Had C-band satellite as a teen. All the good channels locked. But if the satellite Spacenet 1 transponder 18 was locked, you could "fine tune" the reception from say, Galaxy 3 transponder 18 by holding the step up or down button, and manually swing the dish halfway across the sky to the same position where Spacenet 1 is. As the descrambler thinks you are watching a different satellite altogether, there is no more lock. And since you never actually visited a bad channel, no way to tell with history or last buttons.
How did you even find this out?
We knew that if you pressed the satellite button and channel up/down, it let you manually move the dish, and it didn't care how long you did it. There were also numbers to indicate the position of the dish. The rest was just sheer determination.
Had C-band satellite as a teen. All the good channels locked. But if the satellite Spacenet 1 transponder 18 was locked, you could "fine tune" the reception from say, Galaxy 3 transponder 18 by holding the step up or down button, and manually swing the dish halfway across the sky to the same position where Spacenet 1 is. As the descrambler thinks you are watching a different satellite altogether, there is no more lock. And since you never actually visited a bad channel, no way to tell with history or last buttons.
How did you even find this out?
We knew that if you pressed the satellite button and channel up/down, it let you manually move the dish, and it didn't care how long you did it. There were also numbers to indicate the position of the dish. The rest was just sheer determination.
Desperation
Respect.
Incredible.