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 Please upload this file to as many BBS's as you are able to. It could save
 someone from making a major mistake.                                v. 1.03
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 Satelite Dish Buyers Beware:

 Recently there has been a bit of hype regarding a new level of technology in
home satelite dishes. This concerns the proposed Digital broadcast system.

 Current satelite technology uses conventional analog signals broadcast from
a relatively low power satelite. This requires a large diameter dish to both
collect and concentrate the low power signal and also, very importantly, to
resolve the separation between satelites. What this means is actually quite
simple. As more and more broadcast satelites are placed in orbit, the
relative spacing between them becomes less and less. This is in relation to
an observer on earth as actual distances in orbital height can vary. As in
optical telescopes, you need a larger telescope to resolve smaller details
you need a larger dish to perceive individual signals from a one satelite
without clutter from nearby satelites. For this reason, 8 foot diameter and
larger dishes are required for better quality reception.
 Analog signals are similar to the signals your television already receives
and are relatively simple to convert and display on your television. They
are however, more susceptible to interference than digital signals, at
least in theory. More about this later.

 The newer technology is using a much higher power level output from the
satelite. This allows the use of smaller diameter satelite dishes. The
claim is that the dish needs only be 3 feet in diameter. However, this
seems to be a size bounded somewhat by lattitude as the dish size needs to
be increased as one goes to a more northerly or southerly lattitude from
the equatorial orbital zone. So by the time you reach a point perhaps of
45 degrees north or south lattitude, you are again requiring a 5 foot
diameter dish and so on.
 These are referred to as medium power satelites.
 In Europe and England, high power satelites are broadcasting signals to
18" diameter dishes. However, the higher voltages and higher frequencies
of the power supplies in European households make this easier than in
North America.
 The cutting edge of technology is testing 12" diameter dishes in Japan.
There they even have plans to try testing them in vehicles.

 In North America a new player in the satelite dish field is a company
called SkyPix. They are however not all they seem to be and buyer beware
is the best that can be said about this company.

Digital vs Analog:
 Digital signals are encoded at source and decoded at the destination.
 Analog signals are comparable to current television signals. When a
 digital signal is sent, it is sampled over and over again to be sure that
 the information being received is correct. However, if conditions are bad
 enough, the samples will still be inaccurate. Analog signals are sent as
 they are and all things being equal, the most you'll get is a momentary
 signal lapse.
 The advocates of digital signals say that it will be a much better
 picture, and less interference. However, in reality, if the conditions
 are bad enough that an analog signal is too badly degraded to use, a
 digital signal won't get through either.
 Digital broadcasting is not easy. A program is unlikely to be broadcast
 live as digitizing is not an instaneous process. Analog signals can be
 easily shot "live".


Claims vs Facts:
Claim:
 SkyPix claims to be able to provide up to a hundred channels to the home
satelite subscriber.
Fact:
 They actually only have one broadcast facilty supplying a feed to the
satelite. And that is only limited programming and taped demos. They
also do not have plans to include any of the major satelite channels
such as Home Box Office. They claim to have plans for channels that
are "just as good". It's unlikely that they could provide a service
"just as good" as HBO.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims to be leasing transponders on a an already established
satelite.
Fact:
 Inside information was leaked recently that SkyPix is having such financial
difficulties that they have to lease the time on the satelite on a day to
day basis. They don't have the capability to lease even on a monthly basis.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims to be able to provide First-Run movies as soon as or even
before they are released in the theater.
Fact:
 NO major movie studio, executive, or theater is going to allow a major
movie to be released on television before the premiere or theater run has
had a few weeks. The only movies that *MAY* do this are going to be the
bottom of the barrel types that you wouldn't care about anyway.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims to be able to provide a high quality digital level picture
and also High Definition Television signals in the future.
Fact: #1
 There is as yet no current standard for High Definition Television in the
United States or Canada so how can they claim to be capable of providing
such a service.
Fact: #2
 The signal you receive is going to be copy-protected. They will be charging
an extra monthly premium to provide a non-copy-protected signal allowing you
to record on your VCR.
Fact: #3
 Many of the programs you wish to view will be on a Pay-per-view basis.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims to be ready to proceed with this innovative technological
breakthrough and to be the new standard in satelite viewing that will sweep
the North American market.
Claim:
 SkyPix claims to have plans to expand their access to the satelite
transponders to increase programming capabilities in the future.
Fact:
 There is another company currently developing a Digital medium power
satelite technology. It's owned by RCA-Hughes. They claim that five to
ten years of further development is necessary to provide a viable level
of service.
Fact:
 SkyPix does not own it's own satelite.
Fact:
 RCA-Hughes DOES own it's own satelite.
Fact:
 The satelite that RCA-Hughes owns is the same one that SkyPix is leasing
time on.
Fact:
 The Satelite recievers are as of September 15th 1992 still several weeks
away from the consumer. In fact at any time, they are always just a
"couple of weeks" away.
Fact:
 The people that leaked SkyPix's financial difficulties to the media are
none other than RCA-Hughes, fully realising the devastating effect this
would have on SkyPix's marketing.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims their quality is so high that everyone will want to own one.
Fact:
 Even satelite dish retailers aren't interested in selling them.

