97.7 Tasman FM adds ComRadSat to its programming resources

In the four years we've been on air 97.7 Tasman FM has gone from two regular broadcasters to some 25 or so covering 75 hours per week of original output. In the first twelve months, much of the unstaffed time was catered for with the 5CD changer on random shuffle... not ideal for keeping our loyal audience from tuning in to other stations in the wee small hours. So it was time to open up our programming options for day and night time with Community Radio Satellite (ComRadSat).

We'd always intended to take ComRadSat, especially after the CBF had accepted our request for assistance with the decoding gear, but sourcing a cheap dish was a bit of a challenge. Eventually we got in touch with a local installer of satellite eqipment who had a secondhand 1.8 metre offset dish that had been decommissioned from a hotel. It was a toss-up between that or a new 1.2 m metal dish for $200 less. We figured that the larger dish was worth the extra particularly as we need all the gain we can get at our latitude. The whole antenna installation incuding a digital LNB cost us $800. Not bad going and with a C/N figure of over 21 dB we're assured of good reception under all but the poorest conditions.

So, if your station is thinking of taking ComRadSat, consider tracking down an old Sky Channel dish or something similar. They're big, but so is the performance... and you can usually pick one up fairly cheaply.

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