FTA Signals From Space

Are all FTA channels really free.  Are all signals from space really free. Of coarse you will want to search every possible down-link transponder on every possible satellite to find the FTA channels.  There is a group of down-link channels we call WILD-FEEDS.  These can be broadcast TV, Radio and HDTV stations that are out doing local news, or sports feeds from anywhere on the Earth.  These WILD-FEEDS are generally only on the air for short times to down-link live TV to there home station feed, where the home station records the TV for later editing and retransmission to your homes on regular channel coverage.   You can watch a golfer swing on the wild feed channel and watch the ball hit 10 seconds later on your local TV channel. That is WILD! Oh, you though light and electrical signals traveled at the speed of light, 299 792 458 meters per second? We’ll when you add up the ½ seconds that it takes the signal to go up and down a few times from satellite to ground and back up and then through all your local TV station feeds, you can find delays of seconds.

Many of the satellites have C and Ku down links. So, if you want to surf the C band you have to think BIG UGLY DISH (BUD). Yes, you see these in people back yards folded over or dying a slow death.  The C band requires at least a 6 foot dish depending on the angle to the satellite you want to surf. You may need a 8, 10, or 12 foot dish to see near the horizon. Remember the satellites are 1.5 degrees apart from horizon to horizon. So, if you point a BUD over to see a satellite at 60 degrees west of Greenwich, England, that is out over the Atlantic Ocean, from California areas, then you will find that several satellites are in the same down-link beam path because of the geometry of the situation.  What you want is a dish size that will resolve the satellite separations.  The BUD dish will do any satellite at most any angle in C and Ku band.  The satellites in Ku band use the new smaller dishes you see on roof tops pointed at the standard broadcast satellites. We will want to use the same dish types but we will point them at the other satellites looking for the FTA signals.  Joe’s BUD and antenna Farm for FTA receptions in the picture below.

Dishes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Bigger is better in this case. If some one has one of the older DISH BEV network dishes and is not using it, you may be able to acquire it for your FTA hunting. Some of you may go out on 2m hunts, here we are gonna hunt for 11gigahertz signals in the sky.  The larger oval dishes and larger 30” round dishes are excellent Ku band satellite antennas.  We will cover the methods to choose your LNBF horn depending on the satellite transponders. Most FTA down-links require a linear polarized horn that does Left-Hand (LH) and Right-Hand (RH) to decipher the transponder signal.

You can feed your FTA receiver from any LNBF horn. It cost nothing to scan a satellite with different horns to see what you pick up. Your FTA output can be a computer card, or an FTA DVB receiver that goes to your standard TV or HDTV.

I have avoided give out any web sites that deal with satellite reception. If you wish to Google up such sites, they exist all over the internet.

When you are looking for LNBF’s to purchase for your FTA receiver you will want to try and get dual outputs. See the dual output  F2 spickets.

Do not buy single output horns if you can avoid them. Do not buy combined LNBF’s where two or more horns are enclosed within one cover. FTA’s can not talk to these combined LNBF horns. They are generally only for Dish Network or Direct-TV network boxes. 

WHERE ARE THOSE SIGNALS IN SPACE

Looking in the ORBIT magazine we see a list of 18 satellites that carry most all the United States and Canada and South America channels. Many have FTA channels, but now most have gone scrambled.  The old BUD analog channels are down to only a few and a few wild feeds.  Most all the down link signals are analog TV or MPEG2, or DVB or MPEG4 HD or Radio.  HDTV is still a growing area and limited to a few satellites right now (one at 105 and one at 121 west). There is no HD FTA satellite signals as far as I know.

If you speak any foreign language or you like foreign TV you can find an FTA TV channel on some satellite over the USA.  Many of the Asia and Europe stations are linked to the USA via FTA up and down links.  These are the bread and butter of the FTA receptions.

I will dwell on one satellite as the starting point for our FTA adventure. This satellite is T5, Galaxy-25, 97 degrees west of Greenwich, England. If you go to the Lyncsat.com web page and click on the America’s and choose Galaxy-25 from the colorful list you will be shown all the transponders, all the channels both analog and digital (DVB) that can be found on this satellite.  I believe there are about 139 separate DVB channels down linking from T5. Not all are FTA and many are scrambled in various methods.  The TV consortiums have come up with there own scramble methods for many of the down-links. You can purchase descrambling equipment at various places, but I don’t think you can buy a license to run the descrambler except at very high cost.  T5 lists things like PBS, FOX and BYU and Occasional (the wild feeds) as MPEG-2 TV signals and 100rd’s of DVB foreign stations.  The signals can be analog or digital (DVB).  Most any BUD with a C band and Ku band horn can receive the signals. Most satellites are using Ku downlinks since they can get more DVB stations on one transponder.

