I saw it on my Satellite by Gary Bourgois Any C band dish owner will tell you that one the most enjoyable things about his system is the ability to see things not really meant for the general public. Newsfeeds, teleconferences, live from the scene remotes, transmissions from helicopters, military training exercises, sales meetings, coverage of major disasters, and the wild and wacky. It is easy to cross the line from someone who uses their dish just for regular network and cable TV, and become a Dish-head. This is the term given to the slightly obsessive viewer who spends many an hour, often past midnight, searching the heavens for things that are only found on TVRO Satellite. We have all seen Dan Rather swig his Pepsi, or famous reporters rehearsing their lines and flubbing them over and over, field reporters nervously smoking a quick cigarette before airtime, and the joking that goes on when the reporters assume that nobody is watching. This kind of thing happens daily. If you watch your dish often enough, particularly if you have a KU band system (That is where all the GOOD stuff went) you will occasionally run into true gems found only on satellite. The Big Story Any time there is a big news story, news agencies rush into action. Remote KU trucks and field reporters show up on the scene and the skies light up with feeds. A dish-head will often find out about a big story before the networks start their coverage, because nothing happens over the "regular" airwaves until the equipment is set up and the facts are in. These early feeds are often where you get angles and aspects of a news story from reporters' gossip, much of which may never get actually reported officially. By nature, most of these feeds are things like fires, explosions, hurricanes, standoffs and the like. If you enjoy the TV show "Cops" then you really need to check out the newsfeeds. High-speed chases as seen from the sky are just one exciting aspect of news chasing. Bigger than Big Stories Every now and then a major story grips the country. Things like the Waco Disaster, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and Hurricanes Gilbert and Hugo. Sometimes the satellite brings us big international news feeds, like the recent death of Princess Diana, with 24-hour continuous transmissions from BBC and SKY-TV. During such coverage, you find a different aspect of newsfeeds. Agencies will set up "Continuous Feed Channels" which can be downright erie to watch. When reporters are not reporting, the camera silently pans the scene. Some of these feeds run 24 hours a day, because nobody knows when something will happen. During the Freemen standoff, the cameras showed us everybody that came and went, as well as dogs, cattle and the layout of the whole farm. When you watch such a feed, it is like being there. You become part of the story. During the continuous feed from a Moscow hotel rooftop, I shared lunch and gossip with a CNN news crew during the Russian revolution. During the war in Bosnia, I got to know the REAL Cristianne Amonpour from CNN. When not feeding live news, the cameras continued to roll and she told about life in a war zone. These off camera "not for air" scenes were actually far more interesting than the actual news coverage. Of course, there are odd and funny things as well. I have been often asked what was the strangest thing of all that I saw on Satellite. I remember it well. It was about 4AM on one of the ABC C band news feeds. It was a feature about a nightclub act called "Mr. Lifto". Much like a carnival geek act, but even more than that. No I can't tell you about it, you "had to be there". I know of only one other dish head that caught the feed. Perhaps you can write us and let us know the strangest or most heartfelt feed YOU ever saw. Keep watching the Skies.