FCC "approves" home dish systems Updated 17 October 2007
Scientific Atlanta created the first
cable television (10 meter) commercial terminals; one dish, az-el mount, one LNA
(low noise amplifier which preceded today's LNB and LNC amplifiers), one
feed horn and one FM demodulator (4 GHz input receiver) - for the bargain price
of US$125,000 ! Installed. The time was September 1975. By April 1979 the satellite world had matured to a point where 4.5 meter dishes could be licensed (the license would also be eliminated in October 1979) and Scientific Atlanta became the first firm to offer "home dish systems," 4.5 meters in size. The price? A not so modest $37,000 still featuring one dish, one feed horn, one LNA, and one receiver; installed. By August 1979 at the first SPTS ( Satellite Private Terminal Seminar) it would be possible to improve on SA's performance for around $5,000; install it yourself!
In this month's Classic Video we have located a rare videotape recording from a late 1980 broadcast by Television New Zealand's Closeup program that spent 15 minutes looking at the pioneers in Southern Hemisphere TVRO reception. Home TVRO may have been first created in North America but the refinements would often be created offshore - New Zealand, for example. "Watching The Dishes" is the title and it features Kiwi pioneers including Gary Watson of Motueka. The full report, nearly 15 minutes, will not fit into this month's video in the DIVX format but will be continued here in a future month's update. This is good, original stuff pitting the pioneers against the authorities and "Closeup" presents a very fair analysis.
"Classic Video" brings onto your PC some of the most memorable, and pivotal events in the development of home satellite TV, during the "C-band era" from 1979 to 1987. Back in 1976, Coop began accumulating video footage of the stories he travelled far and wide to cover for CATJ (Community Antenna Television Journal). Aided by Dana Atchley III, the son of Dana Atchley Jr (Chairman of the Board for Microwave Associates at the time), the duo put to tape hundreds of "pioneering hours" and created an 80 week run actually distributed via satellite from 1979 through 1981 ("Satellite Magazine").
Video play? This is a highly CODEC-manipulated (DIVX format - that is key!) report to allow it to fit into "your" broadband data stream. If you have trouble accessing it, come back a second time. Failing that, E-mail skying@clear.net.nz for further advice. In October? Another backward look at the folks and events who pioneered home dish reception in the 1980s!
To save Video to your Hardrive, Right mouse click on link and select Save Target As
Double click DIVX display play button, below to view "Video"
