Satellite TV Hardware & Service For Iraq

[pgg]

Most of the FAQs and sites I've found have dealt with satellite TV services available in the US ...

When I was in Afghanistan last year, one of the locals sold me a small dish and receiver to get FTA TV programming. I don't recall which satellite it was pointed at - we ended up with a handful of English channels including CNN, BBC, Eurosport, and dozens of continuous live phone sex ad channels.

I'm going to Iraq in a couple months, and I'm interested in buying a small dish and receiver to take with me - I'm sure I can get a better system by planning ahead than by (again) trusting the shady guy who parks his van by the gate. Either FTA or paid subscription programming is OK.

Problem is, I have absolutely no idea what receivers I should be looking at, which satellites I can hit from western Iraq, or what English language programming is available. (Ironically, I'm very familiar with Middle Eastern satellite internet service, and have a 1.2 m bidirectional dish packed up and ready to go for my unit to use. But I know nothing about ordinary TV service over there.)

Ideally, I'd be able to buy a dish, mounting hardware, and receiver all in one package. Where do I begin? I'd appreciate any tips, pointers, sales pitches, etc.

[Richard King]

pgg.. .welcome to dbstalk.com
Good luck on your trip to Iraq. I hope you can post here once in a while about your experiences while you are there. As for satellite services available there, assuming that you are going as part of the military operations, I would try to find someone who has been there who can advise you on what to do. By the way, if you take some pictures while there get yourself an on line album at Pbase.com and post some pix there. Let us all know if you do so we can visit the site. You could set up something like this: http://www.pbase.com/nclinh/iraq_desert&page=19

[Ray_Clum]

If you know roughly the longitude and latitude you're going to be at, go to www.lyngsat.com and check out the Europe and Asia pages. There are multiple satellites shown and you can determine using a tool there if you can see the satellite. Each satellite has programming lists, some are encoded, some FTA. There is a language column close to the end on the right - E is English, A is Arabic, S is Spanish, etc.

And good luck and stay safe!

[pgg]

If you know roughly the longitude and latitude you're going to be at, go to www.lyngsat.com and check out the Europe and Asia pages. There are multiple satellites shown and you can determine using a tool there if you can see the satellite. Each satellite has programming lists, some are encoded, some FTA. There is a language column close to the end on the right - E is English, A is Arabic, S is Spanish, etc.

And good luck and stay safe!Thanks - so any of the FTA receivers should work, correct? Any reason why an all-in-one offer like the Pro Universal Package at http://www.gosatellite.net/coolsat_satellite_1580_ctg.htm would be wrong for Iraq? Is $400 for that system reasonable?

And - any particular online stores you'd recommend?


By the way, if you take some pictures while thereI had about 1000 photos on the web from my last deployment; I'll be sure to post a link or two here when I go.

[Ray_Clum]

Well... not exactly. There are two main FTAs out there. There's Digicipher 2 and DVB. Digicipher 2, IIRC, requires a subscription to some kind of C-Band programming to get the receier to work. DVB is plug and chug, but things like a EPG is pretty lacking.

Regarding the Pro Universal you linked:
The T55 Wave Frontier Dish is intended for North American Programming only.


Probably not your best bet for Iraq.

I'd suggest:

Motor - http://www.gosatellite.net/rotor_1532_ctg.htm
Dish - http://www.gosatellite.net/33_kuband_dish_kit_16680_prd0.htm
Receiver - Coship CD VB-2000E MPEG2 DVB Receiver - http://www.gosatellite.net/coship_receiver_1515_ctg.htm

You might also want to give Tom Taylor a call (Taylor Enterprise - numbers at www.mpeg2fta.com) and talk to him about going to Iraq and wanting FTA. He gave some pretty good info to me when I was looking for my setup.

[pgg]

Well... not exactly. There are two main FTAs out there. There's Digicipher 2 and DVB. Digicipher 2, IIRC, requires a subscription to some kind of C-Band programming to get the receier to work. DVB is plug and chug, but things like a EPG is pretty lacking.

Regarding the Pro Universal you linked:
The T55 Wave Frontier Dish is intended for North American Programming only. Probably not your best bet for Iraq.
There are two packages on that page (http://www.gosatellite.net/coolsat_satellite_1580_ctg.htm) - the "CoolSat 4000 PRO T55 Satellite Package" and the "CoolSat 4000 PRO Universal Package." I was looking at the universal setup linked further down the page, which appears to have a simple, single LNB dish with rotor.

I'd suggest:

Motor - http://www.gosatellite.net/rotor_1532_ctg.htm
Dish - http://www.gosatellite.net/33_kuband_dish_kit_16680_prd0.htm
Receiver - Coship CD VB-2000E MPEG2 DVB Receiver - http://www.gosatellite.net/coship_receiver_1515_ctg.htm
What's the difference between the Coolsat 4000 "Plus" you linked and "Pro" models, other than the $50 price difference? They both appear to have basically the same features.

You might also want to give Tom Taylor a call (Taylor Enterprise - numbers at www.mpeg2fta.com) and talk to him about going to Iraq and wanting FTA. He gave some pretty good info to me when I was looking for my setup.
Thanks, I'll email him.

[Ray_Clum]

There are two packages on that page (http://www.gosatellite.net/coolsat_satellite_1580_ctg.htm) What's the difference between the Coolsat 4000 "Plus" you linked and "Pro" models, other than the $50 price difference? They both appear to have basically the same features.


I only saw the unit that covered North American programming. Will look again and get back to you.