The Wildfeed FAQ kc4yer@amsat.org (Philip Chien) Copyright 1995, 1996 Philip Chien, All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely distributed via the following means - Email (including listservers), Usenet, and WorldWideWeb. It may not be reproduced for profit including, but not limited to, CD ROMs, books, and other commercial outlets. Version 1.1 September 14, 1996 changes in this version - new transponders for FOX, minor typos and text changes Special thanks to Gary (birdwatcher@genie.com), Robert (roberts@nmia.com), and Mike (brown@ftms.COM) 1 What is a wildfeed? Wildfeeds are prefeeds of network and syndicated TV shows. So what's a prefeed? A prefeed is a broadcast ahead of time which is intended for internal use (e.g. not consumers). The wildfeed listserver exists to find these feeds and share them with the Internet community. One of the key criteria is a wildfeed must be in the clear and publicly available. Anything which requires a decoder does not qualify as a wildfeed. Wildfeeds are only available on C-Band satellite dishes. There are no wildfeeds on any of the Direct-To-Home (DTH) systems, contrary to what some folks have claimed. 2 What kinds of wildfeeds can I find? Almost any current television series, regular daily news broadcasts, and major syndicated series are available as wildfeeds. 3 What is the wildfeed listserver? The wildfeeds listserver is a group of owners of satellite dishes who search for wildfeeds. Wildwork is a workers only list and lurkers are not welcome. Members of the listserver are expected to search for wildfeeds and post to the group when new ones are found, or when expected ones don't appear for reasons which aren't easy to explain. The wildwork is _NOT_ a public list. If you joined not knowing the purpose of the list, you should unsubscribe. This is a workers list. We are here to assemble the information that is used in the internet wild feeds list. The discussions here are strictly limited to those involved in the work of gathering information that appears in the INTERNET WILD FEEDS LIST, which is posted to rec.video.satellite.tvro (RVST) on Usenet and Websites. This is not a chat list, or a discussion list, and is not a list for lurkers either. The DISHHEADS list and rvst and the other satellite related lists ARE public discussion lists. THIS LIST IS SINGLE MINDED in its charter. WORKERS ONLY. WORK RELATED MESSAGES ONLY. It is NOT about sports, religion, or any other specialized topics. It is about regular program feeds (which may include sports or religious programming - but only ones which appear on a regular daily or weekly basis on a non-dedicated transponder.) This is a closed mailing list, and is not designed for public consumption. If you are interested enough to read the postings, you can be interested enough to print out the workers list and make some observations. This is NOT a free source of public information. The free source of public information is the COMPLETED LIST which is never posted here anyway. If you mistakenly subscribed thinking this was anything OTHER than the WILDFEEDS WORKERS LIST, please follow the unsubscribe instructions. 4 How do I subscribe/unsubscribe to the wildfeed listserver? To subscribe send a message to majordomo@vidiot.com with "subscribe wildwork" in the body of the message. A daemon will respond, and you will be authorized within a couple of days. To unsubscribe send a message to majordomo@vidiot.com with "unsubscribe yourusername@your.mail.address" in the body of the message. Do not send subscription or unsubscription messages to the group at large. The dishheads server will remain on the cms.uncwil.edu server. 5 What's expected of me if I chose to subscribe to the wildwork listserver? And what do I get in return? You are expected to search for wildfeeds and notify the group whenever they are found and post corrections whenever the list has mistakes. In exchange you will get the most reliable and accurate set of wildfeeds which has ever been complied outside of proprietary lists within the satellite broadcast industry. 6 Where is the public version of the wildfeed list distributed? The public wildfeed list is posted once each month (more if there are enough changes to justify a special release) to rec.video.satellite.tvro. The official Wildfeed website is http://www.nmia.com/~roberts/ run by Robert Smathers. If you can not receive the wildfeed list by any other means you can send an E-mail request to flash@lopez.marquette.mi.us. The most current official list is also on the Great White North BBS (906) 225-5496, just type 'bird' for access to the sat info files. 7 How about the wildfeed workers lists which appear on wildwork? The listings posted to the wildfeed listserver are solely for the use of the workers. The purpose is to ensure that each person has a full set of feeds to help verify where feeds are located. This list should *NEVER* be given to anybody who is not subscribed to the wildfeed list or distributed without permission. The list - as a compiled package - is a copyrighted work, and unauthorized distribution of it - in any form - is illegal. 