying to keep track of things and it would be good for you to contact her as maybe she can get this somewhere and get fixed.

Now while unofficial, I am hearing this issue wasn't caused by DISH's software team, but was caused by a chipset driver update that seemes to have hosed some older USB devices. If this is indeed the case I can see why DISH didn't know and why they are slow in fixing it as they need the chipset company to fix its drivers and release them to DISH so they can be pushed out to all.

DISH does not hate you guys nor do they want you to buy new USB dongles. I am rather sure they didn't even know this was an issue until they saw it posted.

Again contact Brittany if you are having this issue, so she has your info and hopefully she can do something for you to keep you happy. :)
bookworm370
Did you people having this issue contact Brittany yet? Shes trying to keep track of things and it would be good for you to contact her as maybe she can get this somewhere and get fixed.

Now while unofficial, I am hearing this issue wasn't caused by DISH's software team, but was caused by a chipset driver update that seemes to have hosed some older USB devices. If this is indeed the case I can see why DISH didn't know and why they are slow in fixing it as they need the chipset company to fix its drivers and release them to DISH so they can be pushed out to all.

DISH does not hate you guys nor do they want you to buy new USB dongles. I am rather sure they didn't even know this was an issue until they saw it posted.

Again contact Brittany if you are having this issue, so she has your info and hopefully she can do something for you to keep you happy. :)
Thanks, but until they do, can't Dish just revert to the old driver that worked? Then test the new driver when delivered,d before pushing it again.

But then what does an old CIO know! I've only reamed quite a few buttholes from my people that didn't do that! ;)
S
Thanks, but until they do, can't Dish just revert to the old driver that worked? Then test the new driver when delivered,d before pushing it again.

But then what does an old CIO know! I've only reamed quite a few buttholes from my people that didn't do that! ;)
dish can't revert back to older drivers or updates. although just one reason not to buy the ota dongle!!!
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ppappas
dish can't revert back to older drivers or updates. although just one reason not to buy the ota dongle!!!
They can absolutely put the old driver back if they wanted. This is an embedded software environment in which they have total control. All they have to do if build a new version of firmware with the old OTA driver and test it of course. They just don't want to spend the resources doing so. If they are not going to continue supporting the single tuner adapter, then they have to say so.
Almighty1
They can absolutely put the old driver back if they wanted. This is an embedded software environment in which they have total control. All they have to do if build a new version of firmware with the old OTA driver and test it of course. They just don't want to spend the resources doing so. If they are not going to continue supporting the single tuner adapter, then they have to say so.
Unless of course they didn't keep a copy of the old drivers and can no longer get it. Then there is always the their support for the product is EOL after a x amount of time so it will make the consumer have to buy the current product offering.
B
Anyone heard any updates on this, I'm still having the issue so thought I'd check in.
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Almighty1
Anyone heard any updates on this, I'm still having the issue so thought I'd check in.
No updates but if you can get DISH Technical Operations to roll you back to H710 or earlier even though H708 would be best because it also eliminates another problem like in this comment, you will also no longer have the problem as long as you don't update manually or forced to any new version until the problem is fixed as the problem started in H711 and still exist in H712 and H713.
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dishstaller
Installed an off-air antenna a couple days ago for a customer who had just cancelled his Dish service. He had a dual off-air adapter and gave it to me. Cool. I'll keep it on the truck....might come in handy. Got to admit I don't watch anything as far as live tv goes anymore. Even if we have severe weather, our local channels will have a live feed on Youtube.
navychop
In other news, it was announced that the software fix for the two tin cans and a string will not be forthcoming. A hardware fix is required. However, that fix will let you receive stations from a gazillion miles away.

Truck roll charges may apply. Two year commitment required.
M
Last reply · posted in Over the Air Television By RabbitEars.Info
Interesting article about the work being done to develope an ATSC 3 converter box. Yes it does mention affordable.
6 Replies · 213 views
navychop
DEATH TO NEXGEN!
TRG
TRG
17 years ago the US turned off analog OTA signals in favor of digital broadcasting. Now the push is ATSC 3 "Nextgen TV". But nobody seems to be able to agree on DRM implementation protocols. People don't want to hook their TV up to the internet in order to watch over the air TV. At least I don't. With all the data they collect about your viewing habits the box should be given away at no cost.
navychop
Comb your hair.
primestar31
DEATH TO NEXGEN!
star trek GIF


It's dead, they just don't know it yet. They killed it by forcing DRM on it, and that TOTALLY botched implementing it.

There is absolutely NO compelling reason for anybody to switch to ATSC3.0. They only want it as a total and complete money grab.
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navychop
I truly hope you are right.
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