Noob with ethics question, needs into

[biggyfries]

Hello--noob here, I am on a number of other sites for my other passions and I will admit now that I know NOTHING about electronics--I'm serious. I am good at getting new batteries in a flashlight, but not much more than that.
I just recently aquired a new passion--I developed a hate for my cable company. I am determined to watch free TV with no connection to any cable provider.
Here are my concerns: I don't want to violate laws, I don't like to steal someone else's property, but I also obey laws generally yet I have been known to speed on my motorcycle quite often, so I can be talked into violating that kind of a law sometimes. I have no interest in stealing cable as was popular awhile back, but if a signal is floating around in space and it appeared on my set I wouldn't whine too much.
What is the accepted rule that will keep me out of the sights of the government and/or the police?
Here's my first question: I have a fairly new flat screen TV, I also have a dish antenna I got when I had satellite service and when I dropped them they abandoned their dish. I took the dish down a few months later and still have it. I wonder what it would take to get a nice image on my TV--can I use this dish to receive TV? What else is required to make it work?
To be clear, I hate HBO and Showtime, as well as all the other movie channels, but I would like to watch the local news for example, and some others, I have no interest in porn, so just the basics would be fine for me. Suggestions?
Am I in the right place?

 

[(*steve*)]

Either pay for it, get it from a free to air service, or drop by your neighbour's house to watch their cable.

Oh, you could also just pretend.

They're the legal (and -- dare I say it -- moral) options you have open to you.

 

[donkey]

well to put it in an easy way you have to find the signal, decode it and send it to your tv.
having the knowledge you do for electronics shouldn't take too long. (coughs loudly and keeps straight face)
there is another option if you want to, trying picking up other countries feeds. I remember a friend who picked up china on a satellite here in au. the setup was all he paid for.
another option is try a hobby away from the tv. did you know there is like a whole heap of fun things that you can do when the tv is off as well?
last but not least you can always try looking at youtube. there appears from time to time some scenes from movies, if you are a real genius you can put them in a playlist in the right order and watch the whole movie. there are documentaries and info. as well as our own Mongrel shark (and probably others) that continually post vids. who knows you could find a video of something about your other hobbies and start doing that

I thought I would add this. this accepted rule is if you have to pay for it, then getting it free usually means you pay in another way, having to bury a body, jail time, dating a hot chicks ugly friend so the guy that installed it can date the hot chick, etc etc etc. just not worth it

 

[shumifan50]

You do not specify where you are.

In the UK you can receive a lot of free to air channels, which includes most news channels. The easiest way of doing this is to use a satellite dish. Several satellites are visible from the UK. Sky broadcast on the satellites at 28.2 east. Satellites at 23 east, 19 east and 13 east can readily be received in the SouthEast, but will require a bigger dish than the ones installed by Sky. It would typically need at least a 90cm dish. Aiming at the different satellites can be achieved by using a motorised dish(slower tuning, more expensive and more versatile) or a fixed bracket with multiple LNB and diseq switchess, each aimed at a specific satellite. Once you have the dish set up, you will need a free to air satellite receiver, such as made by Humax, Dream Multimedia - these are available from places like Maplin etc. That is really it.

The different satellites(predominantly):
28.2 east = Sky
23.5 east = some Dutch, lovak.Czech
19 east = German channels including German Sky
13 east = Italian channels including Sky Italy

On amny of the foreign channels you can select the audio track, which sometimes even has an English track.

 

[biggyfries]

Now we're getting somewhere! I am obviously in the right place! Let me fill in some facts about me--I'm in the SE corner of Washington state, 250 miles from the Canadian border. I am a handy man in some areas, I have been a Mustang restorer for years, owned around 20 of them over the years. (electrical is my worst weakness) but I learned it all by jumping in and getting involved and really enjoyed it for many years, I'm down to just one 5.0 convertible now. I'm a rabid motorcyclist since the Mustang hobby tapered off. I take tours all over the western US and Canada. I took up camping on the bikes because it adds to the experience and makes me feel like a real 'explorer'. I'm a handloader and have some expertise on firearms as a hobbyist, with an emphasis on old west memorabilia, guns. I snow ski and golf just enough to complain about the expense, with no great skills in either. I do plenty of other activities, but don't we all watch a little TV sometimes?

I had cable for years and struggled with the increasing costs, then I found I only watched a few channels and was paying more and more and enjoying it less and less. So I dropped cable and found there was about 30 local channels and was happy with just that for a couple of years. So recently the cable provider went full digital which inexplicably killed ALL my signals--I get nothing now. In my discussions with them they are determined that I must pay $40 a month for the bare minimum service, and I would be back to the state I was in before. I don't want that, so I then heard there are free-to-air signals out there that are worthwhile, but I am a newcomer with only enough understanding to be dangerous. I am determined to learn a new skill, aquire some new knowlege. So, where to learn? I saw this site and my previous post was my first.