8 Is it legal and moral for me to watch wildfeeds? Whether or not you feel that it's moral for you to watch television shows without their commercials ahead of time is for you to decide for yourself. Nobody should ever legislate morality on another person. If you feel that it is immoral to do so, then don't watch. It is quite legal to watch wildfeeds. In the early 1980s many programming providers were trying to get home dishes outlawed because they were used primarily to receive HBO, Showtime, and other channels for free. This was clearly not a tenable case because there are plenty of other channels which are intended for public consumption, and the FCC has almost never said that the public could not listen to signals which it can receive. (The sole exception being cellular phone frequencies, and that's a topic for a different area of Internet). In 1985 it was ruled that home dishes were legal, and programmers could choose to protect their signals by the use of encryption methods. It is illegal to bypass an encryption method, but perfectly legal to watch anything which is in the clear. You will often see warnings from the networks that state that those broadcasts are only for the use by the network and its affiliates. True enough, and only those who are licensed to do so can rebroadcast those feeds. But it is perfectly legal to receive the signals for your own use. 9 Won't programmers wise up and scramble their wildfeeds? There's no doubt that scrambled wildfeeds will occur some time in the future, and our skies will go dark. But at the present it just isn't worth the hassles to the programmers. As long as we remain a relatively small percentage of the viewing population and don't make too much noise wildfeeds will continue. And wildfeeds are only available on C-band dishes which are quickly becoming the minority for folks who choose to receive satellite TV. There was an infamous case in 1995 where a reporter watched the prefeed for "NYPD Blue" episode where David Caruso left the series and blabbed about it in his column. That doesn't help any of us, and it's likely that certain really "HOT" episodes (e.g. season cliffhangers or solutions) may be transmitted at unexpected times or may be hand carried instead of transmitted to avoid similar spoilers in the future. In a 'TV Guide' CloseUp it was claimed that a particular "Murder One" episode would not be broadcast by satellite, specifically to avoid leaking out the results ahead of time - but it turned out that the feed was in the clear at its normal time slot. 10 What are those phone numbers which appear on the screen? These are internal phone numbers for television stations when they have problems with a feed, or need a refeed. NEVER call these numbers. If folks call these numbers then it will only encourage providers to scramble to eliminate that hassle. 11 Why are there wildfeeds? For a syndicated series, like "Deep Space Nine", C-Band satellite feeds are used to distribute the shows to the affiliate TV stations. The feeds include the national commercials which appear nationwide, and blank spaces for stations to insert their own local commercials. The real special wildfeeds are the ones without any commercials. Hard as it may be to believe most of your favorite shows are broadcast in the clear a couple of days in advance without any commercials! These feeds exist primarily for international markets (primarily Canada) which insert their own commercials. There are other theories why wildfeeds exist, but this is the only one which has been firmly verified. In any case, they do exist and are fairly easy to find with a little effort. 12 What are the advantages to watching syndicated feeds directly via satellite? Well, you get to see the show several days in advance, with a full quality (stereo, full video quality) feed without any local TV station interruptions (special crawl bars for ratings stunts, news teasers, local station logos, voice overs over the credits, etc.) Local stations also interrupt the end credits with overlays plugging their news shows and other promos. 13 Why isn't "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (or another syndicated series) available as a wildfeed? Because it is no longer in production and is now in second run syndication. Primary run syndication has national commercials added to the program and blank areas for local station commercials. Secondary syndication has all of the commercial time sold by the local TV station. When ST:TNG started secondary syndication, all of the episodes were uplinked without commercials so that stations that signed contracts could record them. ST:TNG was actually being run both as primary and secondary syndication after the fourth season. As each of the new seasons finished, five episodes, without commercials, were uplinked each weekday until all of the 26 hours were completed. After the seventh season uplinks of the secondary syndication feed and reruns were finished, there was no longer a need to uplink ST:TNG anymore, since each station now has the needed tapes. If a tape goes bad, or a station signs a new contract, tapes are purchased directly from Paramount, they are not fed via satellite. Programs like "Home Improvement" air the new shows on a network and older shows via syndication. The syndicated shows are still primary syndication because they have national commercials included. Once a program hits secondary syndication, it is no longer fed via satellite. 