Now - to the 'commercial product'. Send Jim (Vines) an email and ask for an order form and check off the items you wish. He's quick to 'bundle' multiple orders into a significant 'price discount' so we are not pricing anything here save the two primary books.
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Television's Pirates: Hiding Behind Your Picture Tube. "The" book; $29.95 + Media Mail postage (typically under $4 for 48 contiguous). But order some other product and watch the price go down! C-Band Remembered. The "other" (Bob Heil's - K9EID favorite in fact) book; $20.00 + Media Mail postage (typically under $3 especially when combined with 'Pirates'; above). Ah me - that is Jim in Nigeria (circa late 1980s) with one of his 7m 12 GHz proofed Paraframe dishes; a bit of a travel from his workshop in a suburb of Chicago. |
DVDs:
The problem here is 'where to start'? Coop's (New Zealand housed) library has 200-300-400(?) hours of video from the mid-70s to well into the 2000 decade. Most of it is one-of-a-kind 'original' or 'his copy is the only one surviving'. If you do NOT see what interests you here, communicate first with Jim Vines (above) and he will contact Coop. Most (not all) of this was originally shot on 3/4" (tape) and Coop's folks in New Zealand have transferred it to DVD (Windows MultiMedia player usually works; NOT all USA sold DVD players will play all). Text material (CATJ/CSD/SatFACTS) are page scans from each issue offered but available on DVD simply because the format allows greater capacity than CD (Acrobat Reader is required for opening). A high percentage (maybe 80%) of everything on (DVD) video was shot and produced by professionals - example: the JV011 'Visit to RCA Vernon Valley Uplink Site' where NBC New York sent out a camera guy with gear (it doesn't get much better than this); oh yes - the 'star' of this, Vernon Valley Uplink Director Archie Miller is in process of writing a book about his experiences at VV and Coop has been providing him with stacks of reference material. BORESIGHT? Shaun Kenny's totally off-the-wall one-hour per-week satellite distributed show is a one-of-a-kind classic. A Canadian fan of Coop has supplied second or third generation copies of more than 30 of these shows ("Yellow Rain" where Shaun places a MA/Com Videocipher in a men's urinal and - well - what do you do in an urinal)? is the most classic of all. But does anyone still care? Send an email to Jim Vines (teknix4solar@yahoo.com) to indicate an interest and Jim will arrange with Coop for DVD copies of this memorable show; 30+ hours (thank you David-in-Canada!).
Currently Available:
DVD JV001/2: Coop's New Zealand (based) but Asia-Pacific (SatFACTS) monthly from (September) 1995 through August 2007 (13 years - more than 6,000 pages!); two DVDs.
DVD JV003/4: Coop's Community Antenna Television Journal (CATJ) May 1974-June 1979; the "Coop years". If you have only ONE as-it-happened cable TV and TVRO development years chronology, this is it. ALSO - Coop's Satellite Digest (CSD) from issue one (1979) through 1983 (one DVD) and CSD + CSD2 (1984-1987 last issue; 2nd DVD). Nobody did it better, more consistently and it is virtually all here (one issue missing from CATJ).
DVD JV005: This is where Bob Heil/K9EID (and thirty-million more) learned about C-Band TVRO; the complete CBS/NBC and many more 'reports' that introduced the American-Canadian TV audience to the concept that a 'dish in your backyard is a passport to hundreds of channels'. Officially, this is called "TVRO's Fifth Birthday Party" but in fact it is the two-hour (HBO distributed) 'video report' that launched home dish systems. A DVD of course, plays on most (perhaps not all) DVD players and PCs.
DVD JV006/7/-A: Withdrawn from general distribution at this time; check back in mid-2011 while Coop sorts out 'copyright problems'.
DVD JV008: The world-famous video production team of David and Ellen Shelburne (they will be back!) created this 'History of TVRO' report with superb host (hey - he is Coop's friend and that makes him superb!) Mark Lewis (author of so-many books we don't have space here to list them all but 'Almanac' is a lead word). The Shelburne's were fantastic - Mark was, well, Mark.
