CrunchGriz
Well-known member
Well, it's almost football season again, so a few of you far-flung Griz fans may be thinking about setting up a satellite system to see the Griz in action. Here, then, is a reposting of my notes for setting up your own (mods, feel free to pin this, as it comes up every year):
Creating Your Own Griz Dish (tm)
Necessary Equipment
1. KU Band Receiver - This should be a FTA (DVB), HD receiver (HD is important because all Griz broadcasts these days, no matter who is producing it, are in HD; a standard def receiver will not be able to bring in these signals). This receiver gets a lot more than Griz games, but the vast majority of it is pretty esoteric stuff - religious programming, ethic programming from all over the world, and offbeat crap, frankly. You can, however, often find other games on it, including other FCS games of note.
2. KU Dish - This should be between 30 and 39 inches (36 is a very good size); this will come with a pole with an adjustable foot you can mount to something solid.
3. HH Mount Motor - This is an horizon-to-horizon motor to move the dish (for when they decide to change the satellite they're putting the game up on; this is unlike Dish and DirecTV, which uses a fixed satellite install, always pointing at the same satellite, so no motor is needed for these commercial satellite services).
4. LNBF (Low Noise Block Feedhorn) - This is the little usually circular thing on the end of the arm in front of the dish that actually gathers the signal captured by the dish.
5. RG6U Cable - Long enough to reach from your dish location to wherever you put your receiver, usually in your stereo rack under your TV.
6. Installation Tools - Wrenches or sockets, screwdrivers, drill and screw bits, compass, level with degree measurement, cable crimping tool.
Numbers 1-4 are usually easily purchased in a package through a satellite company. Sadoun seems to be a pretty good one online, with good prices (FYI, I have no involvement with this company whatsoever). Number 5 can be found in any home improvement store, and most of number 6 can also be found there, with the possible exception of the level with degree measurement, which you can get at whatever satellite store from which you purchase the main setup.
Setup and Tuning
The following setup directions (other than #1) assume that you have already set your dish up (i.e., found a location for it and set up the pole by screwing or cementing its base into something solid and permanent--a roof, a deck, a wall…whatever, as long as it has a clear, unobstructed view of the southern sky).
1. Make sure the pole your dish is set up on is perfectly perpendicular (absolutely essential).
2. Set your dish so it's pointing to the satellite that's closest to due south of your location.
3. Check the altitude settings on both your dish and your motor (they'll both have them; the dish's will likely be only an approximation and the motor's will be more accurate); Use the instructions that came with your motor and dish to make your initial setup.
4. Find a transponder (station, more or less) on the satellite that's closest to due south of you, and then make micro adjustments to your dish's altitude adjustment bolts/nuts, with someone watching the screen of the television with the signal and quality setting screen up so you can see how the adjustments are working.
5. Once you get this dialed in with the best signal you can get, tighten up your dish adjustment bolts/nuts.
6. Have your receiver track to the satellite you want to bring in.
7. Well before game time, blind scan (my receiver calls this "power scan") the satellite to find what transponders are available; you can find the entire list of available transponders on lyngsat.com (list of satellites is at http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html; just click on a satellite name on this page to view the transponders available).
8. Check the transponders the blind scan has found. If you don't come up with a few that are on the lyngsat listing for the particular satellite (the free ones have an "F" in a box), you're pointing at the wrong satellite and you need to go back to your initial setup for a check.
9. Just before game time, either blind scan the satellite again, or enter a range of frequencies around the one you want in your search area (if your receiver will do that), or enter the particular frequency, polarity, and symbol rate (SR) for the game's broadcast into the single frequency search area of your receiver.
With luck and good weather (rain, in particular, can degrade a signal significantly with a smaller dish), you'll have the game!
Steps 1-5 above are a condensation of a full install, instructions for which you can see at:
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm
You'll want to become familiar with the website http://www.lyngsat.com, which lists all the satellites up there, and all the transponders currently (or recently, anyway) broadcasting. This is a great resource for finding an elusive satellite, as it gives you all the necessary information for finding a live transponder to hone in on when you're fine-tuning your setup, and later when you are trying to find satellites with games on them.
If you're having trouble getting the coordinates for the game, you can often find them at: http://rickcaylor.websitetoolbox.com/?forum=98799, which has listings every week for most of the college football games found by free satellite users around the country. You can also use this website to look for games of future opponents, to scout them out.
Please note: Not all Griz games are put up on free satellite feeds. Any games on ESPN, for instance, are proprietary, encrypted, and unavailable to a system like this.
This info is pretty general, but it is a decent bare-bones list to get you started. There's a ton of info out there on the Inter-webs about all of this, and I'd be more than happy to help any Griz fans out there who are contemplating this type of setup. As others have noted, entire setups like this are not really that expensive; it does take a little patience and persistence, though, to get them set up right. I've gone through some headaches over the years to install and tune my setup, but I'm damn glad I've had it, as I've missed very few Griz games in the last few years despite living in Oregon.
