How long have you had your FTA setup?

[Mr Tony]

Real simple fun poll. Just wondering how long you’ve had you’ve had a FTA setup. Now this can be all the way back to C-Band days

-less than a month (July 1, 2005)
-less than 6 months (Feb 1, 2005)
-less than a year (Aug 1, 2004)
-less than 2 years (Aug 1, 2003)
-2 to 5 years
-5-10 years
-more than 10

 

[MikeI]

Analog c-band - October 1988
Analog Ku-band - Sometime around 1990.
MPEG 4:2:0 - October 2002
MPEG 4:2:2 (which I consider different) - August 2005

 

[Mr Tony]

me...less than 2 years

got first setup in January 04

Viacast receiver
30" dish and LNB
Diseqc switch so I could get the audio on ExpressVu

 

[Mr Tony]

Come a long way since the first setup
-9 receivers used (Pansat 1500, Satwork 3618, Pansat 3500, Satwork 3688, Viewsat 2000, Coolsat 4000, Microyal 1000, Fortec 5900, KUsat 2600)
-6 analog receivers used (Toshiba TRX-1420, Toshiba TRX-1520, Uniden Supra, Uniden 4400, no name one, Toshiba 1000 (C-Band only)
-7 or 8 dishes
-switches galore
-LNB’s galore
-enough cable to be like the cable company

What started as a “I want to get the audio on ExpressVu to save a couple bucks” has turned into a MONSTER!!!

 

[Cascade]

If I count my Cband setup back in England in the late 90s..
Well over 10 years.

 

[Mr Tony]

If I count my Cband setup back in England in the late 90s..
Well over 10 years.

you can count that...

 

[bigOleB]

Less than 2 years - Kind of amazing how this "hobby" can get out of control on you if your not careful. I watched OTA for a long time before running into this website and finding out about all the programming out there.

It cost me exactly nothing to watch TV And I haven't broken any laws along the way.

 

[Mr Tony]

Kind of amazing how this "hobby" can get out of control on you if your not careful.

got that right

 

[sharris]

Just over 2 years.

3 Bell receivers
2 free to air, 1 - Digiwave 7000, 1 - twinhan 1020a.

3 dishes, 1 - 30", 2 - 27"

2 circular, 1 standard and 2 universal lnb's

I would like to buy more FTA receivers, like most of you, but I have one small little problem.......My wife won't let me.

 

[pro96]

I've been doing this since 1986, here's the list that I remember back in the days.


1986- C-Band when HBO,TBS,HTS were in the clear. (HTS was the Baltimore Orioles channel formerly known as Home Team Sports)

1994- First DirecTv setup, GE receiver cost $700.00, Fubar

1999- First DVB receiver, Pansat 200A Sold it

2000- Pansat 100e, Broke

2003- Pansat 2300a, Still have it

2004- Pansat 2500a, Sold it

 

[mrcollector2004]

3 Big dishes 10 fiberglass 1996 10 foot mesh 1998 8.5 foot uni mesh
Primestar 40" 1996 dish 500 for audio 1998
after reading this group for over a year
have a fortec lifetime 1 month on cband 8.5 unimesh horizontal only bad servo and a bunch of very fast very mad hornets.. in the feed horn cover Ouch..

Bruce
free_to_air_sat yahoo messanger

 

[sikma]

I voted (less than six months) before I read Ice's first post that including the c-band daze. I put up my first c-band in 1986 when EVERYTHING was in the clear. I had bought a used uniden receiver with a seperate controller to move the used 10' mesh dish. I had to keep a lot of 'cheat sheets' and thank god for the old OnSat magazine. However, I did have to hunt high & low in the Twin Cities back then just to find the monthly magazine.

 

[Mr Tony]

sikma
I changed your to 10+ years

Also edited the poll title to add C-band

 

[Michael-Berlin]

a sunny day in 1995: my first satellite dish ... I've received Eutelsat II F1 on 13°East (there was no Hot Bird) but I wanted to receive Astra on 19.2°East ... I was a DXer from the first day I've received this day a lot of other satellites with my small dish (e.g. Turksat, other Eutelsats, Sirius, Telstar, Intelsats etc.)

 

[Diamond Jim]

Since 1983 with the BUD, 2 years come this November for the MPEG2.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I'm a FTA newbie!

< 6 months (May '05)

Before that I've installed and re-installed DIY D* a few times (early 90's to current). FTA is much more fun .

Shawn

 

[voomvoom]

C-band.......... 1979
VideoCipher II.. when HBO scrambled (not FTA)
ku-band......... sometime in mid to late 80's
4dtv.............. whenever GI 920 came out (not FTA)
2nd 4dtv........ whenever GI 922 came out (not FTA)
FTA............... sometime in mid to late 90's, Manhattan "Digi" Plaza receiver, not listed on Manhattan's web site, don't know if I can get updates for it or not.
Directv........... 1998 (not FTA)
Voom............. late October 2003 (not FTA)
Dish HD.......... mid May 2005 (not FTA)
Pansat 3500s.. a month ago
Quali-tv "QS1080IR".... a week ago

I voted 5 to 10 years, but I wasn't thinking about C-band as FTA at the time. It should be + 10 years....

Al

 

[Michael-Berlin]

Hi Al!

C-band.......... 1979

I was just 5 years old in 1979
And my parents had only 2 tv channels in this year from the GDR (former eastern Germany) and one tv channel from the west (ARD - Germany's first channel)

On my 14th birthday in 1988 I became my own TV set and over terrestrial antenna here in East Berlin I've received AFN-TV (American Forces Network) in NTSC (black/white on my TV), Antenne 2 (2nd french channel) in SECAM, BFBS-TV (British Forces Broadcasting Service) in PAL and Ostankino 1 (Russia's First Channel) in SECAM-EAST. That was my first terrestrial DXing

From West-Berlin I also had 4 more channels from Western Germany (ARD, ZDF, NDR and RIAS-TV/SAT.1). This was a real highlight here in the eastern zone. And I was just 14 years old when I saw "Wheel of Fortune" and "The A-Team" and other U.S.-series on AFN-TV.

Later than in Berlin aired a lot of german channels. Today we can receive 24 digital channels over terrestrial antenna. But the only foreign channel is BBC WORLD. No more AFN and BFBS

 

[MikeI]

Addendum to add DirecTV in June 1996 and Dish Network in March of 1997.
Used to get CBC for free on Nimiq at 91 for the Blue Jays. They stopped for free on channel 200 before the Olympics, but I forget what year now.

 

[rkrenicki]

I was born in 1979