December 1996 Issue

December 1996 Issue Satellite Watch News December 1996

Victory For Canadian Test Card Dealers

Remember all the DBS test card dealer raids that took place in Canada back in June? SWN contacted Dave of Discount Satellite, one of the named defendants in this matter on November 19, 1996. Dave and I discussed the outcome of this hearing that was held in the Canadian Supreme Court Building in Vancouver, British Columbia. The following story as to what happened in the court room on November 19th, 1996 is written by the Dave of Discount Satellite Edmonton, Alberta, Nov 20th 1996

On Nov. 19th, several defendants, myself included, attended a hearing at the Supreme Court Building in Vancouver, BC to determine if the RCMP would be allowed to keep materials seized from several homes and shops across Canada in the raids of June 26, 1996. The results were fantastic, to say the least.

Apparently, on Nov. 1st, the first day of the hearings, the lead officer, one Corporal McGowan, looked so bad the prosecution felt they needed to get him off the stand. The supreme court did not agree. On same day it was noted that a plaintiff in the U.S. civil action in Seattle was present, and appeared to have directed the RCMP in some of the raids on Canadian soil. To say the least, the justice was not impressed.

In the testimony of Nov 18 and 19, The same RCMP officer was all but destroyed on the stand. In what I considered a scathing cross examination, the officer responded poorly to questions from all lawyers, and looked foolish at times. It was interesting that, on both days, there was a mystery man present. "Mr. X" was taking notes in shorthand during the entire proceedings. During one of the breaks, I and a few others pulled him aside to ask what paper he represented. He wasn't with a newspaper. We asked why he was there, who sent him? His response, "I am not allowed to say". I feel he was gathering information for DirecTv/News DataCom. The plot thickens.

In the decision, the judge made the observation that it was painfully clear the reputation of the RCMP has been compromised and that the RCMP have been duped by an American agency that has no financial interest in Canada. He was upset that an American company, that pays no Canadian taxes, has no right to broadcast into Canada, and is clearly breaking the law by accepting Canadian subscribers, could manipulate a proud agency such as the RCMP. He ordered all materials to be returned to the court for release to the rightful owners and awarded costs to the defense.

The decision is expected to be appealed but the outcome should remain the same. I wish he could rule on the other issues as well. The raids continue, the witch hunt resumes and the Canadian satellite business is going the way of the dinosaur, thanks to an oppressive government that could care less about what the Canadian public wants!

We are but a small group, fighting for our beliefs against the RCMP, CRTC, Industry Canada, US Customs, DirecTv/News DataCom and an assortment of high paid lawyers. I'll say it again, you can have my business, when you pry it out of my cold, dead, hands, but be ready for a battle first!

Return to Index SWN Editorial

Howdy

A lot has been happening around the country. Like the seasons of the year change,so does the software in the battery cards. 16.enc was ECM'd November 14th and by Saturday November 16th all was well again, with the release of Main17.enc. The great thing here is that it only took 2 days to have a new working file in the hands of the battery card users. Much better than 2 months don't you think?

From what I understand, a large consortium of folks, commissioned a new programmer to write new software used in the Battery Cards. The fee negotiated for this programmers successful efforts $20,000. A small fee considering the amount of battery cards that are in place and were not working prior to this programmers' meticulous efforts and agreement to create Main16.enc and now Main17.enc. It has been rumored that the programmer has not been paid the full amount negotiated for his efforts. This ultimately may create serious delays for future Main.Enc file upgrades to those who have not contributed their part of the programmers fee.

Battery Test Card Boot Strap program to be revised.

For security reasons, your Battery Test cards will have to be sent back to your dealer for a Boot Strap program upgrade when Main18.enc is needed. This will occur when the current Main17.enc file is ECM'd. The Boot Strap routine is a file stored in the Dallas ram onboard the battery test card. The Boot Strap program deciphers the encrypted Main.Enc file when it is loaded into the test card. This revision should greatly enhance the amount of operating time between ECM's

Satellite Watch News Web Page.

Yes, we finally done it! Jerry has spent a lot of time learning HTML and has created a SWN WEB site on the Internet. You can find the Satellite Watch News WEB page at http://i-star.com/dmorgand/

Sharon, Jerry, Jake, Rocky, Dean, Gene, and myself would like to thank you for your continued support and assistance in making the Satellite Watch News one of the leading satellite industry publications.

