I was trying to sift Google to find something useful to do with the small dish I'm stuck with on the roof after dumping our satellite provider, hoping maybe it could be hacked into an OTA antenna similar to what someone else wants to do with his 8' dish in another thread. Along the way I found pages describing free-to-air satellite which I had suspected of but never heard about.

So, you guys being the experts on all things AV, tell me more! I'm not asking for dish orientations to specific satellites here, more basic stuff like what kinds of hardware aside from the dish itself would be needed (LNBF, multiswitch, STB etc)? And is there enough programming for an English-speaking person who cares not one iota for televised sports?

Or should I just unbolt the thing and use it as a giant Frisbee? :D

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http://www.tech-faq.com/fta-receiver.shtml

It lists some info, but it may not be as up to date as some here are, and I'm certain it doesn't reflect the experience available here.

With a DBS dish and a normal (not hacked) FTA receiver, you should still be able to get a few things off E* (NASA Select, some audio channels), and BEV has some interesting audios (Canadian radio stations, foreign-language radio) and occasional video in the clear.

Add a 30-40" dish, proper LNB, and DiSeQc switch, and you can get some interesting stuff from Galaxy-25 and Galaxy-10R. Motorize the dish and get lots more.

It ain't HBO and ESPN, but it's fun.

There are tons of websites on the net explaining and sell you everything you need. Just type fta receivers. You can program them to get all channels or just get the ones that are free to air from all type of different languages.

I found http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html - looking at the listings of stations, and ignoring the religious and non-English ones, it looks appealing.
However
Something tells me that all these channels aren't actually available, due to that whole earth being round thing. Can anyone shed some light on that? Are the sats actually available?

Second question: what receiver, or are they all pretty well equal? From the link earlier in the thread I have some idea of features it should have, but beyond that is what I'm asking about - quality of the guide, wait time between channels, does the box overheat. That kind of thing.

Viewsat makes a good fta box with good guide and quick channel changing.

Try this page....depending on where you live, most of these birds should be available:

http://www.lyngsat.com/america.html

When you look at the listings for each, the "F" denotes "Free-To-Air" on the individual channels. The easy ones to get will say "DVB" above that....some other systems, like PowerVu or Digicypher 2 will require their type of receiver to get the signal, even though it is "In the clear" (not addressed to a specific descrambler, but still "scrambled"....in a "fixed key mode").

If you are on the east coast, you might even find a few channels from Europe....although the Ku-band channels are often spot-beamed to Europe only. A "C"-Band BUD becomes a great addition, then.

A "C"-Band BUD becomes a great addition, then.
No room sadly, and even if I sacrificed the back yard my south view from where the dish would be sucks. A small array of the little dishes is tempting though.

A quick search turned up this undoubtedly incomplete list of receivers within a reasonable price range - near or below $150. tooskinny, is the Viewsat at the bottom the one you're talking about? Does anyone have a suggestion from this list, or if none are HD-capable a suggestion for one that is capable within that price range? HD capability isn't a dealbreaker for me, it would be nice but if the cheapest HD model is like 400 bucks it's not worth it for me.

Fortec Star FSNAG-5900CI
CoShip CDVB2000E
Orasat 5.0
Pansat 2700A
Coolsat 5000
Pico Macom SIRD-FTA
Traxis DBS-3500
Trimax T-100
Traxis DBS1500
ARIZA 700
DWI-750s
Viewsat VS2000 Xtreme

click on the link in my sig for more info.

A quick search turned up this undoubtedly incomplete list of receivers within a reasonable price range - near or below $150. tooskinny, is the Viewsat at the bottom the one you're talking about? Does anyone have a suggestion from this list, or if none are HD-capable a suggestion for one that is capable within that price range? HD capability isn't a dealbreaker for me, it would be nice but if the cheapest HD model is like 400 bucks it's not worth it for me.

Fortec Star FSNAG-5900CI
CoShip CDVB2000E
Orasat 5.0
Pansat 2700A
Coolsat 5000
Pico Macom SIRD-FTA
Traxis DBS-3500
Trimax T-100
Traxis DBS1500
ARIZA 700
DWI-750s
Viewsat VS2000 Xtreme

Yes that is the Viewsat I was talking about. Right now there is only one HD fta box out and that is made be coolsat, the 8000 I beleive. I don't think any FTA channels are HD but you can get some from other places. ;) The Viewsat will get you a good guide, fast channel changing and a decent picture.

I saw PBS HD is unencrypted, but no others.

I'm still trying to decide if the FTA sat would be worth the effort or if I should take the dish off my roof and turn it into a planter or birdbath. :)

I saw PBS HD is unencrypted, but no others.

I'm still trying to decide if the FTA sat would be worth the effort or if I should take the dish off my roof and turn it into a planter or birdbath. :)

Yep all HD channels will be encrypted along with all other sat channels that are not true FTA channels.