# Ancient History: Radio Shack DBS



## hax0r (Aug 10, 2002)

Does anyone remember the DBS system that Radio Shack used to sell back in the early 80s? I remember it used a fairly large dish, and that the service was pretty short-lived; it was probably gone by 1985 or 1986.

Anyone have any more information about it?

Thanks!

[Edit: Title corrected! ]


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## Chris Freeland (Mar 24, 2002)

Their was no DBS service of any kind in the U.S before Direct TV, Primestar was never technically considered DBS. What RS sold before D* came along was C-band alias the "BUD", they are still available today of course but not through RS.


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## Kerry High (Apr 28, 2002)

Which started broadcasting first, DirecTV or USSB?


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## Dave (Jan 29, 2003)

Radio Shack sold Primestar in the mid 90's until Direct bought them out. Primestar was a satellite service, with a dish and receiver.


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## HappyGoLucky (Jan 11, 2004)

Dave said:


> Radio Shack sold Primestar in the mid 90's until Direct bought them out. Primestar was a satellite service, with a dish and receiver.


Yep, when I moved back to rural Virginia back in 1997, I subscribed to Primestar. I enjoyed the service, it worked very well, had a decent little receiver. I even got all the broadcast network feeds (east and west) which I loved a lot. Eventually I was converted to DirecTV when Primestar got bought out, but that was done for free.

Primestar used a 36" oval dish and a low-power sat transmitter (similar to C-band but digital). Even though it was low-power, they could get away with using a (relatively) small dish compared to C-band because the dish was stationary and only had to point to one satellite. There are those who say that the "DBS" definition requires a high-power transmitter, which would mean that DirecTV was the first. But others contend that since Primestar offered the same type service, it was essentially a "DBS" system though low-powered. That's if you define "DBS" as "Direct Broadcast Satellite".


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

DBS is a specific term defining a satellite service in a specific frequency band, specific orbital slots, and having specific power transmitting requirements. Anything not falling within the specifications is DTH (Direct to Home), not DBS. The only DBS services in the US now, or at anytime in the past is DirecTv, Dish, Sky Angel, and the now gone USSB. Primestar (and a similar all digital service, Alpha Star) was a Ku band DTH service. They actually started out as an analog service with about 20 channels or so and went digital a while after launch, swapping out all receivers that were then in service. The first service to actually show a digital DTH service was a company called SkyPix in 1991. A little company by the name of Echosphere signed on to be the exclusive distributor of SkyPix to the TVRO (satellite dealer) industry. SkyPix went under in 1992, never launching their service. Their uplink facility was purchased by Alpha Star. C-band would not have worked with a 3' dish due to the spacing and power of the satellites. Radio Shack started out in the C-band business and, seeing the direction of the market started offering Prime Star as an alternative. Their c-band dishes were typically 7' diameter perf dishes (rather than mesh) with horizon to horizon mounts, not a bad mount at all. Their receivers were made by a variety of companies but, if I recall correctly, the majority were by Uniden.


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## HappyGoLucky (Jan 11, 2004)

Richard King said:


> DBS is a specific term defining a satellite service in a specific frequency band, specific orbital slots, and having specific power transmitting requirements. Anything not falling within the specifications is DTH (Direct to Home), not DBS. The only DBS services in the US now, or at anytime in the past is DirecTv, Dish, Sky Angel, and the now gone USSB. Primestar (and a similar all digital service, Alpha Star) was a Ku band DTH service. They actually started out as an analog service with about 20 channels or so and went digital a while after launch, swapping out all receivers that were then in service. The first service to actually show a digital DTH service was a company called SkyPix in 1991. A little company by the name of Echosphere signed on to be the exclusive distributor of SkyPix to the TVRO (satellite dealer) industry. SkyPix went under in 1992, never launching their service. Their uplink facility was purchased by Alpha Star. C-band would not have worked with a 3' dish due to the spacing and power of the satellites. Radio Shack started out in the C-band business and, seeing the direction of the market started offering Prime Star as an alternative. Their c-band dishes were typically 7' diameter perf dishes (rather than mesh) with horizon to horizon mounts, not a bad mount at all. Their receivers were made by a variety of companies but, if I recall correctly, the majority were by Uniden.


The only thing I question is that "C-band would not have worked with a 3' dish". That is practically true in that a 3' dish would not be big enough to use for typical C-band setups that require moving from one satellite to another on a regular basis. However, a 3' dish is large enough to be a stationary dish pointed at one particular satellite. Business usage of stationary dishes for C-band low-power analog regularly used smaller 3' and 4' dishes. Technically, an even smaller dish that is precisely aligned could receive a C-band signal sufficiently. But smaller isn't practical for a moving dish that can't be so precise, so the bigger the better. Primestar transmitted with the same wattage as all the C-band satellites, just with a digital signal instead of analog.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> 3' dish is large enough to be a stationary dish pointed at one particular satellite.


