Noob question about Free-to-Air satellite

[peggypwr1]

Hello all,

I am a new to the world of FTA satellite.

I live in the SF Bay Area and was wondering if it is possible to get European channels like RAI, TV5, Eurosport, Russian, BBC, etc via FTA?

What kind of equipment would I need? or is FTA best for N.American programming only. Thank you for your time.

[Abbadon]

Hi,

I don't live in the States, so I could be totally wrong about this.

I am afraid that the programming you could watch from Europe is very few and only accesible through C band.

Let me try to give you some info:

There are two main types of FTA, C Band which requires a huge dish and hard to find equipment and a subbed card (subscribed card), and the second one: DVB (Digital Video Broadcast), used by TV and internet companies in Germany and Spain, this kind of programming can be obtained through FTA Receivers or DVB cards that can be installed in your computer, but also require a dish and lnb.

You could get more info in dedicated forums about Satellite TV.

[Duchess]

Just a thought, but have you checked to see if any of the American satellites broadcast European channels? If not there is just no way that broadcasts to Europe will be receiveable in the USA. Transmissions are beamed and the area they cover will only cover part of Europe and the further outside the main beam you get the weaker the signal is.

[xxiangg]

The following link probably has the information you are looking for.
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Channels/Channels-FTA-free-to-air-Satellite-TV.htm

[psx_pirate]

You cannot recieve European satellite channels in the US as the transmittions are beamed to earth to cover a selected area ... this is called a footprint .. almost all european satellite programming is transmitted from the Astra satellites (Astra 2A and 2B and a UK only beam from the Astra 2D satellite) ... you can see the footprints (coverage area) of the Astra satellites by going here http://markets.ses-astra.com/market/british_isles/footprints_28point2.htm