I have a dish (20"x18" oval) with an arm that holds three mushroom-shaped things in front of the dish. That should receive something, but what? How does one get that signal onto the screen? On ebay there is a bewildering array of "boxes" that go by a variety of names, decoders, de-scramblers, cable boxes, and I have no idea which would suit my needs--what ARE my needs exactly? I can tell by some of your responses some of you could get something on my TV pronto, and that's my first goal, and I expect to learn something from there.
Enlighten me, please!

 

[shumifan50]

The 'mushroom like' things are called LNB(Low noise Block).
The dish you have is quite small and will not receive signals from satellites that are not beamed directly at your area. You will need at least a 35inch dish.
As you have 3 LNBs and a satellite receiver only has one input per receiver, you will need a diseqc switch that will, controlled by the receiver, select which LNB is being used at any moment in time. The switches come a a variety of flavours with 2 to 8 inputs - you will need 3 or more inputs. The switch has one output that goes to your satellite receiver input. And, connection wise, that is it.
You will need a satellite receiver. Most places are now digital, but there are still some analogue channels. Depending on which channels you want to receive, you will have to get the appropriate receiver.

Setting up the dish is another matter altogether. The satellites are a very long way away and the signal is quite weak, so the dish has to be aimed very accurately at the satellites you wish to receive. Each LNB will be aimed at one satellite(unless motorised). To get the position of the various satellites and how to set your disk have a look at
satfinder
The three LNBs will be offset on the dish and will be pointing a certain number of degrees apart, so they will match a specific set of satellites as they are set up. If you don't aim at the same satellites, they will not work correctly. Satellites have position and, at a specific location, inclination at which the LNB must be set, but this is too complex to go into here - google it and enjoy your reading.

Some satellites have a bigger 'footprint' than others. The further you are from the centre of the footprint, the bigger the dish required.

 

[biggyfries]

I'm still digesting these responses which are much appreciated. As I discuss my situation I am getting opinions that the dish in my garage should be pitched in the garbage--is that too strong? Another suggestion is to buy a conventional antenna with a signal amplifier (a guy has one for sale but he seems not too knowledgable (sp?), he is more interested in getting $60 out of it. Would something like this work I wonder? I hear you must point it at each transmitter to receive each different channel.
Shumi, I suspect if you were here you'd have me fixed up right away.

 

[shumifan50]

You dont want ANYTHING between your LNB on the dish and your receiver, except a diseqc switch, if needed.

The usefulness(or not) of the dish you have will depend on the footprint(s) of the satellites you wish to receive. This can only be determined by looking at the channels(stations) you want to receive and the satellites they are on. The footprint of each satellite normally gives you different coloured areas, each associated with a different size recommended dish.

The dish has to be aimed on a per satellite basis, where each satellite will receive many channels. In reality what we refer to as a satellite is a cluster of satellites, but for the purpose of setting up is treated as a single satellite.

Setting up the dish is the most difficult, especially if the satellite beam is not meant to be received in your area and is therefore weak. We are talking fractions of degrees between being aimed correctly and receiving a good picture and receiving no picture at all.

There are at least 2 styles of LNB I am aware of, but I don't know which is used in the USA as I have no experience of USA satellite. Browse on the web for forums regarding satellite TV and you will get better support for your area.

 

[tryppyr]

Here's another suggestion. Give up your dreams of free cable. Do instead what other cable haters do... get your TV from the Internet. If you have a game console it probably already has an interface to the Internet and allows you to use streaming services. If not, you can buy a Roku or similar device. Sign up for online streaming services (Crackle, Hulu, Hulu Plus, NetFlix, et al) and give the finger to the cable bill.

Some of the services are free (read: paid for by ads) and others cost a bit (though a lot less than cable). Some have an amazing array of options, some are less amazing.

But that doesn't get you local channels. Of course, local channels are broadcast (still), albeit in digital mode,. If you have one of the digital antenna systems you can pull in some of the signals, but I'd look at a map first and figure out whether they are worth the investment. In my area (Sammamish) I could only get one or two of the local channels. Not that I care... local TV sucks. But my wife, for some strange reason, does care. That's why I still buy cable service.

 

[biggyfries]

I have no dreams of free cable--Over the last two years I was watching an analog signal where I got about 30 local channels, with local news etc. and the usual junk ones like home shopping, varous religious channels, spanish channels, along eith regular network TV--I was fine with that. I have no desire to get HBO or MTV for example--I have a moral objection to both those, but if there was a canadian CBC channel or some other breed of fare I would welcome it.
About the conventional antenna I was talking about--it looks just like any antenna you might have seen on a roof in the 50's or 60's. I hesitate to buy it without knowing what I'm going to get. I am told if I want one transmitter (Spokane) I must turn the antenna till it comes in, but if I want Kennewick I must go out and turn the antenna another direction til that signal comes in. It seems it would be irritating to have to go outside and turn the antenna to change channels, no?
How about those "HD" antennas sold on TV that are supposed to bring in great TV from all over the place for $19.95. But wait! If you act now we'll send a second antenna, you only pay for the second shipping costs! Are those as flaky as they seem or do they really work? Same deal--I hate to spend the money before I know what I'm going to get.