Hello!

[ActonEllis]

Hello from Acton, TX! I have wanted an fta setup for quite some time now, but didn't have the time or knowledge to set one up. With the help of this site, I am now close to having a ku band setup. For all the help you give, I thank you.

Over the past month, I bought an antenna and HVR-2250 to replace our DTV subscription with OTA transmissions supplemented by the internet. So far so good. My wife is pretty happy as long as she has her Thai programming over the internet, and she's been a good sport about me spending all this money.

Yesterday I picked up a Pansat 9200 HD from craig's list for 100 bucks. At some point I want to get a 1m dish and a motor, but I would prefer not to spend much more money at this point in time. I still have my DTV dish and lnb's on the roof, so the question is:

1. can I use that dish with a linear ku lnb?
2. How many channels could I get with this and a motor?
3. Are there any coupon codes or promotion occurring right now that I could take advantage of, if I have to buy a larger dish now?

Again thanks for all your help.

 

[turbosat]

Look around for a used dish, some of us are using those old abandoned Primestar dishes, they make great fta dishes. Might find one with a craigslist ad, or by just driving around and looking, lot of the time people will give them away just to get them out of their yards.(they have no clue they're useful)
Closed down stores that used ku satellite transmission for data or credit card authorizations might be another place to watch, for no-longer-used dishes.
The pay-tv dishes , the bigger ones anyway, can be used sometimes, if you install a linear ku lnbf on them, but its a project not exactly for a beginner, and even then you may not get nearly the amount of signals you'd get with a regular ku dish. As for how many channels you MIGHT get, I wouldn't want to guess.
edit to add : About the promotions>check the satellite dealers ads at the top of the pages here, our sponsors usually have some deals on dishes, dishes with lnbf included, or dishes/lnbfs & motor combinations for sale. &&&
Welcome to Satelliteguys!

 

[ActonEllis]

Just wanted to point out to anyone who may not know: just because it's a Pansat 9200 HD does not mean that it has the S-2 add-on card. Guess the HD means it can Display in HD any ATSC channel received in HD.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'll look around for an old dish to use with a SG2100 and linear LNB.

The mother-in-law is crazy about Tennis. I don't suppose it is possible to get that channel a la carte with this receiver, or with a package even, for when she visits?

Thanks again!

 

[turbosat]

Your 9200 should do free to air HD signals without the add-on board. Once you get a dish connected and start playing around you'll figure it out quickly. There isn't any "package" providers for free to air equipment, except the glorystar religious channels package. So sorry, no subbing to Tennis channel nor anything like that, for now. Maybe, someday.

 

[Jim S.]

Just wanted to point out to anyone who may not know: just because it's a Pansat 9200 HD does not mean that it has the S-2 add-on card. Guess the HD means it can Display in HD any ATSC channel received in HD.

There are HD channels that aren't S2. At least, there are feeds like that. I don't remember whether there are any permanent non-S2 HD channels left, and my current receiver doesn't tell you whether a channel is S2 or not. I think the national PBS HD feeds aren't S2 yet.