Whatever happened to the "Free" Superdish??

[JonUrban]

I vaugly remember when I paid the orginal HD package for a year in advance that I (we) would be getting a "free" superdish. Then, it turned out that maybe we would not NEED a superdish, but what happens when they put HD on 105? Will we still get it free???

:-jon

 

[Stargazer]

Nobody knows but I think most would assume that they would offer it free with a one year commitment to the HD package.

 

[Mickdog]

It was only free if you had one of those gift cards, or knew someone! And considering you have to pay for service and put up with weather events, ain't nothing free!!!

 

[charper1]

I understood that the SD was still free if your locals required its use or if you sub'd to ethnic programming. I highly doubt that future HD and other mainstream program channels will be on the "wing birds" however, when more major channels bump current capacity we will all we see a new multi sat dish for 3, 4, or 5 birds, or mpeg4 IMHO. They are slowly easing us all back to the BUD days, just with a different band and compression. Something tells me I will be glad I held onto that BUD. Look at your local cable company, most of them are switching to the 24' - 48' or so multi feed/LNB BUD that will pull down anything and everything from the arc all at once.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I really don't think we're gonna see big multi-dishes - just not publicly acceptable. And remember the FCC ruling about HOA's and such limits it to one meter. You are NOT going to get 4 of E*s birds on a dish that size.

Just to speculate, they've got a new bird going up soon to replace 110 or 119 (I forget which). It's supposed to have like a zillion spot beams. That frees up some space to maybe move I'nat'l from 121 to a core bird. NOW, there's more space on the wings & FSS to do more local feeds - including maybe some HD LiL in the bigger markets. Maybe move the left coasters over to 148/157 instead of 110/119 for core and even more space becomes available.

There's just no way to know quite yet - except that SuperDish is not welcomed in a lot of homes.

 

[farmsatguy]

Yep, and don't forget the "intention" of broadband internet...maybe a reality for 105 and maybe not. As y'all said, we'll see...man I hope the broadband goes thorugh; personally I'm more interested (and get A LOT more requests) for broadband than I do HD programming and international channels. Time will tell...

 

[SimpleSimon]

Well, satellite broadband has been available for a lot of years, but it's got this big problem due to nature's speed limit.

Personally, I don't think Direcway or Starband have long-term viability. Skyway is a landline upload system and it might have the smarts to use that for speed-sensitive traffic, but then you're still stuck at 50K (on a good day - in the city).

Long-range WiFi is becoming more and more available in rural areas (I might be converting soon), so satellite will lose ground there, and cable & DSL have probably already killed it in the cities.

 

[Stargazer]

Long-range WiFi looks more promising than satellite if WiFi hardware costs can be dropped enough and become available in a lot more areas (perhaps nationwide or majority of the population).

 

[SimpleSimon]

Wide Area WiFi won't become that available - DSL & cable cover too much of the market. Plus, the technology tends to clog up with too many users - like cable & satellite do. Therefore, it's best kept in lower density areas.

The costs are already low enough. My neighborhood WiFi (not short range, not long range) cost less than $500 for the base and $100 per subscriber. My biggest problems are trees and terrain - I've got to get the base antenna up to about 70' AGL - THEN we'll see what kind of range I'll have.

 

[dfergie]

My I guess you could call it Wi fi box from nextel gets a 5 bar signal sometimes (max)from my friends ranch and it is over 35 miles from the nearest town as the crow flys(they live on top of our local mountain range), but I cannot get my unit to send, I only receive. Next time I go up I'm going to try pointing the unit at my dish 500 I take with me(maybe a c clamp) and seeing if that will allow my box to send....(btw I am 10 miles from my providers antenna and there are folks over 20 miles away connected)

 

[SimpleSimon]

I didn't quite follow that, but the 3 most important things after clear LOS are antenna, antenna, and antenna.

There's several sites out there that can help you with no-cost/low-cost high-gain stuff. I'll dig them out if you need them.

 

[mike123abc]

I used to use WiFi for my internet connection. I had a special antenna (about 3 foot long) that pointed at their tower about 5 miles away. It worked extreamly well. I just dropped it for cable modem mainly because cable modem was 1/2 the price (they were $90/month but had 2mbit up and down).

 

[Stargazer]

I need to know what hardware will allow me to transmit a signal around 10 miles (maybe only 5 if the air miles is that much less than the road miles and I can find someone that close to me with high speed internet). I also need to have some information pertaining to using no/low-cost high-gain hardware and how to setup the wireless internet over this long of a range, and maybe even make it to where I could have it available to others in my area in the future as well but right now primarily just for myself since I cannot get a high speed connection where I am at. I need to figure out how this stuff works when it comes to hooking it up and getting it to work, and what hardware I need so that way if I do make a purchase I know I am getting the right stuff.

I have been wanting to create a wireless internet business once I get myself a high speed internet signal to my house and have been wanting to play around with this. I read where some high schoolers in Ohio achieved about a 55 mile wireless internet transmission with and without amplification. I wonder how much that cost and how hard that would be to do.

 

[SimpleSimon]

There's plenty of sites out there to help you. Start at http://seattlewireless.net. I've got tons of links on this stuff, but msot of them came from there.

You can do some things with no-cost antennas, but TANSTAAFL.

I think that 55 miles would be a new world's record - by like 50%

If you want reliability, you're gonna need some gain somewhere in the mix. This is not the place to get into directional high-gain antennas vs. amplifiers or what the maximum EIRP is, so I suggest you spend a few hours reading up on the WLAN world, then maybe PM me for further help.

 

[mike123abc]

The local wifi guys do a 15 mile range here in WF. I used the service for 3 years before switching to cable modem. They put the base stations on 12+ story buildings, the antenna I had on my roof was about 3 foot long. I suspect it was just a yagi inside a fiberglass shell. But, now it looks like they changed the antenna: http://www.cst.net/cgi-bin/load.cgi?services/wireless.htm

You can see the 30 mile circles on the map.