Thank goodness for FTA

[Berling Sizemore]

You know I a relatively new to this hobby. However, I am really thankful for all the FTA programming available and all the helpful people.

I have a problem with big cable/sat companies and paying their fees. It's excessive. I mean you pay monthly and unless you pay even more for TIVO your bombarded with commercials. This seems very wrong to me. Once I recorded something on VHS and just looked at the set up for prime time commercials. The sequence went like this....

End of show....
Commercial....
Credits of the last show.... (useless who watches this)
Commercial...
Opening them song and opening credits of the next show.... (again useless)
Commercial...
Now back to the new show...

Wow talk about cramming it in there!

I do have to say though it's a big help if you speak Farsi or Arabic, I speak Farsi and WILL LEARN Arabic. Not only to open the door to more free TV but it's about culture and learning other peoples ways/customs.

That's another thing FTA brings us, an understanding that it's a big world out there! Many nations, many customs and god willing many new friends to share and learn from. Somehow that gets lost when you only watch USA English TV.

Personally I believe FTA should be advertised more everywhere. Why not right next to that billboard of Nike or Cola. It could read FTA watch TV for free small initial invest hours of free programming!

- Berling

[boroda1]

Originally Posted by Berling Sizemore

That's another thing FTA brings us, an understanding that it's a big world out there! Many nations, many customs

Never heard any shortwave radio?
That's when I got an impression how big (and small) the world is!
About commercials:
I never see so many commercials as on one FTA channel from Glendale, Horizon TV, during their friday night "pop-20" show! 5 min. song - 10 min of commercials, and so on. Jaam-e-Jam also has them. But sometimes it's even interesting to compare local commercials with the ones from, say, Arkansas!

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Berling Sizemore

Personally I believe FTA should be advertised more everywhere. Why not right next to that billboard of Nike or Cola. It could read FTA watch TV for free small initial invest hours of free programming!

- Berling

no we don't want to do that then there would be no fta.all buisness want to make money so if they know we are watching then encryption follows.

[elgemcdlf]

The commercials on any of the FTA channels do not bother me at all as I adjust for what I am paying for that channel I do not sub to any channels with commercials which means movie channels on the 922. Something in me just refuses to pay for watching commercials

I do agree with the title though. I knew nothing about DVB MPEG2 a couple years ago. Started as trying to find Spanish language channels for my GF. I have the big dish put in with C and Ku along with a DSR922. GREAT! But alas there was not much in the way of available programming then. It has come a long way since then. Anyway as I got searching around I came across lyngsat which prompted me to do some investigation on the DVB stuff.

$120.00 later for my first DVB receiver and away we go. She currently has 123 channels on the DVB receiver alone along with roughly 20 or so on the 922. She has learned how to alter the audio on the 922 to get feeds in Spanish on the subcarrier signal. I am in the process of moving her small Ku dish to a pole in the yard and installing a dedicated circular C Band dish for roughly 40 more channels for her.

With SatMex6 in place I think I counted 31 more channels on DVB alone along with 14 more for the 922. I just seen somebody has loaded 72 with Spanish language channels so I will need to rescan that. All in all she should be nearing the 200 channel mark here soon. All FTA and all Spanish with many from Mexico.

[rainman]

got to keep the women happy.LOL besides it makes buying new toy's for the hobby easier.

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by rainman

got to keep the women happy.LOL besides it makes buying new toy's for the hobby easier.

It has become my obsession. She actually watches quite a bit of the channels. Keeps circling back to Univision on G10R though. I probably could have just set a fixed dish at that sat and she would have been fine with it.

She should love the new SatMex sat when I get it scanned in.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

She should love the new SatMex sat when I get it scanned in.

did a rescan tonight alot of channels to keep her happy.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by boroda1

Never heard any shortwave radio?
That's when I got an impression how big (and small) the world is!
....

Yeah, when I was in grade and high school, back in the 50s, during the duck and cover days when everyone was terrified about a NUKE attack, and I spent HOURS glued to my old (even then) Hallicrafter's SW receiver, which glowed in the dark, listening to BBC and Radio Moscow, and China, and other places around the world, trying to get a different perspective on things.

