Remember something called "D-exing"?

[Saturlight]

I may have spelt that wrong, but way before satellite was available in around 1977 there used to a small time magazine in which people used to wait until the summer and watch TV abroad in the UK, mainly German channels like ZTF or something.

Hey, I was a kid...but does anyone still remember this "hobby"? I note during the summer months even now we get TV signals from Germany and Holland via an analogue TV signal.

 

[Analoguesat]

Dx-ing - reception of tv and/or radio channels over long distances.

 

[2cvbloke]

You can still do that today, asdigi (one of the lesser seen users on here) can pick up a few foreign digital and analogue TV channels in the right type of weather and some radio stations if he tweaks his aerial just right, but personally, I ain't too fussed about foreign terrestrial signals...

 

[Channel Hopper]

Wrong forum, but why ask ?

 

[Saturlight]

Wrong forum, but why ask ?

What's wrong in asking? I just wondered if anyone here remembered doing it...

I know I did. It was fascinating when satellite wasn't available. Living in the North East, I could only get Yorkshire, Border, and Grampain TV when the summer was on, or no clouds...

And why is it the wrong forum? It's a "retro" hobby", isn't it???...

 

[Analoguesat]

Down at my folks place at one of the high spots in Staffordshire I used to get Anglia strong as anything off the Sandy Heath transmitter during high pressure.. The aerial was tied to the bedroom window sill and pointed roughly eastwards. One one memorable evening I had Dutch TV as well.

I once had Granada (very weak and not watchable) but that was it for analogue tv successes. Nowadays its not really a challenge getting the same stuff off satellite.

Never could understand why my folks didnt like the idea of big aerials festooning the walls so I could watch Anglia more often

 

[pgh13]

Hey, I was a kid...but does anyone still remember this "hobby"? I note during the summer months even now we get TV signals from Germany and Holland via an analogue TV signal.

I remember building a frame aerial (7 turns of wire around the outside of 2 bits of wood aranged in a 'X' ) which was about 1.2m x 1.2m to get better reception from Caroline and RNI when the North ship had closed down for the night

 

[pgh13]

EEEE, what you had to do in those days to listen to pop music.....and you try to tell these youngsters with their x-pods and Iboxes and they don't believe you! :-)

 

[Channel Hopper]

What's wrong in asking? I just wondered if anyone here remembered doing it...

I know I didAnd why is it the wrong forum? It's a "retro" hobby", isn't it???...

DXing is still carried out these days, radio amateurs all round the world are tweaking little denco coils on their hets, and playing with masts that really should have a few more guy lines on them.

Whilst it is true that the long distance part is relevant to satellite reception, the use of parabolic dishes is frowned upon by a lot of the radio fraternity as a 'cheat' , and only dipole/yagi/periodics should be used.

Radio amateurs also have access to the transmission side of the hobby, once they have passed an exam or two on the subject, (satellite viewers rarely get a chance to uplink), and one thing that has changed in many years is the loss of Morse code as a compulsory part of the examination (though many still use it).

Earlier this year I did post a couple of links to the more interesting sites , but I cannot find it at the moment.

 

[Saturlight]

Down at my folks place at one of the high spots in Staffordshire I used to get Anglia strong as anything off the Sandy Heath transmitter during high pressure.. The aerial was tied to the bedroom window sill and pointed roughly eastwards. One one memorable evening I had Dutch TV as well.

I once had Granada (very weak and not watchable) but that was it for analogue tv successes. Nowadays its not really a challenge getting the same stuff off satellite.

Never could understand why my folks didnt like the idea of big aerials festooning the walls so I could watch Anglia more often

I tell you how I discovered it...I was watching the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977, and noticed how there appeared to be a second channel slightly visable "underneath" BBC1. As a kid, I wasn't allowed to touch the telly, but I did, and tried to tune in the channel again...and in so doing I discovered loads of analogue channels like Yorkshire, Border, Grampian, BBC2 Scotland, ZTF, loads more coming and going, but never staying longer than 10 minutes.

I continued tweaking my knob for a good few years after that.

 

[Saturlight]

Cheers, Channel, I fort you was telling me off.

 

[spiney]

We used to have a huge Bush "baffleboard", radio, with full shortwave, you'd literally spin the knob (huge flywheel inside), across the bands, and hear broadcasts from all over the world, plus much mysterious other stuff ...

Pure magic!

Now, you just select whatever-it-is on the Internet .... the magic has gone!

 

[Channel Hopper]

Cheers, Channel, I fort you was telling me off.

I could ban you if I really was telling you off

 

[Saturlight]

I could ban you if I really was telling you off

POWER! POWER! I SAID POWER!

Cheers.

 

[Saturlight]

...plus much mysterious other stuff ...

Like wot?

 

[Yeshi]

Dont know if this is the same but, if i really try i can pick up s4c wales not really a big catch but what else can i catch around here lol...

too much hassle for me.. rather it just be there so i can watch it.. sack peeing about with it

good subject though.

reminds me of CB radio... mum used to have one in the 80's.. stupid big ariel on the back of the house :| in hot summers days you could pick up europe.. futhers we heared was malta. we could hear them but they couldnt hear us.. apparently we didnt have a big enough ariel lol... the thing was 20ft.. now of course cb has died... started dying when kids where appearing.. people stopped going on it.. and then it died... is there anyone actually using cb on here ??

 

[Saturlight]

You should have been there in the summer of 1978...it was a hot summer - not like 1976, but still hot. And all those clear skies...the analogue waveband was going bonkers. We lost most of the main channels, BBC1 and 2, ITV (there were not Channel 4 or 5 then!!) to foriegn channels, but strangely no sound...hmm.

Never could pick up the sound. But now I can. I just tweak my knob today and found a German channel wiff sound. Analogue of course...

 

[Lancelot]

But now I can. I just tweak my knob today and found a German channel wiff sound.

Generally happens the other way round these days



L.

 

[Saturlight]

Yeah, I getcha! Quite a lot in fact on Hotbird. It's not called hot for nowt!!! ;)