Pirate TV

[fergyc]

With the digital switchover nearly complete I haven't heard anything about Pirate TV. I know there was at least one person who tried this when America went through the same process, broadcasting YouTube videos on channel 14 in New York.

Many of us use RF modulators for our satellite boxes so a few boosters daisy-chained up to an antenna could probably do it without interfering with any channels (for now!)

Not suggesting anyone try this mind as it's probably illegal but just a thought.

 

[rolfw]

Not probably illegal, definitely illegal.;)

Even when all analogue channels across the country are finally removed, home broadcasting would still have the possibility of interfering with legitimate broadcasts and daisy chaining amplifiers would simply add noise to the signal and increase the chance of interfering, a commercial standard broadcast amplifier would need to be used.

Unlike local pirate FM radio broadcasts, which take advantage of omnidirectional receiving antennae, the majority of TV antennae on properties are directional, so you'd need to be pumping it out at relatively high power for those antennae which are not pointing at your transmitter and you'd run the risk of overloading masthead amplifiers and distribution amplifiers in close proximity, plus analogue signals would be horribly ghosted. The TV pirate would need to use a COFDM digital modulator and broadcast as a single channel digital multiplex to be effective. (_http://www.satelliteandaerialsupplies.com/product/?s=fracarro-280006-mod-cofdm-analogue-to-digital-dtt-modulator-dvb-t) These are used for apartment block TV systems normally to distribute the picture from CCTV entrance cameras as a digital channel.

The authorities tend to jump on local pirate radio fairly quickly, I'm pretty sure they'd be even quicker with illicit TV signals, particularly as redundant spectrum is to be reallocated for other uses. Certainly not something I would advise contemplating, as all kit would be confiscated pretty quickly.

 

[2cvbloke]

I've heard about that thing in New York, and it's documented on Instructables (won't provide a link for legal reasons), it is an interesting idea to get analogue TV back, but, it's kind of a weak way to do it and obviously, it's illegal...

Though, in my opinion, it may be a good idea to have licensed analogue "community TV" networks across the country (and I know there's a "Community TV" channel on freeview, but it's not really that effective), for people who like to know what's going on locally and for people to try their hand at TV-related stuff (hosting, producing, transmitting, etc.), and could also be used in an emergency if Digital TV was knocked out for whatever reason, sort of an Emergency Broadcast system if you will, but that's just me and my opinions...

 

[rolfw]

A return to analogue in the UHF band will not happen and tends to defeat the object of going digital in the first place. They've spent a lot of time planning the broadcast frequencies for the new digital multiplexes, so to then throw analogue signals into the mix which require much higher transmission strengths and occupy a full channel would be unthinkable.