# Free to air satellite dishes?



## district (Sep 14, 2003)

I found an old DirectTV dish in the trash and I was thinking about picking up an FTA box to go along with it. 

Does anybody have any experience with these? What kind of signals can regularly pick up in southern Ontario?


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## miguelsanchez (Feb 1, 2005)

It depends on what firmware has been flashed on to the box.  

Try ftacentral.com, dssftp.com, sattech.ca, etc. for more info.

Also, try lyngsat.com for more legit FTA info. You'll need a bigger dish, about 30" diameter, to catch FTA channels, though. I think DTV's dish is 18".

Good luck,

Miguel


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## Digital_Gary (Sep 18, 2003)

www.dishnewbies.com is also a good site. 

Right now FTA will only pickup Dish Network out of the US as far as I know. They have 2 satellite's so you either need a bigger dish with a Dual LNB setup or 2 separate dishes. Your DTV dish will work fine to receive the signal from 1 of the satellites. They used to be able to pickup Bell and Dish with the same firmware but since Bell has changed to Nagra2, it won't work now. 

There are tons of FTA receivers to choose from. I know people with the DigiWave and are pretty happy with it. Downside is most of them don't have program guides. You get a list of channels but you don't know what is playing on them. You just have to click around till you see something you want to watch. 

Some of the CoolSat receivers have a guide and i think some of the PanSat ones also have one. 

Good luck!


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## da_jonesy (Jun 26, 2003)

Also try http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/


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## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

I have an old expressVu dish that I was thinking of connecting to an FTA receiver to see if I can get anything interesting. Or see if I can sell it (I already have a dish stuck to the house anyway). I'll have a look at those sites.


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