Ku/C band satellite questions

[jcharles00]

I'm pretty new to the idea of satellite stuff, but I have been thinking lately of getting some kind of setup to pull free-to-air programming for our college station. I recalled seeing some offers of shows giving away the dish hardware if you ran their programming, but I can't seem to find any of those now.. I went googling around for satellite equipment and found that is an entirely too broad a field for me to figure out on my own.

so, my questions are:
1) how inexpensively can I get a functional setup? it looks like the dish and LNB only come out to ~$70, but the receiver prices are all over the place.. what receiver do i need?

2) how long of a run of coax can I have from the LNB to the receiver and still have it work?


any info would be appreciated.

thanks!

 

[kyscott]

Check these folks out: http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Order/Satellite-systems/FTA-Systems.htm

I have used them in the past and they seem pretty reasonable.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

A C band dish is going to cost considerably more than $70. Try $500. It would be at least a 3 meter dish.

Line loss is not a significant problem. I work with dishes and at least 200' of coax with less than 1 db of signal loss.

Check with your provider about receiving equipment. You may need to use "approved" receivers.

 

[boiseengineer]

Try to find a 3.8 meter for C band. You'll thank yourself later for getting one at least that size.

 

[ChiefEngineer]

The Sat Cruiser is a standard now. remember your auto will only be able to do timed breaks, unless your provider sends 25 hz tones to play breaks.

USA Radio has a lot of things in the pipe for Non Coms tations. Call Kelli Sehan at USA. Many great talk programs AND news.

 

[jcharles00]

thanks for the info guys!