Snow and ski - Birkie via satellite !

Okay, calm down it's not THAT good, but here's what I found out.

Checking the media info on www.birkie.com, I see that they are going to
upload a 30 minute feed of the start, finish, etc to the TV media via
satellite saturday afternoon. This is unencrypted and free to anyone
who has the equipment. What equipment? If you're into Free To Air (FTA)
satellite TV on the Ku band (1 meter dish and MPEG digital Ku band
receiver), then you'll be set (that's me!)

Here's the link:

http://www.birkie.com/placed2/index....88&volume_id=9

Here's the nitty gritty:

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Satellite Coordinates for Television Media

For television media looking for race footage highlights of the
American Birkebeiner Ski Race in Wisconsin on Saturday, Feb. 25, here
are the details for satellite coordinates from KBJR-TV, Duluth:

We intend to include video of the race start, the top men's and women's
finishers crossing the line and possibly post-race interviews with each
of them. NOTE: We will NOT be providing scripts for this material on
Saturday. Please refer to your wire services for top finisher names,
spellings, hometowns, etc. or check out the official race website
http://www.birkie.com/

AMERICAN BIRKEBEINER CROSS COUNTRY SKIING POOL FEED - VIDEO OPEN TO ALL

An on-screen courtesy for KBJR/KDLH-TV, Duluth, Minnesota would be
appreciated! Thank you. Race start location is Cable, Wisconsin. Race
finish location is Hayward, Wisconsin.

Saturday, February 25, 2006
ONE 30-MINUTE FEED WINDOW - TAPE WILL FEED CLEAN AND BE RE-RACKED AT
LEAST ONCE

Feed Time:

2:30-3:00pm, EASTERN TIME
1:30-2:00pm, CENTRAL TIME
12:30-1:00pm, MOUNTAIN TIME
11:30am-12:00pm, PACIFIC TIME

Coordinates:

Satellite: Intelsat America 6 (IA-6)
Location: 93 degrees West (Formerly TelStar 6)
Transponder: 1 D (one - "D" as in dog) (KU Digital)
Uplink Freq: 14021.375 MHz Horizontal
Downlink Freq: 11721.375 MHz Vertical
Data Rate: 5.500000
Symbol Rate: 3.978723
FEC: 3/4

SATELLITE TROUBLE NUMBER: 312-202-4832 (Technical trouble number only,
please!)

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I'll try to record it to DVD and if anyone want's to put up a
bittorrent from it, let me know (I can't do it from here). Again, this
is an open feed for the media, so there's no copyright infringment
here.

Also, remember that WOJB radio has an audio feed from the race saturday
(www.wojb.com) ... usually lots of interviews and "here they come" kind
of stuff, but interesting none the less.

So, if you can't join 'em, you can at least listen to 'em !

John Wilke
Milwaukee
(working all weekend)