bad influence?

[Dee_Ann]

Are you guys trying to trick me into becoming a geek?
You must be.
Why?

I planted another satellite pole today.

I went to the store and bought some cement and a hole digger.
I was going to buy a shovel but the guy at the store showed me a hole digger thing that looked like it would be better. So I bought one.

The kid loaded the cement in my car and I drove off.
When I got home I discovered that the cement bag was too much for me to carry around to the back yard so I borrowed a little red wagon from a neighbor and pushed it out of the car into the wagon. That darn kid at the store sure made it look a lot lighter than I found it to be.

I found an old fence pole in the tool shed so I used that for putting the dish on.

So I went back and after consulting with my neighbor for some advice (and to try to con him into doing the work for me) I took the digger, made a hole, put the pole in it, mixed the cement in the wagon and poured it in around the pole then leveled it up with my iphone (a little app for leveling stuff).

My neighbor sat on his porch in the shade sipping a beer while I was out there having a heat stroke. I swear he was snickering at me the whole time.

I washed the little wagon out and returned it then hurried back into the air conditioning before I died out there.

So my neighbor says the cement should be dry by tomorrow, that I can put the dish up on it by then. Whew! My back is killing me!

So tomorrow I am going to put up another of those stupid little beasties and see if I can find some more interesting stuff to watch.

I swear, I still intend to take them all down and put up just one on a motor but I have all these free ones the ex left behind so I might as well use them for now until I can afford to put up the one large dish.

At this rate though, I soon won't have much yard left to mow. I think I will put some bricks around them and plant flowers inside for now. To be honest, I don't think I'll be able to put the big dish up until spring.

Sigh....... You guys, I swear, y'all are such a bad influence on me....

 

[1ADAM12]

Just call me "Old Fashioned" you should have used a Spirit Level at least 36" long. You should also plumb the pole on two sides. This is the most critical step in a dish installation, especially true if you plan to ever put a motor on the pole. I hope you dug the hole wider at the bottom.

 

[zamar23]

Great accomplishment, Dee! If you keep planting at least one pole a day during the month of August, you can earn SatGuys' Special Fan Recognition Award for pushing FTA hobby into masses - not kidding! When you run out of territory, you can turn your head towards your neighbor's multifeed system as a transitional option towards the motorized one. :up

 

[Dee_Ann]

Just call me "Old Fashioned" you should have used a Spirit Level at least 36" long. You should also plumb the pole on two sides. This is the most critical step in a dish installation, especially true if you plan to ever put a motor on the pole. I hope you dug the hole wider at the bottom.

What in the world is a Spirit Level? Does it have anything to do with a ouija board?

My neighbor told me I would need to put my level (iphone) on each quarter of the pole so that the bubble picture was the same on all sides.

Um, the hole. I um, dug it wider at the top than the bottom. It was the best I could do, I was trying to get it done before I died in the heat.
No one told me about digging like that. Oh well, I guess it's too late now. But considering this is my first ever I think I did pretty good.

I guess I can put wires on it like you do with a tree in case it comes loose.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Great accomplishment, Dee! If you keep planting at least one pole a day during the month of August, you can earn SatGuys' Special Fan Recognition Award for pushing FTA hobby into masses - not kidding! When you run out of territory, you can turn your head towards your neighbor's multifeed system as a transitional option towards the motorized one. :up

As hard as that was I really can't see myself putting another one up anytime soon.
But I think I can manage when I put up the big motor dish. But I swear, I'm going to bribe on of my neighbors into moving the cement for me with some beer.
I hate the stuff but they all like it so I think I could manage to bring myself to buy a six pack of the stuff as payment for some manual labor. That cement is just too heavy for me to deal with.

I wish there was a smilie for dead tired... :sleeo

 

[turbosat]

You should've bought the shovel! If you can't lift the 80lb sacks (or was it 40) out of trunk, chop bag open with shovel, throw some into the wagon, then lift the 2 halves out, lol.
I do appreciate your dedication, I can say I do not know many women who would mix cement, nor try putting in a fence pole lol.
Don't worry about the 3' level, on a fixed satellite install, its not that critical. You can make adjustments in the elevation & east/west aiming for any pole-offset*

*if you're good.
Just kidding,haha.
Keep up the good work Dee, there's no reason not to use what you got there if you wanna.

 

[Lak7]

Addiction

• Main Entry: ad·dic·tion
• Pronunciation: \?-?dik-sh?n, a-\
• Function: noun
• Date: 1599

1. FTA Satellite

 

[zamar23]

Dee,

Here's a Ground Pole Installation Guide, developed specially for a dedicated Sat TV fan like you. It'll be utmost useful when installing a Pole for a Motorized Dish.

 

[1ADAM12]

Addiction

• Main Entry: ad·dic·tion
• Pronunciation: \?-?dik-sh?n, a-\
• Function: noun
• Date: 1599

1. FTA Satellite

Yes, this is far beyond a hobby.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Hey guys, I don't think I would call it dedication. More like stubborn, hard headed, red headedness.

And, I am pleased to mention that I now have Galaxy 19 working.

I annoyed my neighbor some more for more help. I also discovered the cement was already dry so I put the dish on the pole and used the birdog to find the satellite and adjust it for the best signal.

I'm afraid to say this but I *think* I'm getting the hang of this a little. This time it was soooo much easier to find the satellite than other times.

I'm listening to Fashion TV music right now. I sure wish they would make it affordable to subscribe. I miss that channel. Oh sure, I can afford all those wacky outfits. Sure I can..

Oh and the cement bag was 80 pounds, still lighter than my smallest dog. Can't lift them either. I have a ramp for them to get in and out of the van.

