Where were you 40 years ago?

[WhiteBeard]

True. 1990 is the year satellite TV started becoming a thing in Europe, with Sky Television (Sky one, Sky News, Sky Movies, etc.) in the UK on Astra1A @19.2 East. Entry-level systems (fixed 60cm Ku dish) became affordable (I paid 149 UK pounds for a 60 cm dish and a simple Amstrad receiver in March 1990). German channels also came to Astra, and that market also took off. By 1991 dishes were a more common sight, but only small Ku dishes.

If Europe is providing television via the small Ku dishes, then why isn't North America? They have rain and snow in Europe also.

 

[Brct203]

If Europe is providing television via the small Ku dishes, then why isn't North America? They have rain and snow in Europe also.

good question and I've been wondering the same...

some differences I can think of are that the US has some more tropical areas, possibly with heavier rain than what Europe usually gets, and also the different historical deployment of satellite transmissions. Maybe I'm wrong but I think Ku band was not a thing when satellite TV started in the US/Canada in the 70's, but was becoming mainstream when satellite TV started in Europe in the early 80's. So while North America was used to having the large dishes for C-band, maybe that was seen as unnecessary in Europe. Also, the Ku satellites used in Europe often have a stronger signal than the FTA satellites used in North America, and often use more resilient FEC/modulation combo

And Ku band can be quite resilient to rain/snow fade - just look at the NHK mux on 101W, which has such a low threshold that there is a big margin on most systems, and I lose it only during the heaviest rain/snow

 

[primestar31]

If Europe is providing television via the small Ku dishes, then why isn't North America?

The robber barons can't monetize it. Dish and DirecTv already stole the market, so they certainly aren't going to give away FTA "good" channels for free...

 

[Houston Rockets]

The robber barons can't monetize it. Dish and DirecTv already stole the market, so they certainly aren't going to give away FTA "good" channels for free...

That made national news.... I remember they said Uncle Charlie believes it came from someone in FLORIDA.

 

[chiodo]

Being on the West Coast I heard about this but didn't witness it. We used to watch HBO for Free as well as many other satellites TV channels, that's why we got a Big 10' C-Band dish with a GI Receiver.
later the Channels were scrambled. That sucked. But it was one thing channel hopping wasn't easy task, it was okay if channels were on same satellite, but they were on different satellites, and to change
a channel to a different satellite required the time consuming dish of waiting for the dish to rotate and move to where it was able to get signal at a pre-programmed position.

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[telstar_1]

I was in Italy & Germany on that trip, and I think it was in Germany that I saw what I took to be a sat retailer.

 

[telstar_1]

Being on the West Coast I heard about this but didn't witness it. We used to watch HBO for Free as well as many other satellites TV channels, that's why we got a Big 10' C-Band dish with a GI Receiver.
later the Channels were scrambled. That sucked. But it was one thing channel hopping wasn't easy task, it was okay if channels were on same satellite, but they were on different satellites, and to change
a channel to a different satellite required the time consuming dish of waiting for the dish to rotate and move to where it was able to get signal at a pre-programmed position.

I don't recall GI doing any sat gear prior to its purchase of Ma/Com's VCII. They then immediately produced GI-branded standalone descramblers in mass quantity and also started coming out with GI-branded IR/Ds. IOW I don't know of any GI gear used to get satellite pre-scrambling. It basically bought its way into the industry by purchasing the VCII from Ma/Com, its developer and initial marketer.

True. 1990 is the year satellite TV started becoming a thing in Europe, with Sky Television (Sky one, Sky News, Sky Movies, etc.) in the UK on Astra1A @19.2 East. Entry-level systems (fixed 60cm Ku dish) became affordable (I paid 149 UK pounds for a 60 cm dish and a simple Amstrad receiver in March 1990). German channels also came to Astra, and that market also took off. By 1991 dishes were a more common sight, but only small Ku dishes.

I was in Italy & Germany then, and the tiny little sat storefront was in Germany. Italy was still on its high from hosting the World Cup, and I learned from the primitive 3-ch. Italian TV that we were going to be at war in the Mideast soon.

 

[chiodo]

I don't recall GI doing any sat gear prior to its purchase of Ma/Com's VCII. They then immediately produced GI-branded standalone descramblers in mass quantity and also started coming out with GI-branded IR/Ds. IOW I don't know of any GI gear used to get satellite pre-scrambling. It basically bought its way into the industry by purchasing the VCII from Ma/Com, its developer and initial marketer.


I was in Italy & Germany then, and the tiny little sat storefront was in Germany. Italy was still on its high from hosting the World Cup, and I learned from the primitive 3-ch. Italian TV that we were going to be at war in the Mideast soon.

Definitely a GI receiver, received Free C-Band signals there was an option to put a VCII board in the back of the receiver to descramble the channel, have a phone line connected to activate the board per subscription. I don't recall the model # of the receiver.

 

[telstar_1]

Right, this was only after scrambling and in addition to the VCII modules (boards) GI made only IR/Ds (Integrated Receiver(/positioner)/Descrambler). You could operate an IR/D with or without a descrambler module inserted, but almost all were used with module in them (modified or otherwise). GI made no standalone receivers, positioners or other sat gear. Actually the first GI IRDs were rather crappy operationally and I replaced a lot of them (installed by other dealers) for different (non-GI) IRDs. Most dealers hated GI, so you wonder why they went with GI IR/D to begin with.

 

[freddylq]

I remember I had a GI 2400R with the VCII module.

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