14 What's the time format for the list and why are some of the listings in the wrong chronological order? All feeds are listed as Eastern Time (daylight or standard - whichever is in effect) in 24 hour (military time). If you're in another time zone you'll have to convert. It's important to note that over 90% of the feed information you'll see on title screens are in Eastern Time zone format. (the few remaining feeds are primarily Pacific time - but always clearly stated. The rule is - if you see a time it's Eastern unless specifically indicated otherwise). If you're in another time zone - tough. We have no patience for somebody who gives times in Mountain Time and expects the rest of us to realize that he's in a different time zone and convert for him. There are a couple of Sunday to Thursday feeds which we list as Monday to Friday for convenience. For example, a typical feed might transmit on Sunday through Thursday at 10:30 pm for airing on the next day in the afternoon. We all know that the 10 pm Sunday feed which airs on Monday isn't a Monday to Friday feed, but it's more convenient to let that slide. Do realize that your satellite receiver and VCR's timers are not as lenient about the definition of what's a weekday and what's a weekend though. 15 What counts as a wildfeed and what doesn't? One key 'litmus test' is if you can find the show listed in the normal daily programming grids in a satellite guide like "OnSat" then it doesn't count. (not the back special feeds section - we're referring to the daily sections) If something's in a normal weekly satellite guide then we don't need it here. A wildfeed must air before its normal network Eastern time zone airing. It has to be the entire show - not just promo clips. A feed is not a wildfeed if it is in the normal network time for either East or West coast (and be sure to allow for time changes). One user thought he had found a prefeed for the "David Letterman" show at 8:35 pm. The trouble was that he was on the West coast, and he saw the normal unscrambled CBS East coast transponder at 11:35 pm Eastern time. Sorry. The FOX Network airs in-pattern (e.g. predictable) prefeeds for its entire programming. The Monday through Friday prime time programs are shown on T1/09 at 5 pm each evening. Weekend programming is shown at 8 am [this needs to be verified]. There are also prefeeds for the FOX afternoon line ups and Saturday morning cartoons. These are permitted in the wildfeed listings even though they are in-pattern. However the normal FOX feeds are *not* included in the wildfeeds list. FOX listings on the normal broadcast transponders (typically T1/13, T4/17, T1/09, etc.) should only be listed if they are ahead of time - not the normal schedule. If a feed occurs on multiple transponders at the same time we only list one set of feeds. Note: Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you EVER send us information that you got from a SATELLITE TV GUIDE or anyone else's Wildfeeds List. We have never nor will we ever use material that is the intellectual or legal property of others whether commercial or non-commercial. We also fully expect all publishers of such guides to NOT use our material, either the official copyrighted guide, or messages posted to the listserv for commercial purposes. You should only send us finds you have made with your own equipment and on your own time. It is a violation of the code of morals and ethics to copy listings from other people's guides. The material in the Internet wildfeed list is compiled strictly from the observations of actual transmissions by the list members. 16 What are the exceptions to what counts as a wildfeed? The exceptions are Warner Brothers and UPN, due to the limited availability of those 'networks' in many areas. All of the listings for the shows on these networks are included, including prefeeds, and East and West coast airings. If these networks become more saturated and evolve in to actual networks then we'll reexamine the situation and change the rules for inclusion. The only circumstances where we include a feed at its normal time is when the additional feed offers something special (e.g. a backhaul feed without any commercials) In many cases a particular show can air several times each week, typically these are included as long as they are not in-pattern or the normal network broadcast times. 