Parabolic Antenna

[dfilho10]

Hi, does anyone tell me the easiest way to get free chanels with a parabolic antenna and it really works? thanks, Dan.

[sofaspud]

Get your mom to pay the cable bill.

[philba]

lol, it never fails to crack me up when people come into an electronics forum and try to get help stealing cable or satellite services. Like its nowhere to be found with google...

[jwax]

Move in with somebody that has a job and satellite service?
Is this a trick question?

[Dean Huster]

I'm being bombarded daily by the microwave radiation of communications satellites, cellular phone towers and MMDS transmitters, the radiation of countless AM, FM, TV and SW broadcast transmitters and then there's all the VHF and UHF communications links used by the fire and police departments, utilities, hams ..... I can feel the meat around my heart turning medium-rare already.<p>I used to consider it stealing even though you weren't physically tapping into the source as you would with the phone company's land lines, the power grid, cable company, gas company, water company, etc. But by golly, I've been receiving AM, FM, SW and whatever ever since I was a kid. What's the difference? That ain't no private satellite up there. It was the U.S. government that boosted that puppy into place. Maybe the comm company paid NASA some bucks to do it, but I've read enough on the subject to know that NASA operates services like that at a loss, so my taxes are subsidizing those birds.<p>Tapping into hard wiring is still in the stealing category. But if you're going to throw unsolicited, unscrambled RF into MY backyard, it's mine to do with as I want, whether it's for entertainment, experimentation/learning, information or cooking hotdogs. <p>Phillips Tech in Scottsdale AZ used to sell MMDS receivers for around $130.<p>Dean

[Bernius1]

I've gotta throw in a tangential anecdote;
Several years ago, I met guy in a bus company in Staten Island, whose 'friend in Brooklyn' made copycat cards for dish receivers. But if the satellites received two Ser #'s simlutaneously.... Well, suddenly, the card was fried, & the box temporarily useless. He said 'brooklyn' was 'working on the problem'. I told him how flash memory is usually around 12V, and TTL 5V or under, so he should limit all voltages going to the card, to prevent a re-write. Well , explaining this to a bus mechanic is like teaching a poodle to play oboe !
Knowledge is power. Ingorance is bliss. You choose !

[philba]

One could extend that logic to "I didn't ask for the cable to be run to my house - the city lets them use the right of way", "so what if I ground fault my power meter, its my wiring" or "encrypted government telecom..." for that matter. If some one wants to get something for nothing, they will use any number of rationalizations. I don't disagree that unencrypted rf is fair game but think that's gone the way of a $.10 cup of coffee.<p>What ever you view of it all, there are laws against most sorts of "unapproved consumption" and many of them absolutely need to be challenged (like the DMCA). However, I'd be wary of aiding some one who is unable to issue the simplest of google searches.<p>By the way, I was unaware that NASA was directly funding the private satellites though the subject of indirect subsidies is arguable. I'm not sure in this era of tight budgets there is that much going on. Can you point me to some documentation on this topic? Or at least supply terms to google with - the obvious candidates return a blizzard of irrelevence.

[jollyrgr]

PRIMER ON BUDs Big Useful Dish
(Most usually say U is for UGLY, but those are the neighbors that look at it.)<p>There are plenty of "Free To Air" (FTA) signals out there. (And I'm not talking about hacked DirecTV and Dish cards!) Should you want to view those it works out in the long run to pay for the services directly. Should you be the "geek" type and are into radio scanners and SWL, then there is a very interesting hobby for you.<p>If you want to put up a ten foot C-Band monster, like I have, there are a very few analog services that are still free. (Wildfeeds are still one of my favorite things on C-Band.) Also, there are a number of digital MPEG-2 signals out there for the taking. In fact there are some broadcasters (America One, for instance) that WANT you to watch them as they are not carried by Dish, DirecTV, or most cable companies. You won't be getting free HBO with these boxes but you will have several hundred free channels to watch. Most are not English speaking or on 24/7. But there are many "local" stations that use the digital services like DVB to transmit their signals to far off cable companies.<p>I do not have direct experience with using the PANSAT, COOLSAT, and Fortec systems using a mini dish. But apparently these services can be received using the mini dish. Even though I say mini dish, I'm not talking the simple 18" dish but the slightly larger "DISH 500" dish.<p>The FTA using the C/Ku Big dish requires some technical skill. This isn't as simple as turning on a set top box and changing the channels. You must have a normal analog C/Ku dish with mover receiver (7 to 12 foot dish with 10 being the most common). The mover receiver is normally called an IRD or Integrated Receiver Descrambler. This uses the VideoCypher II (+) decoder and analog signals. You don't need the VCII or VCII+ module but if you want to subscribe to the premium services like HBO, you will need the VCII+ module. <p>If you are good mechanically and like scrounging, you can get these dishes and receivers cheap. (I got a 10 foot dish free, the IRD for $100 back in 1999.) Some people will happily let you have their old C-Band simply to get it off their property. Look around and ask.<p>Now that you have the receiver and antenna, you need to install it. This requires digging a four foot deep hole, mounting the metal post (3.5" diameter schedule 40 pipe) in concrete, letting it dry, then mounting the antenna. Once the antenna is mounted you must align it. Most likely you will want to take apart the metal fittings, clean and lubricate the moving parts, paint the dish, and so on. (Get a mesh dish with all the panels.) Once I learned the "secret" of aligning these things it took me 15 minutes to get the dish peaked and tracking. (This is covered in many places on the web.) Then you must program the receiver. While it might sound intimidating it is not. I've learned to program several different receivers without having the manuals. This requires that you have access to a listing of the channels and satellites. Go to
http://www.lyngsat.com<p>and look at that site for a channel listing. You will see some analog signals are still in the clear.<p>Now you have the analog channels coming in. Your next chore is to get a MPEG-2 receiver. Brand new you can get these under $250. You "sidecar" this to you analog C/Ku IRD. You track the satellites with the IRD but you receive the digital MPEG signals with the second receiver. This is where it gets real fun. The second receiver needs to "listen" to the satellite and discover the digital signals. You will need a good satellite chart (see the lyngsat site for DVB listings) and look for DVB as the signal type. A listing of channels that are FTA<p>Recently I've seen postings on using fixed "DISH 500" dishes and LNBs to receive the various services. I do not know how easy this is to do. But if you don't mind experimenting there are freebies out there.<p>By the way, if all you want to do is hack a DirecTV or DISH receiver that is simple as well. You will need at least a 486DX computer with
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And that is all there is to it.