Who needs the MSM to get the news? Nobody! Free To Air Satellite

Getting some pretty good live helicopter footage of the fire near Wrightwood, CA.

Looks like it's about 1/2 mile east of town and moving quickly west.

8500 acres so far in an area with big trees.


Galaxy 16 @ 99W 11770V

edit to add: CBS News is reporting only 3500 acres, but I just heard him say 8500... not sure which is right. Bombers and tankers are now inbound to help protect the homes, they were just waiting for the winds to die down.

[edit on 4-10-2009 by lernmore]

So if you can get all these different TV feeds can you also use your set up to point at other satellites and get those transmissions whatever they might be.

I don't really know what you might be looking for but you might come across some interesting data - or will everything be super dooper encrypted?

Hehe, what...free TV isn't enough?

FTA boxes, for all intents and purposes, will only scan certain frequency ranges. Anything you're not supposed to be privy to would most certainly be encrypted as well.

I'll keep my eye out for any transmissions from ET though!

Lernmore, do you have any opinions on this box? It appears to have a blindscan feature. That's good, right?

www.satellite-depot.com...

I have a chance of picking up the receiver, two 33" sats and 3 LNB's for $200.

I emailed the seller and asked what freq the LNB's broadcast (high or low).
I am waiting to hear back.

Just caught your thread that is great news, lol.

I dont have the start up but sure wish I did it would be like vouerism at its finest.

One thing, my first impression of your Op (so many pages and posts back) was to wonder if in a media black out for the GP if your system would still be up and running?

I bet it would at intermittently...

Sure, that would work just fine, blind scan is what you want (to catch those temporary feeds that go up and down). Sounds like a reasonable price too.

Even if it doesn't come with a motor (for the dish), with that setup you could still hook both dishes up to the one box with a switch. (I'm constantly switching between 5 or so satellites, so I just use one dish with a motor.)

As far as the low band LNB goes (10750), my guess is that, since the dishes are 33", there's a good chance that one or both will have a low band LNB. Dish Network and DTV etc. use approx 18" dishes and the 11250 LNB. Even if they are the latter, they're cheap and you can install them on the dishes, and select the LNB type in the UI of the STB. (set top box).



In a real media blackout, I'm guessing the various outlets would be specifically instructed to keep their cameras and crews out of the area entirely. Case in point...

During the G-20, the first day there was lots of great footage and live feeds coming out of Pittsburgh. Reporters with their cameras rolling, were running from tear gas etc. The next day I must have scanned the Satellites 6 times and nothing... not one live feed. I caught a few taped interviews of protesters later in the day, but again, nothing was coming out of that city "live" from Thursday through the rest of the "event".

With that kind of action, I just couldn't see the story hungry MSM miss out on something like that unless they were told to.

That said, however, during the Tea Party Protests in D.C., since the feeds from the podium were coming from a private source, I was able to watch the whole thing, and listen to the speeches basically all day with no commercials, and the MSM hardly even gave it a mention.


edit: oops, forgot a forward slash in one of my EX tags.

[edit on 16-10-2009 by lernmore]

I'm confused now. I thought DTV and the like are propriatary and I should steer clear of them?

So If I understand, even if they are high band I can "over ride" them in the user interface on the set top box?



[edit on 18-10-2009 by venividivici]

The Viewsat is an FTA STB, so that's the one you want. it has nothing to do with DTV. I was merely saying that since those dishes you were looking to buy were 33", they most likely have a low band LNB already attached. If, for some reason they have a high band LNB attached, you can simply replace them. (the LNB is just that device that sits out in front of the dish on the arm, and they're easily interchangable. Some people actually DO use the bigger dishes for their proprietary STB's, but not too often.



That Viewsat will work with many types of LNBs. (C band, KU band, Dish-Pro etc.) In the UI of that Viewsat STB, in the "antenna" setup, you simply choose which type of LNB you have attached to your dish. (proprietary receivers like those that come with DTV setups may not give you the option of which type of LNB you'd like to use)

For instance, if you scan, say, satellite 119W, which delivers "Dish Network" programming with a high band LNB attached to your dish, you'll still see the transponders and the channels listed in what it found, but they will be scrambled when you change to that channel.

Buy it..


Hope that helps.

edit to add:

This is a picture of an LNB

The type and frequency range should be clearly marked on a label, which is affixed to the outside of the device.


[edit on 18-10-2009 by lernmore]

Okay. got it.

I thought the receiver AND LNB were propriatary. Now I know just the receiver.

I looked into nFusion receivers and although they are a little more expensive don't they provide more upgradability? In terms of "3rd party cards" you can install in them.

There are tons of receivers and FTA hardware in the used market in my area right now so I'm not going to pull the trigger too fast. I can wait until a great deal falls in my lap.

33" dishes are plentiful. LNB's seem inexpensive.

I'm always wary of buying used electronics so in the end I might just get a new receiver from gosatellite.ca or other some reliable online retailer.

In the meantime I search craigslist and kijiji daily!!!