DVD JV009: This one PROBABLY has copyright problems (it originally appeared on the A&E Entertainment network) but what the heck! This is a two x 30 minute Gene Simmons' (yes - KISS) attempt to subvert the innocent natives in the Turks & Caicos Islands (think Coop as VP5D) into creating a world-class Indie-Style race course (for television naturally). Simmons is - well - off-the-wall and of special interest are the 'natives' who appear in this professional 'X2' series. Oops! (Pay attention to the native lady offering Gene the 'testicles of a Conch creature' as an aphrodisiac).
DVD JV010: Jim Vines SHOULD give this one away if you order something else of value. It is a very cleverly created 'music video' (thank you Doug Dehnert and Gary!) that tells the full C-Band TVRO story in still image form and it will make your day to have it playing on your DVD or PC as you figure out what - if anything - you accomplished while you were awake today (or tomorrow)!
DVD JV011: Nobody ever did this as well, or even attempted to do it. It is late 1978 and RCA has a significant problem with ONE of their two first (F1, F2) satellites. Coop and J. Duke Brown (W1ZA) haul an NBC cameraman from NYC into RCA's Vernon Valley (NJ) C-Band bird uplink site and pin the RCA guys (and gals) to the wall 'demanding' they explain, "What is wrong with your satellite?" This is a direct copy of ALL of the footage (totally unedited) shot by the NBC camera-guy and Duke and Coop escaped with it, and their lives, because of a small miracle. No other video has ever penetrated the interior of a major uplink site and left with anything approaching this candid coverage.
DVD JV012: In November 1984 Coop and 25 others hauled 3 LARGE C-band dishes to Sri Lanka (4S7) to be installed for Arthur C. Clarke. Several hams were involved (Behar, Dehnert, Orvis) and this is their story; a huge (maybe $100,000 in US$ value) "gift" to the "father of geostationary satellites" from a grateful C-band TVRO industry. And you thought you knew everything about (Sir) Arthur C. Clarke? Not quite. Oh yes, video largely by Kevin Paul Cooper (VP5KC); SK.
DVD JV013/14: Jim Vines should also use this (called Sat Scene) as a 'free bonus' when you order multiples of what is on offer here. Not because it is 'inferior' but only because it is very time-dated and very-pointed in where it goes. Coop created the first-ever weekly 'distributed via satellite' C-band reports (to cable operators; 'Satellite Magazine') in 1978 (No - none of those are on offer here - yet! The 3/4" tapes are NTSC and the player our friend John Ramsey - VP5JR and YES the founder of the ORIGINAL 'Ramsey Electronics' - found for us sits in California while we work out how to ship something that weighs 100 pounds to NZ - you didn't really want to know this - right???).
DVD JV015: Only a REAL C-Band enthusiast (or fan of K7UGA) will order this. In November 1983 the trade association SPACE created an industry 'trade show' in Florida and fellow-ham (Senator) Barry Goldwater (K7UGA) and fellow-pioneer Ted Turner took turns on the podium to tell the thousand or so attendees chugging down cold chicken dinner how wonderful they were. This is CLASSIC Goldwater and even more CLASSIC Turner - both are well beyond the edge of normal civility. There are bonuses such as 'last man on the moon' Astronaut Gene Cernan all captured on an 'off-the-record' two hours with a poorly located VHS tape recorder. Only a fan of Goldwater and Turner would appreciate the uniqueness of this video. Call it "SPACE Orlando".
DVD JV016: This is the LAST one for the time being. Ellen and David Shelburne, professional video folks from Ohio, appeared on Provo (as in Providenciales - VP5) shortly after a hurricane destroyed 20 of 22 or 23 satellite dishes (at VP5D). Their video is beyond unique, but the kernel in this ear of corn is they have on the (original) tape a copy of the infamous appearance on ET ('Entertainment Tonight') of Coop and his family. More than 50 million folks saw this report world-wide and until you have, well - you can't really be a 'Coop Fan' or understand how he made it all work 650 miles southeast of Miami on an island nobody ever heard of or could find on a map. Call it "The ET Tape."
Date of this update: September 2011