Did anyone else find analogue more magical?

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It may have been possible in the past to take from Germany,France, Spain, Norway...when they emitted from analog transmitters.
 
A

Archive7

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Analogue TV was more challenging in the old days. I amazed my neighbors in the 80's when I bought two or three antenna to pick up TV from Israel, Jordan and Egypt and installed them on the communal mast high up on our 5 story building.
I used high technology then I had a potable TV 4.5" that worked on a battery and I used it to align the antennas myself instead of the usual shouting from down below.
Then I went around to each apartment to set up the new TV channels. All in all they were only 5 TV channels but they gave every one a lot of joy at the time.
 

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I think TV was so much better when things like this were in use, everything is just boring now, nothing magical.
And I think Jean Michel Jarre's - Equinoxe 5 is very fitting.
 

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Definitely - if it doesn't cost many hundreds of sovs!
 

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Definitely - if it doesn't cost many hundreds of sovs!
Not much at all. Just revision, I have the books for foundation, intermediate and advanced. I can loan them to you. The main difference is power levels, but on foundation you can tx 99% of the band's.
I have books that might help, it might be worth joining a radio club. I go to one some Fridays here, but if that's too far there are good ones in Bristol.
 

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Analogue TV was more challenging in the old days. I amazed my neighbors in the 80's when I bought two or three antenna to pick up TV from Israel, Jordan and Egypt and installed them on the communal mast high up on our 5 story building.
I used high technology then I had a potable TV 4.5" that worked on a battery and I used it to align the antennas myself instead of the usual shouting from down below.
Then I went around to each apartment to set up the new TV channels. All in all they were only 5 TV channels but they gave every one a lot of joy at the time.

Was/is it possible to pick up Cypriot TV from Israel? The main transmitters are high up in the Troodos mountains.

From the other side, I remember having a flick around with a pocket analogue TV in Cyprus around 10 years ago on holiday. You could receive Syrian TV in Band I and Band III, and countless Turkish channels across all the bands. It was difficult to tell which were being transmitted from the Turkish occupied part of the island and which were coming across from Turkey itself! I didn't manage to catch Lebanese or Israeli TV from what I remember but the balcony of our hotel room faced North East which wouldn't have helped.

Analogue in general was certainly fun, but I also find digital terrestrial quite interesting. I can take a USB dongle and a small indoor antenna abroad with me and receive an interesting selection of the local channels all over Europe. Especially interesting when it's ones that aren't easily accessible on satellite. In Iceland last week I was flicking through the limited FTA selection of RÚV HD, RÚV2 HD and Sjónvarp Simans, all of which I've never seen on satellite before. I think the SD feed of RÚV still exists on 1°W though doesn't it?
 

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I'm sat here with access to 1000s of channels, some in high def and some in 4K.

But it doesn't seem to seem as magical as when I had analogue.

There was something exciting about watching TV in near real time, with that analogue picture coming down from space.

Being able to watch really weak beams, even though the picture wouldn't be great and full of "sparklies" you could make something out, where now we wouldn't even get a lock or it would break up.

As much as "Sparklies" were a pain in the bum, it was something you would only ever see on satellite and a reminder that you are watching something analogue beaming down from space. Tweaking your LNB and dish to get rid of them, realising you eliminated all the white ones but there were some blacks. Or the a strong dark or light background showing the odd ones up, even on a strong transponder. Or when it rained.

Seeing encrypted channels, where now we get a black screen.

I miss those days :)
I thought analogue satellite TV was easier as in those days I just waved my satellite dish around and as soon as I located some sparklies I slowed the movement down till a picture came into focus. When digital satellite TV came about it was like a maths lesson with all those extra numbers needed to put into the receiver to receive a picture.
 

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I thought analogue satellite TV was easier as in those days I just waved my satellite dish around and as soon as I located some sparklies I slowed the movement down till a picture came into focus. When digital satellite TV came about it was like a maths lesson with all those extra numbers needed to put into the receiver to receive a picture.
Yes totally, wasn't multiplexes on transponders. And you weren't looking at a black screen waiting for a lock. Was so much more realistic :)
 

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In answer to the opening question No,

I much prefer todays scene with digital the only thing I miss about analogue was that I had Eurosport FTA @ 8 west for a couple of years,

The current Multi Streams from 5 west & 12.5 west are an added bonus so enjoy them while they last because the replacement satellites will have tight regional beams like Eutelsat 9B :( so that will be the end of French & Italian Multi-streams from these satellites for some of us in the UK,

In satellite when one door closes another opens & who knows what is around the corner :)
 

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I quite enjoyed analogue satellite, as it was fun sticking a frequency into my box and waving the dish about 'til I got something on the TV, then tuning in the various channels I was interested in, when that all went away, my interest in it waned, about the only satellite related stuff I've done recently, well, today in fact was remove the 160GB HDD from a Prehistoric DRX280 Sky+ box, no real reason why, I just did cos the uncle was throwing it out...:lol:
 

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In answer to the opening question No,

I much prefer todays scene with digital the only thing I miss about analogue was that I had Eurosport FTA @ 8 west for a couple of years,

The current Multi Streams from 5 west & 12.5 west are an added bonus so enjoy them while they last because the replacement satellites will have tight regional beams like Eutelsat 9B :( so that will be the end of French & Italian Multi-streams from these satellites for some of us in the UK,

In satellite when one door closes another opens & who knows what is around the corner :)
William-1, do you think that a 1 metre dish in England (Lincs) will be able to capture a usable signal when the new tight French beam is in service? Thanks, :)
M
 

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We will have to wait & see if it is anything like the tight regional beams currently in use @ 9 east,

If you place the current beam for Italy from 9 east & centralise it over France then the chances of reception with a 100cm dish are slim at your location,

FlySat Eutelsat 9B @ 9° East Beams
 

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We will have to wait & see if it is anything like the tight regional beams currently in use @ 9 east,

If you place the current beam for Italy from 9 east & centralise it over France then the chances of reception with a 100cm dish are slim at your location,

FlySat Eutelsat 9B @ 9° East Beams
I wonder if TNTsat @19.2 east will take the same route in future with tighter beams, its not my idea of a united Europe. I think that UK TV should be available to all Europe and likewise we should have access to their TV. I can see the day coming when I will have to use broadband TV services but I prefer satellite HD pictures as I have found them the best pictures along with stability. :)
 

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I remember watching MTV for the first time on Astra 1 after watching it in D2MAC for a number of years before that on 1W. This is when I first saw the evil of digital - overcompression and blockiness. And it's still a big issue (even worse) now. HD is marginally better but a lot still have horrible artefacts unless it's one of the big main channels. And now there's UHD... How long before we see blockiness on those?
 

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I remember watching MTV for the first time on Astra 1 after watching it in D2MAC for a number of years before that on 1W. This is when I first saw the evil of digital - overcompression and blockiness. And it's still a big issue (even worse) now. HD is marginally better but a lot still have horrible artefacts unless it's one of the big main channels. And now there's UHD... How long before we see blockiness on those?
What is the point of UHD when they are not fully utilising HD yet?
 
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