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== C Band Equipment ==As mentioned in our [[Television Satellite Dish Reference]] page, you should consider buying used equipment. Due to the popularity of digital satellite systems, people are selling or sometimes giving away their old C band equipment. Two excellent, used receiver brands to look for are General Instrument, Drake, and Uniden. Avoid systems made prior to around 1992, off brand equipment, and broken systems. Popular brands will usually mean that a large stockpile of repair parts are available. Make sure the receiver is capable of receiving C band and Ku band. You should be able to get around 1000 channels if you have a receiver capable of both, and most receivers are.There are channels that you can receive "in the clear" which means that they are not scrambled. These channels are free for you to view. There are FTA (Free to Air) channels (not scrambled) that you can receive, as well as network feeds known as "wild feeds." Unlike small dish systems, C Band subscription programming (the stuff that's scrambled) may be purchased "A La Carte". You can pick and choose to pay for only the channels you want. This way you don't pay for and subsidize the garbage that isn't worth paying for, or may even be offensive to your belief system (ie Bravo and MTV). C Band programming can be less than half the yearly cost when you consider the the channels you actually watch.Just to elaborate more on A La Carte programming, you will likely find that digital providers such as Dish Network claim to offer it. Be advised, as a practical matter, paying only for channels you want to watch is a foreign concept to DBS. DirecTV and DISH offer very limited a la carte choices. Whereas A La Carte is standard in the C-band programming business. Virtually all programming providers allow a la carte subscriptions with only a minimum channel number, usually five, required.One big advantage to C-band equipment is that you will continue to have something to watch even if you don't pay your subscriber bill. As mentioned above, the FTA stuff will still be there for you to view. Digital providers will shut you off completely and you will have nothing to view if you don't pay them. Your Dish Network or DirecTV equipment is useless unless you pay for a subscription, while your C-Band equipment always remains useful even without any subscription.