REVIEW Broadcasts with a Small Dish

MT Tune In International Radio REVIEW Broadcasts with a Small Dish

By Ken Reitz KSRZR

❖ What You’ll f you’re tired of waiting for digital shortwave services to become more than an Hear and See I expensive experiment or you just want Check out the list below access to a global view of news and informa- and you’ll see some very tion, you might be surprised at what you can familiar shortwave services get now for less than $200. with some of the best programming to be found. World ❖ Small Dish, Small World Radio Network’s line-up of international broadcasters, The U.S. domestic satellite known as which also includes Glenn Intelsat America 5 (97° W) carries a huge load Hauser’s World of Radio of programming on its 24 C and 27 Ku-band program, is worth the instal- transponders. On the Ku-band side, there are lation of this system alone. more than 200 video and audio services trans- Repositioning the dish mitting in the MPEGII digital format, with to receive AMC1 (103° many unencrypted (known as Free-To-Air or W) allows you to tune in FTA) services. These channels can be tuned WCPE-FM, the nationally in for free using an inexpensive MPEGII FTA acclaimed, full-time, com- Globecast World TV’s nerve center. Making the world’s TV and receiver. mercial-free, classical music radio available to North America’s growing international com- One of the companies providing pro- station from North Carolina munity. (Courtesy: Globecast World TV) gramming on this satellite is Globecast World whose programming pro- TV, a French Telecom subsidiary based in organizations into one neatly edited channel vides a serious antidote to a stressful day. Washington, D.C. Their business is to sell covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East On Galaxy 11 (91° W) you can tune into uplink and downlink services for companies and Asia. The service offers commentary in Yesterday USA, the only station in America wanting to provide programming to the vari- seven languages which are accessed simply playing your favorite Old Time Radio shows ous international communities around North 24/7 and commercial-free. America. If you have a big dish C-band system, FREE RADIO SERVICES FOUND ON AI5 In order to promote a greater number of you can also tune in the international broad- viewers and listeners to the services it broad- World Radio Network North America (Eng- casters on Panamsat 9 (58° W), including casts, Globecast sells, under its own label, a lish) Deutsche Welle, China Radio International, WRN N. A. (Multi-lingual) complete small dish satellite TV system (see and RAI International (Italy). Other great WRN N. A. (French) photo). The entire system – receiver, dish stations are scattered all across the satellite Radio Netherlands Worldwide (English) and LNB – is $179 plus shipping, handling arc, broadcasting every kind of radio format RNW (Dutch) and any applicable state taxes. You’ll have to RNW (Spanish) from Christian programming to the painfully provide the RG/6 cable needed to get from the Radio Romania International hip alternative music of KEXP-FM, Seattle. receiver to the site where you’ve located your Radio Tunis International Turning your dish to Galaxy 3 (95°W) Polskie Radio dish. If you already have a Ku-band compat- lets you tune into USIA’s World Net, with Voice of Turkey ible dish, the receiver alone is $139. video from the U.S. Information Agency Radio Korea Additional full time services from The Phil- and audio from Voice of America, including ippines, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, Iran, VOA’s Music Mix and News Now as well as Armenia and Israel. Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe. These are just examples of what you’ll ADDITIONAL MPEGII FTA INTERNATIONAL hear, and, since this is a satellite receiver, once RADIO you hook your TV to the output you’ll also be PANAMSAT 9 (58°W) C-BAND: China Radio International Xpndr 6 able to watch several hundred channels from RAI International (Itlay) Xpndr 21 around the world, showing everything from Deutsche Welle Radio 1 Xpndr 8 adult movies to bible pounding evangelists. Deutsche Welle Radio 2 The Globecast receiver has a “smart card” Deutsche Welle Radio 7 reader, similar to the ones used in other small RDP Portugal AMC4 (101°W) Transponder dish systems, which allows you to subscribe 24 to encrypted programming as described on OTHER RADIO SERVICES OF NOTE: Globecast World TV’s versatile small dish satel- the Globecast web site. Yesterday USA (Old Time Radio 24/7) Galaxy lite system. Tune in international broadcasters Among the subscription channels on 11, 18 (91°W) Ku-band WCPE-FM (Public supported Classical Music via World Radio Network with a beautiful AI5 are EuroNews ($9.95/month), a 24/7 international news channel with a European 24/7) AMC1,12 (103°W) Ku-band signal 24/7 and free! (Courtesy: Globecast KXEP-FM (Public supported Alternative music World TV) perspective. This channel brings the com- 24/7) G10, 6 (123°W) Ku-band bined services of Europe’s news gathering

