cost of Ku-Band (1998)

Alright guys lay off the OP, he is doing his own research. He is just asking questions that is not hurting anyone. If you have nothing to add, move on to the next thread.
Remember we are friendly here, and that is what sets us apart from the rest. :)
 
Residence KU installs usually used a Winegard 76cm, Channelmaster 85cm, repurposed Primestar or BJ homeschool, and Chinese 75-90cm like SatRadar/Samsonic/etc. were starting to become popular for the DTH KU services.

Don't recall retail prices of these reflectors in 98 and not interested in researching. :)
 
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well let me guess, a regular Ku dish would probably cost around $150 (that's half the price of Primestar in '94), as opposed to the cost of the Big Dishes (C-Band) which probably costed about $1000-$1500 with installation costing around $1500 (unless you know how to install it yourself), though some retailers and websites would probably sell the Big Dish for a cheaper price and about 1/2 the cost.
 
Joseph I totally understand where you are coming from. I love looking back too at the old days and reminiscing on things. As a teen in 98 we had a Primestar dish but it was for service and growing up with a 10 ft BUD I was fascinated with satellite. In 98 I started a tape trading page, trading vhs copies of sitcoms and such and it was a big thing in the late 90s and I tried and tried to get our 10 ft bud working but come to find out now looking back the lnb was likely shorter and being only a teen and back before the internet was as helpful as it is now and without much resource I had no idea that I could simply buy a spare primestar dish and a receiver and get all this.

Most of the shows everyone wanted then were paramount ones like diffrent strokes, whats happening, and rare ones like the ropers, and such which appearently were on upn stations in out of town markets and probably was fed up there somewhere in the sky to catch on ku. I wish I could have had access to all this back then because I would have had 3 or 4 vcrs recording all day and my tape collection of 2000 plus would have probably been 10,000 plus. Hey, Im OCD!

I know alot of people laugh at your post about 1998 and such but I totally get it and we all have a year. Mine was 1994. 1998 and 99 were great too but for some reason yours is 1998. I would personally like to find a full wild feed schedule or list from 91-99! I know the one site that has been up forever had a wild feed list from one year on it but man if i could get one for every year of the 90s I would go nuts with the thought of having all of that.

As for this post I see what you mean. You were talking about equipment cost for ku, not monthly as fta is free of charge and always has been except for equipment cost.


Keep up the good work bud.
 
well what were the UPN stations in which the syndicated shows you've mentioned were on back in '98? (Diff'rent Strokes, What's Happening?, The Ropers)


Lots of them. I was in Houston. Our UPN sucked as for hard to find shows, but we had the Tube and channel 51 KNWS which I found out I think both were on ku fta. There were several UPNs with Diffrent Strokes like Dallas,Miami I think. I would like a full Ku band channel list and feed list. I think Orbit back then was only C Band. Would love to get a ku band guide and wild feed list and full list of channels for back then to see what all zi was missing.

I dont know why but when reading stuff like that I get the same feel as I did as a kid at Christmas! Lol

Do you know of any guides that had all free ku band channels and wild feed list for the mid to late 90s?
 
I have no idea but maybe you should check out "Satellite TV Week", but as with the UPN stations in Dallas (KTXA 21) and Miami (WBFS 33) didn't the Paramount Stations Group (PSG) use a Ku-Band transponder for their news feeds and backhauls? I'm just curious since I know that Chris-Craft/United Television used GSTAR4 for their news feeds.
 
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didn't the Paramount Stations Group (PSG) use a Ku-Band transponder for their news feeds and backhauls? I'm just curious since I know that Chris-Craft/United Television used GSTAR4 for their news feeds.

Well I will get to that later (I've still got many videos of commercial breaks I'll have to get through first), the coins I've cashed in was approximately $846, along with the money I saved which was approximately $600 (total $1406.16), that might be well enough for a C-Band dish ($1000), but it will require a very huge investment. But If I want to save on it, the Ku dish was the cheapest alternative. Though I was born in June that year, a lot of people my age (21 years old) around that time would be saving up on those Big Giant C-Band dishes. It was for certain people that'll want to see what they couldn't get on cable or minidish systems (like network feeds and backhauls). Though no one at 21, owns a house or a car (except for certain college graduates).
 
Installation costs on setting up a C-band dish may not leave any money for all of the rest of the gear (polar mount, mover, mover controller, C/Ku LNB, feed horn, motor and receiver).

Those who graduated (or are graduating) from college at age 21 (almost universally with associate degrees rather than bachelor's degrees) weren't typically rolling in money as they were facing student loan payments as big as car and rent payments. Of course comparing 1998 to today doesn't have anything to do with anything unless you have easy access to a working time machine.

In 1998, C-band offered a much broader range of both free and subscription content than it does today.
 
By 1998, I think the only manufacturer left making receivers for subscription TVRO was General Instrument, 4DTV. I am pretty sure Uniden, Drake, HTS/Echosphere, and any of the others were done by then.
You have to remember 1997-98 was the year Ergen came out with the $199 Dish Network system.
DirecTV/USSB had been around for about 4 years by then.
There were virtually no C-Band TVRO sales to speak of, new customers I mean.
I think I remember reading one of the industry’s best years was 1993 after the scrambling fiasco of 1985-86 when sales tanked.
I can assure you save for very few you could probably count on one hand, no 21 year olds were concerned with getting a C-Band system in 1998.
 
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