I never had much interference from microwave towers, but there were occasional times it would happen. It's been decades, but I recall there were filters you could buy to help weed out the problem and while partially reducing the bandwidth, for the most part they worked.  

As for the legalities, there was a feeling that if the signals were unencrypted and free in the air, there was nothing to stop you from receiving them. Not sure if that was actually what a court of law would say, but I never heard of anyone getting busted for this during those "in the clear" days. It wasn't until HBO started scrambling its signal (first part time, then 24 hours a day) that things changed. Once HBO did it, so did almost everyone else.

In came Motorola with its 4DTV system, which allowed viewers to subscribe to any of the services for a reasonable fee. I used a place called "Murphy's Programming" which had offices in Ottawa and the U.S. to regain the signals, and I wasn't unhappy to pay for the privilege, the variety was that good. 

Plus, unlike cable, you could pick just the channels you wanted and only pay for it a la carte. It was a great system, because you never had to fork over money for a station you'd never tune in to, unlike the model used for modern cable today. 

The 4DTV Receiver:



A sample from a C-Band "TV Guide" from July 1984.




An old (and wrinkled) Murphy's Programming Price List sample from 2005:

Yep, it was a sad day when scrambling bit into C-Band.

But even after the warped pic and sound happened, there was plenty of stuff to watch, like the Wild Feeds. These were transmissions sent from a studio to the network, where you could watch the new episode of say, Law & Order, scheduled to air on NBC that Thursday two days early on Tuesday. There were no commercials and you got to see the show's title.

The trick was finding them - they often fed at 4 AM on a Telstar satellite. Once you found them, they were pretty consistent, and you could set your VCR to record them, until next season when everything often changed again. People kept lists of where some of the most popular early feeds could be found, but it was often a game of cat and mouse chasing them around.

The other fun surprise was stumbling on a network reporter or anchor being uplinked to go on their local channel, preening on camera, combing their hair, trying to get ready or criticizing some of their co-workers when they thought no one was looking. A lot of fun to watch and see the real person behind the facade. 

And if there was breaking news, they'd often uplink scenes from the action, unedited and live so you could see what was happening before anyone else. 

Wow, thanks for that kind offer Darcy. But I still have my original remote. As mentioned, the big dish doesn't get a lot of action these days and I don't think I've moved the arm either way for at least a few years.

It's just cheaper to leave it there than to have somebody take it down. But yes, I still have the original 4DTV and the remote, and while it was all analogue in those days, there was nothing quite like scanning the skies to see what was up there at any given moment and finding some hidden gem.

I'm glad you got the chance to experience that. There was nothing quite like it and the little dish, while capable of delivering HD signals, has no moving parts per se and just isn't as good. It's like cable from the sky. No chance to find those hidden gems because they're not there.

Still, it does have one advantage. I remember when my picture kept fading on my C-Band dish, although nothing was blocking it. It kept getting worse so I called in a repair guy (impossible to find one now, but easier back then.) He went outside and looked at the place where the LNB was in the nose cone, put his hand in and ripped out an abandoned wasp's nest. Apparently the little buggers had gone in there, finding a nice protected place and built themselves a home, all the while getting in the way of my signal.  

An extra protected plate inserted in the opening made sure it never happened again, but who else can say that wasps kept someone from watching his favourite shows?

I always had some significant microwave interference from the Bell "Toronto Ronald Avenue" Microwave tower which was due north and a bit west of my location.   Bought a tuneable Microwave Associates notch filter which worked fairly well.  I also had horizon-to-horizon motor-driven antennas C/Ku band -  which allowed me to receive trans-atlantic satellites.  Used to enjoy radio from the UK, when news feeds were not being sent, that's long before the internet.  Today, only have Ku band antennas with no interference problems.

Lots of stuff is free on KU.  But it is mainly ethnic programming, and ethnic radio.  Vietnamese, various African nations, Saudi Arabia, etc.  Plus English language religion.  Happy to part with receiver/LNA for it if you're interested.   I believe that the satellite is still called Galaxy 19.  I also have a fairly large (3 ft?) dish which is pointed at Galaxy 19.  My receiver is fairly old, but I think you can pick up receivers for under $75 that have the latest DVB codecs for some of the channels that I don't receive.  Message me if you're interested.   
https://www.lyngsat.com/Galaxy-19.html


 

Don't forget about those wonderful audio sub-carriers.

In the analogue days there were many audio services on sub carriers including radio stations and music services.

As satellites were approaching the end of their life some were placed into a non-geostationary orbit. They were used for some wild feeds and were much cheaper to rent uplink time on. If you had a dish that could track these some interesting content could be found. If you dish could not track, the reception was predictable; the signal would start low and get stronger and peak as the satellite's orbit changed. Then it would get weaker and finally go away. The cycle would repeat. I had a 2 foot portable KU dish you could manually adjust to track the satellite. Great days and geeky fun.

In 1997 I visited a friend in Knoxville TN who was a real dish expert and had an impressive dish farm.

 

Last edited by darcyh (July 17, 2023 8:37 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

Wow, one dish was enough for me! (Actually, all I really had room for.)

Yes, the audio subcarriers were great. I remember that WCBS-FM in its oldies heyday was one of them. I recall listening to their Rock and Roll Radio Reunion with some of the biggest NYC jocks in history. It was great and in perfect quality! This was long before the Internet and streaming.

Another of my faves - Gary Bourgeois from Marquette, Michigan, who paid for his own audio uplink once a week to do a show on - of all things - the satellite industry and C-Band. He and "The Captain" (whoever that was) were hilarious and I listened every week. Sort of a very early version of what we would now call a podcast. Always ahead of its time.  

What a coincidence! I too listened to "Friday Night Live" with Gary B and Captain's question time. It was a very informative show with respect to satellite. "From Marquette Michigan where it's not the end of the world but you can see it from here" or something like that. There were also a few other guys that did shows on the sub-carriers. Tom and Darryl come to mind.

One more memory and it's specifically unique to me. When I ordered from Murphy's Programming in Ottawa, there was a woman there who once tried to explain how the 4DTV receiver worked with the sat signals - although I already knew. 

She kept saying over and over "it's because it's digical." Not digital, "digical." Everytime she used the word, she called it "digical." God bless that lady, she was trying to be so helpful. It's been decades, but for some reason I still remember her and her unusual and crazy pronunciation. 

May all your digical feeds be descrambled clearly!