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- Subject: r.v.s.tvro FAQ - Part 5/10
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-
- PART FIVE - Are there any hobbies related to owning a big dish system?
-
- Absolutely! Having a big dish system means more than just standard TV watching and
- satellite audio listening. Probably the largest hobby element to big dish ownership
- today involves having a DVB/MPEG-2 free-to-air receiver. Unlike standard big dish
- viewing, DVB/MPEG-2 programming has a higher tendency of being here today and
- gone tomorrow. DVB/MPEG-2 is also great for its abundance of non-"cable type"
- programming, particularly international programming. With the right receiver,
- DVB/MPEG-2 has the added bonus of allowing industrious (and patient) big dish
- aficionados to possibly find a channel that has never been found before.
-
- Another "alternative" form of enjoying TVRO is listening to "non-standard" audio.
- Besides standard subcarrier audio, there is a fair amount of DVB/MPEG-2 audio
- for the big dish owner's listening enjoyment. There are also two other forms of
- non-standard audio that, with a little effort and investment, can be tuned.
-
- Although having long been abandoned by commercial radio networks for digital
- transmission methods (DAT/SEDAT and, more recently, Starguide-III systems),
- analog single channel per carrier (SCPC) audio is still an interesting diversion from
- standard satellite radio listening. There was once a large amount of audio carried using
- analog SCPC; the amount today is limited to roughly 20 feeds on two satellites. In
- order to receive analog SCPC, you will need either a dedicated analog SCPC receiver,
- such as those made by Universal Electronics, or use the "poor man's" method by
- splitting the 70 MHz loop signal output from an older TVRO receiver, with one of the
- split outputs going to a broadcast TV audio tuner and the other returning to the 70
- MHz loop input. Having a phase-lock loop LNB as part of your system will help
- dramatically for those seriously intent on more than casual analog SCPC listening as
- the audio will tend to drift with a standard LNB, forcing the listener to have to constantly
- re-tune the signal.
-
- Another form of non-standard satellite audio is FM Squared, often written as FM2,
- FM^2, or even FM/FM. FM Squared is another older method of analog satellite
- audio delivery; interestingly enough, it occupies the space on a transponder signal
- normally used for video. The amount of FM Squared audio available is even less than
- that of analog SCPC, limited mainly to some in-store audio networks, AP Network
- News, and some remaining Muzak "environmental music" feeds. Unfortunately, the
- best method of receiving FM Squared isn't cheap; a wideband radio scanner that tunes
- between 0 and 5 MHz is needed and few (like the ICOM R100) scanners have this
- capability. Not only that, such capable scanners are VERY expensive and the benefit
- of listening to such few remaining audio services probably doesn't justify the cost unless
- the scanner is going to be used for actual radio scanning as well. The scanner connects
- to your satellite receiver's baseband output connection.
-
- For information on remaining analog SCPC and FM Squared programming locations,
- checkout out Monitoring Times Satellite Services Guide web page at:
-
- http://www.grove-ent.com/mtssg.html
-
- Audio isn't the only big dish hobby possibility. With a good horizon-to-horizon, or
- H-to-H, mount, you can track some international satellites with your big dish system.
- This is especially true of satellite systems located on the east coast of the United States
- and Canada. The H-to-H mount allows for more dish movement (a full 180 degrees)
- than a standard non-motorized mount with an actuator. A good H-to-H mount is fairly
- expensive at around $400. For the big-time dish hobbyist, the cost is probably well
- worth it.
-
- With special tracking equipment, your TVRO system can also track inclined orbit
- satellites. Satellites usually go into an inclined orbit once most of their onboard fuel
- supply is gone. By allowing a satellite to fall into a natural north-south drift when its fuel
- supply is low allows the life of the satellite to be extended without much cost or added
- control by the company that owns the satellite. Tracking an inclined orbit satellite
- requires the use of a special dual axis mount that covers both horizontal and vertical
- tracking. Most inclined communications satellites are over Europe but there are a few
- over the Western Hemisphere as well.
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