# FTA newbie needs advice



## petlachou (Mar 25, 2005)

Hello everyone!
I have been reading some of the posts on DBStalk and other forums and am amazed by all the helpful info you guys provide.
I am hoping you can do the same for me.
A friend of mine sent us a pansat 2500A as a gift, knowing that our family has been trying to get european channels for a while.
We live in Chicago,IL and are interested in getting french, german, italian channels throught the FTA. Could you tell us if it is even possible to receive signals from here, and if so what kind of equipment we should add to use with this pansat receiver.
Any help would greatly appreciated.
Thanks


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

What a great gift! To complete the system, you'll need a dish (30-36 inches diameter), a Ku-band LNBF, RG-6 coax cable to run from the LNBF to the Pansat, and a place to mount the dish with a view of the southern sky.

From Chicago, you can get pretty much anything that anyone in the US can get. The big list is at www.ftalist.com. There's a whole lot of international programming out there, but not very much in the languages you mentioned. Take a look at the list and you'll have a pretty good idea of what's out there.

Welcome to our hobby!


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## petlachou (Mar 25, 2005)

Thank ya'll for the great input.
I found some more stuff out: do you have any idea whether or not we could get signal in Chicago for satellites such as Hispasat1D and/or AtlanticBird3?Because these actually carry the channels we woudl be looking for.
thanks again


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Whether you can pick up programming from a given satellite transponder depends on two basic factors: whether you can see it, and whether it's looking at you.

To figure out whether you can see it, you'll need to plug in the relevant info into a elevation/direction program. My favorite is from the good folks at Sadoun: http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Satellite-Heading-Calculator.htm . Clicking Chicago and typing Atlantic Bird 3 (5 degrees west according to LyngSat), the results are that you just can't see it. For Hispasat 1D (30 W), you'd need an elevation of 15.1 degrees and an azimuth of 112.8 degrees. At that elevation, you'll need about 100 feet of distance to clear 27 feet of obstruction, so you'll need a very clear path in that direction.

To figure out whether it's looking at you, check the footprint map. Go to the satellite's LyngSat page (http://www.lyngsat.com/hispa1d.html in this case). For each transponder, the column second to the right is a link to its footprint map. In this case, most of the TPs are pointed at Europe (http://www.hispasat.com/FlotaSat/pop_up_cobH1D-2.htm), but three or four channels are pointed at the eastern/central US (http://www.hispasat.com/FlotaSat/pop_up_cobH1D-3.htm). If you want ManáSat 1, ManáSat 2, Rede TV! Sul (all Portuguese language, if I interpret the chart correctly), or TeleCaribe (Spanish), LyngSat says you've got a shot at those.

Hope this helps!


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## zipcom (Oct 14, 2005)

carload said:


> In this case, most of the TPs are pointed at Europe (http://www.hispasat.com/FlotaSat/pop_up_cobH1D-2.htm), but three or four channels are pointed at the eastern/central US (http://www.hispasat.com/FlotaSat/pop_up_cobH1D-3.htm). If you want ManáSat 1, ManáSat 2, Rede TV! Sul (all Portuguese language, if I interpret the chart correctly), or TeleCaribe (Spanish), LyngSat says you've got a shot at those.
> 
> Hope this helps!


Ok folks, total newbie here. I am very interested in finding FTA Portuguese and I think they are out there. when I visited

gosatellite

there was some portuguese and brazillian programing. on 70.0°W Brasilsat B1 and 84.0°W Brasilsat B3 and 92.0°W Brasilsat B4 as well as 30.0°W Hispasat 1C 
Hispasat 1D

I guess my question is, how do I find out if any of these are FTA and if they are available from zip 97459 ?? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated...If this is going to work I am hoping to hook this up before Christmas for my Portuguese in-laws.

Thanks,

Kipp


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## KyL416 (Nov 11, 2005)

IIRC, those sats only cover South America.


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