Stories About BUDs (Big Ugly Dishes)

[tvnut]

Had a 12-foot (3.66 meter) solid dish installed in the summer of 1982. I was an early adopter; the whole thing cost about $7,000. Wild feeds (ABC co-anchor Max Robinson waiting to do his 15-second hit from Chicago each night was a hoot; golf in Japanese; blacked-out fights) plus the Canadian channels, regional sports networks and so much more. All great fun. CBC was about the last to scramble and it was time to switch to a small dish.

 

[crainbebo]

So you had your dish installed when EVERYTHING was in the clear! All the premium networks were in the clear until January 1986, when HBO began Videocipher II. CANCOM channels were an exception - they were encrypted Oak Orion. CANCOM = Detroit TV stations, CITV Edmonton, BCTV/CHAN-8 Vancouver, which were all beamed to cable operators up there.

 

[landtuna]

The "spot beams" also limited the reception nationwide. The Anik and Alaska birds virtually disappeared from my part of the country.

 

[tvnut]

So you had your dish installed when EVERYTHING was in the clear! All the premium networks were in the clear until January 1986, when HBO began Videocipher II. CANCOM channels were an exception - they were encrypted Oak Orion. CANCOM = Detroit TV stations, CITV Edmonton, BCTV/CHAN-8 Vancouver, which were all beamed to cable operators up there.

The CanCom channels were in the clear into the mid-1980s, I think. Watched a lot of midweek NHL games on CHCH, CITV and CHAN. TSN was also in the clear originally. All that was scrambled well before CBC, which went to hash early in 2001 and it was time to go to a small dish. But the big one is still there, all 12 solid feet of it, should I get the urge to install a digital receiver and go hunting for signals. (And install motors to move the monster after all these years.)

 

[TheBigA]

Back in the 80s, former CBS reporter Daniel Schorr was hired by CNN. At the time, they didn't have cable in DC, and Schorr lived in the District. It was also before DirecTV. So he had CNN pay for a "big ugly dish" on his front lawn. He was living in the ritzy Kalorama area of DC, so it really stood out. When he left CNN after a few years, they left the dish on his front lawn.

There's a picture of Schorr and his dish in his NPR obit:

https://www.npr.org/2010/07/23/128565997/journalism-legend-daniel-schorr-dies-at-93

The dish apparently wasn't popular with his neighbors, according to this story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1985/09/15/the-satellite-dish-dilemma/4d82f5bd-00e1-4555-a0d9-74c1a5fbc52c/

 

[Markxxx]

I think I read these big ugly dishes would rotate? Would that be for each channel? Or each group of channels? And if they rotated, how long would it take?

 

[mohawk82]

I think I read these big ugly dishes would rotate? Would that be for each channel? Or each group of channels? And if they rotated, how long would it take?

For each satellite. It takes a few seconds to switch satellites depending on how far that you are moving the dish. I put up my 10 footer in 2013. There are lots of feeds still available on C-Band. Check out SatelliteGuys.com if you want to see the people still watching C-Band.

 

[radiofan2023]

For each satellite. It takes a few seconds to switch satellites depending on how far that you are moving the dish. I put up my 10 footer in 2013. There are lots of feeds still available on C-Band. Check out SatelliteGuys.com if you want to see the people still watching C-Band.

There’s also a lot of Youtube channels about free satellite tv channels, like this one:

Northcoaster Hobby

Thanks for visiting my channel. I like to share my hobbies around free satellite TV, TV antennas, and related topics. Please don’t ask me about piracy keys for satellite TV. That’s NOT what my channel is about. Channel URL: https://www.youtube.com/c/NorthcoasterHobby...

www.youtube.com

 

[IM42A]

Back in the 80s, former CBS reporter Daniel Schorr was hired by CNN. At the time, they didn't have cable in DC, and Schorr lived in the District. It was also before DirecTV. So he had CNN pay for a "big ugly dish" on his front lawn. He was living in the ritzy Kalorama area of DC, so it really stood out. When he left CNN after a few years, they left the dish on his front lawn.

There's a picture of Schorr and his dish in his NPR obit:

https://www.npr.org/2010/07/23/128565997/journalism-legend-daniel-schorr-dies-at-93

The dish apparently wasn't popular with his neighbors, according to this story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1985/09/15/the-satellite-dish-dilemma/4d82f5bd-00e1-4555-a0d9-74c1a5fbc52c/

Mr Schorr would have been a man after my own heart. I wouldn't mind having a 10-foot dish in my front yard. The HOA wouldn't like it, but I'd be the king of the world with something like that.

 

[Route66Fan]

There’s also a lot of Youtube channels about free satellite tv channels, like this one:

Northcoaster Hobby

Thanks for visiting my channel. I like to share my hobbies around free satellite TV, TV antennas, and related topics. Please don’t ask me about piracy keys for satellite TV. That’s NOT what my channel is about. Channel URL: https://www.youtube.com/c/NorthcoasterHobby...

www.youtube.com

There is also this one:

https://www.youtube.com/@robbiestrike/videos

 

[gr8oldies]

I had friends who had home dishes in the late 80s but didn't get to play with them. When I worked in a TV station in Indiana, we had the CBS dishes that were automatically switched by the network (they could even switch a specific region for one commercial break), different receivers for recording syndicated show feeds, and one we used for sports backhauls, newsfeeds, some shows and miscellaneous, and late at night when not in use, I got to play with that. CBS and ABC was scrambled by then (mostly but there were exceptions), NBC was in the clear (including their Mountain Time feed, though West Coast was a spot beam). There were the pre-feeds of network shows (I assumed from the production companies to the networks). Most of the syndicated show feeds were in the clear ("how do you know ALL the Jeopardy answers!"). There seemed to be 9,762 home shopping channels, "Shepherd's Chapel" which had the same preacher 24/7 and some oddities like a preview of the Las Vegas Television Network, which in addition to shows about old Las Vegas, ran soft porn overnight. When one of the satellites went down, and networks had to scramble for space, we found a Montreal French language station that mostly carried U.S. movies and shows dubbed into French. This was everything from The Blues Brothers, to the Adam West Batman (le pow?), to Dougie Howser M.D. (Docteur Doogie). There was always something interesting.

