25 Are there any hobbies related to owning a big dish system?
Description
This article is from the TeleVision Receive Only Satellite-TV FAQ, by TVRO Hobbyists drlev@hotmail.com with numerous contributions by others.
25 Are there any hobbies related to owning a big dish system?
Absolutely! Having a big dish system means more than just standard TV
watching and satellite audio listening. Probably the largest hobby
element to big dish ownership today involves having a DVB/MPEG-2
free-to-air receiver. Unlike standard big dish viewing, DVB/MPEG-2
programming has a higher tendency of being here today and gone
tomorrow. DVB/MPEG-2 is also great for its abundance of non-"cable
type" programming, particularly international programming. With the
right receiver, DVB/MPEG-2 has the added bonus of allowing industrious
(and patient) big dish aficionados to possibly find a channel that has
never been found before.
Another "alternative" form of enjoying TVRO is listening to
"non-standard" audio. Besides standard subcarrier audio, there is a
fair amount of DVB/MPEG-2 audio for the big dish owner's listening
enjoyment. There are also two other forms of non-standard audio that,
with a little effort and investment, can be tuned.
Although having long been abandoned by commercial radio networks for
digital transmission methods (DAT/SEDAT and, more recently,
Starguide-III systems), analog single channel per carrier (SCPC) audio
is still an interesting diversion from standard satellite radio
listening. There was once a large amount of audio carried using analog
SCPC; the amount today is limited to roughly 20 feeds on two
satellites. In order to receive analog SCPC, you will need either a
dedicated analog SCPC receiver, such as those made by Universal
Electronics, or use the "poor man's" method by splitting the 70 MHz
loop signal output from an older TVRO receiver, with one of the split
outputs going to a broadcast TV audio tuner and the other returning to
the 70 MHz loop input. Having a phase-lock loop LNB as part of your
system will help dramatically for those seriously intent on more than
casual analog SCPC listening as the audio will tend to drift with a
standard LNB, forcing the listener to have to constantly re-tune the
signal.
Another form of non-standard satellite audio is FM Squared, often
written as FM2, FM^2, or even FM/FM. FM Squared is another older
method of analog satellite audio delivery; interestingly enough, it
occupies the space on a transponder signal normally used for
video. The amount of FM Squared audio available is even less than that
of analog SCPC, limited mainly to some in-store audio networks, AP
Network News, and some remaining Muzak "environmental music"
feeds. Unfortunately, the best method of receiving FM Squared isn't
cheap; a wideband radio scanner that tunes between 0 and 5 MHz is
needed and few (like the ICOM R100) scanners have this capability. Not
only that, such capable scanners are VERY expensive and the benefit of
listening to such few remaining audio services probably doesn't
justify the cost unless the scanner is going to be used for actual
radio scanning as well. The scanner connects to your satellite
receiver's baseband output connection.
For information on remaining analog SCPC and FM Squared programming
locations, checkout out Monitoring Times Satellite Services Guide web
page at:
http://www.grove-ent.com/mtssg.html
Audio isn't the only big dish hobby possibility. With a good
horizon-to-horizon, or H-to-H, mount, you can track some international
satellites with your big dish system. This is especially true of
satellite systems located on the east coast of the United States and
Canada. The H-to-H mount allows for more dish movement (a full 180
degrees) than a standard non-motorized mount with an actuator. A good
H-to-H mount is fairly expensive at around $400. For the big-time dish
hobbyist, the cost is probably well worth it.
With special tracking equipment, your TVRO system can also track
inclined orbit satellites. Satellites usually go into an inclined
orbit once most of their onboard fuel supply is gone. By allowing a
satellite to fall into a natural north-south drift when its fuel
supply is low allows the life of the satellite to be extended without
much cost or added control by the company that owns the
satellite. Tracking an inclined orbit satellite requires the use of a
special dual axis mount that covers both horizontal and vertical
tracking. Most inclined communications satellites are over Europe but
there are a few over the Western Hemisphere as well.
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