17 What do the terms (old), (new), (clean), etc. mean? (old) indicates a series which is in second run syndication. Older episodes of a series (canceled or still on the air) are sold via a distributor (e.g. Viacom) to local television stations. Typically these series will be aired each week day, with a couple of missing scenes to put more time in for commercials. Some examples of current syndicated series include: "Mad About You", "Northern Exposure", "Home Improvement", and "Step-by-Step". Notice that some syndicated series are still being produced with new episodes. Those have a (new) indicator. A (new) indicator is not necessary if the series is in syndication with an exclusive market (e.g. "Picket Fences" on f/x or "Wings" on USA) since they are not broadcast as wildfeeds. If a syndicated series is no longer has new episodes (i.e. "Northern Exposure") then there's no need for a special indicator. (clean) indicates a feed without any commercials, and often 'telescoped' (no black waits where commercials would normally air) and are the most 'valuable' feeds for us to find. (Clean) implies (new), but it's possible for a series to be (new) and with commercials (e.g. not clean). If there isn't enough room to include both (new) and (clean) in the title field (clean) is more important. As a rule (clean) shows are only fed via satellite for new episodes. Repeats are not fed and you should always check a TV Guide before asking that a (clean) feed be removed to verify that it isn't just a repeat. (Canadian) indicates that the feed is intended for Canadian TV stations to record. An interesting piece of information, but not critical for our watching habits. For our purposes the term "clean" is more descriptive than the term "Canadian", and includes the same information. Here's an example (subject to change or go out of date) The series "Beverly Hills 90210" is broadcast in several different formats: The (clean, new) no commercials feed is aired on Sunday morning at 5 am. This is an out of pattern feed (e.g. there is no way to predict on which transponder and time slot it will be in based on its normal network time slot and channel) and a true wildfeed. As a rule only new episodes are shown (not repeats), and the feed time is subject to change without prior warning. The same episode is (new) as a FOX prefeed on T1/09 at 5 pm Wednesday. This feed is in real-time with national commercials and the FOX logo where local commercials are inserted. This time is extremely reliable. Whatever is scheduled for 8 pm Wednesday on FOX is shown at 5 pm on T1/09. If 90210 is preempted then whatever preempts it appears in this slot. The normal network showing is on T1/13 at 8 pm and T4/13 at 11 pm (8 pm Pacific Time). These are specifically excluded from the wildfeed list because they're at the normal network showing times. In addition spare feeds can be occasionally found on the other T1 FOX-owned transponders. In addition the syndicated "Beverly Hills 90210" (old) episodes from a couple of years ago are broadcast on a daily schedule with a handful of syndicated episodes each week. All of the above examples qualify for the wildfeed list with the exception of the normal East and West coast feeds. It may seem confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it. As a general rule if a clean feed exists it is the first showing of any episode, although there are a couple of exceptions. A couple of FOX Sunday night prefeeds on Saturday have occurred ahead of their clean feeds. 18 Is there any legitimate reason for not sharing wildfeed information with the rest of the group? Actually yes. If you work for a programming provider and have access to the proprietary information, or a television station, then we certainly can't blame you for holding back information which could cause you to lose your job. But if you have to hold back that information, you're expected to put in some other form of community service to the group. BTW - a simple anonymous note to one of the group's regulars would certainly be kept in confidence if there is information which would be of interest to all. 19 If I'm on the wildwork group what happens to me if I don't contribute information? There is no specific requirement to contribute a specific amount of finds within any given period of time. But zero contributions certainly qualifies somebody as a lurker. Lurkers, Parasites, and Leeches will be eliminated from the listserver. Ones who start flame wars or disobey the group's rules (e.g. redistribution of the list) will be treated in the same manner. It's not that difficult to determine - in your own mind - whether or not you're a lurker. If you take notes whenever you find something or notice that something's missing and try to post it to the wildwork listserver then you're a worker. Yeah, you may be beat by one of the more regular viewers most of the time, but at least you're trying - and you will find stuff ahead of the rest of us if you try. Alternately there are other things you can do if you feel that you haven't been contributing enough (see paragraph #23. If we realize that you haven't contributed in a while you'll be given a warning. At that point you can either increase your searching, volunteer for one of the 'community service' tasks described in paragraph #23, or get extremely huffy and complain. Don't expect to remain on the list long if you choose the later. 