I'm sure others will correct all my little errors and omissions above; at least I hope they will!
Creating Your Own Griz Dish (tm)
Necessary Equipment
1. KU Band Receiver - This should be a FTA (DVB), HD receiver (HD is important because all Griz broadcasts these days, no matter who is producing it, are in HD; a standard def receiver will not be able to bring in these signals). This receiver gets a lot more than Griz games, but the vast majority of it is pretty esoteric stuff - religious programming, ethic programming from all over the world, and offbeat crap, frankly. You can, however, often find other games on it, including other FCS games of note.
2. KU Dish - This should be between 30 and 39 inches (36 is a very good size); this will come with a pole with an adjustable foot you can mount to something solid.
3. HH Mount Motor - This is an horizon-to-horizon motor to move the dish (for when they decide to change the satellite they're putting the game up on; this is unlike Dish and DirecTV, which uses a fixed satellite install, always pointing at the same satellite, so no motor is needed for these commercial satellite services).
4. LNBF (Low Noise Block Feedhorn) - This is the little usually circular thing on the end of the arm in front of the dish that actually gathers the signal captured by the dish.
5. RG6U Cable - Long enough to reach from your dish location to wherever you put your receiver, usually in your stereo rack under your TV.
6. Installation Tools - Wrenches or sockets, screwdrivers, drill and screw bits, compass, level with degree measurement, cable crimping tool.
Numbers 1-4 are usually easily purchased in a package through a satellite company. Sadoun seems to be a pretty good one online, with good prices (FYI, I have no involvement with this company whatsoever). Number 5 can be found in any home improvement store, and most of number 6 can also be found there, with the possible exception of the level with degree measurement, which you can get at whatever satellite store from which you purchase the main setup.
Setup and Tuning
The following setup directions (other than #1) assume that you have already set your dish up (i.e., found a location for it and set up the pole by screwing or cementing its base into something solid and permanent--a roof, a deck, a wall…whatever, as long as it has a clear, unobstructed view of the southern sky).
1. Make sure the pole your dish is set up on is perfectly perpendicular (absolutely essential).
2. Set your dish so it's pointing to the satellite that's closest to due south of your location.
3. Check the altitude settings on both your dish and your motor (they'll both have them; the dish's will likely be only an approximation and the motor's will be more accurate); Use the instructions that came with your motor and dish to make your initial setup.
4. Find a transponder (station, more or less) on the satellite that's closest to due south of you, and then make micro adjustments to your dish's altitude adjustment bolts/nuts, with someone watching the screen of the television with the signal and quality setting screen up so you can see how the adjustments are working.
5. Once you get this dialed in with the best signal you can get, tighten up your dish adjustment bolts/nuts.
6. Have your receiver track to the satellite you want to bring in.
7. Well before game time, blind scan (my receiver calls this "power scan") the satellite to find what transponders are available; you can find the entire list of available transponders on lyngsat.com (list of satellites is at http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html; just click on a satellite name on this page to view the transponders available).
8. Check the transponders the blind scan has found. If you don't come up with a few that are on the lyngsat listing for the particular satellite (the free ones have an "F" in a box), you're pointing at the wrong satellite and you need to go back to your initial setup for a check.
9. Just before game time, either blind scan the satellite again, or enter a range of frequencies around the one you want in your search area (if your receiver will do that), or enter the particular frequency, polarity, and symbol rate (SR) for the game's broadcast into the single frequency search area of your receiver.
With luck and good weather (rain, in particular, can degrade a signal significantly with a smaller dish), you'll have the game!
Steps 1-5 above are a condensation of a full install, instructions for which you can see at:
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/HH-mount-installation.htm
You'll want to become familiar with the website http://www.lyngsat.com, which lists all the satellites up there, and all the transponders currently (or recently, anyway) broadcasting. This is a great resource for finding an elusive satellite, as it gives you all the necessary information for finding a live transponder to hone in on when you're fine-tuning your setup, and later when you are trying to find satellites with games on them.
If you're having trouble getting the coordinates for the game, you can often find them at: http://rickcaylor.websitetoolbox.com/?forum=98799, which has listings every week for most of the college football games found by free satellite users around the country. You can also use this website to look for games of future opponents, to scout them out.
Please note: Not all Griz games are put up on free satellite feeds. Any games on ESPN, for instance, are proprietary, encrypted, and unavailable to a system like this.
This info is pretty general, but it is a decent bare-bones list to get you started. There's a ton of info out there on the Inter-webs about all of this, and I'd be more than happy to help any Griz fans out there who are contemplating this type of setup. As others have noted, entire setups like this are not really that expensive; it does take a little patience and persistence, though, to get them set up right. I've gone through some headaches over the years to install and tune my setup, but I'm damn glad I've had it, as I've missed very few Griz games in the last few years despite living in Oregon.
I'm sure others will correct all my little errors and omissions above; at least I hope they will!