I drifted away from that hobby over the years, with ham radio and the internet replacing that aspect. However a couple years ago, I was somewhat surprised when I found that I was receiving Radio China International, (or something like that, I think that's the name), and was receiving it NOT on one of my numerous receivers, but I was receiving it on my computer! Ie, I'd be sitting there typing something on my computer, and I'd start to hear music, and then talking, sometimes in English sometimes in Chinese, sometimes other languages. It was coming out of my sound card speakers!
At first, I thought this must be due to the fact that I have a couple scanners connected to my computer, to listen to aircraft, however I still got reception independent of what these scanners were doing.
I did some experimentation, and found that I was only getting this reception when I had a long speaker wire connected that went downstairs to some speakers I had down there. Apparently my speaker wire was acting as an antenna, feeding the signal into my sound card, rectifying the signal, and outputting the audio out to my sound card speakers again!!!

I finally decided that it was Radio China, and tuned in that freq on one of my short waves, and found out unlike when I was a kid, when the signal from China was rather weak, Radio China was a BOOMING signal, as strong or stronger than many of the local AM stations! Well, I did a bit of research, and found out that the transmitter for Radio China, was just a few hundred miles away, across the border in Canada! They must send their signal to Canada via telephone lines or the internet or satellite or something, then pay the Canadians to re-broadcast it. One funny aspect of it was that the 3 letter symbols of the Chinese station (like RCI or CRI or whatever) and the Canadian stations that were rebroadcasting it were real similar, which confused the transmitter source even more.

Anyway, I only mentioned the above because when I was young SW radio, as you say gave a feeling of how big the world was, pulling in these static filled signals from FAR AWAY, but NOW, it gives you a feeling of how SMALL the world is, being able to pick up China, half a world away easier than an AM station 20 miles away. All because of satellites and the internet.

SW isn't the same anymore.

[briand]

Bill --

I agree wholeheartedly. A generation later than you, I grew up listening intently to my old Philco radio (with both Standard Broadcast and shortwave capabilities). Later on, bought a Kenwood R-5000. I still have both of those radios (and several more!), but as you say.. it's not like it was years ago.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by briand

Bill --

I agree wholeheartedly. A generation later than you, I grew up listening intently to my old Philco radio (with both Standard Broadcast and shortwave capabilities). Later on, bought a Kenwood R-5000. I still have both of those radios (and several more!), but as you say.. it's not like it was years ago.

Yeah, I had a couple of those Philco radios too. They worked pretty well. I think they were the ones that had some kind of weird loop antenna wound on a piece of cardboard on the back. I think one of them was a floor model that stood about 3 or 4' high, although I might be confusing that with another brand. I still have my old Hallicrafter, (although I'm afraid to turn it on without replacing all the capacitors,) but got rid of the Philcos long ago.

I also have a Kenwood receiver, although I think it is an R-2000. Haven't used it for about 10 years though, as I have a Yaesu 890 (I think) and a Yaesu VR5000, which pretty much do everything the Kenwood did, however the Kenwood is a nice receiver.

[briand]

The R-2000 is a decent receiver as well. ...and, if I feel like contributing to the RF noise, I've got a TS-940SAT, TS-711A, TS-811A and (seemingly) miles and miles of cabling.

[tjd49]

What kind of sports programing is available on FTA? Fox Sports Network?

[tjd49]

Any movie channels available on FTA?

[boroda1]

Originally Posted by tjd49

Any movie channels available on FTA?

yes - for movies (wht springs, gnf movies, some more on C-band)
generally, no - for sports. Check www.ftalist.com, lyngsat and "tv - channels"
section on this forum to get an idea:http://www.sadoun.net/forums/tv-channels/

[TucoRamirez]

It's nice to talk to you guys, I was very impressed when I read about your short wave radio experience, I used to listen to that kind of radio many years ago, that was a great experience. That's probably why I like this FTA satellite system I just didn't know how many people are interested in the same hobbies I like.
There is one thing I like the most, you are very nice, open minded, educated people, even if you have to see channels on languages other than English, you see it on a friendly way, that makes me feel great, I'm from Mexico and I cannot get any signal from those mexican birds GRRRRRRRRR!
Well, that's it for today but I'll be bothering you very often here at the forum.
Thanks

[rainman]

stop in and ask questions thats how we all learn.