LISTENING TO YOUR DISH An Examination of Satellite Audio By Gary Bourgois, flash@lopez.marquette.MI.US THE BIRDWATCHER This article is a bit rambly. It is actually written for a magazine. I am sending it along here on the group as is, and may edit it down later.... Those of us who are greying baby boomers fondly remember the radio. Yes there was a time before TV was in every home. I remember when we got our first TV set, in 1953. Thing is, back then, TV was mainly RADIO WITH PICTURES. All the popular radio shows were made into TV shows. And some how, the flickering image on the 10 inch screen was not as good as the pictures that came out of the radio. So while TV took over, many of us who grew up in the radio era still stuck with the box that made the sounds. And radio grew and changed to meet the challenge of the flickering lighted box. I remember the beginnings of Rock 'n Roll, the early DJ's, and also the early talk shows, like Gene Shepard, Long John Nebel and other true radio personalities. In 1958, my family moved from New Jersey, where we had full time access to New York AND Philadelphia radio stations 24 hours a day, to the middle of nowhere (The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where I still live today). I was used to a radio with stations from one end to the other. So after unpacking, I put my "All American 5" radio on the bedside, and turned it to the low end of the dial to hear all the stations in my new home town. Surprisingly, at first I thought the radio was dead. There were no stations at all. Until I hit 1450. It was POLKA music. Nothing else was heard for the rest of the dial all the way up to 1600. This was TERRIBLE! In the depths of my depression I went in and turned on the TV to see what stations would come in. The huge antenna on top of the house (A wonder to me, since we got 12 channels back east with Rabbit Ears) surely would bring in all my favorite shows and then some. It was the same thing. There was one station, very weak and snowy. It had Championship Bowling. As an eleven year old media junkie, I was crushed. However, that night, I discovered the magic that has since lead to my involvement with TVRO satellite.... It was well after dark, before I turned the radio on again. The polkas had given way to big band music. I knew it would be pointless, but I nudged the radio dial. To my amazement, immediately I found another station. It had a swirly strange sound to it, but it was a station, Indeed, I found out that night that the entire radio dial was covered with stations, MORE stations in fact than I was ever able to hear in New Jersey. Thus began a life long love of chasing audio signals, which lead to a career in broadcasting, which is not the topic of this article. The fact that this phenomenon (Skywave propogation) only worked in the dark of night quickly lead me to become a nocturnal creature, as during the day, the AM band gave me only that polka station (there were no FM stations within 500 miles back then). But along the way I discovered another survival mechanism that would also affect me for all time: SHORTWAVE RADIO. The CBC, the BBC, Deutche Welle, and the rest provided hours and hours of entertainment and information. News and information. Good stuff. It all remained a part of my life. Radio gets in your blood. So it was that in the late 1970's while working at an NPR station I was there the day the 10 meter dish went in. Satellite! Public Broadcasting was actually one of the first to get involved with satellite delivery. There were only three or four satellites up there, and a 30 foot dish was a really impressive piece of hardware, as were the racks and racks of equipment that brought the signal into the station, where TV got three video channels, and radio got 12! And so many happy hours I spent turning the thumbwheels that changed the frequency of the SCPC receivers, finding MUTUAL, The Navy Clock, Muzak and lots of occasional audio services. I had impossible fantasies of some day having my own satellite receiver, but it seemed like an impossible dream. Little did I know that the dream was lurking just over the horizon. A wealthy Doctor I knew, who lived outside of town was the first person in the area to have a home dish. I assisted in the installation, and while the system cost him over $5,000, by today's standards it was primative. AZ EL mount (Polar mounts had not been invented yet) Polarity changed by an Aliance Tenna Rotor (It took about 15 seconds to go from H to V!) But it was glorious. Everything was unscrambled. BUT the fascinating thing to me was that in addition to the video, there were AUDIO channels. Radio from the sky. Satellite stuff was expensive, but I always managed to find one to satisfy the urge to look and listen to. In the early 80's I got involved with a local group that won the local cable franchise, and had more dishes to play with. There were so many other priorities though that my own system came much later than it should have. BUT I have made up for the lost time, that is for sure. As is fitting for a die hard radio listener, and shortwave fan, the main reason I wanted a dish was to be able to hear the BBC WORLD SERVICE during the times of day when they were not available on Shortwave, which happened to be the times I most wanted to