Wishing you and yours the best holiday season ever.

Return to Index Letters to the Editor
Hi Dan,
I sure do miss the DB-1 Satellite Radio Show. Would there be any chance of going back to C-band? My receiver does not have Ku-band. My dish is a 10-ft. mesh button hook, which would take guide wires and end up costing me too much money, because of fixed income and disability my entire life, I am now thirty eight years old.
What would it cost for an occasional audio (cassette) tape, I do not have a computer.
Could you send me the FCC address, so I could ask them some qustions about prices of satellite programming?
Thank you,
Friend Glenn
from PA

Dear F.G.
It would be nice to have the DB-1 radio show on C-Band as well as KU, however, the cost of satellite uplink and transponder time for C-Band is not within my budget.
Cassette tapes of the DB-1 radio show can be purchased for $9.00 which includes getting it to you via the good old U.S. snail mail.
The telephone number for the Federal Communications Commission district office in your area can be obtained by calling directory assistance for the P.A. area.
Hope this helps.

Dan

Dear Dan,
You've got a great publication, keep up the good work!
But please improve your delivery, I'm used to getting it around the 1st or 2nd, last issue was on the 10th!
One question: Will DSS ever get real adult channels? The XXX kind?
Sincerely,
R. Arce
Miami, FL

Dear R. Arce,
Thank you for the compliments on our publication. First let be update you on the great postal delivery. We have been mailing out the magazine a day or so later, by the 31st last month, so that will reflect a day or so delay. Other than that, the post office assured us that 7 days to any state is too long of a delivery time. Sharon has tagged your mailing (and a few other subscriber's) for a periodical watch, which means the post office will be tracking your mailing of SWN for the next few months, from the time it leaves our office, right through the time it arrives to your delivery point. Hopefully they will be able to determine why it takes so long to be delivered to your address. Thank you for your patience.
As to your other question regarding XXX programming on DSS,
I don't think that you will see any real hard core XXX programming offered by DirecTv, USSB or the DISH Network for quite awhile if ever. AlphaStar does offer one XXX adult service.

Dan

Dear Dan,
As a subscriber, I go back to the old days of Shaun Kinney (RIP) and have subscribed with all your good people since that time; keep up the good work.
I also subscribe to the NFL football package last season in order to watch our local team, only to find they blacked out the entire state for home games (that's the last hundred they will get from me).
My question is: I have my 010 board still receiving video only (it does blink a bit), but it will not lock on to test the NFL games on G-3. My calls to people in Canada have gone unanswered; They don't seem to be interested. There must be thousands like me out there with this problem. Isn't there software or hardware out there to sovle this problem and let us at least get a look at our team on Sunday?
Thanks for what you are doing
Ed
in Phoenix

Dear Ed,
About 2 or 3 years ago there was a VCII modification published in the SWN that used 2 toggle switches and allowed you to lock up the video for the NFL games. I don't know if it will still work or not however, I will try and locate that article and test the modification. If it works I will reprint it in a future issue of SWN.
Dan

Dear Dan & Co.
Please find enclosed a money order for another year's subscription. Each issue seems to be more informative and interesting than the past one. I have a few questions in regards to the VCII+ Will there be any gadgets available, or was Cyber-1 the only group doing this? What will be in store for the old VCII boards, will they be just fancy doorstops! And lastly, will the new DC+ be hacked like the DBS cards? Keep up the good work and have a merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.
R.Y.
Canada

Dear R.Y.
There still are a few folks working on a VCII test device for the old and plus boards, but not very aggressively. Why you ask? The demand for test devices seems to be in the DBS market at the present time. R.Y., maybe someone will suprise us and do something for the big dish owners soon. Wouldn't that be fun.

Dan

The following were sent to us via our E-mail address. If you would like to drop us a line over the internet our e-mail address is: dmorgandb@i-star.com
Dan,

Many Thanks!! I called my subscription in today. Your office was very helpful about a dealer I needed to contact. I was lost in internet sea until I contacted you kind people at Satellite Watch News!! I didn't realize how valuable your paper really is until now.
J.S.
N.C.

Dear J.S.,
Were always glad to help. Thanks for the kind words on the SWN.

