If I wanted to set up a Free to Air System?

[piperut]

Hi Everyone,

Let's say I decide I want a Free to Air System. Where would I start?

In the past I had a BUD, but that has been taken out, and the post has been removed. We also had Dish Network, and the dish from Dish Network has been taken off the roof. The mount for that dish is still up there, but I am not sure I could hit the western birds as that post is on the lower part of the eastern slope of my roof. Would I be better off to sink a new post in the ground?

I think I have enough room on the south end of my house to put a post, and be able to shoot over the house to the south of me. On the south end of the house is a Directv HD dish. I don't want to block this dish. What sort of view does the Directv HD dish need (180 degrees, 90 degrees, etc due south)?

I would like the receiver to be user friendly. What sort of wiring is involved between the dish and the receiver. The old BUD had a whole bunch of wires. Dish, Voom and Directv have only had one coax cable running between the dish and the receiver.

I am really only planning on hooking this up to one television, but that might change depending on what is up on the free to air birds. Can I run two recievers off one free to air dish?

I think I would want a HD receiver. I would like the reciever to be user friendly. I am not familiar with any of the different FTA receivers available.

Thanks,

Roland

 

[Long Hair]

Here is where I would start. First what fta do you want (C-band, Ku-band, or both)?If both than you will need a bud.If you just want ku than you need a 36" or bigger dish. After you know what dish you want,than plant a pole that will fit the dish. If you go the bud route than you will be running multiple cabels. 1 or 2 coax,3 wires for servo,and 4 to5 for the actuator. If its ku only you could run 1 coax cabel to the dish and mover.
You can slave multiple receivers off of one dish,but depending on what setup you have all the receiver may have to be on the same polarity. Hope this will help get you started

 

[piperut]

Here is where I would start. First what fta do you want (C-band, Ku-band, or both)?If both than you will need a bud.If you just want ku than you need a 36" or bigger dish. After you know what dish you want,than plant a pole that will fit the dish. If you go the bud route than you will be running multiple cabels. 1 or 2 coax,3 wires for servo,and 4 to5 for the actuator. If its ku only you could run 1 coax cabel to the dish and mover.
You can slave multiple receivers off of one dish,but depending on what setup you have all the receiver may have to be on the same polarity. Hope this will help get you started

I have been looking at some of the dish packages at the various satellite companies. Some come with a wall/roof mount. Will these support the weight of a 36 inch dish?

Thanks,

Roland

 

[turbosat]

Yes, people use wall-mounts for those dishes. I prefer a pipe in the ground, closer to work on without a ladder. You can buy package deal or all the parts and put your own together, dual-output lnbf are avail now, so you can run another cable for a 2nd tv later if you want.
Check out our sponsors, top of page, some of them have systems already packaged, or have all the parts for sale sep. Not knowing what you want to watch, I can't recommend ku-only or c=band + ku also. I'd suggest just starting out simple, look for the fancier setups and hd receivers once you get acquainted with the free to air world. Not that much HD up there now that is scrambled and unavailable to fta users. PBS has sev channels on AMC21, not sure if they're 24hr a day channels or not. Check The List, link at top of page for an idea of some of the tv channels you might find with fta. And, yes, there's radio channels avail also.

 

[piperut]

Years ago, when I had a BUD in the backyard I watched a lot of CBC television.
I don't know if any of that is in the clear. I also watch a fair amount of hockey. I don't think hockey is on the FTA much anymore.

I live in Utah, and we have a NBC station that is owned by the LDS church. Every so often this station decides that one of the NBC programs is not suitable for broadcast in Utah. I do not care for the LDS church censoring what I can watch. So I would like to get access to an NBC station from someplace other than Utah.

I watch a fair amount of BBC, PBS, Discovery, and that sort of thing.

It also might be fun to get some of the college football games from around the country.

roland

 

[Mr Tony]

Years ago, when I had a BUD in the backyard I watched a lot of CBC television.
I don't know if any of that is in the clear. I also watch a fair amount of hockey. I don't think hockey is on the FTA much anymore.

CBC is scrambled but there is still lots of college hockey out there. Not much pro (that is usually fibred)

I live in Utah, and we have a NBC station that is owned by the LDS church. Every so often this station decides that one of the NBC programs is not suitable for broadcast in Utah. I do not care for the LDS church censoring what I can watch. So I would like to get access to an NBC station from someplace other than Utah.

There are some NBC feeds. ON KU Band there are a set of NBC's (E & W) that are just the network feeds (only shows on network...black space the rest of the time)

I watch a fair amount of BBC, PBS, Discovery, and that sort of thing.

PBS has E, W and one from Montana on KU Band

It also might be fun to get some of the college football games from around the country.

tons of CFB each week. Everything from bigger games to small college teams

 

[piperut]

I have been kicking this around for a couple of years. I was really thinking of a KU dish after looking at the channel listings.

My house is roughly not quite 112 degree west, and really close to 41 degrees north. There is still a mount on top of the roof just off the deck that had a dish pointed at Dish Networks bird to the south. This mount is on the eastern edge of my house, and it is a pitched roof. I am not sure what satelittes I could hit if I put a dish up there. This is why I wonder about the wall mounts?

Thanks,

roland

 

[piperut]

Receivers versus receiver computer cards?
I have a computer running Linux Mint 7 hooked into a projector. (I also have Directv and a DVD recorder hooked into this projector.)