 

[CTListener]

I had friends who had home dishes in the late 80s but didn't get to play with them. When I worked in a TV station in Indiana, we had the CBS dishes that were automatically switched by the network (they could even switch a specific region for one commercial break), different receivers for recording syndicated show feeds, and one we used for sports backhauls, newsfeeds, some shows and miscellaneous, and late at night when not in use, I got to play with that. CBS and ABC was scrambled by then (mostly but there were exceptions), NBC was in the clear (including their Mountain Time feed, though West Coast was a spot beam). There were the pre-feeds of network shows (I assumed from the production companies to the networks). Most of the syndicated show feeds were in the clear ("how do you know ALL the Jeopardy answers!"). There seemed to be 9,762 home shopping channels, "Shepherd's Chapel" which had the same preacher 24/7 and some oddities like a preview of the Las Vegas Television Network, which in addition to shows about old Las Vegas, ran soft porn overnight. When one of the satellites went down, and networks had to scramble for space, we found a Montreal French language station that mostly carried U.S. movies and shows dubbed into French. This was everything from The Blues Brothers, to the Adam West Batman (le pow?), to Dougie Howser M.D. (Docteur Doogie). There was always something interesting.

I remember watching "The Flintstones" dubbed in French on CKSH in Sherbrooke, Quebec, many years ago, when that station was carried on Warner Amex cable in suburban Boston. Yaba-daba-DU!

 

[landtuna]

I think I read these big ugly dishes would rotate? Would that be for each channel? Or each group of channels? And if they rotated, how long would it take?

"Rotate" is probably the wrong word. More like scan from one side of the sky to another (E to W and vice versa). There were antenna mounts that could scan a partial number of degrees and others that could scan horizon to horizon. Scan movement varied by the type of installation but from one side to another usually took a minute or two. Normally, if you were watching commercial programming you would simply switch transponders in the same way current remotes change channels but if you had to switch sats it could take a bit longer. The receivers had circuits which could store active sat positions so moving between them was pretty easy.

The C-band sats carried 24 transponders (channels) and the Ku sats carried 32. Not all were active all the time though.

 

[IM42A]

"Rotate" is probably the wrong word. More like scan from one side of the sky to another (E to W and vice versa). There were antenna mounts that could scan a partial number of degrees and others that could scan horizon to horizon. Scan movement varied by the type of installation but from one side to another usually took a minute or two. Normally, if you were watching commercial programming you would simply switch transponders in the same way current remotes change channels but if you had to switch sats it could take a bit longer. The receivers had circuits which could store active sat positions so moving between them was pretty easy.

The C-band sats carried 24 transponders (channels) and the Ku sats carried 32. Not all were active all the time though.

Didn't the dishes also have to rotate the feedhorn to adjust for different polarizations?

 

[IM42A]

I remember watching "The Flintstones" dubbed in French on CKSH in Sherbrooke, Quebec, many years ago, when that station was carried on Warner Amex cable in suburban Boston. Yaba-daba-DU!

Back in the day, CKSH (and/or CHLT, also from Sherbrooke) was carried on many cable systems in New England, presumably to cater to the French-speaking populations who had historically settled in various areas.

 

[crainbebo]

CKSH was fed via microwave. However, there was "TCTV" on the Cancom that was a localized feed of either TQS or TVA, one of the French commercial channels in Quebec. That got scrambled w/ Oak Orion just like the others on Cancom (CITV, BCTV/CHAN, CHCH, Detroit networks).

 

[IM42A]

CKSH was fed via microwave. However, there was "TCTV" on the Cancom that was a localized feed of either TQS or TVA, one of the French commercial channels in Quebec. That got scrambled w/ Oak Orion just like the others on Cancom (CITV, BCTV/CHAN, CHCH, Detroit networks).

Getting these channels in northern New England, whether on cable, or OTA if you were close enough, would also have been very helpful in French-language classes in high schools and colleges. It would have given students the chance to hear French as it is actually spoken in everyday life, not just classroom lessons. It would have been an immersion experience, but that's how you learn languages the best.

 

[rjoc]

Getting these channels in northern New England, whether on cable, or OTA if you were close enough, would also have been very helpful in French-language classes in high schools and colleges. It would have given students the chance to hear French as it is actually spoken in everyday life, not just classroom lessons. It would have been an immersion experience, but that's how you learn languages the best.

I believe CKSH was picked up off-air on Mount Washington, then relayed via microwave to cable outlets around Northern New England. Not sure if that's still the case. CKSH is still carried on some Spectrum systems around Maine.

 

[IM42A]

I believe CKSH was picked up off-air on Mount Washington, then relayed via microwave to cable outlets around Northern New England. Not sure if that's still the case. CKSH is still carried on some Spectrum systems around Maine.

That would make sense. CKSH and CHLT would likely have been line-of-sight from Mount Washington.

 

[fybush]

That would make sense. CKSH and CHLT would likely have been line-of-sight from Mount Washington.

However, it would have needed some good filtering - CHLT on 7 and CKSH on 9 were sandwiched around WMTW right there on the rock on channel 8.