Analog Satellite TV (C-Band) Reception
Analog Satellite TV (C-Band) Reception
Many people are restricted access to many great channels on TV, because they have to pay for them. Well, you don't have to pay using analog satellite dishes, and it's legal, too. All you need is:
- Satellite Dish (usually 1.5m) w/ Coax
- Analogue Satellite TV Receiver w/ DVB encryption + decryption capability
Once you have gathered these items, you're on ur way to getting free channels for the rest of your life, legally.
To do this, you need to install your satellite dish (place in a place where it is safe, and has a clear 360* view to the sky.) Run the coax cable from the dish down to your analog receiver. When that's complete, procede to hooking your receiver to your VCR. Then, your VCR to the TV. Remember to connect correctly: input –> output.
Turn on your TV, and program it to recognize ur receiver. Then, if that goes well. Configure ur analog receiver. You can now go on to positionning your satellite dish towards a satellite. I sometimes use, a program to tell me where I should orient my dish towards, for a certain satellite:
http://www.al-soft.com/saa/satinfo.shtml
Input your geographical coordinates in and chose a satellite to position to, and you will receive instructions on Align your dish to the satellite. You're given the Azimuth (side-to-side) and Elevation (up and down) angles. With these 2 degree angles, you can lock on to the satellite.
If you think you locked into it, then you can:
A. Scan for channels w/ your receiver
B. Manually Descrmble for channels by inputing
their frequency, frequency type, and band (C)
To get these free channels (manually), without scanning for them, go to: http://www.lyngsat.com/
- On the Free TV panel (bottom): Choose your continent
- Choose your country
- Click on the satellite you chose earlier on
- Record the Frequencies of the channels,
their type (horizontal/vertical), and Band
(most likely C, not Ku).
You input these values into your receiver, through the use of the remote controller that came w/ it. Then you will see images, if you've done so right. You'll have to store your channels location into the receiver's memory, once you get them… just like some digital radios.
You can fiddle around with the position of the satellite dish to get a clearer image, or even get channels from another satellite in orbit. This gets very simple, when you actually do it. And if you learn this skill, you can even make money off of it… like I used to do, for neighbors and friends who speak different languages, or who just want channels from another country.
NOTE: For a more technical definition of azimuth, "A direction in terms of a 360° compass. North is at 0°. East is at 90°. South is at 180°. West is at 270°."
Hope you get into the hobby. Truly yours, Pr1nc3
ghost 18 years ago
This is cool, certainly worth a try. Anyone know roughly what the equipment would cost?
ghost 18 years ago
Wondering: I have a Windows Media Center computer that I am! going to do this so- my question is: will it get a good signal. I mean, I have an cable descrambler but it doesn't pick up the channels on my Media Center. I'm not sure since I am running from coax and not a S/PDIF or anything. Let me know.
ghost 18 years ago
I never tried hooking my output to my computer b4… but I don't think u'll need a second PCI DVB card for ur computer, considering that the signal has already been decoded at the receiver level – you can, however, get it on ur computer, i think, if you hook up the signal, from ur receiver to your computer (by A/V cables… maybe not coax). Hope it works, tell me how it goes.