[Richard King]

My old college room mate, the first person I ever knew with a satellite dish and the one responsible for getting me into the business just sent me an e-mail stating that he has sold the c-band dish that I installed for him at his new house 10 years ago. This was his second dish, having sold his first with his other house. He said the installation never needed a tweek in the 10 years it has been in use and tracked true until the end. This is indeed the end of an era, and a real sign of the state of c-band. I figured he would be the last person standing with c-band.

Here I am installing it for him.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

He is gonna miss it! I miss mine!

 

[Richard King]

As do I miss mine. I still have a tape of newsfeeds of Hurricane Erin that I recorded off wildfeeds on my 10' c/ku band dish while in Minnesota. Erin was approaching the coastline of Vero Beach and I had just bought property here and felt stranded in Minnesota as my new business was being attacked. I ended up with about four hours of feeds from the worse night of the storm. When I arrived in Vero Beach on my next trip I drove around to find the site where the uplink trucks were used. It didn't take long as they were less than four blocks from my house.

I have a great tape of a feed of a shuttle launch that I still use to demo subwoofers to this day. This was the raw feed that NASA uses to retransmit to their bird and now to DBS. Much better than the compressed versions.

I can't even begin to describe some of the funny and fun things that I would see just scanning the skies. It's a real shame to see this technology fade away.

 

[John Hodgson]

I finally took down my 12' Paraclipse this past March. The actuater arm had taken a dump and I could not see dumping any more $$$ into the system. All I used if for was wild feeds anyway.

sigh .......

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Now only if we could get Friday Night Live or the W0KIE Radio Network on DBS I would be happy.

 

[Chris Blount]

I took my 10' dish down a couple of years ago and do miss it but on the other hand I never used it very often. It's probably just as well I took it down. A very small tornado went over the spot where it stood so it probably would have bit the dust anyway.

Take a look at this picture. The tree got uprooted and if you look closely to the left, you will see the pole where the dish stood a few months earlier.

http://home.satx.rr.com/cblount/blount/images/Tree3.JPG

 

[lee635]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Now only if we could get Friday Night Live or the W0KIE Radio Network on DBS I would be happy.

W0kie sends an audio feed over the internet, so no need for the BUD. www.w0kie.com

 

[zuma hans]

If it's the end, what do we say to the 700,000 people still subscribing to C-band programming?

Mine could use a tweak ... I'm not getting 4 of the 280 channels I subscribe to for $22/month. A little digital breakup on the Fox sports channels.

 

[Richard King]

I guess I was speaking metaphorical in using him as a sample of the state of the industry. I really did think he would be the last c/ku customer. However, there is still hope. Another of my old Minnesota customers called to say that his house was just hit by lightning and that his 10' c-band dish was a casualty. He is using this opportunity to upgrade to a c/ku band feed. I even had one in stock from the days when c-band was my big seller and will ship it off tomorrow.

 

[Guest]

I have a tape of Shaun Kenny's last show - taped the day he fell off the roof and got killed.

 

[JohnH]

Well, ESPN football and Marlins baseball look pretty good tonight. Must be because I have the C band backhauls on my systems.


NFL Preseason was a party. Most Teams had a backhaul up there. I wasn't too happy about KTLA putting color bars up on my Paid subscription when the Rams were on, Zuma.

 

[Mike]

I saw that show of Shaun on the G4 satellite. That was years ago. Greenhouse or Greenscape. Something like that. I used to watch that show and the one with Ron hosting. Midwest Sports Channel will now be scrambled effective such and such a date. I have one of those on tape somewhere.

The last people outside of TV stations to still have c-band will be the hobbiest. That's me. I don't have the bells and whistles with digital yet, but hopefully soon. I'm coming on 14 years with c-band in October. I hope for at least 14 more. I've enjoyed and seen lots. For the short time when I didn't have c-band because of moving or whatever was really hard. If you have the money (don't really need much for analog) and the room then it's the absolute best. I got mine in college and still have lots of the original equipment and it was used in 1988. I swore I wouldn't get DirecTV when it came out in '94, but in '96 I had it because it was easier to watch sports from the pro leagues since the backhauls went scrambled and now digitized. In California, Zuma and I might be the last ones left with c-band in the year..........

 

[Tanic]

<I saw that show of Shaun on the G4 satellite. That was years ago. Greenhouse or Greenscape.>

Wow, does that bring back memories! Shaun's show was "Pi** on the VC2" followed by "Greensheet." I moved 4 years ago and never put up my BUD back up... still might though. ;-)

 

[rjl]

Hey guys, this is a great topic. I still use my 10 footer with a General Instrument 2730 IRD that's been great for years. I've had the big dish since 1986 I think. It's still the best video quality around. Having it and dbs is the best of both worlds. I also used to watch Shaun. He was an interesting guy. The guy who originally installed my 10 footer and is still in business knew him. Did anyone here ever meet him? Just curious. I never did go for the cku band, just c band. Is there still a lot of ku stuff up there?

 

[JohnH]

rjl, there is a lot of Ku wildfeeds, especially at this time of year with college football on weekends.

 

[Mike]

Not as much Ku as before. HBO and Cinemax from K1 are long gone. NBC is digitized now with expensive MPEG (since last October). Only thing left are sports backhauls. Lots and lots of them during the college seasons with baseball, football and basketball. ESPN has backhauls and so does ABC. If you have a MPEG receiver then there's more (check lyngsat for more info), but backhauls are about it on the analog side. If you love sports then that's enough.

 

[mancow]

I had C-band for 15yrs. Loves it. Got to where I needed programing of more than on event on more than one TV. Went to Dish in April, have had no problems an love this also.
(MC)

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by JohnH
I wasn't too happy about KTLA putting color bars up on my Paid subscription when the Rams were on, Zuma.

Neither was KTLA.... but NFL rights rules are NFL rights rules... it was either bars to the birds or no NFL in LA...

.... which isn't such a bad alternative, come to think of it ....

 

[Guest]

P.S. KTLA does not make money on C-band subscriptions ... it all goes to the distributor, Midwest Microwave ...