Dan

SWN,
Just wanted to drop a note to say that I'm one who has had long dealings with Marty at CYBER-1 and never been dissatisfied. Sure he vacationed for a few weeks, but there was heavy legal stuff going on. Patience pays off. He's taken care of me, even to the point that I would not have expected. So all I would say is that it pays to treat people with respect and don't jump to conclusions. Enoy SWN. I'm a long-time subscriber.
Bob

Bob,
Well good for you, you must be the only one who Marty has taken care of recently. Our response to dealings with Marty is, We at SWN feel Marty should have at least contacted us regarding his situation. We were the one whose subscribers provided him business, granted we understand the circumstance of the legal ordeal he is going through, but we are the ones you have fielded his complaints for the past six months, either by phone calls or letters to the editor in our magazine. We tried in good faith for months to contact Marty to allow him to inform his customers, but no response. Unless we hear from Marty, all we can report is what we hear from his customers. Next time you have contact with Marty ask him to contact us, we would be more than willing to hear his side of the stories we have been receiving from his customers.

Dan
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DBS Pulse by Gene

Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc.'s parent company, Thomson Multimedia, was recently sold to Daewoo Electronics, a Korean company. Didn't know there was that much money in Korea! The last time I was there I remember stealing a chicken from a farmyard, and that their capitol city, Seoul, was a pile of rubble. Hmmm, they must have rebuilt it.

DirecTv is revising downward their rosy projection of sales for this fall and now say they won't reach their 3 millionth subscriber till sometime in early '97. From the onset, 3 million was their announced break-even point.

DirecTv's Eddy Hartenstein and other executives are complaining of a high churn rate of near 1.5%, possibly as many as 50,000 last September. And guess what?, Hartenstein blames the satellite professionals for writing paper resulting in high consumer loan defaults. He even has the gall to say the Christmas seasonal shift to more sales by CE dealers and less by satellite dealers will help their repossession and subscriber cancels situation.

As a hint of what is to come, AT&T ran a 3-day (Columbus Day Weekend) special of $99.00 with the purchase of DirecTv's "Total Choice" programming package. About 15% of all DSS subscribers have two receivers and their monthly administration fee will increase by 100%, from $1.99 to $3.99. They say the increase will yield an extra $600,000 per month, or $7.2 million a year.

The Echostar II bird is up and running at 119 deg and will provide more PPV, regional sports and business-to-business services, as well as initial testing of internet applications. Echostar III is slated to join Echostars I&II in 10 months.

Echostar, who plans to have one million subscribers by Nov 1997, is reported to be talking to the telephone giant, Sprint, about some limited partnership, ala DirecTv's deal with AT&T.

DISH networks Charlie Ergen has a "fireside chat" with dealers the first Saturday of each month. It is a live Q&A session; check channel 700 for times and details.

Amway's deal with Alphastar is dead, and now they are talking with Echostar.

There are about 6,261 DBS systems sold every day in the USA! How many are you professionals selling?

Return to Index Natasha's Views

Mutual Symbiosis - Politics and the Media
Mutual symbiosis is a biological interrelationship between two animals in which each derives something of value from the other, ensuring or enhancing survival. This relationship is normally observed in the lower species, snails and goldfish, for example. Another good example of two lower forms of life engaged in mutual symbiosis is politics and the media.

It wasn't always this way. There was a time when both politics and the fourth estate were considered admirable occupations. Children dreamed of growing up to be the President, firemen or baseball heroes. Nowadays few dream of the presidency or baseball. The times have changed. Why? The devolution of standards among members of the American media.

Take the 20th century for example. The U.S. presidents in the first half of the century were just as human, sinful, dishonest and flawed as those in the latter half, (Except for Calvin Coolidge, maybe, but wasn't he just a cardboard cut-out?). The media in the first fifty years; print, radio and later, television did their job competently, reporting the news and keeping America informed. What they did not do was dig into the personal lives of elected officials. It was mutually understood that details of one's personal life, finances and old romantic liaisons were not "news", and no one was elected to public offices because of them, or in spite of them.

In the fifties everything changed. Maybe it was due to the explosion of television, the competition between the young networks for top spot. Maybe it was the proliferation of the tabloid press, the birthplace of the slime-reporters that presently populate every media niche. Or maybe it was just the boredom of life during the Eisenhower years. But suddenly the media decided that America wanted dirt, dirtier dirt and more dirt. Dirt on criminals, dirt on Hollywood stars, dirt on anyone, it seemed; but politicians were still somewhat off-limits, at least till after they died.