It can be a challenge to point a BUD at some satellite in the sky with in 1.5 degrees. The trick is usually you have a receiver like a 4DTV or older analog receiver that steers your dish across the sky from about the 60 degree west to the 137 degree west satellites. All you have to do is piggy back a Ku band horn when pointed at one of the standard satellite positions.  Then turn on your FTA receiver and scan for the extra channels.  Most of the satellite channels are standardized for down link frequency. All standard satellites use the same analog down-link transponder frequencies. They get around stepping on each other by having one satellite in Left Hand Polarization (LH), and the two satellites on its left and right will be Right Hand Polarization (RH).  There are other polarizations like Right Circular, and Left Circular.  Another trick of the satellites is to have ODD channels say LH, and the EVEN channels use RH.  So the satellite to the left is using channel 1-LH, and the satellite in the middle uses channel 1-RH, and the next satellite uses channel 1-LH. This way they can be separated when received. So your receiver has to be smart enough to know if channel-1 on a satellite is LH or RH or LC or RC.  There is a difference in the horns (LNBF horns) that are used to receive LH/RH and LC/RC. So, you have to buy the correct horn, or buy one of each because you don’t know what you will find from a down-link until you try it.  Most broadcast subscription TV satellites use LC/RC LNBF horns, while the other satellites like T5 require a LH/RH LNBF.

Most FTA is done with the 18” to 36” Ku antenna. You can use any old DISH or DTV antenna as a separate stand alone antenna. The dishes run from 18” to up to 36” in diameter for Ku band down link reception.  Feel free to buy the biggest dish you can afford or acquire. Bigger is more signal to noise and better resolution separation of the 1.5 degree satellites positions in space and time.  Some times people move and you can ask to have the dish free by taking it down.  Oval or Round dish it does not matter. An Oval dish will allow you to have more LNBF horns attached so you can receiver from multiple satellites on the same dish. 

LNBF horns come in single and dual outputs. Buy the dual output LNBF versions. This way you can feed two separate FTA receivers from the same horn, or if one side burns out you still have the other diode side.  Do not buy the combined LNBF horns that are enclosed in one cover as these are only for DISH or DTV reception boxes.  There is a combination antenna that is called the Super-dish. This comes in two types.  The left hand type is for DISH 105 HD TV and 110 satellite reception. The right hand type is for 119 and 121 HD TV reception. The super dish is very good for FTA work as you get a large collection antenna. You can mount up to 3 horns in a row to receive 3 satellites in a row.  The next type of antenna is the toroidal dish. This will allow you to FTA up to 8 satellites in a row across the sky.   The toroidal requires special reversed horns which makes this an expensive way to FTA.

Some satellites use linear LNBF horns to receive, other satellites use Circular polarized LNBF Ku horns.  When you buy a horn the linear satellites like T5 uses a frequency range of 10700 to 11700. This is usually printed on the horn.  The DTV and DISH satellites use horns with a frequency range of 11700 to 12750.  The horn attached to your BUD or FTA reciever will determine the satellite type you can receive. You may need both types of horns. 

So if you current working DISH or DTV horn seems to quit, all you do is go buy a new one at Wall-Mart and replace the horn yourself. There is nothing magic about your satellite system.

Choosing your Antenna and Pointing at a Satellite

If you want to splurge a bit, buy the dish with motorized position controllers.

This one has a motor that you mount on a pole. After some alignment you can tell it to move to any satellite in the Equatorial arc that is visible from your site. Remember that all FTA is line of site. No trees or branches or windows or anything can be between you and the satellite. Even snow and rain will lower the signal quality tell the storm leaves.

 This is a fixed pointing 33” offset Ku band FTA dish with LNBF. Note on all antenna dishes that the LNBF horn is offset downward about 10 to 20 degrees reflection angle from the center normal axis of the dish concave shape.

If you like portability you can get a set up like this. It can be pointed manually to any satellite. If you like camping and want real TV go FTA.

