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Who Needs a Satellite Dish When You Have a Wok?

Posted by samzenpus on from the sweet-and-sour-channel dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective? This is exactly how North Otago's newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down."

2 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Silly article: by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Rather silly article:
    • A dish, for best effect, had better be parabolic. Most Woks are not.
    • The $20K cost includes not only the $50 dish, but the feed horn, the Gallium-Arsenide MOSFET low-noise amplifier, downconverter, mount, and warranty.
    • You have to compare the downside-- if the Wok setup goes down for any reason, what is the cost per hour to the station? Initial purchase price isnt a very good barometer here.

    And this is not exactly new, mack in the 1970's we used to use $7 snow sleds to pirate HBO.

  2. Not a satellite?! by bobbagoose · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can this actually be considered a satellite transmitter as it is only beaming signal to a receiver on top a hill?