Claim:
 SkyPix only needs a 3 foot diameter dish to receive the signal.
Fact:
 At a recent demo in the United States, they used a five foot diameter
dish to demonstrate their system, yet claimed it was actually receiving
the signal on a dummy 3 foot dish.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims to have an easy payment plan.
Fact:
 They want you to set up a credit balance on your account so they can
 deduct your fees from it. In effect you pay in advance for the services.

Claim:
 SkyPix claims to have many upgrades in capability planned for the future.
 This includes the following;
 1. Home Uplinks to the satelite so you can send private messages to a
    friend or relative across the city or country and have it appear on
    their television screen are implied. In fact it will use your phone
    line.
 Fact:
    It would be prohibitive to pay for the electrical bill to uplink to a
    satelite dish for the average consumer. It takes power to do that sort
    of thing.
    Many areas also require you to be licensced before you can legally
    uplink a signal to a satelite.

 2. You will be able to do your banking, shopping, and playing Sega or
    Nintendo games over the SkyPix system.
 Fact:
    If it happens it will be over your phone line, similar to using your
    modem. However it's not over the dish, as SkyPix implies.
    This claim is simply misleading.
 3. High Definition Television.
 Fact:
    There is no standard decided upon as yet. So this is just wishful
    thinking.
 4. Pay per view.
    The principle behind this is you get to phone a number and request a
    program to be descrambled for your viewing. A special fee is added to
    your account automatically.
 Fact:
    Pay per view fees can be very high, often as much as $20.00.
    If the phone number you call is not a local or toll free number you
    will have added phone bills as a result.

The Rumour Mill:

1. SkyPix is bankrupt already and is using barely legal marketing schemes
   to gather cash to try and stay afloat (unlikely to succeed).
2. SkyPix is not and never was intended to be a viable scheme, and is
   actually a completely fraudulent scheme to garner money from gullible
   hopeful customers.
3. The most popular rumour is that SkyPix is actually manuipulating it's
   own dealers. They apparently are more interested in convincing the
   prospective buyers to "share" this "opportunity" than in selling the
   dishes. The idea seems to be that the buyer can buy a "Distribution
   Package" for $55.oo US, entitling them to sell the dishes. They are
   also offered "contact names" at a fee of $10. per contact, in minimum
   lots of 100 contacts. These contacts are simply people who have left
   their name, address and phone number when inquiring about Skypix.
   Included for the $10 fee is an information packet to be mailed to
   the "contact". Essentially they are not committing any illegal acts
   as everything that they take money for (Mailing lists essentially) is
   supplied. This whole thing is worked as a "pyramid" type scheme with
   each level in the "downline" having different pay out figures.


Final Points:

1. Dishes are not downwardly compatible. Since you cannot receive a low
   power satelite signal on a small diameter dish but you can receive a
   high power signal on a large dish as well as on a small dish, it makes
   sense to buy a regular 5 or 8 foot diameter dish anyway.
2. Satelite dishes are exposed to the elements all YEAR long. Get as long a
   standard warranty as possible. Avoid warranties that require you to pay
   a "maintenance" or monthly warranty fee.
3. If SkyPix as a company fails, goes bankrupt, etc. then you have paid for
   a system that CANNOT be used on any other system. It's worthless! You will
   not be able to sell it, as it would have no value or function.
4. Anyone can claim to be planning to do wonderful things in the future. As
   it's not a part of the contract, they don't have to live up to those
   claims.
5. Once you've bought a dish that can only be used on one system then you
   have bought into a monopoly. If the monthly subscription goes up to
   a very high rate, you are forced to pay as the alternative is to
   either sell your system (unlikely) or scrap it, taking the loss of
   the initial outlay for the dish and receiver.
6. Satelite Dishes require a decent stable mounting. The very least should
   be a solid, equatorial mounting, ideally with markings for Right Acsencion
   and Declination. These are the celestial equivalent or Lattitude and
   Longitude and are essential to aligning your satelite dish with a
   satelite. Beware of companies that have a tripod mounting or a simple
   alt-azimuth mount. Alt-azimuth is simply up and down, right to left.
   Equatorial mounts are aligned in the same orientation as the earth's
   angle to the satelites in orbit.
7. As of this writing, no SkyPix equipment is available for the consumer.
   They claim to be having trouble getting their chips for the receiving
   units from the manufacturer. Now, this is either because they can't
   manage the cash flow, or the chips are showing troubles in the
   development phase. Also, it's odd that they are farming out the
   construction of these "innovative" chips to a third party company
   for manufacture.
8. Item 7 above was written in june 1992. It is now September 26 1992
   and the equipment is still unavailable for the consumer. I have
   spoken to several Skypix distributors while compiling this article
   and a few of them are also now becoming disillusioned about what they
   have gotten into.
   They have been told that the equipment is all being "upgraded" and
   redesigned as a reason for the delay.

   As more information comes available I will update this file.
   v. 1.0  - October  1990
   v. 1.2  - December 1991
   v. 1.3  - June     1992
   v. 1.4  - September1992