There are some specialized dish antenna that allow you to have multiple LNBF horns mounted to the receiver end of the dish.  The toroidal dish will allow you to manually align up to 8 satellite signals from one fixed dish.

Basically

All dishes use LNBF horns. These horns are Ku down link receivers that change the gigahertz satellite signal to a lower IF frequency for your receiver input.  Horns come in various types and sizes.

 This is a standard universal LNBF. It receives the satellite signal, down converts the frequency for your receiver, and has two outputs at the bottom of the LNBF.  This way you can run two rg-6 coax cables to different places and use the same horn.

There are some horns that are fully incased for DISH and DTV. These horns are not usable by the FTA receiver because they do the satellite splitting inside the horn and most FTA receivers can not figure out how to separate the signals. So, don’t buy or use the self combined LNBF heads. You want only separate LNBF horns.

Some satellites are so close together, less than the 1.5 degrees, that they have special horns that are spaced just for these satellites.

Here is an example of a SUPER dish. This dish has closely spaced horns so that it can decode the 105,110 or 110,121 HD satellites.  The super dish is larger than the standard 18” dish, and thusly is quite usable for any FTA signal hunting.

I have spent some space talking about FTA TV, there are many RADIO stations that also can be FTA received. There are several old time radio stations on the internet and on many of the satellites. These include foreign stations and well as English.  One oldy is on G11 Ku band transponder 18 with Vertical Polarization.  If you go to the lyngsat.com/freeradio/ you will see 100’s of radio stations you can get off the satellites. You can set up an FTA so the audio goes to a radio speaker rather than your TV audio.

To obtain a dish antenna you may go visit internet selling sites, pawn places, or you can visit your local satellite store.  Many satellite stores will have taken down older dishes and may give them to you to get rid of them.  Look in to your local trade paper, junk paper and some one will be trying to sell or giveaway a BUD or dish for the pick up.

Here are examples of the FTA dishes placed on the roof and pointed at different satellites. Left to right are:  OLD DISH BEV antenna, Toroidal antenna, Superdish antenna, and a few standard dual horn dishes.

For every satellite you can FTA, you have to have an RG-6 coax cable from the LNBF to a receiver.  We will talk about FTA receivers next and methods to multiplex up to 4 satellites to one FTA receiver. You can do more but it takes more time and effort.

 This is a satellite finder inline signal meter. This will show when a down-link signal is generating output from your dish antenna, but does not show you anything about which satellite you maybe pointing at.

I have mentioned a few types of satellites receiver boxes. There are used receivers available at swap meets, pawn stores, and your local paper ads, and thrift shops.  These receivers generally will work to run the LNBF horns for Ku band but will only decode analog FTA. 

These are some of  the older BUD type receivers.

These types are Uniden, Cheyenne, Cheyenne IRD, Sierra, Monterey, Drake, General Instruments 4DTV, Houston Tracker, Kenwood, NextLevel, Nextwave, Panasonic type Analog C and Ku receivers.

Another popular model is the 4DTV General Instrument C/Ku receiver.

This is a C/Ku band BUD horn. These are very large and heavy and will only do analog C and Ku band reception. You can get DVB BUD horns to replace the older analog horns, but then you loose the analog capability to FTA. So, it is best to have separate antenna’s for the various satellite types.

There are many places on the internet that you can search for FAT receivers and parts.  One warning, if you buy a legacy receiver be sure it comes with the HAND CONTROLLER. As many of the older BUD receivers did not have front panel button control and finding a matching hand controller is a problem.

Standard FTA receivers are made by Pansat USA, CoolSat, Viewsat, Sonicview, Dreambox, Neusat, and some others. You do not want a CLONE of a receiver, unless you get it free hi hi. Clones may be cheaper but have other problems running FTA codes.

 This is a Pansat type FTA receiver. They make many models and prices.  Some have hard drives so you can record the TV shows off the FTA.

The sub parts that you will need to wire you dish antenna to your FTA receiver are things like RG-6 coax available anywhere, and a 4 to 1 DISEqC multiplex combiner module.  Generally if you buy an FTA you get the multiplexer and hand controller with the unit.

