Old satellite system

[tpribors]

I was driving around and saw one of the really ancient satellite dishes. You know the early ones, they were 4 or 5 ft in diameter and looked like the space receivers.

Do these satellites still exist? What programming? Is hardware still available?

Just curious...

 

[telstar_1]

The "really old" ones were 10-12'. Couldn't do much on C-band below 6.

C-Band is still there, but now it's digital and not a cable subscription service. Can be tuned with a 'Free To Air' (FTA) receiver. I think there's a forum on here for that.

 

[FTA4PA]

I was driving around and saw one of the really ancient satellite dishes. You know the early ones, they were 4 or 5 ft in diameter and looked like the space receivers.

Do these satellites still exist? What programming? Is hardware still available?

Just curious...

Grab a picture or two of it and post them here. Perhaps we can figure out the brand, model and actual size.

 

[tpribors]

The "really old" ones were 10-12'. Couldn't do much on C-band below 6.

C-Band is still there, but now it's digital and not a cable subscription service. Can be tuned with a 'Free To Air' (FTA) receiver. I think there's a forum on here for that.

It's quite possible it was this large, I just don't remember. I was driving and not focused on the dish and only just remembered when I signed on here to see if they were still active...

C-Band rings a bell! We used to see them in rural areas...

 

[NYDutch]

One of our neighbors had his no longer used 8' fiberglass dish aimed straight up with several duck decoys perched around the edge. Looked like a giant bird bath. A new owner finally took it down.

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[tanman]

Got mine the first month HBO scrambled. They were called BigUglyDishes by some. I actually loved looking for the "back haul feeds" -saw and heard some interesting things that the regular tv viewing public didnt. There was someone I knew got a famous newsperson in trouble because of something he said off air.

 

[tpribors]

So what kind of programming is on them? Both shows and "quality" (ie, 1080p, 4K, etc)

 

[tanman]

So what kind of programming is on them? Both shows and "quality" (ie, 1080p, 4K, etc)

Should have mentioned I switched to a small dish when they became reasonably priced. I think direct tv started at 700 bucks.Too much for me. I waited.
As mentioned above there is a forum for the FTA. When I was using them thee was no such thing as HDTV.
As more scrambling took effect there were a number of program providers-you could even buy ala(which didnt really save much money). carte.

 

[NYDutch]

So what kind of programming is on them? Both shows and "quality" (ie, 1080p, 4K, etc)

Here's the place to ask your questions:

Free To Air (FTA) Discussion

America's Largest Discussion of LEGAL C & KU Band Free To Air (FTA) Satellite Reception! Full support and discussion of KU and C Band Free to Air (FTA) Satellite Equipment and reception! (Note - NO HACK TALK ALLOWED)

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[telstar_1]

Got mine the first month HBO scrambled. They were called BigUglyDishes by some. I actually loved looking for the "back haul feeds" -saw and heard some interesting things that the regular tv viewing public didnt. There was someone I knew got a famous newsperson in trouble because of something he said off air.

Those were sure the days. I started a business doing them right after "scrambling", which ended up not slowing the industry all that much, especially after the piracy went rampant. HBO et al. had previously attempted to secure its signals by means unavailable to the home, but efforts from the grass roots on up to Sen. Al Gore Jr. got home satellite reception codified as legal and subscribable.

I also loved the idea of getting TV from space and poking around for nonpublic feeds. I loved the dishes themselves; there was such a wide variety of them, some with interesting and even architectural design. I would come to find that the general public didn't exactly match up to my geekiness and mostly simply found it a pain to have to motor the dish around to get all the channels they wanted.

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[NYDutch]

Those were sure the days. I started a business doing them right after "scrambling", which ended up not slowing the industry all that much, especially after the piracy went rampant. HBO et al. had previously attempted to secure its signals by means unavailable to the home, but efforts from the grass roots on up to Sen. Al Gore Jr. got home satellite reception codified as legal and subscribable.

I also loved the idea of getting TV from space and poking around for nonpublic feeds. I loved the dishes themselves; there was such a wide variety of them, some with interesting and even architectural design. I would come to find that the general public didn't exactly match up to my geekiness and mostly simply found it a pain to have to motor the dish around to get all the channels they wanted.

I don't recall the brand of the receiver I had back then. But once I programmed in the satellites for the programming we subscribed to, changing "channels" was a simple button push or two. There was the delay waiting for the dish to get there of course. Since I installed our dish on a side hill for the best sat view, I also programmed in a bogus satellite that flipped the dish around backwards for easy snow removal from the high side.

 

[telstar_1]

It was still at the least a bother for most, even with the programmable systems where you just pushed Sat, G, 1 and the 1-24 ch#. I thought it was a great idea when Uniden came out with its 4800 IR/D (integrated receiver/dish positioner/descrambler) that further integrated Superguide, which was previously an add-on box to put sat TV guide listings on screen. Bit of a pain to set up as I'd be standing around for awhile for them to take their initial guide download, but the end result was an onscreen guide where, like with the DBS yet to come, you just clicked on the show you wanted and it would go straight to it, self-making the needed dish move and ch. change. It was great for bars, but if you dropped the remote onto a hard surface, it would explode into a couple dozen pieces including individual pushbuttons. Never a dull day back then....