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| Did you have? (Page 1/2) |
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Wichita
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JUL 09, 04:30 AM
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The big dish for several hundred channels for a 13” TV?
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OldsFiero
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JUL 09, 07:18 AM
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Nope. Back then we used the rabbit ears on the 13" TV. Got 2 channels out Binghamton that were viewable and one out of Syracuse that mostly looked like a polar bear in a snowstorm. 
Marc
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IMSA GT
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JUL 09, 10:22 AM
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It's funny, here in the Bay Area especially Woodside which is the multi million dollar area, you can still find these abandoned on peoples property hidden in brush or a tree growing around them.
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theogre
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JUL 09, 01:21 PM
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Many had them before started to scramble/encrypt the channels. (Broadcasters first tried to make home dishes Illegal but failed then encrypted to stop home watching.) Soon after you see very few channels and no point to install. You could pay for STB to decrypt some channels but not worth the headache for many users.
Headaches?
Example: 1 big problem is you have to find right satellite and polarity for given channel. Then switch to another satellite/polarity/both to watch another network.
System move the whole dish to find whatever "bird" then rotate part of the "horn" on the Dish to set Polarity. Polarity? RF Polarity is about same as Optic Polarity and have sat sends channel X w/ Vertical Polarity but Horn is otherwise then little or no signal gets thru same as 2 polarize lens 90° out of phase. More problems because | polarity at X bird may be / \ or even ― at the your horn then | polarity at Y bird is often way different at your horn. You later could get "smart" receivers to automate tuning but cost a lot more.
Plus many had big maintenance problem too because even "Screen dishes" was a heavy thing to move often. Worse if have snow or ice covering them. Wind hitting them often didn't help.
These satellites were not made for "home use" but Cable TV and Local Stations w/ Dedicated Fix Dishes to connect to a "main office" to get TV shows w/o sending film or tape to each Station. Later Also w/ heavily encrypted use(d) by Autotote etc for things like showing live horse/dog racing to OTB and other Tracks between local races or local racing is done/close that day.
Beside main channels carrying a show on air, have "back channels" and "side channels" just for feeds of news etc never made for public use.
Examples:
Main offices send a syndicate show for local station for tape delay at whatever time to air.
Very raw news that they want to control/edit before ever shows on local or national news shows.
So They don't want home viewing for these and other feeds ever.[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 07-09-2022).]
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ls3mach
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JUL 10, 10:47 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by OldsFiero:
Nope. Back then we used the rabbit ears on the 13" TV. Got 2 channels out Binghamton that were viewable and one out of Syracuse that mostly looked like a polar bear in a snowstorm.
Marc |
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The 13" TV was black and white and the 25" console TV it sat on was for sound.
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ls3mach
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JUL 10, 10:49 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by IMSA GT:
It's funny, here in the Bay Area especially Woodside which is the multi million dollar area, you can still find these abandoned on peoples property hidden in brush or a tree growing around them. |
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They are littered about the midwest still too.
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RWDPLZ
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JUL 10, 03:48 PM
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Used to drive by a house that had one, took up most of his backyard.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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JUL 10, 04:10 PM
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We never had one, but I remember going over to someone's house that had one in the early 90s.
I'll never forget because we were watching the news, and then the news anchor suddenly stopped talking... he looked around, and then started picking his nose. It was the craziest thing. He kept looking around, and then looked back at the camera, and in a few seconds, started reporting the news again. It was wild... haha...
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ls3mach
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JUL 11, 11:23 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
We never had one, but I remember going over to someone's house that had one in the early 90s.
I'll never forget because we were watching the news, and then the news anchor suddenly stopped talking... he looked around, and then started picking his nose. It was the craziest thing. He kept looking around, and then looked back at the camera, and in a few seconds, started reporting the news again. It was wild... haha... |
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Did that have anything to do with the satellite or it was just what happened while watching?
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theogre
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JUL 11, 11:52 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by RWDPLZ:
Used to drive by a house that had one, took up most of his backyard. |
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That was another headache...
C/Ku Dishes was ~ 8 Feet Minimum But Many people had 10-15 foot size, even bigger, depending on location and how far North you are...
New York and farther north you often need bigger dish because farther away from any Geosync birds. CableTV etc w/ fix dishes are often 20 or more feet diameter for same reason to get a better picture.
Not only the dish was big, but need more room to swing the dish too.
If installs are done right and nothing to block signal the arc that dish uses can make them rotate 120° or more to pickup more birds.
East coast users could pickup birds to serve Europe to California and Hawaii.
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