In the summer of 1992 I could receive only three terrestrial channels (ARD, ZDF and Bayern 3) over an indoor aerial. As time passed by, I got bored with the choice of the three and the quality of the picture was quite poor anyway. During this Summer I mananged to convince my father to buy a satellite equipment.
What was about to follow, I never would have imagined!

So we bought a satellite antenna and an Amstrad satellite receiver from a hardware store in our neighborhood. The satellite antenna was anthracite colored, 60 cm offset type and made of steel. The satellite receiver AMSTRAD SRX 300 had an analog tuner being able to store 48 channels only. Also included was an LNB with a Local Oscillator Frequency (LOF) of 10.00 GHz and a feed of 60 mm! I have pointed my first satellite antenna on the two Astra satellites (1A/1B) on 19.2° East available at this period of time.

The enthusiasm about the new channels coming from outer space into my room was enormous. I spent lots of sleepless nights zapping in front of the TV. Two years later, the summer of the year 1994, I bought a second antenna in order to receive more satellite channels. The new antenna was black painted, 65 cm Offset type and the material was sievelike. The new LNB had a LOF 9.75 GHz (at this time only for low band Astra 1A-1D). The receiver AMSTRAD SRX 340 was a follow-up model of the first one. I have mounted the new antenna additionally to the first one in order to receive the satellites located at 13° and 16° East. Rotating between those two positions was done manually!

One year later in fall 1995 I replaced those two antennas with a new multifeed antenna. With this antenna I was able to receive the three satellites without having to move the antenna all the time. My first multifeed antenna was also an offset type, size of 85 cm, brand Gibertini, made of aluminium and had 3 LNBs mounted on it. For this antenna I used the old LNB with LOF 9.75 GHz (only low band) and pointed it on 16° East. The two new Universal LNBs with LOF 9.75 GHz/10.6 GHz were pointed on 13° and 19.2° East.
You can have a look at some pictures of this satellite equipment in my gallery.


The satellite receiver was a PACE MSS 300 with two tuners. Switching between 16° and 13° East was done on the second tuner using the infra-red signal of the remote control. This was a very funny procedure! I still have the infra-red switch, but I don't use it anymore.

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