Last week I decided to investigate satellite TV in the form of an FTA receiver and a 36” dish. I have a number of reasons for doing this, not the least of which is my disenchantment with the programming on cable, and for that matter the state of modern programming in general. Most of what is available on the cable networks seems a bit pedestrian most of the time. I admit this is just my personal preference, I prefer more detailed information and greater depth than most of these entities seem to provide. Rule of thumb for me is that any station that has to provide multiple serialized reality show format programs is probably not somewhere I would go for entertainment or enlightenment.
So I started looking at what might be available directly from the satellites.
I found some interesting programming on the Galaxy 18 satellite. This satellite does have some free to air programming. You can find a list of what is on this satellite by going to Lyngsat and looking at Galaxy 18. Most of what is here is encrypted, but the entries that show as either NTSC or DVB are open and available to anyone with a dish pointed at the satellite. Some of the best here are The Research Channel, University of Washington (UWTV), and the 3C (California Community College) channels. There are others certainly, including Retro Jams, the oldies music video station, and This TV, the oldies movie station (hey, I qualify as an oldy myself :-) ), but the top three are very good 'brain food'.
Since I just set this system up, I have not spent much time looking at the programming, but so far the lectures and programs on UWTV and The Research Channel are top notch.
A bit about my setup. This is not a particularly difficult project if you are fairly handy, have a view of the south sky, and some patience. The system I put together cost less than $250 and consists of a receiver (Viewsat VS2000), a 36” dish with tripod, and accessories such as coax, a signal meter, etc..
It DID take me approximately 8 hours to figure out the basics, assemble the equipment, and aim the dish.
A few things I would like to emphasize:
The programming I am getting from this satellite is free.
The programming available can change at any time
You MUST have a signal meter to aim your dish. Otherwise you may become frustrated enough to decide to try to determine the glide path of your equipment through practical application.
This is not a motorized dish. If I wish to “change” satellites I will have to go through aiming again. A motorized system costs about $100 more.
HD PVR type systems are also available. These allow you pick up and record programming to an external hard drive. This can be very handy if you find programming to use in your classroom, but it is another $200-300 in addition to the original cost.
- When aiming the dish take into account your elevation. In a nutshell, aiming a dish in Tehachapi is much different than in Bakersfield. Your satellite dish elevation settings will be much closer to the horizon.
For now I'm content with the setup I have. Since I teach in education and in technology, I have the quadruple benefit of being able to find intelligent programming, potentially more content for my courses, intellectual stimulation, and access to types of programming that absent from my cable provider.
I will report back at some point as I upgrade my installation.