68 MONITORING TIMES December 2005 patio which is under your control. in circular polarity as opposed to the linear To receive two different satellites polarity of MPEGII systems. using the same receiver, you can install two separate dishes and feed ❖ Last Word them both with a diplexer, which is a While MPEGII digital broadcasting on signal combiner and antenna switch North America’s broadcast satellites is nearly in one. You program your receiver 10 years old, programmers are just now start- to automatically switch satellites to ing to see the profit in using this system for pick up the channels you want on Direct To Home (DTH) broadcasts of niche another dish. It’s a great solution for programming of interest to viewers across the places which could never accommo- continent. Globecast’s receiver is among the date a big dish and where shortwave first to use an addressable smart card to allow reception is poor. reception of subscription channels. Globecast Eagle/Aspen diplexer switch lets you switch remotely says the FTA channels they offer will continue between two dishes instantly. (Courtesy: DVBexpress. ❖ The Globecast to be offered for free. Only new specialty com) Receiver up Close channels will be added for subscription. by pressing the “language” button on the This receiver is similar to most MPEGII This trend will likely continue over the remote. FTA receivers with a couple of notable ex- next several years, as more MPEGII FTA re- Washington, D.C. based MHz Networks ceptions. It’s set up to automatically search ceivers form a wider market and terrestrially (http://www.mhz.org) has just launched for and store the Globecast channels on IA5. based independent broadcasters realize the on IA5 offering international programming That’s handy when first setting it up. It will potential of reaching an audience of MPEGII with all English subtitles. Check out their ac- not do a “blind search” of all satellite signals FTA listeners via satellite. It could easily claimed International Mystery series and half on all satellites. However, it does an excellent become an inexpensive alternative satellite hour news programs from around the world. job of tuning channels when you’ve manually radio service. Also offered is Setanta Sports North entered the necessary reception parameters America ($11.99 /month), which brings, via (transponder frequency and symbol rate). I ❖ FOLLOW-UP live broadcast and replay, European sporting found that this receiver is very sensitive and events such as FIFA World Cup qualifiers, FA can display channels with as little at 8 or 9 Additional information on items mentioned cup, UEFA cup, Bundeslige, Scottish Premier percent signal quality. in this article: League, and much more. An extensive list of There’s a one-button signal strength all channels to which you may subscribe are meter which is a real plus in helping find the DVB Express has excellent Ku-band dishes, di- found on the Globecast home page (http:// signal you’re looking for. In fact, the small plexers, cable, etc. at reasonable prices. www.globecastworldtv.com). http://www.dvbexpress.com remote is very well designed and laid out, with one-button switching between audio EuroNews: http://www.euronews.net ❖ The Multi-Dish Solution and video services, and it allows switching One of the great things about this system from satellite dish to an outside off-air TV Global Communications has many C and is that it’s so small it may be installed just antenna. Ku-band related systems: http://www. about anywhere. Many of D.C.’s high-rise The on-screen menu is easy to read global-cm.net apartment buildings sport these dishes, be- and navigate. This receiver is packed with Globecast World TV: http://www.globecast- cause for many it’s the only way to receive advanced features. There are many hundreds wtv.com 888-988-5288 programming from the home country. The of signals which can be tuned in, so it’s im- system comes with an exterior wall mount, portant to have an electronic program guide Sadoun Satellite offers a wide variety of but it can also be installed in a back yard or which can be edited to allow tuning only the MPEGII FTA equipment: http://www. patio, no matter how small. All you need is an video and audio services of interest to you. To sadoun.com unobstructed view to the south. And, regard- access the edited list, simply press the “FAV” Setanta Sports North America: http://www. less of what your home-owner’s association button on the remote. Continued pressing the setanta.com/usa or landlord claims, the FCC allows you to button cycles through the various favorite lists install this type of system on a balcony or you may customize. World Radio Network English Schedule: The back of the receiver http://www.wrn.org/english features the usual LNB Find reception parameters for all MPEGII FTA loop-through, which allows services on satellites worldwide at: you to set it up without http://www.lyngsat.com having to split the signal coming from the LNB if you’re using it in a “slave” configuration with a big dish. Outputs include “S” video cable output, three RCA plugs for left and right audio and TV signal, and an “F” connector for channel 3 audio/video via coax to your TV or VCR. MPEGII FTA systems are incompatible with DISH Network and DirecTV systems. Those DBS services The multi-dish solution: Tune in two different satellites using not only operate on a differ- the Globecast system and another dish. Switching is done via a ent part of the Ku-band, but diplexer: no moving parts! (Courtesy: Author) their signals are transmitted

December 2005 MONITORING TIMES 69