Can anyone tell me how to convert a star choice receiver to a free to air receiver? I just think it would be neat to try.

If somebody told you this can be done, he was wrong.

Diogen.

with the price of FTA receiver being so cheap, I wonder why would you even try? You can buy cheap boxes for around $80.

Star choice is DCII, most free to air channels are dvb, not going to happen.

If you have a previously activated SC receiver you can re-use it to watch a handful of free channels on the SC satellites.

But, yes, as for using it for other FTA it won't work.

The dish and LNB can be used for FTA reception. If you have the old style "beer cans" (stacked LNB) then add 565MHz to the horizontal frequencies (this is what I have) and set the LO to 10750MHz.

I'm using one with a Blue Jay 2 to receive Galaxy 10R.

The only caveat is that you may be in an area with weak coverage on some or all satellites and therefore may not be able to get proper reception. I'm in Vancouver and I get 50-55% signal strength and do have some problem with rain fade (during heavy rain). On G10R, 11720V will be affected the most. The others don't seem to be affected.

Even with a 75E dish you'll be somewhat disappointed trying to watch FTA. The dish is simply too small. It'll work fine for the strong TP's (KUIL on AMC-4 is a barnstormer for example) but on Galaxy 10R you'll be missing quite a lot.

Much better ahead getting a 36" or bigger dish.

Depends on your location. I'm in Vancouver and It's working well. Ideally, yes, get a 33" + Ku Dish. But if you just want to get started and you are in an area with really good coverage, then the SC dish is good to tide you over.

Apparently these models, if already activated, can be used to receive unencrypted Digicipher II (I think this is the same as 4DTV.... not sure) satellite signals.

DCII is pretty common on C-band. This is not the same as DVB which seems to be more prevalent on Ku-band.

A Starchoice receiver can tune non SC DCII channels if:

You can mangage to load alternative maps without disturbing the keys.

You can fing a starchoce channel that matches the same specs as the channel you want to tune.

The security method can be received with out-of-network receivers.