When did you start your satellite hobby?

[Sadoun]

I have started my satellite hobby in 1989 with my 1st motorized C-band satellite system. I wanted to watch ethnic channels that were only available on satellite. I have been using satellite ever since. I don't remember having cable in more than 20 years.

[rainman]

I started in 1991 when I moved to eastern Kentucky and couldn't get OTA signal due to the moutains and no cable in the area so bought a used 10 ft dish with a old Drake receiver then the hobby just grew from there.

[vj9999]

I started mine in 1992-1993 when I was living in Europe. Then I took a 10 year hiatus and started "using" again in 2003.

[jimneycricket]

Same here, I got into it first in 1986 and only got back in again a few years back.

[satnutwillb]

I got started around 1996.

[keebs]

my father had bought a stationary ku set up for some seminars he was conducting. i picked up an issue of orbit magazine by chance and found the wildfeeds pull-out section and became curious. i took over the dish when my father no longer used it and lugged this huge television 100 yards to the edge of the road almost daily. out there by the road people who drove by must of thought i was nuts! when i moved the dish by hand and got a signal i was hooked. anyway i moved and left the dish behind. but some 10 yrs later i just bought a new motorized set up from sadoun. i dont know why i am so intrigued by sats? its kind of strange. i cant explain it? when i drive my eyes seek out new and old dishes like some heat seeking satellite freak. so to further quench this thirst, i am awaiting the final piece of my c band set up now. pray for me.

[elgemcdlf]

I do not remember when I first started but was in the late 80's to early 90's. A 10' one piece spun alum dish. C Band only. When I moved from that house I left the dish behind (big mistake) and went dishless for many years. Just recently got reactive with dishes again. Have never had cable or DN/DTV. Do not like the picture quality of DN/DTV nor the fact they are nothing more than cable in concept. You are tied to only them and they are free to do as they please. With a big dish I can change providers on a whim. Add channels, drop channels as I desire.

I have always been fascinated by satellite tv and can not imagine not having at least one operational dish.

[lumpkin666]

It was many MANY years ago when we got our first satellite. But I don't consider it a hobby until last Spring. Before last spring, I had someone else install and maintain everything (except for the BUD that moved around with me for years). It became a hobby last spring when I began buying up tons of equipment and actually enjoying spending time configuring things/etc.

[ayelvington]

I started about five years ago as a spin off from part of my job that I really like. I worked in emergency management and was working with local schools to downlink and record training programs. As Ku got more common, I started to read Lyngsat and made the investment so that I could putter in my apartment (and keep off the streets).

Since then I've adopted the BUD at my new assignment and am promoting satellite delivery of training in our agency. On the personal side, I really enjoy the scope and depth of programming that I can enjoy without paying a fickle provider.

Honestly, I'm wondering how much I'll be enjoying this when I retire and won't have access to pricey test equipment that makes things A LOT easier. oh well.

[bali]

I started about 1985, a 10ft c band dish, on a fixed mount and drake 224 aimed at nasa tv for over 20 years ! (now a 7.5ft dish fixed at nasa and a pansat 2500a)

in 1992 i got a 2nd 10 ft, c/ku feed and startrek 6 receiver to roam the
skys for analog fta (still using but added a fortec lifetime for dvb in 2005)

in aug 2007, for the family, i bought a sadoun M2 system, more fta fun !!

never subscribed to anything, fta only, all these years

its been a blast

[wejones]

? Approx 1986 +/- a year. A co-worker found an ad for a complete C-band system in one of those mail order catalogs that sold old discontinued and factory excess stuff. The system was a C-band 70 MHz LNA and had a separate dish mover that drove an optical sensor H-H. The thing weighed a ton. About the time I got it, HBO started to scramble, but there was another similar movie channel that stayed ITC for a couple years, but it finally started to scramble, and had a deal that if you subscribed (cheaper than HBO) that they would either give you or give you a good deal on a VCII unit, so I did that. However the VCII wasn't compatable with the LNA system I had, so I had to upgrade to a new receiver (Uniden), some time around 1989. About this time I bought a used 4' Ku dish/receiver from another co-worker. Never set this one up, but tried to strap the lnbf on the side of my C-band feed. This never worked very well, because the C-band dish wasn't shaped well enough to receive Ku. I did manage to receive NBC stuff, but it had no audio, since the GI ku receiver was for a special cable system and had an unusual audio freq, and it wasn't adjustable. Used that for about a year at which point the optical sensor on my dish went out. I manually moved the dish from sat to sat for several months using a home made power supply, but finally, in 1990, I bought a new dish (a SAMI), a new receiver, (Echostar 7000) and a Corotor C/Ku feedhorn, in order to upgrade to Ku. Used this until 1996, when I moved. I left that dish at the old house, and bought a Orbitron spinclination/Atlas H-H dish at my new house, and also got a Drake 1824 receiver. Still using both. When PBS switched over to DCII, I was thinking about getting a 4DTV , but didn't want to give up the Drake, which is a really nice receiver, and at that time there weren't any 905 sidecars, so instead I bought a DSR4200 DCII receiver (which cost about $1200.. later got a second one for $40, which was sad.) This combination gave me access to all the free DCII stuff, and I already had VCII capability. Picked up a used 6' dish and a Monterey 50/55 receiver (about the only receiver better than the Drake) never really set them up, but just kept them as spares. But then, some time around 2002 or so, I decided to get into DVB, so I picked up a Fortec Lifetime and a Twinhan 1020a. Later picked up a Broadlogic receiver, a Fortec Ultra, and later a Fortec Mercury. Used these slaved off the Drake. Eventually got a motorized 90CM, and a fixed Primestar dish. Also, in the early years of this decade, NFL stopped having Sunday ticket on C-band, so I got a DirecTV system as well, and eventually switched over my subscriptions to DTV. I kept a couple VCII subscriptions to CNN and a couple others for a while, but finally gave up the big dish subscriptions about a year ago, mainly because I often can't move the big dish in cold weather any more.

