FTA systems

December 7, 2005 4:27 PM

Free to Air: I am seeking straight forward info on an FTA system...

Going thru the net yields all sorts of conflicting info regarding FTA systems, some VERY questionable. What I would like to know is : What makes a good FTA system, what receiver, what dish, which LNB? How much should I expect to pay, what should I avoid. I live in AZ, USA. I would like to get FTA signals to replace my somewhat spotty normal reception. I realize that opening up your FTA dish for pay-sats is a big part of this, and though it isn't my plan to do so, I still would like that info to help me weigh this all out. Any advice and experience would be helpful.

posted by BrodieShadeTree to technology (7 comments total)

The reason that geting straight answers on FTA is difficult is because FTA means different things depending on who you ask. To some people, "I want an FTA setup" actually means "I want to illegally steal programming from DISH Network and Bell ExpressVu". To others, "I want an FTA setup" means "I want to legally receive freely available (Free-to-Air) channels that are on one or more satellites overhead."

I'm hoping that you're of the second camp.

Pansat and Coolsat both make good, well-priced units that are designed for FTA reception. If you hook any of their current models to a motorized 1 or 1.2 meter dish equipped with a Ku band linear LNBF, you'll be in business. Make sure the model that you're buying can control your motor, and has a feature called "blind scan", which will allow you to locate signals on a satellite, no matter what frequency it's on.


You'll be able to get lots of channels, backhauls, the occasional wild feed, and so on. If you cruise around on lyngsat.com you'll see what's up there. Your 1-1.2 meter dish will receive unencrypted channels in the Ku band (look for a number >11000 in the left column on Lyngsat charts). Some common birds are: Intelsat Americas 5 for international stuff. Intelsat Americas 6 for feeds of network shows and some sports. Galaxy 10 for network broadcasts. SBS 6 for all sorts of wild feeds, and so on and so forth.


Good information and reviews with a slant towards legal FTA is rare. Satelliteguys.us's FTA fourms are among the best I've seen.

If you want to steal Dish network (which may or may not still be possible -- they've been upgrading lately) you'll need to have one of the 18" pizza dishes (or at least the circular LNBF from it)... and you'll need to reflash the firmware of your Pansat (2700) or Coolsat (4000, 5000). I believe the fourms at al7bar.tk can help you find out more about that.

Be aware that installing and aiming a motorized dish is somewhat more exacting than installing a fixed one. You might want to try to locate a local satellite shop that will aim the thing for you, if you think you're going to want a dish that can be aimed at multiple satellites.
posted by toxic at 6:13 PM on December 7, 2005 [1 favorite]

Excellent! Thanks. I want a dish that will spin for sure. I will check those forums some as well.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 7:06 PM on December 7, 2005

Thanks for this question and the links everyone's given!
posted by odinsdream at 9:30 PM on December 7, 2005

toxic has given you pretty much all the info you need, but I'll add the following:

Pansat (especially) and Coolsat (somewhat) have, for the past while, seemed to design receivers with the piracy ideal in mind and not the FTA ideal. I say this because, for example, the Pansat 2500A original receiver had such poor firmware, it couldn't belch out a good DiSEqC command to save it's life (driving a motor with it was total hell) but the pirate firmwares were fixed and actually COULD do the work. Stupid but true. Most of their receivers nowadays have OK (not good, just OK) firmware for straight FTA.

If you want FTA reception, I'd reccomend staying away from a box that has piles of pirate flashes... my personal reccomendation is the Coship 2300 or 5300 for a _basic_ unit that doesn't suck and runs a motor properly. Pirating TV with an FTA receiver isn't FTA reception anymore (drives me batshit insane when customers at my store won't just tell me what they really want... the FREE in FREE to air means FREE OF ENCRYPTION, not FREE OF COST).

Some other things to think about: an 18" dish will not fit well on most motors without some metalwork. When you put it on you'll see what I mean. :-( That being said you can probably point the 18" dish on a motor yourself. You will NEVER be able to get a 30" dish on the satellite arc for a motor on your first 30" install -- I really mean that, never. Get a shop to install that for you.

Also, in the USA, you'll find lots of digital FTA stations on C band, but that will require a whole new setup. Your usual european FTA receivers were built with newer DiSEqC motors in mind and do not have the hookups (nor the electrical design) to move an actuator on the 10' dish that digital C band is going to want (You can get away with 6' but it'll suck). So you'll need to slave the FTA receiver to an older analog one with the actuator and polarotor outputs you need.

Blind Scan is certainly nice, but not at all necessary if you are willing to punch in the numbers sites like lyngsat and satcodx make available to you.

A note on buying for piracy: Don't buy from a dealer that is going to ship you illegal software either already flashed to the unit or with a CD containing the illegal software. DirecTV and other companies in the USA have succefully litigaed against entire client lists of shops like these and generally won because when these boxes come with illegal software like this, YOU ARE ASSUMED GUILTY. If theres no possibility you could pirate TV with the box when you get it, then DirecTV's case (or more likely DishNetwork's) against you is very weak and requires more than your receipt from the store to prove you pirate TV. Think of it like the difference between having a receipt for 250 boxes of sudafed and one for "Meth-lab-in-a-box!"

Oh, hey, one last thing: Your best info source for real FTA is probably tele-satellite magazine. It really does kick ass! Unfortunately it's got a VERY strong european bent to it, but they are always scoring new receivers, etc, and some of the newest models they've checked include HDTV receivers (will be nice if the signal exists for more than PBS) and some PVR models (YUM!)
posted by shepd at 3:46 AM on December 8, 2005

Thanks for this thread, guys. This has been very very good information. My wife has been wanting an FTA setup like this for over a year now since she found out she can get all sorts of Iranian-interest programming free with it ... We'll see if Hannukah Harry can deliver (and install).
posted by kuperman at 6:12 AM on December 8, 2005

Is it totally impossible to set up the 30" dish? We have NO shop anywhere near here to help me with this. . .
Is there a source of info to make it easier?
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 9:15 AM on December 8, 2005

Well, ok, it's not impossible, just improbable that a first timer will manage to get the dish in the arc in properly without getting so annoyed at the contraption as to give up.

But, if you really do have a lot of patience it can certainly be done. Do buy a satellite finder if you choose to do this, it'll be a lifesaver.

If you email me your lat / long I have an excel spreadsheet that will autocalculate all sorts of handy information I can send back customized for your location. Being it's the same sheet we give our customers for this, it has instructions on it for pointing a motor as well (although they're customized for KW, Ontario, where my store is... :-)

Basically, you need to set the motor to 0, get the dish pointing due south, and pick up the bird closest to due south with your dish. Compensate for how far away it is from due south (for me that's virtually nothing since it's only 0.6 deg away). Slowly go through the arc, adjusting as you go to compensate for how far off the arc you are. Rinse and repeat for a long time (should take hours!) and you'll be ready to go.

HTH! Most of the first timers give up because it takes a long time. When you're used to doing it, you can probably get a 30" dish on a motor on the arc done in under an hour. For a newbie, this is a solid weekend project!
posted by shepd at 1:46 PM on December 8, 2005