Anyone ever own one of those big black dishes(Cowboy games)

[playmakers]

I was a small kid and always tried to get someone in my house to buy one for me so I could see every Cowboy game. My question was this, if you lived in another state how hard was it to find Cowboy games on the blackdish? In addition, does anyone still own one today? I think I heard they might be outlawed but I also heard back in the day you could get any channel you wanted with those things you just needed to know what direction to point it in. No one had a problem with it until the cable and mini satellite industry I guessed monpologized them. I'm just curious to know.

 

[Jay]

I was a small kid and always tried to get someone in my house to buy one for me so I could see every Cowboy game. My question was this, if you lived in another state how hard was it to find Cowboy games? In addition, does anyone still own one today? I think I heard they might be outlawed but I also heard back in the day you could get any channel you wanted with those things you just needed to know what direction to point it in. No one had a problem with it until the cable and mini satellite industry I guessed monpologized them. I'm just curious to know.

I live in Connecticut, NFC/AFC East territory, so I get most of the games. I get every NYG, NYJ and New England game on TV, those are our "home teams". When one of those 3 aren't on, it's almost always the Cowboys. If you pay attention to the scheduling, those 3 teams are worked around in a way where at least one of them has a national game (SNF/MNF) opening up space on FOX/CBS for a regular game.

Last season I had to go out to watch 2 games, the season before that I got 15 of the 16 games, and the season before that was another 2 games. Makes no sense for me to buy DirectTV when I only have to go out for a game or two a year.

 

[playmakers]

Ohh, I know about DIrectv, I was inquiring about those big black dishes from the 80's-90's.

 

[Jay]

Oh, you're asking just about the black dishes.. your question "My question was this, if you lived in another state how hard was it to find Cowboy games?" confused me.

I don't think those things were that powerful that you could pick up different regional broadcasts, but I could be wrong.

 

[playmakers]

Haha, it's all good, I fixed that. Yeah, I was curious if those things could get every game and worth the hassel.

 

[DallasEast]

Are you referring to one of these?

That is a C-Band satellite dish. They weren't 'outlawed'. In fact, some still use them, but the number of available satellite programming providers are very few now. You were correct in suggesting that mini-dish satellite providers, such as Dish Network and Directv, ultimately took control of the industry.

I used to own one. Many networks used to broadcast in analog. The best way to capture the signals was with a large dish. Likewise, many signals were broadcast 'in the clear' and were not digitalized or encrypted.

While you could not view 'everything', you could see many taped broadcasts and sometimes live broadcasts without the need of a satellite programming provider. You would simply aim your dish at a particular satellite, tune it to a specific transponder and wait for a signal (or 'wild feed' as they used to call them) to begin. That was kinda fun. I used to watch a lot of the Dallas Cowboys Network broadcasts (especially during preseason) that way and post the info on the old DMN boards.

But to answer your question, forget it. I would estimate that partically every broadcast is now digitalized and encoded. Getting a big dish today would be a huge waste of time and money.

 

[Jarv]

I think adbutcher was an expert on those, we talked about this years ago.

You might want to check this website to get started...

https://www.mydistantnetworks.com/faq.php

 

[links18]

Do a search for Free to Air Satellite (FTA). You can still get certain programming for free with an FTA satellite set-up and you don't need a big giant dish either. Programming is somewhat limited, but it is possible to get some local programming from other areas around the country and around the world FOR FREE.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Do a search for Free to Air Satellite (FTA). You can still get certain programming for free with an FTA satellite set-up and you don't need a big giant dish either. Programming is somewhat limited, but it is possible to get some local programming from other areas around the country and around the world FOR FREE.

Yep, I was looking at one of those a few years ago to see if I could somehow get Cowboys games when I was in a non-Dallas-friendly city.

What I found was what DE said: All of these network transmissions are encrypted now. IIRC, back then there were one or two affiliates that had been unencrypted just a year or so before -- I think in Arkansas or New Mexico -- but even those weren't available anymore. Would've been perfect because the dish you need for FTA isn't that much bigger than the standard DirecTv or Dish Network dish.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

I actually bought one back in 1991 when I was a teenager because I lived in Florida and was tired of missing Cowboys games. Not surprisingly, my family was all for it.

You got to see all of the Fox games for free, but not the NBC ones. Since Dallas was mostly on Fox and their few NBC games were nationally televised, it worked out great! You also got to listen to the commentators talk in between commercials since the commercials never aired on Satellite.

We got a ton of other channels for free as well and I used to watch an insane amount of basketball games from all of the home team stations.

They would also do runs of movies on certain channels before they hit the theaters. We got to see Forrest Gump before it went to the theaters. I'm honestly not sure why they did that, to tell the truth.

 

[Big Dakota]

I actually bought one back in 1991 when I was a teenager because I lived in Florida and was tired of missing Cowboys games. Not surprisingly, my family was all for it.

You got to see all of the Fox games for free, but not the NBC ones. Since Dallas was mostly on Fox and their few NBC games were nationally televised, it worked out great! You also got to listen to the commentators talk in between commercials since the commercials never aired on Satellite.

We got a ton of other channels for free as well and I used to watch an insane amount of basketball games from all of the home team stations.

They would also do runs of movies on certain channels before they hit the theaters. We got to see Forrest Gump before it went to the theaters. I'm honestly not sure why they did that, to tell the truth.

One time in the mid 90's we played NO in the preseason and A Manning really had some snide comments about the Cowboys during the commercial.

 

[ologan]

I remember in their heyday the big dishes would get the feeds for the games without the commercials. A lot of the time you could watch the game,and when they broke for commercials,the announcers feed would stay on,and you could hear the announcers setting up the next segments. It was fun to listen to. My lord,you had all kinds of satellites to go to,with a satellite program book that was as thick as a small cities phonebook. Got to switch to Telstar to catch a hoops game??? no problem...Hit the motorized switch and you could hear the dish turning to find the needed satellite. It was pretty neat there for awhile.

 

[Four]

my uncle had one when I was a kid and I remember how awesome it was.

of course I liked it for non sports reasons...

 

[Bizwah]

Ok...TOTALLY read the title of the thread wrong.

 

[Draegerman]

It seems like yesterday but it was something more like ten tears ago when DallasEast and I were sharing transponders and channel information for Cowboy preseason games on our "black dishes".

The weird thing is that I still have my dish up in the back so my wife can use it for her ivy plants and other assorted vines.

I loved that old dish, mainly because I was sticking it to the cable company.

 

[NextGenBoys]

my uncle had one when I was a kid and I remember how awesome it was.

of course I liked it for non sports reasons...

lol hahahaha

 

[DallasEast]

It seems like yesterday but it was something more like ten tears ago when DallasEast and I were sharing transponders and channel information for Cowboy preseason games on our "black dishes".

Those were good times, weren't they?

 

[eightysiX]

Im in southern california, im not sure if what i have is exactly the same as what your talking about, but i get pretty much every game/channel that is offered. Someone mentioned it, what i use is FTA free to air cable boxes using an existing Direct TV dish thats partly altered throught the LMB's. They are pretty good although you have to reprogram them every few weeks/months but it only takes a few minutes at a time. Its all easy to install if you have any knowledge of cable/satelite instalation. Your offered every areas local channels so you get all the different fox channels. Since i have owned it i have only missed one dallas game in 3-4 seasons.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

I live in the NFC East area so I used to see a lot of Cowboys games for free.