On Tuesday, December 16, 1997 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-5, Bob wrote:
I took a train trip recently from Chicago to New York City. Obviously,
there was a lot to see along the way, but what was most interesting to
me were all the satellite dishes I saw while admiring the scenery in
Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York state. And I saw a lot of
them. I would have to say that Indiana had the most dishes, almost all
BUDs, although this state seemed more populated than the backwoods of
the other states.
Surprisingly, I saw absolutely no 18" dishes. I would say that I saw 80%
BUDs and 20% Primestar dishes. I saw dishes that looked brand new,
dishes with holes, and dishes that looked from the late 70's (but looked
to still be in use). I'm talking rust, pinkish color, etc. Talk about a
"big ugly dish" - I saw lots. I even saw dishes (in Chicago) that were
so close to the train tracks that a passing train would definitely
interrupt the signal!
The most amazing thing that I saw, besides a "shack" in the NY woods
with a BUD, was one of the "project" buildings on the south side of
Chicago. Imagine a not-so-nice 100-unit apartment building (facing
south), with 24" dishes mounted outside about 40% of the apartment
windows. It was hilarious. No landlord restrictions there, I guess. I've always said that Chicago cable sucks! No way to tell what they were used
for, though. They weren't marked at all. The southern mount looked like either Primestar or DSS, in my opinion.
Anyway, another advantage of being a satellite hobbyist was that when I
was in New York City, where i'd never been before, I always knew which direction was south by looking at dishes on the buildings. This really
helped me to get my bearings, as I was really confused for a couple
days.
Hey, call me a satellite geek or whatever. Dish sighting definitely made
my trip more interesting, and made the train trip more bearable. In
fact, I recently took a drive with my wife to where I work, and along
the way I pointed out every dish in sight, 18" or BUD. Her reaction made
me realize that I was not normal. I guess I do have satellite on the
brain.
Later...
- Bob The Cable Hater
can I you
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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