My main reasons for getting a TVRO system was (1) to receive PBS, and (2) to receive Pgh Steeler games, (3) for newsfeeds, wild feeds, backhaul sports feeds, and (4) NASA-TV, all of which were responsible for most of the upgrades I went through, ie Steeler games were on Ku, PBS first needed wide bandwidth audio which the Drake had, then they switched to DCII, which is why I got the 4200, and then NFL preseason games switched to FTA, etc. Also, I got into APT over satellite back in the early 90s. Ie back then AP news was sent to newspapers over a system called APT, which is similar to the system used by the NOAA weather satellites. There was also something called GOES TAP or something like that, which was also sent over regular TVRO satellites by APT on FM^2 subcarriers. So I bought an APT adapter that hooked up to the sat receiver, and it allowed me to display news clippings and GOES weather maps, and also NOAA weather maps directly on my computer screen, which was pretty neat. Also, got into SCPC reception, which is how many radio stations and other data and business transmissions used to be done back before mpeg digital became popular.
Not only got into TVRO satellite stuff, but also got into ham radio satellite stuff (mainly "easy" FM sats and MIR, space shuttle and space station). For a while I had a 2 axis motorized 2M/440 CP sat antenna that I used to manually follow LEO sats, but it was a low budget thing, and broke.
Anyway, I've been interested in a wide variety of satellite hobbies.

[Darkman]

Time goes by fast.. - so can't recall for sure when...

2000-2002 .. or something like that maybe

[Iceberg]

1997 for C-Band

Bought a cabin and it had a 5 foot dish and a Radio Shack receiver on G5 with a subscription on it still

Sadly they put the dish near the lake (only LOS spot) and slowly the lake eroded the shore away and the dish fell into the lake

Started with KU in 2003. Got it originally for the (at the time) free radio stations on ExpressVu

[Jim-S]

I love radios, ham, scanners and shortwave. I subscribe to Monitoring Times magazine, they had an article in I think the May 2007 issue about the radio stations you could receive on the KU band also TV. I bought a system in July 2007. So far what I like about it is all the different cultures I can view right from my living room.
Jim-s

[Sadoun]

Jim, you bring a good point about all the radio stations available FTA on satellite. You might want to write an article or follow up to the magazine you subscribe to. You could tell them about your experience so far with your KU system and how it has enhanced your HAM radio hobby.

I wish more people would be interested in HAM radio. It is a valuable hobby and has great value.

[vicg1]

I bought a NIB 10' c band set up in 1982... then I started reading up on KU and sold the C before even putting it up... never got a KU, just this year put up a Fortec dish I bought from Sadoun 2 years ago... at least I finally got it done! Only have G25 locked in but looking forward to playing with a motor soon!

[StevenS]

I started with some uplink work for an Audio Video production company in 2001 after having been in charge of the headend satellite feeds in a hospital on the east coast. My background is in Audio Video engineering, specializing in home theatre and class "B" wiring for signal routing and security systems. Previous to that I was 2nd engineer in a production auditorium engineering live sound for television. One of my hobbies is in Short Wave. It became a natural step with my family needs to become more home based in the "Office".
I really began with FTA satellites a couple of years ago and have been here ever since. With my FTA system I can get international programming (especially German) This is nice that I can watch programming that I used to only be able to listen to on my Short Wave radio. Naturally with the rise of HD all these areas are coming together for me in a nice way. I am enjoying the Satellite world and learning a great deal from everyo