BSB SMATV system (Decommissioned)

[A nonymous]

I had the pleasure of decommissioning an ancient BSB SMATV system today after the block had a shiney brand new IRS system.

The whole system was still live with all the lights on that should have been and the Terrestrial side worked fine as did the 19.2e feed from the second dish.

The old Channel master 60cm dish is going to get a second lease of life on the side of my house after i've reconditioned it, powder coated all the metal parts and repainted the dish face. I also need to fit replacement lnb and possibly the feed horn too as the old ones were for circular polarisation. Not sure if the feed horn will be any good for H/V polarisation though !

I'm not 100% sure how it worked as it was before my time, I'm sure some of the older more experienced members can let us know how it worked

:-beer

Nano

 

[Analoguesat]

Cor nice find.

Cant help you with it nano, I just love old kit!

 

[A nonymous]

I'm planning to donate it to that ye olde electronics museum if they want it

Just need to find the guys email address now

Or your more than welcome to it, i've got a few more to remove in the next few days. The channel masters mine though

I've also got an old 60cms Televes Dish that fed the 19.2e feed with feed horn and an old c120 lnb with the old Astra 1a frequency set :-rock

 

[Analoguesat]

Lol - can barely get in the spare room atm - it needs a damn good tidy out. Better not stick any more junk in it just yet!

Rewind Museum contact address:

_http://www.rewindmuseum.com/contact.htm

 

[satelliteman]

Nice result Nano

 

[2cvbloke]

I'd love to have the lot myself, but like Analoguesat, I ain't got the room...

Looking at the VHF stuff, does that work by piping it to old analogue cable TV boxes (or something similar) or was it used directly by TVs which had VHF tuning?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Almost. The five BSB channels were down converted to the VHF band , and then upconverted just behind the TV set in each apartment by another small box of tricks.

Installed and serviced a couple of them in the middle of London, not far from Russell Square.

The T30 units are still useful for blasting stuff round a large system

 

[A nonymous]

MMmmmm will have to knock on a few doors tommorow to see if there is anything still there

What am i looking for ?

 

[Channel Hopper]

MMmmmm will have to knock on a few doors tommorow to see if there is anything still there

What am i looking for ?

A BSB receiver or two..............

The downconverter at the head-end shifts the whole BSB satellite frequency into the VHF band, and the receiver powered a small upconverter sitting on the wall plate to bring the frequencies back up to IF.


The problem was the total number of full satellite channels that could be downconverted was limited to about seven, fine for the five at the time on BSB, but as soon as there were plans to increase this to ten (shortly before Sky took them over) the system was already obselete.

A lot of money down the pan for the manufacturer and stockists that year.

 

[A nonymous]

Well the old Channel master dish is back in use, even though its only temporary at the moment

Its all painted up nicely and fully restored back to its former glory with the adjusters unseized and working fine.

The only difference now is that it has a new Mti Supremline 0.2db LNB as the old channel master Circular polarity lnb is sadly no use to anybody anymore although it is now been used by the kids as a pretend lightSabre

Its been stuck on 13e on a temporary mount in the garden, held down with a slab .

(Analoguesat would be proud of this one )

All this so i could activate a new sub card. Apparently it could take upto 48hrs to activate and there's no way I'm leaving my dish (That feeds 3 receivers) parked at 13e for that long :-Nooo

Have to say i'm impressed with the old channel master considering its 18 years old

Quite good levels were obtained. Hopefully in the next few days it will have a permanent home on the side of the house on 28.2e :toke:

:-beer

Nano