Re: [amsat-bb] TV question

["Edward R. Cole" <al7eb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:50 AM 6/24/03 -0700, Jim.Walls@sce.com wrote:
>W7LRD said:
>> I have several primestar dishes along with a receiver and even a
>> remote control.  Do any of you know if there is any TV programing
>> that this stuff can receive?  I thought it might be interesting to
>> play with this stuff when I'm out of the AO-40  footprint.  There
>> are a lot of geostationary satellites up there and I have no clue
>> where to begin. Perhaps the receiver is just junk at this point.
>
>Bob,
>      PrimeStar was Ku band and there is LOTS of Ku band TV being
>downlinked from various geostationary satellites.  Check out
>http://www.lyngsat.com/ for information on what is where.  As to the
>equipment, the receiver is pretty much junk.  The downconverter is
>certainly of use.
>
>73
>-----------------------
>Jim Walls - K6CCC

Jim and Bob:

I took a look at the lyngsat website as I have not been a dealer since
about 1991, so wasn't that sure what the line-up of Ku-band sats was today.
 Over "America" it looks like primarily Echostar (DishNET) or Direct-TV
which both are subscription services requiring their IRD (integrated
receiver-descrambler).  The LNB (what you described as a downconvertor)
probably will work for both (not sure if they use the same freq. band).
Back in the late 80s and early 90s there were several Ku-band birds but
they varied a lot on channel spacing and channel bandwidth.  My guess that
before you sink any cash into it you borrow and old c/ku receiver and try
it out.  These old c-band systems are throw-away today with nearly
universal move to either Direct-TV or DishNet small dish service.  I have
about four old c-band LNBs and a couple c-band receivers (to use for 1290
ATV some day).  The receivers tuned 950-1450 MHz, the IF passband that the
LNB produced.

I got rid of my last working IRD to an old customer whose receiver crapped
out...sold it to him for $50!

73, Ed - AL7EB
my 33-inch offset dish for AO-40 was my original TV dish.  Now have a
39-inch one.

----
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