20 How come, is that fair to eliminate me arbitrarily just because I don't meet some standard? Because the standard exists - it isn't arbitrary. If you're on the wildwork list you're expected to work. Having an E-mail account and knowing about the group's existence does NOT give you any right to be a member of the wildwork listserver. If you don't work then you don't belong on the list, it's that simple. And flaming the workers here because we don't like lurkers isn't going to help your cause one bit. 21 What's wrong with lurkers? It doesn't cost any more for 50 to be on the listserver than 10. Yes does. Each message which has to be sent out slows down the system, making it slightly more difficult for the workers to get the information they need. There were over 300 subscribers to the old wildfeed listserver - with less than 10% contributing. More importantly whenever a lurker posts an inflammatory message it causes additional noise messages which the true workers have to filter out or delete. Folks who pay by the message or by the byte have to incur the extra expense of the additional messages which had no place on this group. Even worse was when one lurker decided to cancel his America Online account without bothering to unsubscribe from the wildfeed list. A bug in AOL's system cause several _HUNDRED_ messages to be sent to every single person subscribed to the wildfeeds list, jamming and overflowing many E-mail accounts. And besides - from the ethical point of fairness and sharing information - why should you leech off the rest of us and get free information - and extremely valuable information at that? 22 Okay, you convinced me. I'm not willing to put in the time and effort to be a regular contributor to the wildwork list so I am not going to subscribe. But what should I do if I happen to come across a wildfeed which I would like to share with the Internet community? Post the find to the open wildfeed listserver at wildfeeds@mars.cms.uncwil.edu. Alternately you can email it to birdwatcher@genie.com with a note stating that you're not a member of the wildwork list but would like your find to be included. You may not get a response, but it will be shared with the wildwork group and it is appreciated. 23 I'm frustrated. I want to contribute but each time I find a feed somebody else has already posted it! I really don't want to be a lurker but how can I contribute? How can I, with a single C-band only dish and a fairly simple receiver hope to find feeds faster than those of you who have 4 dishes tracking every satellite up there? Most of us do not have four satellite dishes. There are only a couple of us who are that weird. ;-) And rumor has it that some folks have real jobs and lives and can't watch their dishes 24 hours a day. But there's always 'community service' which you can provide. During rerun season Kent Lucas posts a list of what shows are reruns each week. His rerun alert has been very useful and helps determine when to expect (clean) feeds and when they should not be expected. If you can't keep searching for feeds then you can help by block searches. Just put an 8 hour tape in to your VCR and record one of the more popular transponders. Set your VCR (preferably one with a real-time counter) to run until it runs out of tape. Then scan the tape and compare it with the Wildfeed list and determine what's missing and what's new. It takes about 15 minutes to scan an eight hour tape, checking each half hour. (it actually took me more time to enter everything in to my database than to scan the tape). I blanketed all of T1/03 from 4 am to 4 pm Monday to verify Voyager's location for the 1995-1996 season, and ended up finding some other things as byproducts. If each person does this for a different transponder on at least one day each week we can cover ten transponders or more and even find many new shows before their premieres! You can easily cover one or two transponders each day without spending much time. These searches are certainly considered legitimate contributions to the group. BoSoxFan@aol.com (John) has volunteered to coordinate who should search which transponders at what time to avoid unnecessary duplication. If you want to participate in the block searches then send him an E-mail. 24 How about one-time transmissions? If I find out about a one-time transmission coming up how should I notify the group? There are many technical problems where a TV station messes up and asks the network center to refeed the episode so it can tape it again. These feeds usually have a title screen in front which says "Refeed for WXYZ" or something like that. Obviously these are one-shot feeds and should not be included. In addition if a tape is unavailable the feed will be shown in a backup slot. In both cases it's easy for us to accidentally assume that these are valid feeds or new locations for those shows (especially if you don't see the title screen before the show starts), but they won't be there the next week so they're fairly easy to filter out and delete. If you do see somebody post a message about a refeed which you are sure is a refeed and not a normal location then a polite message to the group explaining why would be appreciated (e.g. "Single Guy" was only in that slot this week because the tape was unavailable for the normal slot listed in the current wildfeed list) Sometimes a feed will move to a different location because of a special episode which is longer than normal. (typically 2 hour season premieres, an additional special sweeps-week episode, etc.) This may be in the normal slot, but more than likely will require a different temporary location. The first season "Friends" ending had the first half hour in the normal slot, and then a title screen telling viewers where to find the second half (which was great for those of us who actually stayed up to watch it