The beam width of a 3' dish is too wide to work on c-band satellites in a 2 degree spacing environment. The smallest that would BARELY work would be 5'. Primestar was a KU band service, not c-band. Primestar began as an analog service, switching to digital after some time in operation. It was also a medium power service, not a low power service. Ku band works fine with a 3' dish, C-band does not.


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## Chris Freeland (Mar 24, 2002)

In addition to the Richard King info, RS did start out with selling C-band systems but even though P* was out before D*, RS added D* before they added P*. In fact if I am not mistaken their was a brief period of time that RS sold C-band, D*/USSB, and P* all at the same time. Eventually D* took over both USSB and P* and RS stopped selling C-band and went exclusive to D* until about a year or so ago when they added E*, and recently RS dropped D* and are now exclusive with E*.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

As long as we are on the Primestar subject, if I recall correctly, Sears was the first national retailer for them. They were also sold by a few multi level scammers along the way as were most satellite formats.


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## TonyM (Aug 14, 2003)

Chris Freeland said:


> In addition to the Richard King info, RS did start out with selling C-band systems but even though P* was out before D*, RS added D* before they added P*. In fact if I am not mistaken their was a brief period of time that RS sold C-band, D*/USSB, and P* all at the same time. Eventually D* took over both USSB and P* and RS stopped selling C-band and went exclusive to D* until about a year or so ago when they added E*, and recently RS dropped D* and are now exclusive with E*.


originally when D* came out, it was only sold in specific stores (mostly in the South). Our store (Shakopee, MN) was one of the original Beta markets for Primestar (there were 30 RS stores that were beta markets) and we sold them like crazy. This was late 95/early 96.

All stores got them mid 96..loved the different feeds. 
All I remember was
NBC was out of Boston
FOX was out of Philly
ABC was out of DC
CBS was out of NY (I think)

FOX W was out of San Fran
NBC W was out of Sacramento
I think KRON out of SF/Oakland was on there too


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## paulh (Mar 17, 2003)

I got into "DBS" via a Primestar system from RS. I also liked the idea of the national feeds via different cities, but mostly used the west feeds for timeshifting. Fortunately, I guess, there was never a major news event in one of those cities. I have thought it would be interesting to watch another networks news during a major local news event. Maby one of the current sat providers could offer a "syndicated" looped local news package (interruped by live news as available) as a multi channel package?


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

Richard King said:


> As long as we are on the Primestar subject, if I recall correctly, Sears was the first national retailer for them. They were also sold by a few multi level scammers along the way as were most satellite formats.


IIRC, one was "The People's Network" which combined the A***y scam with rightest/survivalist invective. They sold Primestar and all had one themselves to get a dedicated channel where they could receive orders from headquarters.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

As I recall The People's Network, it was 24 hours a day of feel good psycho babble. I installed a couple of dishes for people who thought they were going to make their personal fortune with TPN, which is no different than 90% of the pyramid scam suckers out there. One of them even quit their real job to promote TPN full time soon before Primestar went dark.


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## hax0r (Aug 10, 2002)

First off, let me apologize for using the term "DBS" incorrectly. The correct term would be "DTH."

I'm aware of a BUD that Radio Shack sold starting around 1985: it was called the "Realistic 2500 Home Satellite TV System." According to the 1986 RS catalog, it was to become available on November 15, 1985. This system had an 8-1/2' dish.

However, I could swear there was also an earlier system, which would have been available during 1984 and perhaps even earlier. You purchased the TVRO equipment and paid a specific company for a package of programming, as opposed to a la carte subscriptions like you'd have done for a C-band BUD. The system was specifically being marketed to residents of rural areas who were not able to get Cable TV; I lived in Central Illinois at the time, and I distinctly remember seeing an installation videotape which showed a guy pouring a concrete footing for the dish support running in a Radio Shack store in Champaign, IL. It's possible the system was not marketed in all RS stores, but only those stores in or near rural areas; since most cable TV systems offered more channels at a lower price, it would have had limited appeal in areas where cable TV service was readily available.

Anyway, I'm just curious to know if any old timers out there remember this thing.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

If I recall correctly, I don't think scrambling even started until around 1985 with HBO being the first. There really were no standard packages of programming available until much later. It would be interesting to figure out what you are thinking about though.


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## Mike500 (May 10, 2002)

Does anyone here remember when Primestar was testing dbs on an 18" dish at all Radio Shacks in early 1998? They were going to use their three transponders at 110, which now belong to DirecTV.


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## Mike123abc (Jul 19, 2002)

I do not see any chance of dish buying the rest of 157 to service AK/HI with Dish 500. There are just not enough customers to justify the costs of building a satellite just for them.

The only thing I could see them doing with 157 is maybe HD LIL for the west coast, but even then that is a stretch. If they think about LIL HD they would probably want to use spot beams, and unlike the east coast, spots are not hard out west because the population/DMAs are scattered out better, unlike the east coast.

The best buyer for 157 would be VOOM, they could then mirror the 61.5 content.


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