Bizarre tv problem last night

[dannyboy]

How's this for random.......I was scraping wallpaper off our lounge wall last night, and working on the corner behind the TV, Sky box, etc, whilst trying not to tread on the mass of cables. I was also listening to the 10 o'clock news talking about Rupert Murdoch and his red-top rags, when the sound suddenly cut out.

So I looked round at the TV screen, and no picture either - just a message saying no satellite signal is being received. My first thought was that I'd trod on a cable, so checked all the cables, nope they're all ok. Bloody Sky hd box, must need a reboot, although this new Amstrad box has been fine up to now. Rebooted the Sky box.......still the same. Gave it another reboot just for good measure......nope.

At this point I was even starting to wonder if Murdoch had turned off all his satellites to stop all the negative news coverage of him......wouldn't put it past him

. But that did sound a bit far fetched even for him, so in desperation I thought the only other thing it could be is maybe the dish has moved in the wind (not that there was any wind outside, but I was clutching at straws by now).

So I stuck my head out the back door, and looked up at the dish.......to see two huge eyes staring back down at me as if to say, 'Wtf are you looking at?'. There was only a fecking great owl perched on the pole between the dish and the LNB, totally oblivious to the problems it was causing.

As soon as I clapped my hands and it flew off, signal was restored again.....phew.

Actually, seeing how big it was in flight, I'm amazed it didn't put the dish out of alignment. Was also relieved I didn't get to the point of calling Sky to give them an earful, only to then have to tell them, "oh actually, it's just an owl on my dish......sorry"

 

[guddler]

Excellent!!

We have an odd one here. Every night at 7pm on BBC1 (via Sky) the signal completely garbles. Only does it for a second or two, but you could set your watch by it. Never paid too much attention to it since it just reminds me that the OneShow is starting and it's time to turn off / over

Until the other day when my mate was talking about the flying field that they used to use for their RC planes. He said that every night and 7pm there was a wave of interference would shoot across from Wales (not sure how he knew where it's coming from!) and if your plane happened to be in the air at the time, you'd better be a damn good pilot to not fall out of the sky!

Bingo. Same as my dish. So something, somewhere over in Wales, or up the Bristol channel is shooting a wave of interference across at 7pm every night. Probably military, or so he thought.

How bizarre is that??

We're looking into getting the old flying field back so here's to hoping that it's not an issue not we've mostly all gone over from 35Mhz to 2.4Ghz tech.

 

[trm]

Bet that's the Aurora flying over

Does it just affect BBC1 or will it scramble any channel? Some years ago I was very surprised to discover that the signal intensity received by a UK sat dish was in the order of picowatts (If I remember correctly, it was certainly amazingly low power) so I guess it's not too hard to scramble. If you're line of sight (or within a line of sight of an ionosphere bounce) then I guess a decent radar or comms path could easily generate a fair amount of emf all the way down to you.

You should stick a copper coil in the garden and start harvesting some of the energy

My own Sky dish claim to fame - my bro moved house and his wife didn't have time to wait for Sky to transfer the dish so we mounted it ourselves. Standing on the edge of a wet and slippery roof in the dark, we mounted the dish by comparing it with next doors, plugged a receiver in and on the very first attempt got the best signal strength I've ever seen!

 

[dannyboy]

We have an odd one here. Every night at 7pm on BBC1 (via Sky) the signal completely garbles. Only does it for a second or two, but you could set your watch by it. Never paid too much attention to it since it just reminds me that the One Show is starting and it's time to turn off / over

Until the other day when my mate was talking about the flying field that they used to use for their RC planes. He said that every night and 7pm there was a wave of interference would shoot across from Wales (not sure how he knew where it's coming from!) and if your plane happened to be in the air at the time, you'd better be a damn good pilot to not fall out of the sky!

Bingo. Same as my dish. So something, somewhere over in Wales, or up the Bristol channel is shooting a wave of interference across at 7pm every night. Probably military, or so he thought.

That's really bloody weird! The only explanation I could think of relates to the situation with BBC1 HD and the evening regional news bulletins - after the national news finishes around 6.30, BBC1 HD stops broadcasting, except for a message saying your local news can be found on BBC1. Then just as the One Show starts at 7pm, BBC1 HD recommences simulcasting BBC1's output. Maybe it's something to do with signals from the local transmitter as BBC1 HD kicks in again? To be fair, that's a wild stab in the dark though. I really have no idea

 

[trm]

I wouldn't have thought it was down to the HD unicast/simulcast as they're coming from a ground station TXer and Marting is getting his feed from sat. Plus I'd be certain they keep the TX going whilst the unicast is on as powering down the TXer would be a major job. And probably cause birds and planes to fall out of the sky.

I much prefer the secret military theory anyway

 

[dannyboy]

Bet that's the Aurora flying over

nah, you'd see the doughnut-shaped contrails

 

[guddler]

Dunno what it is!! Clearly I'm hoping it doesn't affect 2.4g as I'm getting a bit sick of helicopter rebuilds just trying to learn to fly it, without some death ray getting in the way!!

 

[dannyboy]

I'd love one of those proper RC heli's or planes. The old guy we bought our house from had a room full of them, they looked well cool.

I bought my mate one of those £20 ones, it's good fun for the money but not quite the same as a proper grown-up one!

 

[guddler]

They're great fun in themselves! My Mrs bought me a little infra-red one for my birthday. They're what my mate calls a 'gateway drug'. And he's not wrong! Since May I've probably spent a few hundred on the hobby

I'm currently flying a Blade SR which is a 300 size electric heli. Well, when I'm not rebuilding it anyway. Probably doesn't help that I was a cheap-ass and bought a crash damaged one off eBay and rebuilt it rather than buying it new. I did save myself about £70 doing it that way, and I know it inside out now

 

[dannyboy]

ah man, don't start getting me into all this stuff as well - I can't afford all these hobbies!!

Already got an astro telescope that I'd love to upgrade this year if I had the funds. Plus there's at least 10 more arcade cabs I'd love to get my hands on if money was no object. Oh for a million quid and the time to enjoy it....