Did anyone else find analogue more magical?

RustySpoons

RustySpoons

Sleepy Hollow
My Satellite Setup
50E - 30W
2x CM 1.2m Polar Mount/Jack
65E- 65W
Gibertini 1m OP100 - STAB HH100 - Inverto Black Ultra 0.2 Twin
Mutant HD51
Edision Primo IP S2
Dreambox DM800HD
Venton Unibox HD2
Sony Bravia 55" 4K
My Location
South Wales
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 fondly recall the monochrome 405 line days before Satellite TV was even a thing.

If you fell asleep in front of the box, you were woken up by the National Anthem ,followed by silence and the picture fading to a small white dot.
 
Lazarus said:
I fondly recall the monochrome 405 line days before Satellite TV was even a thing.

If you fell asleep in front of the box, you were woken up by the National Anthem ,followed by silence and the picture fading to a small white dot.
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Some 405 line films on the construction of the 405 line network from the builing of TX's to its closure on the 'ITV Archive' on YouTube
 
..... and you had to get out of your chair and physically push a clunky button to change between two, three or four channels (depending upon exactly which year it was).
 
Analogue wins any day for me. Hence why I am pithing about with HackRF to revive obsolete equipment and encryption systems.

I even use HackRF as a second monitor to watch videos from my computer via an analogue satellite receiver!
 
Lazarus said:
..... and you had to get out of your chair and physically push a clunky button to change between two, three or four channels (depending upon exactly which year it was).
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Those of us who could pick up cross-border stations had by it's height in the late 90's at least eight channels to choose from, BBC1 NI, BBC2 NI, UTV, Channel 4, RTÉ 1, Network 2, TV3 and TG4. Then Belfast and areas near it also had Channel 5 for nine channels while in around Derry city there was also the local Channel 9 which gave viewers there ten different analogue channels terrestrially.
 
Captain Jack said:
Analogue wins any day for me. Hence why I am pithing about with HackRF to revive obsolete equipment and encryption systems.

I even use HackRF as a second monitor to watch videos from my computer via an analogue satellite receiver!
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You should be able to get GB3ZZ where you are, have you tried? It's off air currently as they are doing some work on site.
 
Captain Jack said:
Help me out here - what is GB3ZZ? I found GB3ZZ - Severnside TV Group's 24cm Television repeater but not quite sure how I can tune into these frequencies on my TV (unless I use a satellite receiver but then sat receiver expects FM modulated signal, not AM).
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Yes that's it, the HackRF or a sat receiver with LNB power switched off and an antenna connected to it. For the DATV signal.
What are you looking a that's AM?

Have you been to any Radio rallies, you see quite a bit of old satellite stuff.
 
RustySpoons said:
Yes that's it, the HackRF or a sat receiver with LNB power switched off and an antenna connected to it. For the DATV signal.
What are you looking a that's AM?

Have you been to any Radio rallies, you see quite a bit of old satellite stuff.
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Terrestrial ATV was VSB AM modulated, while satellite was FM modulated, so don't think one will work 100% with the other. I'll fire up the satellite receiver and see what it catches when it's back online. I am sort of on the right side of Bristol for this (if this is transmitted from Filton, like they say), so stand a chance.

Can you receive this from your QTH?

Never been to radio rallies - where/when are these held? Wouldn't mind visiting one.
 
Captain Jack said:
Terrestrial ATV was VSB AM modulated, while satellite was FM modulated, so don't think one will work 100% with the other. I'll fire up the satellite receiver and see what it catches when it's back online. I am sort of on the right side of Bristol for this (if this is transmitted from Filton, like they say), so stand a chance.

Can you receive this from your QTH?

Never been to radio rallies - where/when are these held? Wouldn't mind visiting one.
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This is DATV but some do ATV, most will be FM if amateur, as the ATV stuff will be in 70cm band usually.

Yes can get this here on a Satlink 6906 with a small antenna. But this is currently offline temporarily as they are moving things around.

Their rally is at Frome in July.

I can PM you a list or link of all the rallies coming up this year.
 
So this is digital ATV rather than analogue and I'll need to use a digital receiver, right?

Yeah, please post a link - will be interesting to see!
 
Yes, many Russian and Turkish analog terrestrial TV channels here at good tropo conditions

 
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Captain Jack said:
So this is digital ATV rather than analogue and I'll need to use a digital receiver, right?

Yeah, please post a link - will be interesting to see!
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Yes this one is Digital ATV, but there are analogue ones locally too. Or we broadcast our own TV simplex to each other if not using a repeater.
 
RustySpoons said:
Yes this one is Digital ATV, but there are analogue ones locally too. Or we broadcast our own TV simplex to each other if not using a repeater.
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That's very interesting. I never really looked into Ham transmission as it was mostly radio and it's not my thing. TV, on the other hand, is... Looks like there's a Bath ATV as well, which I can try catching. Will a bog standard stick antenna work or will I be better off getting a 23cm Yagi and sticking that on the roof/in the loft?

Also, where can I find transmission times (assuming it's not 24/7)?
 
Captain Jack said:
That's very interesting. I never really looked into Ham transmission as it was mostly radio and it's not my thing. TV, on the other hand, is... Looks like there's a Bath ATV as well, which I can try catching. Will a bog standard stick antenna work or will I be better off getting a 23cm Yagi and sticking that on the roof/in the loft?

Also, where can I find transmission times (assuming it's not 24/7)?
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They should publish it on their website, most have something running 24/7 like a test card.
Ideally you need a 23cm Yagi, but you may be lucky in your area?
Or for the microwave stuff a small homebrew antenna or modified LNB.
If you sit a simple test "Foundation Licence" you could send TV to the repeater or other people:)

This might be useful:
TV RepeaterList
 
Captain Jack said:
Wonder how far HackRF will transmit...
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A few people use HackRF to Tx, not sure if they are using amplifiers.
You can keep analogue alive now CJ, lots of things to do :)
 
popovp said:
Yes, many Russian and Turkish analog terrestrial TV channels here at good tropo conditions

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Wow! I'd love to pick up things like this, I wonder if any analogue sat stuff gets to the UK on Tropo.
 
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