at 2 am!). But more often than not the show will be at an unusual time, close to the original time and with the same group of transponders. Occasionally a transponder will be booked for a special event, and the wildfeeds originally scheduled for that time will show up in another transponder - but those are obviously one-time changes and while it's of interest to the group it doesn't count as a change. It's okay to note that a show turned up on a different transponder because of a special length feed. However, it is important *NOT* to ask for corrections for weeks where special slots were used. The next week it is highly likely that the show will return to its previous slot. We have made the exception that normal series with special showings (e.g. an additional show or a double length episode) should be posted to the wildfeed listserver if the information is available in advance, even though it will never make it in to the final list. Please do so when you find the information, and repost the information again a couple of days before the event. It was amazing how many people didn't realize that the two hour "Deep Space Nine" season premiere for the 1995-1996 season was in a special time slot - even though the information was made available over a month in advance. 25 How can I find the wildfeed for (insert name of your favorite show)? LOOK FOR IT! Probably the worst thing a lurker can do is ask "Where can I find the wildfeed for show XYZ, thanks in advance". Typically a wildfeed will air one to three days in advance of the normal showing, on either T1 or G4. 26 Should I confirm the feeds in the wildfeed list which I see? Only when there's something special which warrants a confirmation. If we all confirmed each show then it would bog down the listserver and mask the useful information. If a series has moved, or is in an unusual slot then a confirmation becomes useful information. Confirmations that something has been missing at least two weeks in a row without any explainable reason should always be given. Confirmations that a show has turned up in a posted new location are okay. Just confirming what you see based on the wildfeed list is *NOT* considered participation - all it does is add noise to the group. 27 I just posted a message with something which I thought was a wildfeed and suddenly received ten messages telling me that I made a mistake. Help! Is everybody ganging up on me? Understand how the listserver works. Your message is read by everybody about the same time (give or take a day). If somebody notices that a mistake was made then it takes about a day for the response to get back to the list. In that time somebody else (or a bunch of somebodies) might also respond about your mistake. So don't be paranoid - everybody isn't ganging up on you. We just don't like you. ;-) The *WORST* thing you can do is to get huffy and try to justify your situation or make things worse by coming up with a half-baked excuse as to why you were right - especially when you're wrong and your excuse is even more incorrect. One person tried to come up with the "theory" that a network feed he found was meant for Hawaii because he didn't realize what time zone he was in! 28 What about special nights and other exceptions to the normal schedules? Again, if it's of general interest (e.g. an unusual time for a show normally listed) then it's okay to tell everybody about it, even though it should not get added to the wildfeed list. But a better place to post it would be in the dishheads list. 29 Should I notify everybody about a one-shot feed which I just noticed? Baseball playoffs, special movies, specials, and other events which do not occur on at least a weekly schedule should be announced in dishheads, not in wildfeeds. This is *NOT* the place for commercial broadcasts, special events via satellite, or other events which are not legitimate wildfeeds. The wildwork list is only for the search and compilation of wildfeeds. 30 What's the rules here as far as etiquette are concerned? Netiquette is the rule here. If you don't know, read any decent book about Internet or Usenet guidelines. Inflammatory remarks and insults are not tolerated. Keep your personal beliefs to yourself and do not try to push them on to others. One flame will get you a warning, the second flame will get you booted from the list. One of the key things which we despise - more than anything else - is a lurker or only irregular contributor complaining. If you don't contribute - stay in the corner and hope that we don't notice you. Humor is appreciated, but only within the context of the group. Those who pun will be treated harshly. But seriously - try to be nice here. If somebody makes a mistake tell them politely, not with any insults or viciousness. Remember - you were a newbie at some point in your life too. 31 What should I do when I find a wildfeed? First verify whether or not it's already in the wildfeed list. Be sure to check the Monday to Friday section, and a couple of hours in advance in case it's a strip feed (e.g. an entire week of episodes fed in a row). It's rather astounding, but the question has come up many times as to whether or not a new find should be immediately shared with the group, or held back