Feedhunting for non feedhunters

Satellite feedhunting for non feedhunters

Feedhunting is a strange world. You just never know what you’re going to turn up on a satellite feed, and I guess that’s part of the attraction.

The feedhunter is a committed individual. Whether they are tracking down feeds for their own enjoyment or for the benefit of others, they have a nose for finding the interesting, sought-after or just plain bizarre live satellite transmissions that Joe Public were just not meant to see.

Feeds can take many forms and cover many things. More often that not, they are located on the deliberately shifting sea of weaker transponders on satellites that have maybe moved on from full DTH commercial service.

They are hidden from public view only by their unusual placement in the crowded digital skies and often little else. Most are simply Free to Air, or maybe just encoded in 4:2:2 format. Keen feedhunters have the equipment to cope with 4:2:2 though. It could be as simple and inexpensive as a Skystar2 PCI card.

Some satellite feeds are encrypted however. Some employ systems which have been ‘hacked’ – i.e. the encryption system has been compromised, whilst others are secure. This all adds to the mystery and suspense.

There is also a good deal of competition between recognised feedhunters to find and publish top feeds like Premiership football and other live sporting events etc. before anyone else.

But most of the top guys don’t have any fantastic secret weapons in their arsenal. Sure, they have nice satellite kit, large dishes and fast-scanning receivers, but nothing that you can’t go out and buy on a reasonable budget.

And that’s the whole point. For those that want to have a go, it’s well within your reach. All you’re lacking is their experience, but don’t let that hold you back!
 

Top tips for getting started and having some fun

Limit yourself to one or two interesting satellites to begin with, and if possible, setup a dish large enough to receive signals from the weakest transponder. If you just want to use your existing dish, that’s fine too, but we reap what we sow ;)

Have a look at Lyngsat/Flysat/KingOfSat etc. to find all the commonly identified ‘feed’ frequencies, and punch them into the transponder list in your receiver. Really, it’s best if you delete everything else on your chosen satellite, otherwise it can get a bit busy. Use the PC-based channel editor for your receiver if there is one. It will speed the process up considerably. Check the feed boards for details of previous feeds, and punch them in too. We have a great satellite feeds section here at Satellite Help. You will need to register to join the fun.

An alternative to the above is to utilise the ‘Blind Scan’ facility of your receiver if it has one. If you just want a quick play then try this, but if you want to find the most interesting feeds, then setting up and maintaining a good set of feed transponders is the way to go.

Receivers contain devices called tuners, this being one of the most critical internal components. It’s where the signal received by your dish/LNB is translated into something your TV can understand. Whilst some of them are very sensitive, others are far less so. The more sensitive the better for hunting down those often weak feed signals, but hey – you probably have your receiver already. If not, ask on our satellite TV forum to find the most suitable boxes.
 

Feed hotspots, which satellites should I be looking at?

The top-ten feed-carrying satellites over Europe are probably:

16E – Eutelsat W2

12W – Atlantic Bird 1

22W – NSS 7

7E – Eutelsat W3A

10E – Eutelsat W1 & Eurobird 10

1W – Thor 2/3 & Intelsat 10-02

5W – Atlantic Bird 3

8W – Atlantic Bird 2 & Telecom 2D

15W – Telstar 12

5E – Sirius 2/3

Why not have a go? Post your findings on our feeds forum , even if they’re of a bizarre nature. It can be quite amusing to see famous TV presenters scratching their bums and swearing at the crew just before they go live on ‘public’ air!