You Might Be A Satellite Pioneer...

Satellite Expo

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 27, 2005
237
0
This came from www.TransmitterNews.com some of the other sites are having a great walk down memory lane with this, thought you all might enjoy it as well if you didn't see it in the Transmitter.

You Might Be A Satellite Pioneer If…

With the Chaparral Satellite Pioneers Reunion coming up in April at SBE 2007, we thought it would be most appropriate to make sure you knew exactly what makes one a satellite pioneer. Here you will find some of the best units of measure:

If you know that “BUD” is something other than Dale Earnhardt’s sponsor, or your best friend, you might be a Pioneer.

If you still own a dish crane and have the scars to prove you have used it, you might be a Pioneer.

If you ever watched the XXX channels on a “gray or black board” without sound, you might be a Pioneer.

If you know the importance of Dr. Gene Scott and Shepherds Chapel to the satellite industry, you might be a Pioneer.

If the first dish you installed, weighed more than the station wagon you hauled it on top of, you might be a Pioneer.

If the first actuator you installed required the services of a strong 12 year old that wanted to watch cartoons really badly, you might be a Pioneer.

If the first signal meter you owned was 13”, black and white and only went up to channel 13, you might be a Pioneer.

If you were able to pay for your children’s college education with the profits from your first 5 dish sales, you might be a Pioneer.

If you know the term LNA is not a misprint from someone trying to print LNB you might be a Pioneer.

If you still miss the ultra super extreme fast setting concrete mix sold by Volunteer Satellite, you might be a Pioneer.

If you have a trailer with grass growing in it that has a pole mounted to haul a 12’ assembled dish down the road, you might be a Pioneer.

If you remember the way to convert a $750 investment into $4995 faster than any blackjack game, then you might be a pioneer.

If you know a grown man jumping off a ladder cannot outrun wasps flying from a dish feedhorn cover, you might be a pioneer.

If you remember your first coax stripper having Case XX, Tree Brand or Old Timer written on it, you might be a Pioneer.

If you ever attended a Bob Cooper promoted industry trade show, you might be a pioneer.

If you ever left a satellite system for a customer to “try out” over the weekend before they bought it, you might be a pioneer.

If you remember LNA & LNB temperatures that were higher than a hot day in Florida, you might be a pioneer.

If you ever destroyed a dish by “tracking” it down on top of the step ladder you left standing beneath the dish, you might be a pioneer.

If you ever included a customer’s first year of programming in with their finance package for their dish, you might be a pioneer.

The list goes on and on. If you have additions for another issue of the Transmitter, please send them to: Info@TransmitterNews.com, we will print them all once we have enough for another column. Until next time we will keep, Thinking Out Loud.
 
If you have ever tried to align your polar mount using the "Half-inch up, Half-inch over" method, because there was no other way to do it, you might be a satellite pioneer.

If your first dish was grey with a red lightning bolt on it, you might be a satellite pioneer.

If you ever looked at a satellite called "Satcom" something, you might be a satellite pioneer.

If you know what 70 MHz and a satellite receiver have in common, you might be a satellite pioneer.

Yes, I sent them in. :D
 
Last edited:
bnaivar said:
If you have ever tried to align your polar mount using the "Half-inch up, Half-inch over" method, because there was no other way to do it, you might be a satellite pioneer.

If your first dish was grey with a red lightning bolt on it, you might be a satellite pioneer.

If you ever looked at a satellite called "Satcom" something, you might be a satellite pioneer.

If you know what 70 MHz and a satellite receiver have in common, you might be a satellite pioneer.

Yes, I sent them in. :D

If you used http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/fltsat.htm in 1979
you might be a satellite pioneer. :D
 
If you hear Wilson or Luxor and you think of satellite receivers instead of sporting goods and a Vegas casino, you might be a Satellite Pioneer.
I you have ever used the center conductor and braid from the spare coax to power a Drake downconverter, you might be a Satellite Pioneer.
If you ever watched the FUN channel by flipping the invert switch on your satellite receiver, you might be a Satellite Pioneer.
 
If you ever installed a Chaparral Shotgun or Sidewinder feed
If you ever installed new "round" satellite cable with one RG-59 coax
you might be...
 
If you ever had to build your own positioner box using a transformer, bridge rectifier, and DPDT switch, you might be a pioneer.

If you ever had to buy any parts for a satellite system from Radio Shack, you might be a pioneer.

If you remember when Ollie and his daughter (???) sold LNBs, feedhorns, receivers, and offered free advice LIVE on the air (satellite) you might be a pioneer.

If you ever owned a receiver with a NEGATIVE video switch on it, you might be a pioneer.

If you have ever used a receiver with a twist knob to set the skew, you might be a pioneer.
 
If you remember buying a satellite receiver and finding that it did not have a
modulator, because none of the manufacturers had applied for FCC Part 15 certification.

A "bargain" channel 3/4 modulator to solve this problem could be had from a small mail order house in West Virginia for 70 dollars, and you were happy to pay it.

Further searching for modulators found a Canadian made unit (definitely not
FCC approved) that transmitted on Channel 6, and had so much extra power that you discovered your satellite audio could be received at 87.7 on your truck, parked in the customer's driveway.

UHF modulators were quite rare.

Dare we mention the TV Genie and its other wireless UHF cousins?

Ever spend a week trimming 18 foot lengths of 12 inch wide clear redwood into two and three inch wide strips, drilling similar lengths of angle iron, machining various lengths of threaded rod, assembling it all together on a bunch of 55 gallon barrels, and then attaching aluminum screen to the entire surface with several thousand staples? Then use a chain hoist attached to a tree in front of this thing to lift it up so that it gave the appearance of a giant backstop antenna...cutting down the tree afterwards so that you could then experiment finding your first satellite?

Ever have a service call to undo the mistakes of a do-it-yourselfer, which resulted in more cash (calculated on an hourly rate) than you would have made doing a turn-key installation yourself?
 
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)