until it's confirmed. The whole purpose for the group is to _share_ information - of course post the information immediately! If possible even while the feed's in progress, somebody might be able to catch part of it. In addition this gives more sets of eyes to keep on the look out for it the next week around. Your message should be E-mailed to wildwork@vidiot.com The title to your message should be something like "Found xyz show or delete xyz show" The body of the message should include information in the following format (sample data only - use at your own risk). Please use this format to make it as easy as possible to decipher, rather than describing something in the middle of a dialog. Add: MO 1700 G4/19 Milton Beryle Show, The (Clean) Comedy note all of the items in the above example - "Add" indicates it should be added to the list. Make sure to include this information in the body of the message, not just the title. MO - indicates the day of the week. Don't automatically assume that we know what day you wrote your message! 1700 - is 5 pm Eastern Time. Always input times in Eastern Time 24 hour format. Remember to add a day if necessary (e.g. it's 11 pm Thursday on the West coast where you're located, so it's 2 am Friday Eastern). G4 - the name of the satellite - standard letter & number designations. While it's rarely come up, we refer to the Satcom satellites as "C" instead of the earlier "F" designations, which is in line with other industry sources. 19 - the transponder number. Note that this is the number which appears on your satellite receiver, certain satellites use unusual ways to count their transponders. Milton Beryle Show, The - the name of the series. For certain series this may include a suffix code (new), (old), or (clean) - but only if necessary to avoid confusion. If the series does need the (new) or (old) clarifier please include it! (clean) - to use this example - indicates a show without any commercials. Comedy - the type of series. Do not use tabs in your messages, they get filtered out by Genie. Include all of the information needed, don't make us guess. If necessary add additional information (e.g. I think it's a Monday to Friday feed, I spotted it on Thursday, or I caught this half way in so the start time is a guess, or I'm not certain whether or not it will be there next time because ---) Same procedure to remove an incorrect listing, but say "Remove:" instead of "Add:" It wouldn't hurt to add an explanation like "not seen two weeks in a row", or "series canceled", etc. The other option is "Correct:" where you should indicate what needs to be changed, whether it's a typo, different time, or other information. Minor nits like capitalizations and nitpick spelling mistakes don't count. "Spotted" or "Found" should be used for new finds. Most feeds should be verified (e.g. a second observation in the same slot) before it's requested to add the feed to the list. If you're fairly certain that a feed you've spotted should be added - even if it's the first observation (e.g. the feed fits within the expected pattern and timeframe) then it's okay to request an "Add". Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. 32 What are the tests which I should use to assure myself that this is a real wildfeed and not just an ordinary transmission? First check the time zone you're in and the time of the feed. Does this time correspond to a normal network feed time for any time zone (not just yours)? Check the transponder you're on. If it's a normal transponder with regular programming listings (e.g. f/x, AIN, WHT, etc.) then it doesn't count. Is this feed a one-time feed which is not likely to be repeated? (e.g. a special) Or an extra showing for a network show because another show's preempted or canceled? Remember, the purpose for the wildfeed list is to find things which will repeat so they justify adding to the list. Does the show have "not for broadcast" on the screen? This typically indicates a pilot shown for the affiliates before the normal episodes start. Again - interesting to watch, but not something which belongs in the wildfeed lists. Are you watching a normal network transponder? CBS transmits its broadcasts on Galaxy 4 transponders 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, and Galaxy 7 transponders 2, 18, and 19. Most of the time you'll just find the normal CBS feeds, occasionally scrambled but more often than not in the clear. CBS also uses these transponders for news feeds during the day and for network promotions. A feed on one of these transponders only counts if it is ahead of the normal Eastern broadcast time and there are a few legitimate wildfeeds which use these transponders. ABC in the clear feeds can be found occasionally on Galaxy 9 transponders 3, Telstar 402R transponders 22, and Telstar 401 transponders 11, 20, 21, 22, and 23. NBC feeds can be found on Satcom C1 transponder 8. In addition you may come across an in the clear network affiliate. It's fairly simple to verify whether or not you've got a network transponder, just check the TV listings for each time zone. As a rule any wildfeed found on a network-owned transponder should be taken with a grain of salt until you've checked it carefully against the wildfeed criteria. At the beginning of the season it isn't surprising that they'll air episodes of the new series - especially the controversial ones ahead of time for their affiliates. But this occurs only on an irregular basis. Spottings which don't go into the wildfeeds list (e.g. anything which does not occur on a daily or weekly basis) should be posted to dishheads. 