Would I be better off with a receiver card for the computer, or a stand along receiver?

Thanks,

roland

 

[Anole]

just my opinion:

I spent a couple of years wasting my time getting frustrated first with USB then PCI tuner cards.
Once I got a real stand-alone receiver, things went much smoother.
Then, with that success, experience, and extra hardware to find the signals, ya might want to consider the computer based systems.
There was just too much of a learning curve starting with a computer first.

 

[Long Hair]

I have a pci card and it works good,but there is no blind scan. So if you are looking for wildfeeds football, baseball ect... you would be better off with a stb. If you have a good pc, a dvb card is more cost efficient but still no blind scan. One more thing it's hard to fine tune your dish using a dvb card, because if you lose your signal you will have to manually relock on the signal,with a stb its automatic. Something to think about.

 

[dashaund]

As far as the computer-based receiver, I'll give you my opinion. I've spent a couple years banging my head with them. I really had no choice since there were no receivers that could do 4:2:2 for a reasonable price. And then the AZBox came along... I love mine! It makes life so much easier! However, I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. There are a fair amount of bugs and many of the features are still in development. If you're not interested in feed hunting, I would probably stick with a Coolsat 8000/8100 or something of the like. I've heard good things about them since the latest software update.

 

[piperut]

I stopped by and talked to the person I have been dealing with on Satellite TV for a number of years. He said he had never seen a working KU FTA system with a motor. He has installed fixed KU FTA systems for a few people (mostly for religious programming, and a few for people wanting foreign programming). He wonders how hard it is to find the birds with the small dish as the larger BUD's had a small margin of error. With the small dish he thinks you would have to be dead on the satellites in order to get anything.

We talked about where I would place a FTA dish for the best results. On the south edge of my garage roof west of the Directv HD dish should work. If I run into trouble, I can call him but that will cost me a little bit of money (hourly rate).

He also said to make sure the receiver had blind search. Also, having both polarity on the LNB is a really good plan. Also, in our location the 31 inch dish should work fine, but a 36 inch dish might be better.

After all this, I am thinking of the M-2 package from Sadourn. I think their 90N dish upgrade is for a 36 inch dish?

How difficult are these to set up?

Thanks Everyone,

roland

 

[piperut]

I went ahead and ordered (This is the M-2 package):

GEOSATpro DSR100C Free To Air Digital Satellite Receiver
FC80CM 31" Fortec Star Satellite Dish (With 90N dish upgrade)
Sadoun PowerTech DG280B HH Motor
QPH031 Quad LNBF
SM21H 22KHz switch
Universal wall mount Inc. with dish
Bonus 1: Sadoun Hat Value $50
Bonus 2: Leviton 50ft RG6 Cable (black/white)
Bonus 3: Compass

roland

 

[Long Hair]

I went ahead and ordered (This is the M-2 package):

GEOSATpro DSR100C Free To Air Digital Satellite Receiver
FC80CM 31" Fortec Star Satellite Dish (With 90N dish upgrade)
Sadoun PowerTech DG280B HH Motor
QPH031 Quad LNBF
SM21H 22KHz switch
Universal wall mount Inc. with dish
Bonus 1: Sadoun Hat Value $50
Bonus 2: Leviton 50ft RG6 Cable (black/white)
Bonus 3: Compass

roland

That looks like a good start.When the time comes to set it up, I'm sure a lot of people here will gladly help. Good luck:up

 

[phlatwound]

That looks like a good start.When the time comes to set it up, I'm sure a lot of people here will gladly help. Good luck:up

I agree, you should be very happy with that system once you get it up and going.

Please post pics of your efforts...............and a CLOSE UP shot of that "$50 value" Sadoun hat!!!!

 

[piperut]

I agree, you should be very happy with that system once you get it up and going.

Please post pics of your efforts...............and a CLOSE UP shot of that "$50 value" Sadoun hat!!!!

I think that was a formating error - the $50 value goes with the coax cable.

roland

 

[phlatwound]

I think that was a formating error - the $50 value goes with the coax cable.

roland

I knew something was askew there.

Still want pics though!

 

[kingofku]

CBC is scrambled but there is still lots of college hockey out there. Not much pro (that is usually fibred)


There are some NBC feeds. ON KU Band there are a set of NBC's (E & W) that are just the network feeds (only shows on network...black space the rest of the time)


PBS has E, W and one from Montana on KU Band



tons of CFB each week. Everything from bigger games to small college teams

The NBC network feeds are now DVB-S2 8PSK. It'll require a bit more than a standard FTA receiver to tune these in.

 

[morcego]

I am morcego-Hi need help,i have a monoblock duo lnbf-single for 2 satellite 97 & 101,ok the lnb have a switche,now how can i cascade the lnb,i do have 123w on diferent dish
i tank you for any help please

 

[Anole]

good call:

I went ahead and ordered (This is the M-2 package):

I just commented favorably on that package to another member in this thread.

And to get ahead of the curve, I've added below a recent (and comprehensive) rewrite of how to install a motor.
. . . let me preface that discussion with this:
- ground mount a fixed dish first, to get used to the receiver - (use for 2 weeks)
- consider ground mounting the motor to get used to it - (spend a month, once you are on the arc)
- if you must, relocate the dish 'n motor to a less convenient location, but only after getting some experience.


AcWxRadar does an in-depth, and step-by-step motor setup:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/170861-motor-setup-questions.html#post1778160