Those were the days...

Got my first DISH setup in 1997. No retailers, no online, of course. Lived in southern CA at the time, only retailer was a store that specialized in baseball cards and pre-paid telephone calling cards (no cell phones either!). Went to the store, guy pulled up a large box with the receiver (DISH 1000??), the "dish" with unattached LNB, and the mount. Minimal instructions, basically had to figure out manually where the satellite (yes, the satellite), roughly point it, then have the wife stand where she could see the telly and yell at me to adjust it. And, no, I didn't have to walk to school, uphill both ways, with snow, or write my homework assignment on the back of a shovel:bday

No DVR's then, when Tivo came out, hooked one up to the DISH, since both had IR controlled remotes, had to put elex. tape over the IR window on the DISH to allow the Tivo the work. Happy daze.....
 
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Got my first DISH setup in 1997. No retailers, no online, of course. Lived in southern CA at the time, only retailer was a store that specialized in baseball cards and pre-paid telephone calling cards (no cell phones either!). Went to the store, guy pulled up a large box with the receiver (DISH 1000??), the "dish" with unattached LNB, and the mount. Minimal instructions, basically had to figure out manually where the satellite (yes, the satellite), roughly point it, then have the wife stand where she could see the telly and yell at me to adjust it. And, no, I didn't have to walk to school, uphill both ways, with snow, or write my homework assignment on the back of a shovel:bday

No DVR's then, when Tivo came out, hooked one up to the DISH, since both had IR controlled remotes, had to put elex. tape over the IR window on the DISH to allow the Tivo the work. Happy daze.....

18" dish to 119 only with a model 2000 receiver, LNB only had one output to feed one receiver - unless you upgraded to the optional deluxe model that had an rf remote and dual LNB to feed two receivers! iirc the IR blaster to control the VCR didn't come out until the 4000 was released.
 
I can remember going with my dad to test tv tubes at the local store as he for a few years held on to a tv he had when he was younger

I also remember getting cable for the first time and then when we moved to the Big dish and reviewing all the in the wild channels and of course putting together programming packages from the orbit magazine :)

But yes on a bit more modern note, miss the excitement of uplinked HD, and of course Charlie chat going over new and upcoming channel packages
 
18" dish to 119 only with a model 2000 receiver, LNB only had one output to feed one receiver - unless you upgraded to the optional deluxe model that had an rf remote and dual LNB to feed two receivers! iirc the IR blaster to control the VCR didn't come out until the 4000 was released.
That was my first Dish system, in 1999. At the store where I bought it, the model 4000 was the one that came bundled with the dish. If you wanted a second receiver, the only stand-alone receiver they had was the model 1000. I was switching from a Directv setup with two receivers, so I bought one complete Dish system and one model 1000. I was so disappointed with the model 1000 (no timers, channel numbers in guide listed in reverse order with no option to change the order) that I bought another complete system to get another model 4000. I kept the model 1000 so my sister could have a receiver in her room (which she didn't have with the Directv two-receiver setup we had previously) which meant that I had to find some place that sold the SW64 switch, so I could connect all three receivers. Also, it was around that time that Dish started requiring the 110 satellite for more and more programming. So, already having two dishes and the SW64 switch saved me the trouble of having to upgrade to a Dish 500, since I could just use the additional Dish 300 instead, and still have room on the switch to add a third satellite location (and a fourth satellite receiver) later.
 
I can remember going with my dad to test tv tubes at the local store as he for a few years held on to a tv he had when he was younger

I remember helping my grandfather test tubes when one went bad in his big (20"?) console TV. I could reach a bunch of tubes he could not since I was a young kid with tiny hands. We found the bad one easy enough. The hard part was figuring out where they all went when we went to put them back. Knowing what I know now about reapiring CRTs, it was probably not the wisest thing to do to allow me to stick my hands in there.
 
I remember when I first got satellite TV over 20 years ago, I thought it was so amazing compared to cable TV. In those days, cable TV had a scrolling program guide that just kept looping thru all the channels. When you wanted to see what was on, you had to sit there and wait until the channel scrolled by, which could take many minutes. By then, the show had already started! When my friends came over, I demoed my satellite system to them: "Look, I actually have control of the program guide!". Then when I showed them how I could pause live TV, they really were amazed. Being able to record live TV for later viewing, and being able to skip over the commercials really changed the way I watched TV forever. In those days, satellite TV was miles ahead of cable, and was a lot less expensive too.
 
I remember have a radio on the fireplace mantle. At night, we would listen to programs like Boston Blackie, Fiber Magee and Molly, I led Three Lives, The Creaking Door, and other that I can't remember. Then in the mid 1950's we bought a B & W tv and watched the same programs that we had listened to on the radio.
 
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
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I remember watching Howdy Doody in Buffalo Bob's basement. That was before the Howdy Doody gang moved to Doodyville.

That is when TV was not on during the gay except for the test pattern.