All posts by Michael Rogers
Below are all of Michael Rogers's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Lucia and Sergio : the EU confers free movement of goods and services. It is an outrage that this is not deemed to include free access to all TV on the same terms as in the prime target country. It should be possible to register a Tivu or Sky Italia box to a home address in Italy (eg family there) and hand-carry it to another country within the Hotbird footprint. If you are required to plug the box into a phone socket, there might be a problem as "they" would then know where you are :-) It should be feasible for a solictor to challenge dish restrictions imposed by a landlord, in terms of EU law and directives and, not least, in terms of human rights. But I have not heard of anyone challenging this. Some Councils allow tenants to receive satellite TV from their countries of origin; this might be a relevant precedent. Last resort : if you have a south-facing window, you could mount a "portable" dish on a tripod inside and point it at the satellite. In fair weather, this would work. Likewise, if you have a south-facing balcony you could do the same. The critical issue would be that the dish would have to be a non-permanent installation, eg on a movable tripod which is taken inside at irregular intervals. Far from ideal as it would have to be aligned to the satellite each time, but that is what I would do if in that position. Best wishes!
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Fadi, if the other box is providing a full service, try the factory reset on the one that is not. Then tune in the Huntshaw multiplexes manually (or the Barnstaple relay, if that is the one your aerial is pointing to).
If you also have or want SKY or FreeSat, the dish needs an unimpeded line-of-sight to 28°East of South at about 25° angle of elevation (ie no trees, buildings or hills etc). The dish can be mounted anywhere with this line-of-sight. The most accessible position permitting this is recommended for ease of access for checking alignment etc after storm winds etc.
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KMJ and jb38 offer expert advice. I am blessed (I think) with no chance in my lifetime of >1Mb/s broadband or 4G, or interference thereby, but feel for all who might be impacted by "retune, retune, retune" between now and then. Most TVs and boxes can be retuned by factory reset or manual multiplex selection or unplug-watch-the-tuning-bar-then-replug-the-aerial when guessed when the desired multiplexes might be due (can be fun or frustrating). The Vikings would have designed this better... The good news is that we will all gain invaluable frustration-derived experience to inform future IQ-max retuning skills when the 700Mhz band is booted down to 600Mhz so as to enable 4G for celebrity income-level users. Co-channel interference, what is that, pray?
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Craig and Marta, look further back in this
thread to find useful information. You could be lucky with the bigger dish, which could be pointing at 13°E. If not, it could probably be realigned. Italian TV is on the Hotbird satellite at 13°E. With access to an address in Italy you will be able to get a Tivu receiver registered to that address and watch all the main Italian channels. See previous postings. You will probably need help from somebody knowledgeable about satellite installations to align the dish and set the system up. Good luck!
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Arthur, put it down to progress in cahoots with climate change. It'll all be fine when the autumn storms breeze in...
Alternatively, register for a French evening class at your local friendly FE college :-)
The difference between tv sets will be due to longer aerial cable losses and receiver parameters.
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IF I could receive all the AM and FM stations I am used to in equal, if not better, reliability anywhere in the house on a portable DAB receiver with telescopic aerial and battery longevity, I would be a happy bunny. I understand this was implemented by Klingons millenia ago...
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James, you do not indicate your location, but if elevated, you will indeed get the Caradon muxes which are not co-channel with others within range. So your idea of using the Croyde relay for the PSB muxes and Caradon for the COMs is wise. You might also receive the COMs from Huntshaw Cross - or even from Wales (Preseli, Carmel or Wenvoe), depending on your location and elevation. Depending on the the two frequency bands, you may be able to to use a combiner to feed signals from two aerials via one cable to the TV or freeview box antennate input socket.
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4G radio is attractive for posers, footballers, bankers etc. For the rest of us, the monthly cost is prohibitive. Internet radio is ok-ish, but one is tied to a computer or mains-powered receiver and portability is limited by the wifi signal. (A rechargeable battery-powered receiver is an obvious compromise, but the NiCd or NiMH battery pack ain't cheap and needs frequent recharging and ere long replacing.) And some of us have unreliable skinny-band which drops out frequently and needs a reset to get going again within a few minutes or so. We are stuck with low bit-rate DAB now - too much has been invested for yet another change in the near future. DRM and DRM+ may be seen as more attractive in years to come. They should have been adoped years ago. By now we would have low-drain battery-powered receivers with most of the advantages of quality and portability. If a mischievous sunbeam strikes Mother Earth, all this will be, well, academic...
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... and it might persuade the BBC to add more DAB fillers for BBC local and regional radio. On the other hand, making the technically relative simplicity of diy DAB so public, as Ofcom now has, could lead to saturation problems in some areas.
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Sunday 26 May 2013 9:47PM
Ilfracombe D3&4, fed from Huntshaw, has likewise moved down to clear the 800MHz band. But so has Big Bully across the water. So CCI remains. The extra 3dB (how kind) will help a few, but only a few. This is but a wisp of what is to come. France is now urgently considering clearing 700MHz so as to trickle-feed the state's depleted coffers, as reported by Le Monde. Ofcom is like-minded and may well be forced to follow suite so as to minimise CCI in the South from across Le Manche. It could get real cosy when
all which was formerly spread over the 800 and 700 MHz bands has to share beds in the 600MHz band..