A good system for Pennsylvania?

[123tim]

Hello,
I am new to FTA but very interested in its reception. I am thinking of purchasing a BEC 2000+ receiver, an Invacom SNH013 0.3 LBNF, and a Wineguard DS2076 76cm dish.
Would anyone be able to tell me if this would be an appropriate (affordable) system to buy for someone living in central Pennsylvania (Zip code 16669)? This is being sold as a system-I really don't have enough knowledge to be able to mix and match my own components at this point.) Would I need any other hardware (excluding the obvious cables and connectors)?
Also would a signal meter be helpful? Does a signal meter only work with analog signals?

Another aside question-Does it appear that FTA signals will be around in the coming years in the numbers that they can apparently be found today?

I hope that I've placed this question in the proper forum. Please forgive me its not.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. I greatly appreciate it.

 

[PSB]

Hello and WELCOME to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum!

I am of the feeling that there will be MORE FTA satellite channels in the coming months and years and hopefully we will catch up with Europe where there are what seems like thousands of channels FTA.

A satellite meter may help but watching your signal Quality meter on the TV is 100times better, its best to have a small TV beside the dish when doing the install/pointing the dish.

Sounds like a nice system but the BEC does not have blind scan or USALS, these are nice features to have for a new hobbyist.

Here are all the angles to the satellites from your area....

                      Petersburg, PA 16669
          Latitude 40° 36.180'N Longitude 77° 59.904'W

                         Sat Name Sat Lng Az(t) Az(m)   El  Skew
----------------------------------------------------------------
                       Telstar 12   15.0W 108.3 119.8 11.6 -46.1
                                 
                     Intelsat 901   18.0W 110.6 122.0 13.9 -45.3
                                 
                     Intelsat 603   20.0W 112.1 123.6 15.3 -44.7
                                 
                            NSS 7   22.0W 113.7 125.1 16.8 -44.0
                                 
                     Intelsat 905   24.5W 115.7 127.2 18.6 -43.2
                                 
                     Intelsat 907   27.5W 118.2 129.7 20.7 -42.0
                                 
                   Hispasat 1C/1D   30.0W 120.4 131.8 22.5 -40.9
                                 
                     Intelsat 801   31.5W 121.7 133.1 23.5 -40.2
                                 
                     Intelsat 903   34.5W 124.4 135.9 25.6 -38.8
                                 
              AMC 12 & Telstar 11   37.5W 127.3 138.8 27.6 -37.1
                                 
                          NSS 806   40.5W 130.3 141.8 29.5 -35.4
                                 
                        PAS 6B/3R   43.0W 132.9 144.4 31.0 -33.8
                                 
                           PAS 1R   45.0W 135.1 146.5 32.2 -32.4
                                 
                     Intelsat 705   50.0W 140.8 152.2 35.0 -28.7
                                 
                     Intelsat 707   53.0W 144.4 155.8 36.5 -26.2
                                 
                     Intelsat 805   55.5W 147.5 159.0 37.7 -24.1
                                 
                            PAS 9   58.0W 150.8 162.2 38.7 -21.8
                                 
                         Amazonas   61.0W 154.8 166.3 39.9 -18.8
                                 
           EchoStar 3 & Rainbow 1   61.5W 155.5 167.0 40.1 -18.3
                                 
                 Estrela do Sul 1   63.0W 157.6 169.1 40.6 -16.8
                                 
                     Brasilsat B2   65.0W 160.5 171.9 41.2 -14.7
                                 
                     Brasilsat B1   70.0W 167.8 179.3 42.3  -9.2
                                 
                 Nahuel 1 & AMC 6   72.0W 170.8 182.3 42.6  -7.0
                                 
                        DirecTV 5   72.5W 171.6 183.0 42.7  -6.4
                                 
                            SBS 6   74.0W 173.9 185.3 42.9  -4.7
                                 
                            AMC 5   79.0W 181.5 193.0 43.0   1.2
                                 
                          Nimiq 2   82.0W 186.1 197.6 42.9   4.7
                                 
                            AMC 9   83.0W 187.7 199.1 42.8   5.8
                                 
                     Brasilsat B3   84.0W 189.2 200.6 42.6   7.0
                                 
                           AMC 16   85.0W 190.7 202.1 42.5   8.1
                                 
                            AMC 3   87.0W 193.7 205.1 42.1  10.3
                                 
              Intelsat Americas 8   89.0W 196.6 208.1 41.7  12.6
                                 
                 Galaxy 11/Nimiq1   91.0W 199.5 211.0 41.2  14.7
                                 
                     Brasilsat B4   92.0W 201.0 212.4 40.9  15.8
                                 
                        Telstar 6   93.0W 202.4 213.8 40.6  16.8
                                 
                        Galaxy 3C   95.0W 205.2 216.6 39.9  18.8
                                 
              Intelsat Americas 5   97.0W 207.9 219.3 39.1  20.8
                                 
                        Galaxy 4R   99.0W 210.5 222.0 38.3  22.7
                                 
                            AMC 4  101.0W 213.1 224.6 37.4  24.5
                                 
                            AMC 1  103.0W 215.6 227.1 36.5  26.2
                                 
                           AMC 15  105.0W 218.1 229.5 35.5  27.9
                                 
                          Anik F1  107.3W 220.8 232.2 34.3  29.7
                                 
         DirecTV 6 & EchoStar 6/8  110.0W 223.8 235.3 32.8  31.7
                                 
                          Anik F2  111.1W 225.0 236.5 32.1  32.5
                                 
                    Solidaridad 2  113.0W 227.1 238.5 31.0  33.8
                                 
                         SatMex 5  116.8W 231.0 242.5 28.6  36.2
                                 
          EchoStar 7 & DirecTV 7S  119.0W 233.2 244.6 27.2  37.4
                                 
  EchoStar 9/Intelsat Americas 13  121.0W 235.1 246.5 25.9  38.5
                                 
                       Galaxy 10R  123.0W 236.9 248.4 24.6  39.5
                                 
                        Galaxy 12  125.0W 238.7 250.2 23.2  40.5
                                 
             Galaxy 13/Horizons 1  127.0W 240.5 251.9 21.8  41.4
                                 
 Intelsat Americas 7 & EchoStar 5  129.0W 242.2 253.7 20.4  42.2
                                 
                           AMC 11  131.0W 243.9 255.3 19.0  43.0
                                 
                        Galaxy 1R  133.0W 245.5 256.9 17.5  43.7
                                 
                           AMC 10  135.0W 247.1 258.5 16.1  44.4
                                 
                            AMC 7  137.0W 248.6 260.1 14.6  45.0
                                 
                            AMC 8  139.0W 250.2 261.6 13.1  45.6
                                 
                     EchoStar 1/2  148.0W 256.7 268.1  6.4  47.6

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[123tim]

Thank you for the information PSB.
The receiver has autosearch. I guess that must not be the same as a blind search?
If this would require a lot of explanition I'll just try to research a little more.
Do you think that the dish is large enough for my latitude?
Thanks!

 

[PSB]

Would be better with at least a 1m dish, but the Winegard is a fantastic dish for its size.

Auto scan scans for transponders that have already been entered into the receiver, of course you can also manually enter additional transponders.

With a Blind scan it will scan the whole satellite for you and FIND any transponders that are FTA automatically!

USALS is another great feature it calculates where the satellites will be in the your arc from a reference or zero point (your true south or zenith)

http://www.usals.info/inglese/home.htm

 

[123tim]

Thanks for the information. It looks like usals would really help. I'm glad that you helped me out with the blind search. I didn't know what I was looking for obviously.