1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,040 If you're old like me, you probably remember those big ugly satellite dishes adorning people's 2 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:09,760 backyards. They were big enough for a kid to skateboard in, but even during my heyday in the 3 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:16,240 1990s, no one I knew who actually had one used it anymore. So what was the point of them, 4 00:00:16,240 --> 00:00:20,960 whatever happened to them, and why were they so absurdly large in the first place? 5 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:26,320 Back in the late 70s and early 80s, satellite TV was not something that required a paid subscription. 6 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:31,360 Instead, satellite signals were just out there floating around for anyone with the right equipment 7 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:37,600 to catch. You see, these signals were sent out by TV distributors and were intended for cable TV 8 00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:42,880 companies, not regular consumers. The cable companies would receive the signals, combine them 9 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:48,800 into a cable TV package, and then sell that package to you and me at home via wires. 10 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:54,080 But because the assumption was that it would just be cable companies receiving the TV signals, 11 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:59,200 distributors didn't bother scrambling them. So inevitably, folks at home figured out you could 12 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:05,520 just use a big old dish to wash tons of paid TV channels for free. And even folks who weren't 13 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:10,240 trying to get around paying for cable found satellite dishes useful, since the only way 14 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:15,760 some people could pick up their free local channels was via satellite. This was especially true in 15 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:20,400 high altitude regions where the train would block typical TV antennas. In fact, these large 16 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:25,600 satellite dishes became so common in mountainous West Virginia that a common joke was that the 17 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:31,600 big ugly dish was actually the state flower. I just love that. The reason these dishes had to 18 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:37,520 be so big was that these signals were sent on something called C-band. This is a frequency 19 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:43,440 range that's lower than what modern satellite TV uses, and their maximum power was also lower 20 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:49,040 due to a rule meant to prevent interference. The longer wavelengths and lower power meant you needed 21 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:54,720 a big dish to catch these big waves. Adding to the inconvenience was that these dishes had to 22 00:01:54,720 --> 00:02:01,280 be pointed more directly at the satellite itself than modern systems. So high end setups often had 23 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:06,720 a little motor attached to the dish to rotate the dish when you change channels. But this didn't 24 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:12,400 mean that C-band dishes were inferior in every way to the tiny ones we're using now. Believe it or 25 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:17,200 not, the longer wavelengths meant that they were actually more resistant to bad weather than current 26 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:23,280 receivers. So why are big dishes now basically technological fossils strewn across the landscape 27 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:28,560 getting stuck in tar pits and such? Well, as you've probably predicted, the TV industry wasn't too 28 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:33,920 happy about so many people viewing their content without paying. Some things never change. And 29 00:02:33,920 --> 00:02:39,920 starting in 1984, the US government started allowing broadcasters to scramble their signals. 30 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:45,440 This meant that you now needed to pay for a de-scrambler in order to legally watch satellite TV. 31 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:52,240 Needless to say, people were very upset that they now had to pay subscription fees after already 32 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:57,440 spending a ton of money on the dishes themselves. Because of their bulk, these big dishes were 33 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:04,640 expensive. The first one cost about $36,000 back in 1979. And although these prices dropped quickly 34 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:10,160 to the point that they were going for $1,500 in 1985, that was still a huge investment. 35 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:14,240 There was actually this one guy who ran his own satellite TV business who was so upset that he 36 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:20,160 was actually able to overpower HBO's signal and insert his own protest message for a few minutes 37 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:26,160 back in 1986. What a legend. But this conflict between broadcasters and viewers wouldn't last 38 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:32,640 long as direct broadcast satellite started getting popularity in the early 1990s. That's when I came 39 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:40,400 around. These are the services such as Direct TV that use the higher frequency KU and KA bands 40 00:03:40,480 --> 00:03:45,520 that can legally be transmitted with higher power, meaning you only need a smaller, cheaper dish. 41 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:50,000 Naturally, the lower equipment cost made them much more popular with consumers than those 42 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:56,000 massive old-school dishes, which quickly fell out of favor. However, C-band is actually still used 43 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:01,520 for back-end TV distribution because of its advantages in bad weather. But as for those old 44 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:06,160 dishes we used to have in our yards, people have repurposed them as everything from long-range 45 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:12,720 Wi-Fi antennas to gazebos to birdbaths. If you'll excuse me, I need to go hang my laundry. 46 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,720 Why would I unzip this? That would indicate that it's been wet this whole time. 47 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:23,760 Stupid. So thanks for watching guys. If you liked this video, hit like, hit subscribe, 48 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,320 and hit us up in the comment section for your nostalgia-driven suggestions of topics that 49 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:29,920 we should cover in the future.