I bought the cement in the car, I didn't know it was going to be so heavy. And the kid at the store made it look like he was carrying a loaf of bread. HA! Right!

I just shoved it out of the car into the little wagon.

I guess I should buy my own little wagon in case I ever need to do that again.
I would prefer not to, to be honest. And doing this stuff in the summer is just insane.

Ok, dumb question time. Those little round dishes, like is on everyone's house, those aren't good for any free satellites are they? There's like a dozen or so of them around here and I would just as soon toss them out if they are no good.
Don't I have to use a big dish for free stuff?

Thanks again guys!

 

[Lak7]

I'm listening to Fashion TV music right now.

Fashion TV is still available, it's just HD only now.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Fashion TV is still available, it's just HD only now.

If I can hear it but not see it is that because I don't have an HD TV?
I don't really want to buy one until the ones I have here already die out.
Another of my annoying habits is, I'm frugal. Or at least I try to be.

Thank you!

 

[hd fan]

You need an HD capable satellite receiver or an HD capable SAT Tuner card on a PC. Your receiver is probably SD therefore you can only listen to it and probably are only able to watch a somewhat mostly green screen with some other similar colors.

 

[phlatwound]

........ Those little round dishes, like is on everyone's house, those aren't good for any free satellites are they? There's like a dozen or so of them around here and I would just as soon toss them out if they are no good.........

They aren't much good for FTA. Just NASA, a religious channel and some Dishnet advertising.

here's a good thread:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpeg2-faqs/34131-what-can-i-get-18-dish-dish-500-a.html

 

[Anole]

small dishes:

Before you toss 'em, take some pictures.
If we see anything you need to save, that's a freebie for you.
Some of us might like the odd LNB or other part, so that's a freebie for us.

How to make friends and influence enemies: offer free dish parts (we pay shipping where necessary). -

 

[Dee_Ann]

oh bummer...

I don't know if I want to spend any more money for awhile so I'll hold off on the HD TV stuff. Last time I looked they were like $400 and up. Shesh.. That's just crazy.
And that's for TV's that are smaller than the old timey ones I have have from long ago.

I have a 47 inch tv that needs fixing but I don't know if they fix them anymore.
So it gathers dust.


I pointed a little dish and found the nasa channel. I might as well leave it up, they put pretty videos of earth up sometimes. I guess I will curb the pile of little ones. Or maybe make bird baths out of them.. I can't imagine why in the world he collected so many. Every time there is a hurricane roofers would pull them down and throw them to the curb so they could put the new roof on and he would drive around and pick them up. I know he wanted to make a water heater out of the huge ones but I have no clue what was going through his head on the little ones.

Just junk as far as I'm concerned. And once I get the motor dish up I'm going to get rid of "the collection" out back of these other ones.

After browsing through the channels on Galaxy 19 I can find nothing at all of any value to me. I think tomorrow I will see if I can find the PBS satellite. This one is a dud. I only speak English. I come from the era when learning a second language in school was an elective and not a requirement.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Before you toss 'em, take some pictures.
If we see anything you need to save, that's a freebie for you.
Some of us might like the odd LNB or other part, so that's a freebie for us.

How to make friends and influence enemies: offer free dish parts (we pay shipping where necessary). -

Oh, ok. I can do that tomorrow. Good idea..

Thank you!

 

[GreatFTA]

My neighbor sat on his porch in the shade sipping a beer while I was out there having a heat stroke. I swear he was snickering at me the whole time.

Dee-Ann, he won't be snickering when you show him all the free channels FTA has to offer. He may have you put up a system (pole and all) for him...

 

[GreatFTA]

Dee-Ann, how did you get started in FTA? Not many ladies have the guts you have to put one up. I admire you for that!

 

[Dee_Ann]

No no no noooooooooooooo!

I'm not about to do this stuff again, for anyone. My dad is already wanting me to help him. I might, if he can wait until winter.


Get started in it? Well, my ex had put a few of the little uglies up in the back yard some years ago and before that, we had a huge dish on a motor but it was a lot of trouble. We subscribed to some stuff on it but the company went out of business and it shut off so my ex sawed the thing down.

I never really watched it much other than once in a rare occasion, I would watch some Fashion TV. That quit working some time back and a few months ago, I think, I was going to throw it all away. I took a few of them down and just as I was taking the last one down I got this crazy idea to check and see if it could be fixed first before I threw it out.

I asked a few questions which lead me to google and google led me to here.
From there it's been all uphill..

Believe me, I'm not doing this for the fun of it. None of it has been fun yet.
I have gained a little satisfaction from having managed to make this junk work again.

My girlfriends are ready to call the men in white coats to come get me, they just roll their eyes when I tell them what I did. I only know two guys (that I talk to) and they just grin when I tell them. Actually, only one does, come to think of it, the other guy doesn't seem too interested. Not that I care what they think anyway. Not interested in either one of them, just friends.

As far as usefulness, I only find about 3 channels that I actually like, White Springs, RTV, This and sometimes AMG. And even those channels are mainly shows for men.

Sports are forbidden in my house so I have no use for any of those sorts of channels. I also do not watch "action" movies or anything that is fueled by testosterone. There's not much on TV for women.

I guess you could say that I am driven to find some entertainment that * I * can enjoy. 95% of stuff on TV is for men and boys.
So I will keep checking satellites until I find something. There has to be something out there for my half of the world.

Men run the world, put the satellites in space, make the movies and TV shows, send them to our TV sets then control the remote when it gets here.

It sure would be nice to have a nice 50/50 balance of content. But then it would be a fair world and we can't have that, can we? !protest

Ooops, sorry to be so sarcastic. Sometimes I get a little b**chy over certain things and just have to say my bit. Breathe deep. Yes... I'm ok now.. :

Sigh....