Ever wonder how satellite companies make their money? Well, other than that huge check you send them each month in exchange for their programming there are other clever ways satellite companies keep you from “borrowing” their services. One way they do this is by scrambling their satellite signals so that not everyone with a satellite dish and receiver box can pick up programming.
You may remember satellite descramblers from the good old days as huge satellite boxes that sat on your television and were connected to 18 foot satellite dishes, some of which had to be hand cranked. After a while, satellite companies began to notice that more and more people were purchasing satellite receivers. As premium and pay-per-view channels began to spring up satellite companies saw the writing on the wall.
First, the satellite companies charged you for your programming, and then they scrambled some of the programs so you had to buy another piece of equipment, or a chip to add to your receiver, to be able to watch the programming you had already paid for.
Generally, satellite programming was divided into two separate categories – Free to Air and...