33 What are the most popular satellites/transponders for finding wildfeeds? Telstar 401 and Galaxy 4 are currently the top satellites for wildfeeds. Some of the popular transponders include: T1/03 - the home of the earliest "Voyager" feed, the Paramount syndication feeds, and over 50 other shows. T1/06 - Buena Vista - anything Disney, "Home Improvement", "Blossom", "Dinosaurs", "Empty Nest" and assorted other shows T1/19 - home of the UPN transponder and a couple of other wildfeeds G4/07 - many syndicated and wildfeeds, and the PTEN and Warner Brothers networks Other popular transponders include - G4/05 (26 hits), G4/09 (36 hits), G4/11 (38 hits), G4/12 (34 hits), G4/13 (13 hits), G4/18 (18 hits), T1/01 (40 hits), T1/05 (50 hits). note: These transponders are subject to change as they get sold to different providers and satellites get replaced. T1/01 is the EXXXtasy promo channel from 8 pm to 4 am each day. Obviously those promos don't count as wildfeeds, but we hear they can be pretty wild! ;-) Some of the feeds on E2 use non-standard audio subcarriers, i.e., 5.76 and 5.94. These values are normally used with the Wegener Panda II audio noise reduction equipment. The technology is similar to the dbx II noise reduction system. If you have an outboard dbx II box, you can use it on the audio from anything using 5.76/5.94. It won't be perfect, but it will be close. The Wegener Panda II noise reduction equipment is not available for sale to the general public, though you might be able to find second hand units for sale. 34 Are there reasons why feeds should not be removed from the list if they are missing? There are many reasons why a feed might be missing for a week or two. Most of the no-commercial (clean) feeds do not broadcast when there are repeats scheduled, shows can be preempted (hence preempting the wildfeed), and there may be technical problems which cause a feed to be rescheduled. Most of the time the series will be back in the same place whenever there are new episodes again - so it's important _NOT_ to ask for those feeds to be removed. Of course a feed can also disappear because it's moved to another location. So the search is on once again to find its new home. If a show is canceled then it should be verified as canceled and that the wildfeed is missing before anybody puts in a request for its removal. We have seen last shows of some series which never made it on the air because of sudden cancellations! DO NOT ask for a show to be removed just because you've heard that it's been canceled. Wait until you check and see that it's no longer there. 35 Hold on - You said clearly that this list is only for spotted and missing feeds but I see many of the regulars here in various discussions. Out of necessity items do get discussed here, or somebody brings up a topic (either intentionally or by accident) which justifies a response to anybody who read the original message (e.g. the entire group). And comments do get expressed, there's no daemon automatically filtering out anything which isn't directly related. If somebody violates the rules then you may see one of the long time contributors posting a public reply explaining why the rules were broken, with a request that the rules be respected. Why a public message? If the message is sent only in private then other people subscribed to the wildwork list may not realize that a rule was violated, and may do so in the future. We're fairly informal about how we operate, but do expect people subscribed to the wildwork list to obey the rules. If you don't obey the rules then you'll be politely slapped on the wrist. But if you don't respect the rules ... My personal rule is - as long as my signal to noise ratio is greater than 9:1 (e.g. no more than 10% of my messages being items other than finding new feeds) then I'm doing better than most of the rest of the group. When you can post that many useful posts we'll put up with you. ;-) 36 Oh, so that's why you put up with Vidiot's complaints about the spelling of seaQuest? No comment necessary. Mike Brown (Vidiot) has been a wealth of useful information, especially about "Star Trek" so we put up with him and his quirks. When you can provide as much advance information as he can, then we'll put up with your ravings. BTW - the proper spelling of the TV series is "seaQuest", but the way the list maintenance software is written the first character of each series is automatically capitalized. You can feel free to correct the capitalization on your copy if you feel it's worth the effort. However the series was canceled (and verified as missing) so that particular case is a moot point anyway. 37 Where can I find this FAQ? This will be posted to the Wildfeed worker's list and to rec.video.satellite.tvro as necessary. It will also be archived at the same WWW site as the official Wildfeed list, http://www.nmia.com/~roberts/.