A Diseqc 4 to 1 lnbf input combiner switch. This splitter allow you to combine 4 lnbf inputs to one FTA receiver.  There are ways to combine multiple Diseqc switches to add more satellites to your FTA.  Your FTA can scan as many satellites as you can point too.  You do not have to multiplex the satellite signals through splitters. You can purchase a motor driven dish with a single lnbf horn. The dish rotates to point at each satellite. All you do is point to the satellite, scan the satellite and then the next time you want to watch a channel from any of the satellites you have scanned the dish will auto move to that satellite.  There is a brief interval for the dish to move in the satellite arc.

 This is the motor to which you can attach a dish antenna with a single lnbf and then train it to locate all possible satellites for your FTA.

Once you have located all your equipment you next choice is the location on your land to point up about 45 degrees with line of site unblocked by any trees or wires.

The receivers come with some instructions on how to point your dish to find the satellite, how to check for a signal, and how to scan for all the digital DVB channels.

Pointing a satellite antenna dish at your ground station is the hardest part of the FTA fun.  The satellites are in an arc from East to West along the Equator. So, if you watch the sun cross the sky from morning to evening you will see that it goes in a arc. The arc at sunrise is low on the East horizon. The belt of satellites follow the Sun arc, either above or below the sun. As the sun passes through the Equinoxes it is on the Equator.  The Sun puts out enough frequency radiation that when it passes in front of you antenna dish and hits the LNBF, you will loose reception tell the Sun has passed on Westward. This is called solar drop out.  You can experience drop out also when it rains or hails or snows very hard.

A good satellite to start with is the T5 satellite. This is located at 97 degrees west, and your line of site due south from California is about 118 degrees west. So this satellite is like 45 degrees up Elevation from the horizon and azimuth angle is like SSW.  Connect up your FTA to the satellite without the multiplexer first. Move the dish antenna in left and right and up and down motions by 1 degree tell you FTA shows a green signal strength. Remember there are many satellites in the neighborhood of the one you want, so you may actually hit T6, or G3, or G6 or S4 and not know it.

If you go to Google and type in “satellite finder” you will get many web pages on how to calculate the direction to the satellite you wish to find.  Since the satellites are all along the Equator all the calculator needs is your home latitude and longitude to show you’re the position angles, Azimuth from the North Magnetic Pole, and the Elevation above your southern horizon in the direction of the satellite.

In our example we take Los Angeles City at 34 North, 118 longitude west, looking for a satellite at 97 West longitude.  The calculator shows 145 degrees Azimuth from the north pole (be careful some use the north magnetic pole) and 34 degrees up form the SSE horizon.

Most antenna have a scale on the side that shows some angle up and down. This angle is usually only for use with DISH or DTV satellite installations.  You will notice that the LNBF horn is below the center line of the antenna dish by about 10 to 20 degrees. This varies with each antenna design.  If you can measure this offset of the horn from the center axis of the antenna dish you can then subtract that offset angle from the Elevation that the calculator shows. So, to find T5 at 34 degrees above the SSE horizon I need to set the dish angle marked on the side to 34  minus the offset angle (say 10 deg) to 24 degrees.  Then point the dish SSE and start a small scan up and down and left and right of the expected position of the satellite in the sky. Remember satellites are 1.5 degrees apart so you must move the antenna in very small steps, like 1 degree.  Turn your FTA receiver to the satellite name you want to find, turn on the high volume of your TV output, and set the FTA into signal mode. You will hear a beep or a tone form the FTA TV box. If and when you actually pass a satellite signal it can figure out, you will hear the tone pitch change to higher pitch as the signal gets stronger. Move the antenna dish until you get at least a 70% signal strength.  Now you are ready to scan the satellite and see if the channels you get match the list on lyngsat.com. Then you know you got the T5.

If you were looking for T5 but get T6 or GC-3 then you will see a different set of channels on the FTA receiver. You do not need to

delete those channels. If you now go move the dish slightly right or left and slightly up or down you may find the next satellite in the sky. Scan that satellite and build up an FTA set of channels.  The FTA box can hold 999 satellite channels. All you would need to do is point back at the other satellites and choose a channel from the FTA satellite list to see that channel.

In time the satellites will move, be changed and or channels moved and deleted or changed modes.  From time to time it is good to delete a satellites channels from a single satellite and then re-scan the satellite so that you maintain the best FTA list.

After you find a signal you have to perform the blind scan of the satellite to see what you get. If you get lots of foreign stations then you probably have found T5. Use Lyngsat.com to check your station listings and to figure out which satellite you found.

Good Surfing of the sky.