listen. Knowing that the BBC was available on satellite, I set out to put together a cheap system just for audio purposes. For a very minimal investment I obtained a less than state of the art system, consisting of many mis matched analogue tuned boxes and a rather battered 10 foot dish that I got free for salvage. Much to my amazement, not only did this system bring me the BBC, but I found MANY MANY other audio channels and soon became a die hard sky scanner. I kept adding more and more boxes, that allowed me to tune additional frequencies that brought me more audio services. I kept a logbook of stations and programs, and I found that the dish offered me many more options than my local AM/FM and shortwave set combined. The reason is simple. The sheer amount of Radio Frequency Spectrum available on the satellites is astounding. With 38 satellites each containing several hundred megahertz of spectrum space, and the constantly changing landscape of satellite services, just keeping track of it all is a major undertaking. Fortunately, with access to the world wide Internet Computer Network, I managed to find others who were interested in satellites. About the time I was fully hooked on satellite scanning, a group of us formed a new world wide conference called HOMESAT/rec.video.satellite which caters to the true satellite nuts. The original members of the conference divided up duties of creating an online information environment, which has led to the most comprehensive constantly updated single source of online satellite information on the planet. All of this information is available to ANYONE via our FREE BBS system. Just call (906) 228-7477 or (906) 225-5496. Use 2400 Baud, 8-N-1 configuration. When you see the login prompt, type bird for files access menu, or type dish to plug into the world wide HOMESAT conference and see what folks are talking about. The data is feed continuously in ASCII form, so have your capture buffer working. Audio via satellite is something that is underplayed by most dealers and manufacturers, and gets little press in the Satellite Magazines. This is a real shame, since we feel that satellite audio is one of the most exciting and useful aspects of dish ownership. To have it all, you need to tune the three main types of satellite audio available to the home TVRO owner. Sadly, we can't get DATS and SEDATS digital audio YET, but we can still have a blast with what we CAN tune in. ANALOG STANDARD SUBCARRIER This is the first type of satellite audio is what most TVRO users encounter. Every satellite receiver can pick up this type of audio. It is the same kind of audio that is used by unscrambled satellite programming. It rides along with the video carrier. In addition to the usual 6.2/6.8 audio subcarriers used for sound for the TV show, there can be many more audio channels ranging from 5mhz to 9 mhz in frequency. Older receivers have a knob to twist to pick up these channels (like an old fashioned radio dial) and more modern receivers use on screen digital tuning, and will even allow you to program in audio services on every transponder as well as make up a menu of your favorite audio services. On Subcarrier, you find several music services, as well as regional radio stations, many international stations and news/talk/information channels. Also there are reading services for the blind and one public radio station for NPR fans. To receive Analogue Subcarriers, you only need a standard satellite receiver or IRD. Sadly, many low end IRD's neglect the audio subcarrier features, giving it a back seat. While they give you stereo from the descrambler, the subcarrier tuner will NOT provide stereo. The reason for this is that STEREO via subcarrier actually uses TWO frequencies, one for each channel. This provides 100% stereo separation, much less noise and excellent frequency response. If you are shopping for an IRD, make sure it tunes SUBCARRIER STEREO. Just because it says "Stereo" in the promotional material, don't be misled. You need to be able to tune TWO audio frequencies in order to pick up stereo subcarrier. Whatever type of music you like, it is up there. If you like news and talk, it is up there. AND of course, if you like international shortwave, the BBC, RAI from Italy, and Deutche Welle from Germany all have their international services available on standard subcarrier. Some of the best subcarrier listening is found on the ANIK birds from Canada. There are three feeds of CBC stereo, as well as CBC stereo French Service, and many local Canadian radio stations. The quality of these programmers is excellent, with a lot of variety. From great information shows, to music that ranges from Classical to New Wave, the Canadian satellites offer a real goldmine of great listening. FM SQUARED This odd type of signal is virtually ignored and hidden because most dealers do not know it is there. The satellite magazines don't make mention of it, making it one of the best kept secrets in satellite audio. FM squared signals are not that prolific, found mainly on the S3 satellite, (and a few other spots in the sky) the programming on FM Squared may not be for everybody, but it has it's devotees. Primarily found on this mode are Music Services in a wide variety of formats, news networks, TONS of religious shows, including the