Brand New to Satellite

[SaltyKayak]

Hello everyone,
I have been a cable TV guy for the last 100 years and have finally broken into satellite TV with DirecTV. While doing research on the net for satellite TV, I came across a few nebulous terms like KU and C band and FTA and oval dishes, round dishes, mesh dishes, solid dishes, sectioned dishes, horns, focal points... it's enough to make a redneck cry. So, I'll start here and let the experts point me in the right direction.

I am very interested in the free to air concept and it appears like if I get a 30+" dish I will be able to get FTA. I want to watch FTA on one of my computers and have purchased a TwinhanDTV card model 1027.

What is a good starter dish/LNB? I plan on expanding through stages once I understand how things work so I would want what I buy to be expandable.

All help and direction would be appreciated.

thanx, SaltyKayak

 

[Cegarrett]

The Best place to find out about Free To Air is in the FTA Forum

 

[iafirebuff]

WELCOME!

First off, come on over to the FTA Forum. TONS of info there.

A good dish to use (especially if you want to keep the price down) is an old Primestar dish. But depending on your location, a 30" or larger dish will be needed.

 

[Mr Tony]

moved to FTA area

 

[Anole]

welcome

Most any linear LNB will get you going, be it universal or standard.
You just don't want circular, as that's what is used on the Direct/Dish/Bev pay TV systems.
If you want to get a better one , keep an eye out for an LNB boasting a 0.3db noise figure.
Larger numbers (0.6db) are a little less desirable, though under good conditions you may be perfectly happy with one.
For more info, check out our review section - you'll see LNB reviews there.

The Twinhan DVB-S cards are quite popular.
I have a similar model, as well as their USB Starbox.
For the PCI card, you might consider trying DVBdream software.
It is very popular with users of DVB cards.

 

[McGuyver]

Educating yourself...

It will take time to gather all the technical knowledge about sat's and I've found that "Satellite Glossaries" are a good reference for terms, just do a internet search for "satellite glossary" and just keep reading and plugging away. Welcome and Good Luck :up

 

[Tron]

Just a suggestion, but it is very difficult to aim a dish using a PCI card alone. If you are just starting out with FTA, it is a good idea to purchase a standalone receiver first. This will accomplish a couple of things: 1) You will be able to blind scan (provided you buy a receiver with that capability), which is VERY helpful when getting started and in finding wild feeds, and 2) You won't be pulling your hair out trying to use the software quality meter with the PCI card. It is VERY difficult to aim a dish that way.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, we're here

 

[bill190]

Click on the links above and see all the products which are available.

Satellite has C band, and Ku band. This is sort of like AM and FM on a radio. With C band, you need a large dish. Ku will work with a small dish.

You can get a BSC621 or a BSC621-2 "C/Ku LNBF", mount this on a big dish (I have a 12 ft. wire mesh dish), and then receive C-band and Ku band. A big dish uses a 36 volt positioner to move it back and forth, so you would also need a Moteck V-BOX II to move the dish back and forth. The mpeg FTA receiver communicates with the V-BOX II using a communications protocol called DiSEqC.

Historically big dishes used a "feed horn" and a "H/V polarizer" along with a C-band LNB. The polarizer needs separate wires to make it work. Most mpeg FTA receivers have NO connection for this! But the above BSC621-2 solves this problem because the H/V is all done via the coax cable.

Basically be careful with what you buy. You could purchase various components which will not work together!

Satellite has analog and digital. Analog is like your car radio. With digital you need a special receiver to get satellite radio, same thing with digital FTA (an mpeg receiver). Some mpeg receivers like a Fortec Star Mercury II have what is called a "blind search". There are a TON of frequencies for all the various satellites and they change. With some receivers, you need to enter the frequencies. A blind search receiver will search for these frequencies and enter them for you (once you find the satellite).

Each satellite has frequencies and channels on each frequency. You can see these frequencies and channels at lyngsat.com or satcodx.com. The 4 digit frequencies are C-band (like 3760), the 5 digit frequencies are Ku band Like 11715).

All satellite product manufacturers assume your name is Einstein and that you are a rocket scientist! Thus they feel they can save money by providing very limited instructions along with the receivers as you don't need instructions because you are so smart!

Many other FTA related products include NO instructions! For example an offset dish. You need to know how many degrees the dish is offset and use a dish pointing computer program to know how to set-up the dish. Well I have bought two offset dishes which included *nothing* about the offset degrees! Of course I searched the internet, found the manufacturer's web site, then found the dish and the specifications along with the offset amount there.

All this hunting and learning makes this satellite business quite fun for me though...

 

[bill190]

Just a suggestion, but it is very difficult to aim a dish using a PCI card alone...

Good point! When I aim my dish, I use a signal meter and a receiver to move my dish back and forth. I take everything outside. Then I can move the dish back and forth and see what signals I am getting - adjust the dish alignment, etc.

 

[Tron]

Another problem with a lone PCI card is that the software meters do not react very quickly (and sometimes not very accurately)...