# newbie pondering fta



## lcanthony (Feb 12, 2005)

Hello to everybody
I am hoping to become a serious satellite hobbiest. I already have directv & starchoice. Now I am pondering fta. My biggest interests is local newscasts. Network news feeds also seems like it could feed my addiction. But I have a couple of questions before I go climbing on the roof.
First, how difficult is it to aim a dish at all of these satellites.
Second, what kind of $$ would this cost, going for a dependable system with a motorized dish? And what would you folks recommend as a good system?
Third, As I am mostly interested in english languaged (is that really a word?) U.S. channels supplying oodles of local newscasts, is this the route to go??
I would appreciate any info you experts could offer me before I get too excited about a new window into the world. Thanks a bunch. lee


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

If you want someone to throw cold water on your enthusiasm, I'll point out that very few of the US broadcast channels have their own local news. Some of the Caribbean stations show New York City newscasts, and the Wyoming stations have good local news, but most of the others don't.

However, you'll get the Ohio News Network, which I enjoy now and then, and lots of raw news feeds if you go looking for them. (The last news feed I saw was pre-Super Bowl from "Fox 25", apparently WFXT Boston.)

But you don't have to take my word for it. Check out the Ku-band channels available at www.ftalist.com, then plug in some of the channels into TitanTV or somewhere else that provides listings. You'll see who has news and what else they have to offer.

To answer your first questions last, I'd estimate a good motorized system to cost about $300-400 including receiver, motor, dish, pole and cabling. (I'll let the dealers make the recommendations, although I'm very happy with my PanSat 2500 right now.) Pointing a Ku-band dish is as easy/difficult as pointing any other DBS dish; it takes patience, a compass, and maybe a portable TV.


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## lcanthony (Feb 12, 2005)

Thanks, "carload", for the valuable info. I just needed a good source of information to help me make up my mind whether I really want to climb up on our roof and risk life and limb.


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## RJS1111111 (Mar 23, 2002)

lcanthony said:


> Thanks, "carload", for the valuable info. I just needed a good source of information to help me make up my mind whether I really want to climb up on our roof and risk life and limb.


:eek2:


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Good point. If you've got a clear view of the southern sky, you can probably stay on the ground. I've got one FTA dish on a pole mount and another on a movable wooden "sled",


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## kenglish (Oct 2, 2004)

Get a "blind search" receiver.....that way, you can find the occasionals and newsfeeds, without having to look up and enter the info.


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## lcanthony (Feb 12, 2005)

Thank you all for the advice! My major problems is taht the only access to the southern sky is from my roof. On the ground I have my neightbors 30+ foot oak tree to contend with.
Such is life in the urban jungle. lee


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

To hit your due south satellite, AMC 3, you'd need an elevation of about 41.5 degrees. For that elevation to clear a 30-foot tree, a ground-based dish would need to be about 34 feet back from it. To reach the satellites that are farther east and west, you'd need a lower elevation and longer distance from the tree, but that tree can't stretch all the way from east to west, can it? 

My point (with very rough Erie-area numbers) is that the satellites you can see from the ground depend a lot on how far back you are from any obstacles. If you figure the direction of the tree and which satellites it might block, you might be able to find a spot in your yard that can see over the tree.

Or, given a tree of normal width, you can determine which satellites that tree would block. It might be that the blocked satellites are among those you don't care about. (Me, I've never pointed at SatMex 5 or Anik F1, but I'm sure other folks would choose different birds to ignore.)


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## lcanthony (Feb 12, 2005)

We live on a postage stamp sized lot and this big old tree literally hangs over in our yard. It's the roof or nothing at all.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

carload said:


> (Me, I've never pointed at SatMex 5 or Anik F1, but I'm sure other folks would choose different birds to ignore.)


Wow, my analog receiver died and the big dish has been stuck on the anik f-1 for about six months. I picked up a simple used digital receiver off E-Bay for $50 bucks with shipping included.

I love the ASN, it takes shows from all the US networks, so you can see 7th Heaven, then Jay Leno later in the evening. And they have quite a few shows originating from Canada as well. Also, because it's targeted at the east coast of Canada and I'm on the US west coast, I can see the Jay and Conan earlier in the evening. Also, Newsworld International is a great news channel with very few commercials and more of a just reporting feel -- unlike all the talk show oreinted news channels on cable these days.

CTV, which shows very similar programming to ASN went away a couple months ago along with the Canadian version of the weather channel. Now, if you want to learn to speak French.......


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