Our Stinkin' Satellite System

Years ago when we purchased the Prevuze Compound the previous owners(when they owned it, it was the Pre-Prevuze Compound) had installed a satellite dish on the perimeter of the property. The Compound is located far enough from a major metro area that OTA TV signals are "iffy" and were more so back then.

The old dish which we "inherited" was made of fiberglass (a.k.a. plastic that weighs a ton). We played around with it and learned how to use it and decided we liked it. And, one of the advantages we got from it was we discovered a day-ahead feed of Days Of Our Lives. Long story short, that led to an early form of Prevuze, which led to this blog, which we began five years ago.

We found the old dish useful, but its weight and small diameter caused problems so we jumped into the "modern" big-diameter mesh dish market and had all new equipment installed. (These dishes, by the way, are sometimes called a BUD – Big Ugly Dish).

That system worked fine for us for a few years and by that time this website was going strong. Then, apparently, one day I said something that offended the realm of Heaven and we were struck by lightning. We had an electronic meltdown that made the Melaswen fiasco look like a small short. That disaster not only zapped all our computers, CD players, DVD players, recorders and whatnot, but it also completely fried the "new" satellite receiver.

I think that time Prevuze was down for at least a week. And, of course, the BUD technology being practically ancient, we could no longer get the receiver we had before, so, thanks to Mr. Insurance Man, we upgraded that to something called 4DTV.

Then a year ago, DOOL went digital and we once again had to upgrade to a converter that would allow us to see the new signals. Again, Prevuze was down for several days while we made the conversion.

Our satellite cable is above ground due to the long distance and rough terrain between the dish and the receiver. So, in the interim, we've had trees fall on the cable and sever it, animals chew through it and various other catastrophes.

In other words, while the Satellite has been useful, it has also been a bigger pain the butt than Maggie Horton when you're trying to keep a secret.

If you've been with us any time at all, you are aware we've dutifully tried to keep the thing in repair to the point there is almost nothing our overpriced repairman Norris can do if anything else goes wrong. A few weeks ago we lost the signal and we had Norris come in and install even more new equipment to increase our signal strength.

By that time I thought our troubles were over. Then, whammo, two days this past week the signal goes down like Kate Roberts on a first date. When that happened, I didn't know what the deal was. I can tell by surfing around that the system is working properly. Other channels come in extremely well, but we just couldn't receive DOOL.

Then on Wednesday morning, like magic, the signal came back looking as good as ever.

So I said all that to say this: these old satellites can be tricky little things. The satellite we scrape the DOOL signal off of is, of course, a Canadian satellite and "points" toward Canada. Each satellite has its own "footprint" and my thinking now is the Prevuze Compound is on the fringe of the "footprint" for the Canadian satellite).

With all the changes, upgrades and repairs we've made to this system it seems to be working well and I just think our troubles this week were caused by conditions which made us unable to receive the signal in a fringe area. I think we're stuck with that problem and from time to time we're just not going to get the signal.

I guess we'll just have to live with it and when the signal fades we can wait it out until we get it back. On occasion, if the signal fades for long enough, I'll try to get hold of the Canadian broadcast and update you somewhat in advance, anyway. But recapping the Canadian Broadcast on a long term basis wouldn't be feasible. It's a lot more work and a bigger pain in the butt than Maggie Horton when you're trying... oh, already used that one.

So to recap all that Lucas Horton-esque wordiness: After all our troubles this week, our satellite system seems to be working well and we just have to face the fact that being on a fringe area there will be some days we don't get the signal. When that happens, bear with us and we'll ride it out together.

Man, I could have saved a lot of typing if I'd have said that in the first place.

Make it a good weekend and we'll see you on Monday, as long as we get a signal.

NOTE – you can now follow Prevuze on twitter at: http://twitter.com/prevuze Prevuze II has a video of the daily show previews, which should be available by noon (EST) on any given day. To see Prevuze II: CLICK HERE