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if you're old like me you probably remember those big ugly satellite dishes

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adorning people's backyards they were big enough for a kid to skateboard in

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but even during my Heyday in the 1990s no one I knew who actually had one used

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it anymore so what was the point of them whatever happened to them and why were

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they so absurdly large in the first place back in the late ' 7s and early '

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80s satellite TV was not something that required a paid subscription instead

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satellite signals were just out there floating around for anyone with the

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right equipment to catch you see these signals were sent out by TV Distributors

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and were intended for cable TV companies not regular consumers the cable

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companies would receive the signals combine them into a cable TV package and

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then sell that package to you and me at

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home via wires but because the Assumption was that it would just be

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cable companies receiving the TV signals Distributors didn't bother scrambling

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them so inevitably Folks at home figured out you could just use a big old dish to

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watchh tons of PID TV channels for free

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and even folks who weren't trying to get around paying for cable found sight

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dishes useful since the only way some people could pick up their free local

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channels was via satellite this was especially true in high altitude regions

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where the terrain would block typical TV antennas in fact these large satellite

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dishes became so common in mountainous West Virginia that a common joke was

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that the big ugly dish was actually the state flower I just love that

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the reason these dishes had to be so big was that these signals were sent on

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something called cband This is a frequency range that's lower than what

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modern satellite TV uses and their maximum power was also lower due to a

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rule meant to prevent interference the longer wavelengths and lower power meant

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you needed a big dish to catch these big waves adding to the inconvenience was

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that these dishes had to be pointed more directly at the satellite itself than

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modern systems so high-end setups often had a little motor attached to the dish

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to rotate the dish when you change channels but this didn't mean that cand

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dishes were inferior in every way to the tiny ones we're using now believe it or

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not the longer wavelengths meant that they were actually more resistant to bad

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weather than current receivers so how did something that got you a bunch of

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free content wind up being obsolete we'll tell you right after we thank

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so why are big dishes now basically technological fossils strewn across the

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landscape getting stuck in tarpits and such well as as you've probably

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predicted the TV industry wasn't too happy about so many people viewing their

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content without paying some things never change and starting in 1984 the US

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government started allowing broadcasters to scramble their signals this meant

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that you now needed to pay for a descrambler in order to legally watch

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satellite TV needless to say people were

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very upset that they now had to pay subscription fees after already spending

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a ton of money on the dishes themselves because of their bulk these big dishes

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were expensive the first one cost about

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$36,000 back in 1979 and although these

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prices dropped quickly to the point that they were going for 1,500 bucks in 1985

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that was still a huge investment there was actually this one guy who ran his

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own satellite TV business who was so upset that he he was actually able to

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overpower HBO's signal and insert his own protest message for a few minutes

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back in 1986 what a legend but this

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conflict between broadcasters and viewers wouldn't last long as direct

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broadcast satellite started getting popularity in the early 1990s that's

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when I came around these are the services such as

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Direct TV that use the higher frequency KU and Ka bands that can legally be

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transmitted with higher power meaning you only need a smaller cheaper dish

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naturally the lower equipment cost made them much more popular with consumers

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than those massive old school dishes which quickly fell out of favor however

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cand is actually still still used for backend TV distribution because of its

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advantages in bad weather but as for those old dishes we used to have in our

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yards people have repurposed them as everything from long range Wi-Fi

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antennas to gazebos to bird baths if

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you'll excuse me I need to go hang my

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laundry why would I unzip this that would indicate that it's been wet this

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whole time stupid so thanks for watching guys

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if you like this video hit like hit subscribe and hit us up in the comment

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section for your Nostalgia driven suggestions of topics that we should

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cover in the future