# Is FTA for me?



## hopski (Mar 12, 2005)

I have done some the research and feel like FTA is the new hobby I have been looking for. I do have a question though about sports viewing, specifically CBS broadcasts. Where I live the local affiliate almost never shows what the national CBS affiliates show , especially in the fall (SEC football). Is it possible to pick up CBS on FTA broadcasts, either from other cities or a "national" broadcast. I live in the high desert southwest and have a perfect unobstructed view of the south that I would love to put to use. If not FTA would C band be better for me? thanks for any help.


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## avex (Aug 19, 2003)

I doubt you'll be seeing any CBS channels. you can take a look at http://www.lyngsat.com/g10r.html the ones at are marked "F" are free those are the channels you can get. The high freq are KU band and the low is CBand

C Band you need to put a 6'-12 foot dish. Might as well subscribe to dish, directv or put up an antenna.


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## Ray_Clum (Apr 22, 2002)

There are a couple of CBS's out there, but few and far between. You're more likely to see a FOX or UPN that has a contract with the specific college. Definately check out www.lyngsat.com and check out each broadcast stations webpage (if available) to see.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Yeesh! Instead of fuzzy negatives, let's talk about the specifics of what's there.

First, check out www.ftalist.com, and you'll see that there's one CBS affiliate, from the Virgin Islands, available on Ku band. Then you could go to Global Communications for one of their excellent lists, the stuff available on C band: http://www.global-cm.net/MPEGlistCBandUS.html. There you'll see that the Anchorage CBS affiliate is available, along with the other major Anchorage stations.

It's important to note that we're talking about what's available _today_ with no guarantee for tomorrow. Those stations can come and go at any time, but there's usually something new to replace them. A new ABC affiliate got on Ku band just a couple of months ago, for example.

If you can qualify for distant networks (a long discussion unto itself), then you could sign up for Dish or DirecTV and get the NY/LA networks, including CBS. If you can't qualify, as is usually the case, you're stuck with the stations in your official TV market, and those are usually the local affiliates you're complaining about. Unless you lie to Dish/Direct about where you live, called "moving", which could get you a different set of "local" stations, if you think that's ethical and legal.

Yet another option would be to line up a Canadian broker to lie about your US address and subscribe to Bell ExpressVu or StarChoice, the two Canadian DBS providers. Both carry US big four network stations as part of their basic packages. Again, I leave the question of ethics and legality for others to discuss.

I think Ku band, for its $200-400 cost and easy-to-mount dish, makes a cost-effective supplement for normal cable/Dish programming. If the universe of your desires is merely a CBS affiliate, it could take care of your needs as long as WVXF stays put. If you want to see what else a Ku-band dish could give you, load up a TitanTV satellite/cable lineup with a bunch of the codes from the FTAList and see what's on any given weekend.

If you have the money, land, and approval to erect a C-band dish, that gives you even more options. In either case, you'll definitely be able to see channels that you can't get anywhere else. Only you can answer the question: Is that worth it to you?


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## Way193 (Sep 14, 2003)

hopski said:


> I have done some the research and feel like FTA is the new hobby I have been looking for. I do have a question though about sports viewing, specifically CBS broadcasts. Where I live the local affiliate almost never shows what the national CBS affiliates show , especially in the fall (SEC football). Is it possible to pick up CBS on FTA broadcasts, either from other cities or a "national" broadcast. I live in the high desert southwest and have a perfect unobstructed view of the south that I would love to put to use. If not FTA would C band be better for me? thanks for any help.


Why not put up a 10 ft. C/Ku band dish and get an old analog receiver and a mpeg2 receiver and you should be able find more then enough football games
to watch. It is unbelievable how much college football is on KU band analog alone.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

I don't disagree, but finding and watching those cool raw feeds takes a bit of work. If you simply want more college football choices, you could subscribe to the out-of-area regional sports network package on Dish/Direct and get several extra games every week. (Although any game in the ESPN college football package will be blacked out, that still leaves 40-50% of the RSN games available.)

Or even with scheduled FTA channels, there are usually 2-3 extra college football games every Saturday, particularly if you count the ABC games.

I didn't mention any of this because the original question was simply about SEC games on CBS. Some folks want to see particular teams, not just college football in general.


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## robfwb (Jul 11, 2004)

FTA will always be there. The big wigs are counting on you dish owners to go small then when there are no more subscriptions i betcha it will light up.

Rob

http://www.cband.info - chat with die hard c-band users


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## PSB (Oct 4, 2002)

Well said robfwb! Thats EXACTLY what happened in the UK and the same thing will happen here! FTA will just keep getting BIGGER as subscriptions level off, and they will!


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