InterceptRadio.com Forums

Not sure if anyone here scans the sky? With a decent STB (KU / C Band), true FTA is relatively easy to keep dibs on. Blind scan technology has come a long way. Hypothetically speaking... what is the current status of DBS reception, Dave, Charlie, etc? As far as I know, current technology is focused around IKS (Internet Key Sharing). Are any of the major STB's up at this point? Again, this is all hypothetical. I do know that some of the more popular web sites, regarding this topic, have gone down :(

I don't bother chasing the encrypted stuff. Otherwise its mostly onsite newsfeeds and a handful of third-tier network feeds (RTN etc). Not much up there these days.

I've been watching FTA TV and wild feeds since I was a kid. I remember staying up all night, surfing the skies........ have seen lots of cool stuff over the years. You're right, things have definitely died down. Soon, the military will probably be using the birds for target practice ;)

For anyone interested, lyngsat.com is by far the best satellite reference guide. To the novice, the page can seem a bit intimidating. Just make sure to select America (61*W - 160*W) in the frequencies field.... if in fact you live in North America. Select your bird of choice, and what you see listed, is what you can >potentially< receive.

Regarding the encrypted stuff. Monitoring DirecTV (Dave) has always seemed like a waste of time. You can spend upwards of $1,000 on the gear necessary to flash the smart cards, and still not have reliable viewing. It takes a lot of hands on effort.

Dish Network (Charlie), Bell TV and GlobeCast are a different story. Mainly using the Nagravision encryption scheme, these providers have been exposed for years, via hacked firmware. During the early Nagra 2 days, you would manually have to load the keys on your STB. Down times were very common. Later on, the "auto rolling" of keys became a feature. Unadulterated viewing of these systems became effortless. I remember that Dish Network even had a pirate channel, basically stating that, if you can see this channel, you're stealing. I'm sure you could YouTube it :)

In mid 2009, several of the providers switched to Nagra 3, the un-hackable encryption (I love when they say that). The systems remained locked down for approximately six months until they were... well.... hacked. At that point, the STB's that were up, were using a new technology called IKS (Internet Key Sharing). Anonymity with this technology was / is sketchy at best.

It's been a few years since I've tinkered with the dish (hypothetically speaking). Maybe I should dust off the Birdog, and fire up the receiver again.

Yep gotta love lyngsat.com. I run a 90cm dish, Sadoun rotator, Invacom quad-Ku LNBF, and Visionsat receiver. Nothing fancy but it seems to work ok. I can see 61W to 148W from here which gives a good selection of satellites to point the dish at.

Wow, that's a very impressive field of view.... I'm jealous. I have virtually the exact same setup as you, except I never bothered installing my motor. Sometimes I just like to spend time on the roof, away from the wife and kids ;) The Invacom is awesome. One of the smartest purchases I've ever made.... simply the best bang for the buck. I wish that someone would come out with an affordable azimuth and elevation mount. Something that you could swap out with the stock mount, something that didn't suck. Not until you get into commercial gear, are the mounts any good. May just have to fabricate one myself.

Can I have any fun with my Direct or Dish antenna?

Sure, the possibilities are endless. You could pull off the mount, and use the dish as a toboggan in the winter time. Convert the dish into a parabolic microphone, and spy on your neighbors. Maybe even serve pastries on it, at the next Intercept gathering. We all know how you love to entertain ;)

Regarding the reception of satellites. The dish antennas provided with Direct and Dishnet packages, are to small to do any real Free To Air work with. The supplied receivers, without MAJOR hacking, are not suitable for receiving encrypted services.... unless of course you pay for a subscription, but who wants to do that.... takes all the fun out of living.

Best bet is to purchase a FTA STB, and as large as possible of a dish. A new wave of STB's (not to be confused with STD's) are flooding North America. I've seen the STB's go for as low as $35 on Ebay, although I'm not sure how good these ultra cheap units are. You can get away with a 31" KU band dish, but a 36" or even 39", will very much help reduce rain fade. On occasion, you can find these on Craigslist for cheap.

If you just want to experiment with the encrypted stuff, you could simply connect a FTA STB to your existing dish. Just be prepared to do a lot of research.... it's a bit of a learning curve, if you haven't messed with this stuff before.

Rich is lucky / unlucky enough to live in Tijuana. Not only is the cerveza inexpensive, but his satellite signal quality is better.
Tons of equipment distributors down there as well.... you could probably find a really good deal on a burlap antenna.

Got lots of the Channel Master 1 and 1.2 meter reflectors, but only a few of the feed supports. Fortunately these are made from 1/2"EMT and can be duplicated accurately without too much fuss. Many single pol LNB's, and possibly an orthomode transducer or two which would permit the mounting of a pair of LNB's so could select polarization based on which one was "hot"... Might even have one of the magnetic polarization twister gizmos also. Fortunately a well-designed and properly installed "polar" mount permits swinging only azimuth to look at everything in geostationary orbit.

Let me know what you need in this area I might be able to "hook you up" cheap!!!

Eric
KB7DQH

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.