More news about C-band and possibly 5 new Ku band satellites

[comfortably_numb]

Are you saying that clicking on meloveyoulongtime.tw was a bad idea?

Funny story about that, when I was in high school 1994–1998 we got a computer lab courtesy of Bill Gates. One day one of my friends was running down the hall and said "hey Dave, go to whitehouse.com!" At the time I didn't know that whitehouse.com was a porn site. It isn't now of course, but it was then.

 

[TRG]

Funny story about that, when I was in high school 1994–1998 we got a computer lab courtesy of Bill Gates. One day one of my friends was running down the hall and said "hey Dave, go to whitehouse.com!" At the time I didn't know that whitehouse.com was a porn site. It isn't now of course, but it was then.

I remember that. Another one was receiving an e-mail at the office from a colleague. You'd click on the link and it would turn your speakers up full blast and say, "HEY EVERYONE I'M LOOKING AT PORN."

 

[WhiteBeard]

If Cruise Lines (& others) can detect and block VPNs, I doubt this will work for long.

Yeah that makes me mad. I can't connect to my bank via VPN anymore. This could be a problem when traveling internationally but they don't care about their customers inconvenience. Supposedly it's secure using cell data but I don't think so. Not to mention cell data plans outside the U.S. would be expensive.

 

[meStevo]

If Cruise Lines (& others) can detect and block VPNs, I doubt this will work for long.

Often the sites that you'd want to use a VPN to obfuscate your traffic support if not outright promote using them.

Cruise operators are likely blocking VPNs for a mix of reasons - preserving revenue from onboard packages/pricing (allows them to detect things like tethering/hotspotting for example and get you to pay for additional device(s)), and rationing limited bandwidth on aging networking hardware. The availability and deployment of Starlink has helped on that last point - but not when the connection or related hardware is saturated and shared by thousands of people.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Cruise operators are likely blocking VPNs for a mix of reasons - preserving revenue from onboard packages/pricing (allows them to detect things like tethering/hotspotting for example and get you to pay for additional device(s)), and rationing limited bandwidth on aging networking hardware

Exactly, same reason airlines don't allow VPN's.

 

[Jim S.]

Funny story about that, when I was in high school 1994–1998 we got a computer lab courtesy of Bill Gates. One day one of my friends was running down the hall and said "hey Dave, go to whitehouse.com!" At the time I didn't know that whitehouse.com was a porn site. It isn't now of course, but it was then.

I never tried the website, but Whitehouse was a British porn magazine, presumably named as an attack on notorious censorship advocate Mary Whitehouse (yes, as in the Pink Floyd song.)

 

[mr3p]

Even if there are feeds that remain up after this latest repack, unless Titanium satellite is secretly working on a new filter for the sliver of remaining C-band bandwidth, I don't see how hobbyist C-band survives

 

[Corrado]

I can't remember the last time I watched anything on C band. I upgraded to the Titanium red filter LNBF in late 2024 which brought back what I had lost due to 5G in my area but there isn't a great deal left to view. My 10' Unimesh dish has been out there for 38 years and has served me well and I will leave it just in case.

Since April I had to add filters for my over the air antennas as well which solved the pixelation events every few seconds. It was like they flipped a switch one day.

Probably 16 years ago I put up 3 Prodelin 1.8m dishes and had them setup for C band but more recently converted them back to Ku band for which they are intended. I almost took them down last Fall but perhaps I will continue in the future with those if Ku band becomes the future choice of satellite distribution.

 

[comfortably_numb]

It was like they flipped a switch one day.

Highly possible. A new 5G cell was probably lit up on a tower near you.

 

[WhiteBeard]

Since April I had to add filters for my over the air antennas as well which solved the pixelation events every few seconds. It was like they flipped a switch one day.

This is probably why I lost my OTA channels. I've been told that I'll need to buy an inline filter that blocks anything above 609 MHz. The Channel Master CM-3201 was recommended but the specs say it doesn't start attenuating until 618 MHz. It's only $20 so I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't work well. I just hate being forced to have to upgrade (on a lot of things).

 

[comfortably_numb]

This is probably why I lost my OTA channels. I've been told that I'll need to buy an inline filter that blocks anything above 609 MHz. The Channel Master CM-3201 was recommended but the specs say it doesn't start attenuating until 618 MHz. It's only $20 so I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't work well. I just hate being forced to have to upgrade (on a lot of things).

609 is RF 36, wouldn't you want to filter below that?

 

[Corrado]

The Channel Master CM-3201 is exactly what I'm using. Band pass 5- 608 MHz, blocks 609- 3000 MHz. They completely solved my interference issues from 2 different antennas.

 

[primestar31]

This is probably why I lost my OTA channels. I've been told that I'll need to buy an inline filter that blocks anything above 609 MHz. The Channel Master CM-3201 was recommended but the specs say it doesn't start attenuating until 618 MHz. It's only $20 so I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't work well. I just hate being forced to have to upgrade (on a lot of things).

I checked the Channel Master 5g filter you mention above a few years ago with a Televes spectrum analyzer I had access to, when I was beta testing some antennas and things for them.

It kills LTE and 5g deader than a door-nail. It slightly clips channel 36 by up to 2dB though. It's also power-passing, which comes in handy if you must power an older preamp through it that doesn't have LTE/5g filter built in.

IMO, it's the best LTE/5g filter out there, even beats the Televes filter built into their preamps.