MOVING THE KID'S PRIMARY SAT?

[MikeinBaja]

As many of you know, I have several FTA rigs up and running at orphanages in Baja Mexico and several of you were very instrumental in making that happen by letting me ask my stupid questions during my "basic training" on FTA.

With all of the "changes" in programming on 123 lately, I'm thinking of moving the kid's primary sat. They are missing the english feeds (and the toons) they got from the network locals that are now gone.

My goal is a good mixture of both spanish and english programming that is suitable for the kids (don't want to overload them with religious programming). Good soccer coverage is a big major plus here!

All the rigs are identical to make it easier on me - fixed old SKY dishes I scrounged (about 38" +/- round) with good linear LNB's all running CS6000's. LOS is generally good.

Unfortunately, I can't do a real evaluation of the programming change right now - one of the kid's CS6000's blew a power supply a few weeks ago so I took mine up there as a replacement. Supposedly, I get the repaired one back in a few days (we will see - glad boxes are cheap right now ) so my own FTA TV is dark in the interim (gotta get a box for a spare!).

If this was your project - where would you point the kid's dishes? Fixed options only please (tough enough to maintain multiple location fixed ones) and no "C" band.

Opinions?

 

[qwert1515]

How about AMC 21 (125° West Ku) for the PBS channels?
You will need a way to decode the AC3 audio.

 

[Inno]

I was gonna say AMC1 for Ion and Qubo but that's C-Band

If you ever decide to go C-band I have a bunch of LNBs and feedhorns that I would gladly donate.

 

[MikeinBaja]

I was gonna say AMC1 for Ion and Qubo but that's C-Band

If you ever decide to go C-band I have a bunch of LNBs and feedhorns that I would gladly donate.

Thanks Inno. Appreciate the offer. So far my own C-Band experiments have crashed & burned - can't imagine trying to maintain 6 other sites when I couldn't get my own up!

 

[MikeinBaja]

How about AMC 21 (125° West Ku) for the PBS channels?
You will need a way to decode the AC3 audio.

Thanks - thought about that one. No spanish, no sports - decoding the audio X 6 locations.

English is a second (but improving) language for these kids. However, if I need to migrate them to multiple fixed dishes then that one is certainly on the list.

 

[SpiffWilkie]

How about AMC 21 (125° West Ku) for the PBS channels?
You will need a way to decode the AC3 audio.

I would vote for this as well, but the lack of HD and AC3 on the CS is a bummer. There are great kids shows on these channels and most have Spanish audio as well as english (and V-me for more spanish). You could get by without the HD but they'd be missing a lot of the kid shows.

 

[Larobpra]

Yeah, it's a tough call just where to aim for your situation. I was pretty much fixed on G18 for the first 6-7 months of my FTA journey and since getting the motor going pretty much go to whatever I can find. Since we don't have kids in the house I don't look for much kids programming, but have seen some interesting kids stuff on Kuwait2 on 97w. Good luck!

 

[Anole]

couple of ideas:

The PBS and AC3 @ 125° sound like a hard way to go.
But, there's other Public Broadcasting . . . . . . South Carolina Educational TV @ 63°w (signal distribution map)

Seems like you have three choices:
- find one new bird (not sure there's just one that'd be suitable)
- go with a second LNB on the existing dish (not sure there are two good birds adjacent)
- go with a second dish to get a bird anywhere else on the arc (major hardware impact)

PLUS, I have two bad ideas that might be worth discussing.
I'm not going to defend them beyond this post, though.
- 119° circular for NASA. great for launches, space station live, plus kids science shows
- white springs @ 129° on a small dish (get to use pretty much any dish, just equip with linear LNB)
... (or as a secondary LNB on a reasonably close dish)
Any of these could be tied in with a 4x1 diseq switch, allowing for eventual expansion to four birds.

 

[MikeinBaja]

The PBS and AC3 @ 125° sound like a hard way to go.
But, there's other Public Broadcasting . . .

