What do people remember from the good ol` analogue days?

philh

I wish Screensport would make a comeback, couldn't get enough of the green and purple colour scheme!

I also remember trying to make out the Naz v Tommy Johnson fight on Premiere, as I was watching it through the analogue sparklies with it not being live anywhere else!

Lancelot

For me being able to set up an antenna using nothing more than a portable tv set.

And clearing 'Videocrypt' with a home made butchered Sly card and a couple of components as a Season interface with a 386 computer.
All seemed a bit more pirate like then


L

Channel Hopper

The evening closedown on Teleclub, showing some computer generated shot of a town at night.

The Nordic Channel promotion card

The Penguins on the Landscape channel

Russian Testcards in Secam

Skyscan 50 receivers, and before that the Luxor Mk2

N plugs and 50 Ohm cable

80kg kerbstones and lifting them up a ladder

Fergusson mechanical vane polarisers and the blue bomb LNB

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

philh

I remember we bought a big dish, probably 1.2m (it was about 1990 so I don`t remember exactly), Pace receiver etc, all from the local paper. We got it home and I spent the next week or so setting it all up after school (I would have been about 14 at the time), as my own little project as we hadn`t had satellite tv before. I couldnt wait to watch stuff from all around Europe and was well chuffed when I finally got it all set up (with a protractor from my pencil case for working out angles might I add ), and went in to watch it for the first time. It all powered up fine, but I only had a VERY sparklie Eurosport picture, and it made no difference how we adjusted it/where we pointed it. We decided it didn`t work properly so literally gave it away to a friend of the family who two weeks later said he was watching Discovery and all sorts and it all worked perfectly. I then found out satellite signals are not miraculous and do not pass through solid objects, hence me realising the forest behind my house into which I had pointed the dish would have accounted for my poor signal. How I laughed

waverider

I wonder If soon we will be having a similar conversation about the current digital! With all the new encryptions coming of age!

greg-h

its all well and good but analouge is still out there and still facanates me i also set up the dish with a protractor

JohnC

So much excellent entertainment (virtualy every night) from the Middle East as well as Europe, but especially all the stuff on the Turkish channels...

That warm log fire that burned all night on one of the German Channels.

gameboy

The end of the original Eurosport - I still have the video of the last night - superb!

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Only he who does nothing, does nothing wrong.

BGonaSTICK

What's analogue?

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gameboy

You should do a search before asking such a basic question - hee! hee!

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Only he who does nothing, does nothing wrong.

Channel Hopper

Almost forgot -

sparklies,
Wide and narroband tuners
Threshold extension devices


all hard to come by nowadays

__________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Rod Hulls Aerial

I'll admit to using a season card with a clapped out 25Mhz laptop to get "Eurotica"..
Voyager was the software of choice, mind you it meant moving my dish which was perched on bricks to 16 degrees East every midnight..
I also had one of this phase shifting boxes for another movie channel, was it TV1000 ? I cannot remember now.
I also loved looking up teletext on TV Dubai to see when the swing bridge raising times were !!
bonkers...

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What's got four legs and goes "shhhhhhhhhh"?
Rod Hull's Telly......

gameboy

Without that box you could see the picture through diagonal lines that move up the screen - very strange after a few minutes viewing.

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Only he who does nothing, does nothing wrong.

philh

Just remembered the views from space that used to be on a German channel, I think it was Bayerisches Fernsehen?

Analoguesat

JohnC - the log fire is still shown occasionally on Super RTL analogue & digital!

Philh - Space Night is still going strong on both Bayern channels. Every Sunday evening they havethe same clips on - space views from orbiting craft. Excellent

Old Satellite

One of te greatest challenges was to recieve discovery on a 1.8 without threshold extension devices and sparklies then it was 1988.


Still great however today is that with analogue signals and good threashold extension you can still recieve in the uk,the Nasa Tv channel direct from the US beam on AM6 72.0 West very Low on the Horizon for majority of the UK and still needs a 3.5 mtr but good fun and challenge.

The good old Sky Videocrypt, the old blue LNB 1.8 db if you were lucky and a life time of replacements, in the garage.

Echostar 4500, Open up the receiver and adust the threashold till the picture starts to break up to catch that very very weak signal. and its solid construction, My own 4500 is from 1988 and is still working perfect including the remote.

Pace reciever Power supply failures and thier repairs.

Uniden recievers - what can I say

Polorotors freezing in cold weather, - hair drier to thaw out and fix

Great lot of fun and tears at the same time that is analogue- ps check out C band Analogue still a lot of fun

Regards

Old Satellite

philh

You see, thats the problem with the limitations of Sky Digi, you miss out on all these glories!

PoloMint

The SES documentary thing on Astra 1 where they described the wonders of satellite.

Not having internet so having to buy magazine for frequencies.

Doing a school project on 'embedded systems' and turning it into a 'how to hack videocrypt' guide (which I actually got a good mark for )

Wanting to get Astra 1D so I could watch 'Sky Scottish'!

Having to wait a few seconds after changing a channel for it to decrypt.

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'All you need is duck tape and WD40; if it moves and it shouldn't, use duck tape - if it should move and it doesn't, use WD40'

Lancelot

EarthViews VI is the current fave But III used to have some strange acid jazz
soundtrack. It made Sat monsters out of a few friends of mine who were in awe
of the AV experience at the time and are still out there doing it. Good old BR

gameboy

The 'Landscape channel' with helicopter rides over deserts, cities and landmarks all accompanied with classical music.

Perfect for the Dentist waiting room....

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Only he who does nothing, does nothing wrong.

Topper

Yes I remember watching the news and sport uplinks, I remember seeing Damon Hill start a Friday morning practice and only get to the first corner in his Williams and the front wheels splayed apart in different directions, 'cos the mechanics forgot to put the top trackrod bolts in, you didn't see that on any broadcast from Eurosport or anyone else for that matter. Happy Days

les74

Filmnet and think it was rtl through a decoder now think the pictures were awful but at the time thought they were great! still got a couple of films with the filmnet logo on. and was it called tuti fruiti on rtl, wonder why i watched that!!!!!

gameboy

I can think of several reasons!

Whatever happened to it - remember that Polsat tried it but never seen it after that.

Most of the German I know came from that programme - Heiß und kalt!!

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Only he who does nothing, does nothing wrong.

JohnC

Boy-o-boy.....
More comfy nights by a warm fire...!!!
Nostalgia!!.... Nostalgia!!....
Then of course was the never ending train journey with the camera purched on the front of the train.... I think thats still shown sometimes.

rob12770

well, i am trying to get back into satellite stuff, but its hard when all i know is analogue, i had a sky and d2mac setup, and had the likes of tv1000, a great channel, good movies untill 12:00 then a hardcore channel.. pity i cant get the info i need :>(