controvercial Bob Larson, who exorcises deamons LIVE over the phone. FM squared is similar to regular subcarrier, EXCEPT there is NO VIDEO on the channel. Tune to S3/17 and you will see nothing except a slight darkening of the screen, but your signal meter will indicate that there is something there. What the FM Squared system does is to provide a TRICK locking signal, that makes the receiver think there is a video signal to lock the AGC to, but instead of being between 5 and 9 mhz, FM Squared uses the range of 0 to 5 mhz. Since the regular IRD stops tuning at 5 mhz, it can not hear these signals. There are a number of ways to receive FM squared. You can hook a TV band radio to the RF output (The line you usually connect to your TV coax for channel 3 or 4 reception) and connect it to a TV band radio. Tune your IRD to S3/17 and then hook the coax to a piece of wire and wrap it around the antenna of a TV band radio. Tune the TV radio to whatever output channel you are using on the IRD, and tune around. You will hear signals. They will be hissy and weak, but you will get an idea of what is available, and if it interests you, you can invest in a better way of tuning FM Squared. The ICOM R-100 that we recommend for SCPC reception will also work on FM Squared. BUT the best method we know of is to use the T-1 convertor and MAASPRO stereo processor. This device costs around $300, but can sometimes be had cheaper. Call 218 681 5616 for more information. If you are a tinkerer, we offer this schematic for an FM^2 convertor that will work with your FM radio. I have not built this, nor do I know anyone who has. The 100 khz oscillator is a hard part to find. If you do build this device, please write and let me know how it works.... This convertor will take the baseband output from your satellite receiver and convert it to the REGULAR FM BAND so you can tune it on a standard FM Receiver. The hardest component to locate is the Crystal Oscillator. Connect Baseband from Satellite receiver to J1. Connect J2 to input of standard FM receiver. | \ | +-----+-----------------------------------------|-->|---------------------+ | | | | / |_ 9.1 v Zener | | GND BASEBAND | 1N757 1w | | RF INPUT | .01ufd | |----------------(O) +----------------| |-----------------+ | | J-1 | | | 75 OHMS | | +------------------+ | |----/\/\/\/\/--- + | | International | | | | +--------+---------+ Crystal Mfg. Co. +-------+ | 2.7E (see note)| GND | OE-1 | | | +-/\/\/\/\/----+ | 100 MHz | | | | | oscillator | | | | 180pf +------------------+ | | |-----| |------+ | | | | | | | 2.2 uh | --- 47 pfd | +-----uuuuuuuu----+ ___ | | | | | | 180pf --- | | | --- | +---/\/\/\--+ | 100K | | | 100 Ohms +---/\/\/\/\/-----+-----------------+ | | | 100K | | +-----------+ | +------/\/\/\/\---|------+------------+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | -- | --- | -- | | | / | | \ | | | / G1 | | G2 \ | | | | --*-- --*-- | | | | | | 40673 | | .01ufd | | --*-- --*-- | MOSFET | |------| |--------| \ S | | D / | | | \ _ | | __ / | | 220 Ohms | | | | |----/\/\/\/\-----+-----------------+ | | | | | | 33 Ohms | | | +------/\/\/\/\----------+ | | | | | | 2.2 uh 220 Ohms | | +-----uuuuuuuuu----------+--------------/\/\/\/\/------ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | --- .01 ufd --- .01 ufd | | ___ ___ | | | | | +----------------(O) J2 | | | RF Output | | | | | | | 100ufd | +------------------------------------------+-------------------| |--------+ | | GND O +9 to +18V Note: Reduce resistor value if TUNE BETWEEN 105 and 108 mhz FM receiver requires more on Standard FM Receiver Signal Gain. SCPC Single channel per carrier is by far my favorite kind of satellite audio. This method uses a separate audio carrier and separate uplink for each signal on the transponder. It is the method used by MANY radio stations and networks, and provides the widest possible variety of programming. While very specialized, there are a number of receivers made for the home TVRO user, including the HEIL SC-ONE, THE UNIVERSAL SCPC-100, or my favorite, the ICOM R-100. News, Music, Major market radio stations, and the wide variety of TALK shows. For a complete discussion of SCPC, write me for the SCPC FAQ, as this topic requires in depth coverage. The SCPC FAQ includes various methods of receiving SCPC. My first SCPC setup added $3 to my total system cost, and was a great investment in helping me get to know what was up there. Most of you reading this already know what fun there is to be had with satellite audio. Listening to your dish is something that will bring back a love for radio. Whether you are relaxing to a jazz station from California, Classical music from New York, or a soccer game from England, there is something for everyone on satellite audio. Satellite Audio is FUN and it is up there for FREE. There is no subscription fee needed to listen to the hundreds of stations that come in with better than FM studio quality on your dish. If you are not listening to your dish, you SHOULD! -- / Gary Bourgois, WB8EOH, The Birdwatcher: Marquette Michigan USA \ ([-o Radio Omega T2/21 5.8 - FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE Weekly 10PM Eastern o-]) \ Now a snazzy new DOMAIN address! flash@lopez.marquette.MI.US / birdwatcher@genie.geis.com FAX: (906) 228-7477 BBS: (906) 228-4399