Seems like you have three choices:
- find one new bird (not sure there's just one that'd be suitable)
- go with a second LNB on the existing dish (not sure there are two good birds adjacent)
- go with a second dish to get a bird anywhere else on the arc (major hardware impact)

PLUS, I have two bad ideas that might be worth discussing.
I'm not going to defend them beyond this post, though.
- 119° circular for NASA. great for launches, space station live, plus kids science shows
- white springs @ 129° on a small dish (get to use pretty much any dish, just equip with linear LNB)
... (or as a secondary LNB on a reasonably close dish)
Any of these could be tied in with a 4x1 diseq switch, allowing for eventual expansion to four birds.

Thanks 'ol wise green one. I've about decided to go SKY dish hunting and do a second dish at each location. Think I've got enough LNB's and I know I can bulk buy simple switches pretty reasonably.

What a major pain in the lower region though.

Thanks to all for your thoughts - probably start dish hunting tomorrow (already have a few picked out).

 

[Anole]

just something else to consider:

What I was hinting at above, was SCETV.
See links above for web site, frequency, and power distribution map.

In the last 24 hours, a discussion thread has popped up, too.

 

[goaliebob99]

What about one of the satmex satelltes?

 

[MikeinBaja]

What I was hinting at above, was SCETV.
See links above for web site, frequency, and power distribution map.

In the last 24 hours, a discussion thread has popped up, too.

Missed the hint (long day yesterday). Thanks for the much needed prod and follow-up.

After I get the bad power supply box back, I'll see if I can reasonably lock that bird in from here.

 

[hwm]

On Galaxy 19 at 97w there is Al Jazeera English language news, SOAC (Smile of a Child) christian religious kids programming, EBRU English NatGeo type programming, several Kuwait and Saudi Arabia stations that show American TV shows and movies with English audio and Arabic subtitles. The Kuwait stations show some American cartoons with Arabic subtitles or dubbed Arabic audio on weekends.

You can also catch some soccer games and nature programs on the Kuwait channels.

Abu Dhabi Sport used to have soccer, camel racing, cricket, and other sports, but they seem to be off the air right now.

There are a bunch of radio channels on 97w too.

Not as good as 123w was "back in the day" but probably the most useful mix of programming from one Ku satellite for your purposes.

I would vote for 125w with all the PBS channels instead, if the AC-3 sound issue could be solved.

I think you can use a cheap set of digital input amplified computer speakers with the AC-3 digital output from the CS6000. I recently got a CS6000 in a trade, and I have a set of digital input computer speakers. The CS6000 has an RCA plug AC-3 audio out plug in addition to the fiber-optic TOSLINK cable port, so it will connect to the speakers I have.

I will test it later today with the AC-3 channels on AMC4, and post my results here.

9-4-09
I tried the CS6000 with my Boston Acoustics digital input amplified computer speakers on the AC-3 channels on AMC4. Results were negative. The speakers worked fine with the digital sound output from the CS6000 on channels with normal sound, but AC-3 channels were just static. It seems that digital input does not mean AC-3 compatible.

 

[rv1pop]

my vote also goes to 97W. Of course the Christian programing is my main reason, but .... there is a lot of other good stuff that some of the local kids like.

 

[MikeinBaja]

Thanks all for the responses. Have reached the conclusion that with the changes to 123 I need to do a second fixed dish for the kids - but still undecided on the 2nd bird (but Anole's suggestion is ahead!).

Went out on a scrounge run today and scored 3 more old SKY dishes - and need to go back and follow-up on 1 more. Did meet up with an interesting guy during my run (one of the doors I knocked on), but that's another topic.

Thanks again all for your suggestions - sat dudes rock!

 

[MikeinBaja]

All,

Have had several PM from folks looking to maybe donate LNB's, coax, etc to my FTA project with the orphanages in Mexico.

While I thank all of you in the sat dude's community (sat guys is too sexist, considering our real mix) I'm really good on the hardware side - except for scrounging some additional dishes locally, which I know I can get.

You guys do rock - and the kids are very aware of your support.

It is, however, nice to note that in today's generally anonomous cyber community there are still very good folks out there that would donate stuff to a very worthwhile project to someone you really don't know from Adam.

Thanks Sat Dude's (and Dudesses). Again, SAT "dudes" rock.

Mike