wrote:
www.lyngsat-address.com/tv/Europe.html

If I buy the equipment and pay a local area satellite installer to
install the diah and set it up properly, does that mean I can watch
live, in very good quality Ireland and Scotland TV from over here in
Southeast U.S.A.
There would be no monthly fees to pay, I think.


There are two things that you need in order to receive a signal from
a satellite. The first is to actually be able to "see" the satellite
from your location. Being in the southeast US, it may be possible to
see some European satellites from where you are.





A few years ago, a guy in another newsgroup (he lives in
Evansville,Indiana and works at a satellite tv company, Pansat,
something like that) said those satelite(s) in orbit over there over
that part of Europe are in such a narrow arc and can not be picked up
over here.But, what do I know for sure? I am only a confused dummy.I
really do wish I can watch live Ireland TV and Scotland TV.

The second is to be able to receive the signal that is being sent out.

Each satellite has a "footprint" This is the area that is covered by
its signal. The footprint is not absolute, sometimes you can receive
a signal if you are slightly out of it by using a bigger dish, or a
more sensitive low noise amplifier. It also works the other way,
sometimes you need a bigger dish or more sensitive low noise amp
within the footprint.

Luckly someone has taken the desires of confused dummies into account and
developed a web page which will tell you if you can receive a signal.

It combines satellite footprint information, channel lists and Google
maps/earth to determine if you can receive a signal.

http://www.dishpointer.com/

For example, if you enter "fort lauderdale fla" and select the Astra
satellite cluster, you find it is below the horizon.

However, the Amos satellite cluster is just above the horizion, so if
you had your dish high enough that it was not obstructed by buildings,
etc, you could watch Israeli TV. :-)

Then finally, all of the satellites on this side of the world use the
PAL system of encoding video. You would need a TV set that could play
PAL TV, or if it is an HD TV with YBCR input, 50Hz video.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM