Expert: Brian Mcintosh - 3/21/2004

Question
-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Hello Brian,
I have a 8ft c band dish for Tv reception and am about to put the supporting pole in the ground, do you have any suggestions as to its location?
Besides TV reception how else is the dish able to be used? Thank you in advance Dan
Answer -
If you want to access all satellites, your pole needs to be located where there is an unobstructed view of the southern sky, assuming you are north of the equator. You may want to talk to a local satellite TV installation company to get the details of the minimum elevation needed at your location.

Other than TV reception, your C band antenna is not much use for anything else. Any other signals that you mauy be able to pick up would be encrypted and pretty hard to intercept. A few years ago, you were able to pick up other satellite signals at C band and listen in. But not these days.

One question - why are you using a C band antenna? Ku band antennas are much snmaller and offer much more programming.

Regards,
Brian McIntosh

Hi Brian,
I live in Pennsylvania USA near Phillidelphia at a city called Reading.
I might have a C and a K band and not know it, this is new to me.
How would I know the differance between an C band and an K band antenna?
My system uses an Chaparral Monterey 55 sterero satellite receiver and I have the book for it.
Thanks Dan

Answer
Dan:

Since you have an 8 foot antenna, it is a C band system. I am referring to the small Ku band systems that use an antenna that is only 20 inches across or so. These systems can receive 100s of channels.

The C Band system is an old technology when it comes to receiving satellite TV. Personally, I would not even bother with the C band system - companies like DirecTV in the USA provide pretty good TV and radio channels with a small antenna that can bolt to the side of your house - no need for cementing a pole in the ground and fiddling around with motors to turn the antenna between satellites.

If you ask a couple of local electronic shops, it is likely that you can get a Ku band TV system installed for free, and you only have to pay the monthly subscription fee for whatever programming you want.

You are obviously on the Internet, so you may not need high speed access. If you are in a remote area where there is no high speed internet, there are a couple of companies that can provide TV and Internet access through the same antenna. This is usually more expensive than DSL or Cable high speed access, but if you do not have any option for high speed internet, you may want to consider DirecPC as an option.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Brian McIntosh