HOME IMPROVEMENT : All You Could Dish for in TV Reception

Do you hate your cable company? Are you tired of poor reception, rude service representatives and channels you don’t want or need? Contrary to what you may think, you can change to a new cable company--your own--by erecting a satellite dish.

A satellite dish offers viewers the advantage of better television reception, a choice of more than 200 channels to watch and freedom from your cable company’s billing list. However, satellite dishes aren’t for everybody.

The biggest drawback is the upfront expense.

“Satellite TV systems run from $1,999 to $3,500,” says Terry Van Fowsan of the Dish Doctor in Westminster. “A good, basic system for the home will cost around $2,500. The higher you go in price, the more ‘bells and whistles’ you add.

“For instance, you have a choice between a UHF remote control, in which you can change channels from any room in the house, or an infrared remote control, which has to be aimed directly at the sensor.”

Making the right choice on a satellite system isn’t easy, considering the costs and the options involved.

“Probably the best thing to do is shop around for a system,” says Don Ducharme of Multi-Television Services Inc. in Anaheim. “Talk to people who own them, and don’t get swayed by the salesman’s promises.”

There is a lot of misinformation about what a satellite TV system can and cannot do. The technology it comes from is usually unlike anything available in the average home, and trying to understand the nuances of each system can create a high-tech headache.

In principle, a satellite dish is simply an antenna, but the signals it pulls in are from satellites that orbit hundreds of miles above the earth.

The dishes vary in size, depending on where they’re stationed and what satellites the owner is trying to reach. The larger the dish, the more satellites and better signals that can be accessed. However, without a view of the satellites you’re trying to reach (because of nearby trees and buildings), a dish is virtually worthless.

The dish shape reflects the satellite signal into a cone--called the feed horn--that extends from the center of the dish. The signal is then modified to be read by a receiver, and it travels by coaxial cable into the house. With a better system, you can point the dish to receive signals from more than one satellite with a remote control, which allows for the access of hundreds of channels.

However, simply because you’ve bought a satellite system doesn’t mean you can capture any signal that bounces off of it. Television networks and most movie channels scramble their signals to prevent the unauthorized reception of their programming. A descrambler is built in to many of the newer receivers, but its use isn’t free. You’ll have to pay a monthly fee to the programmers to receive their channels.

“Whatever you’ll pay to descramble will be about half of your monthly cable bill,” says Van Fowsan. “Plus, you’ll be able to make more choices than if you just signed up for cable. If you don’t watch channels like MTV or Arts & Entertainment, you don’t have to have those descrambled and you don’t have to pay for them. It’s like a la carte.

“And when you have some of the movie channels such as HBO or Disney descrambled, you’re able to access both their East and West Coast feeds, which show entirely different programs, so it’s like getting an extra channel thrown in for free.”

During the early 1980s when satellite TV systems first became popular and before the networks began scrambling their signals, a wide range of programming was available to those who lived in sparsely populated rural areas served by only a handful of local stations and few cable systems.

“It was almost like television had just been invented for some of these people,” Ducharme said. “All of a sudden they had hundreds of channels available in places where you would be lucky to get one or two with a standard antenna.”

It was thought that because of the high initial costs involved and the spread of cable television, satellite TV wouldn’t have much of a chance in urban areas. However, there is a market for satellite TV that appears to be growing.

“Many homeowners are interested in the concept of the ‘home theater,’ ” Ducharme said. “They’ll have a room with a large-screen television and a high-quality sound system to complement it.”

He points out that a satellite signal delivers approximately 400 lines of resolution to a TV, compared to about 330 lines from the average cable system. “It creates a sharper picture, which is important when you’re dealing with some of these high-quality, large screen sets. They can be very unforgiving.”

To select a satellite TV system, first decide how you would use it.

“Take a look at what you expect to get from the system,” Ducharme said. “If you’re buying it to watch sports, you’ll have to make sure the receiver picks up the KV band, which carries many of the sports channels.”

“Go to various dealers and don’t let someone tell you they can get you every channel out there for free,” Van Fowsan said. “There are a lot of people selling pirate descrambling boxes, which are illegal. Make sure you’re getting authorized equipment.”

The installation of a system doesn’t require a doctorate in electronics. But while still in the shopping stage, you may want to have a dish expert inspect the area in which you want to mount the dish to see if there’s a clear view of the satellites in the southern sky. You’ll also want to check on any homeowner’s association regulations on outside antennas.

Dishes get the best results when they’re mounted on a pole that’s cemented directly into the ground.

“The pole has to be absolutely perpendicular,” Ducharme said. “You’ll have to use a good level and really make it straight.”

From there, the dish is mounted and wired, and an inclinometer is often used to tilt it at the proper angle needed to reach the satellites. The cable is then placed in a conduit and buried in a trench that leads to the house, where it enters through the wall to the receiver.

“Some people have problems doing the initial programming of the receiver,” says Ducharme. “But it’s not much different than programming a VCR; you just follow the instructions.”