pull up a chair and chat a while

[budweiser]

Hi folks,
Found your site while rummaging around looking for something totally different, odd how you get side tracked isn't it.
I used to be into satellite stuff years ago --1986, i had an echostar 4500 with a motorised 1.5m dish, and used to love the variety of channels available. Any one else remember filmnet? and also the ability to buy a decoder box to sort out pretty much everything available.
I know the kit i was into was analogue and now technology has advanced to digital, and from what i read analogue channels are still outhere. I still have my last receiver, a chaparral monteray 20, is it worth digging it out and picking up a new dish from ebay or similar? would the chaparral be able to receive and decode digital transmissions (obviously subject to LNB choice)Or would i be better advised to go for new kit?
Should new (think i know the answer) be the choice, who now makes the best kit? or are they all bar a few features broadly the same?
Obviously i am off to read the FAQ at dig round the rest of the forum as there seems to be plenty of posts, and so it should be a 101 on todays satellite technology.

regards
Budweiser

[Jimdefruit]

A big welcome to the forum budweiser, by all means have a look around and read about the various systems people are using. You will see that one or two have some analogue kit that they have set up again.

I would suggest you start with a new dish and universal lnb and play with your existing receiver to see what you can get. No doubt you will want to go digital because there are a lot of digital channels out there.

Your options re size of dish will depend on where you are located on the planet and there are a few posts which give guidance on that although a specific question will pull an answer out of our friendly crew.

Static/motorised or multi lnb will be a choice only you can decide based on how many satellites you want to lock onto and how you want to use your gear.

Any questions, just split the questions into separate posts. Its easier for us to give straightforward answers that way.

Read, ask and enjoy, thats what we are here for.

[Analoguesat]

Hi budweiser. Welcome to the forum. Theres still a few dozen analogue channels around in Europe - have a look at my website (www.analoguesat.co.uk) for details of whats still available.

You will find that satellite transmission powers are much higher than they in the 1980's and a 60-80cm dish will pull in all the main European satellites easily.

Quite a few of use use 80 cm dishes to good effect - I have had digital signals off 20 or so orbital slots which allows me to watch everything from Italian to Uzbekistani to Vietnamese TV!

[$ly]

My advice would be to keep the dish (assuming it's not bent) and put a new LNB on it and line it up on something first with the old box. Then consider a Technomate TMS1000D for the end of it. Good flexible reciever for 70 quid
and cheap enough not to worry if you lose interest.


L.

[BGonaSTICK]

That's certainly a superb receiver you have, but sadly now very outdated. By all means enjoy the handful of analogue channels left. Do you still have your big 1.5m dish? What make was it, and do you have any pictures?

We love pictures of big dishes (err, well I do)

I understand that you could add just about anything into the Monterey, including an add-on board carrying a digital tuner. Maybe you could seek one out if you wanted to retain your existing box.

Now, a simple 80-90cm dish does virtually everything as the guys have said, and you can still use the 36V positioner in your Monterey to drive a modern DiSEqC motor (£40ish) via a 'VBOX'.

Welcome to the forum. I hope you get hooked again. It's different scene these days, but interesting in it's own way. Lots of trash in the sky, but lots of gems too.