During their administrations, FDR, Ike and even JFK were treated fairly gently by the main stream press and other media. Only after their deaths were their weaknesses, moral lapses and questionable activities made public. But after JFK, the media changed into a pack of ravenous, vicious animals, ferreting out every detail of the lives of elected officials, details which have absolutely nothing to do with a persons ability to do the job.

As a result, we have endured the administrations of some of the blandest presidents in the history of America. As the media digs deeper and deeper into the background of each potential candidate for high public office, the candidates must become even more bland, folks who have never done anything wrong, had an impure thought, kicked a cat or noticed that other people have nice spouses. There is no chance that a person of true vision and ability will ever stand a chance of running for president, or even be nominated under the present system. The people who would make the best politicians are, unfortunately, real people. They have lived real lives, had human feelings and experiences, made mistakes and learned by them.

So, as the personalities elected to high office become weaker, blander and less capable, our national prestige will continue to suffer. With such political weaklings forced to the top, our world leadership role becomes a laughing matter. The continual butt of international jokes. While here within our borders, our society continues to break down. With no strong, capable central personality in charge, no respected figure who inspires confidence, various groups and factions find it expedient to press their aims forward, knowing the government will cave in to political correctness, rather than make a hard decision for the good of all.

There are only two ways I can see to remedy this problem. One is unthinkable, as it involves constitutional changes limiting the freedom of the press. The other is probably just as unworkable, as it affects in the end, the god of America, MONEY! The media in general would have to establish a code-of-conduct and become self-policing. The big-wig media types, network presidents and publishing moguls, will have to get together and establish some working rules for media in general.

The sleazy tabloids will have to go back to "Martian Quints Born to Family Chihuahua" instead of "Fist Lady Establishes Sperm Bank for Socks". Television "magazines" will have to stay away from political subjects, who cares if Newt's BVDs are too tight? Even political news "round-tables" will have to stick to politics, not the presidents personal habits twenty years ago. The media feeding-frenzy will have to be quelled by firing all the slime types. After, all there are more slime-reporters than slime-lawyers, hard as it is to believe.

Maybe if potential political candidates can feel they can run for office on their records and abilities alone, we can get some folks into public office who can effectively implement the wishes of the electorate. As long as the nomination process and confirmation hearing process are affected by a media, whose staple is rumor, innuendo and inconsequential biographical incidences, we will continue to see the best people go to business postions, instead of politics. The business world is outcome based, where what you can do is more important than who you are. I hope to see the day when our politics are governed by the same principles.

The media wrongly assumes that, because the political sleaze sells so well, it is what we want as Americans. Not so, give us quality in TV and print and we will support it. We won't turn off the set because the lead story isn't about a politician's past dalliance; we won't stop buying the Enquirer because there isn't a major political face on the cover. The operative word here is Quality. Quality in the media will beget quality in politics. Continued dirt-digging and rumor spreading will continue to produce bland, ineffective politicos. A responsible media will give us politicians who are not ham-strung by political action groups, someone who is there on merit, not because he has no life.
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Product Review
The "Card Blaster"

The NorthSat Technologies">Card Blaster" NorthSat Technologies has developed an impressive new device for reading and reprogramming the stock DSS plastic access cards called The Card Blaster.The Card Blaster allows the user to read a master access card then clone as many additional plastic cards as they may need.One nice feature about the Card Blaster is that you are in charge of your own plastic master access card, which basically means that as long as you pay for the programming on your master plastic card, your clones will stay up and running.

To use the Card Blaster you will need to own at least a 386/33Mhz computer with a serial port installed. Just load the blaster DOS-based software onto your hard drive, plug the DB-9 connector into the serial port, plug the blaster power supply into a 110 VAC outlet, run the Card Blaster software and away you go. The software is menu driven with a total of four commands. (R)ead a card, (L)oad a card or E(X)it. The fourth command is to (S)ave a file after reading a card. On the Blaster there are three LED's, The green LED is the power on indicator. The yellow LED will light when you install the card in to the blaster slot.The red LED will blink when you are programing a card.

I give the card blaster a 5 star rating as it is very user friendly and it's design is excellent. One last note, the entire Card Blaster product was designed by North Sat Technologies, so support for your questions should be phenomenal.

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