Sad to hear the news. Receiving the signal by satellite was a wonderful thing. My mother much enjoyed it, for she was blind in her latter years, and bedridden in her final year when I cared for her. Many a night she would lie in bed enjoying the voices and music from programs she heard in earlier years. It did her a lot of good; me too. None of that would have happened, without FTA and the dish. She introduced me to the old shows when I was a kid. We had one AM/shortwave tube radio for our news and electronic entertainment. On Sunday afternoon, the family gathered together, drinking pop while listening to Gunsmoke on WCCO AM radio. More than just listening, we were imagining a complete movie in our minds. As they say, a theatre of the mind. Back in the good old days, listening to shows from the distant good old days. I hope Yesterday USA can somehow find a way back to us through FTA. I had plans to install a satellite receiver inside an antique stand-up radio dedicated just to YUSA; give one to their annual fund raising auction, too. I also planned to install one at a local nursing home; try to create an old-time listening area for the residents to meet and enjoy the shows together. I think it's a great idea, yet another one that I never get around to doing. I got to thinking that maybe YUSA was a bit too realistic for veterans and the like, who might take world news from that era a bit too seriously. Perhaps believing WWII or War of the Worlds was in progress and very real. Mass hysteria led by the Alzheimer's crowd, in uniform, on a mission. Anyway... YUSA needs FTA, and I hope they can secure another good deal on an uplink like the last one. Should I win a lottery, I'll fix the problem.
Yes, it is streamed over the Internet, but my version would have been almost free, and customized from used discarded equipment. That's my style. If DN was smart, they would uplink YUSA for distribution to nursing homes and elderly caregiver situations - great PR. Keep it in the clear too, like NASA. And then there's XM Radio. But, FTA is under utilized and unappreciated for all it can offer. YUSA was special and unique to this hobby; a technology for broadcasting over the airwaves in the widest sense, to those who appreciate the technology. Not much for airwaves in the domain of satellites high above the equator, better to call it spacewaves. Anyway, my slogan of the day is: 'YUSA needs FTA'. And today is July 7th, my mother's birthday. I really didn't need to attach another loss to this day.
