australia and new zealand sky

k974

this is a long shot but does anyone know would irish sky work in nz/oz if i subscribed at home and brought out the box and card??

Ruu_Old

Eh don't think so, look into getting a Slingbox perhaps.

DMC

Its one of the things that crops up from time to time, but more with US stuff.

For a satellite to be receivable in Ireland, it needs to be visible above the horizon. The satellites that serve the US (and in your case Australia and NZ) are not reachable for this reason, the curvature of the earth doesn't allow for it.

There were plans for an "Oz Gold" channel aimed at European markets, but that was a few years ago and has not been heard of since.

Mossy Monk

k974 wrote:

this is a long shot but does anyone know would irish sky work in nz/oz if i subscribed at home and brought out the box and card??

not a hope in hell would it work. Slingbox would be your only way of getting the Sky here in Australia

watty

Or PC with free WME9 and a video capture card.

gipo2

Is he not talking about bringing his box to oz/nz, rather than trying to pick up a satellite from ireland?

Mossy Monk

gipo2 wrote:

Is he not talking about bringing his box to oz/nz, rather than trying to pick up a satellite from ireland?

yes, which is why i said

Mossy Monk wrote:

not a hope in hell would it work. Slingbox would be your only way of getting the Sky here in Australia

DMC

gipo2 wrote:

Is he not talking about bringing his box to oz/nz, rather than trying to pick up a satellite from ireland?

Yes, I misread as the topic looked like he was going to get satellite from Australia.

But the same reasoning applies.

Sin e an Fear

watty wrote:

Or PC with free WME9 and a video capture card.

For geeks who are prepared to got to the hassle of installing a tuner card, which costs money. People increasingly don't use their PCs to make and receive VoIP calls, so why use PCs for video streaming? My only complaint with Slingbox is that there's no IPTV set top box that you can use to view the stream on your TV - without a PC, just as you can use an adapter with a phone for VoIP calls - without a PC.

I'm sure it's also cost effective if you build your own car from a kit instead of buying one made in a factory, but why bother?

watty

You can use and Xbox to view a PC internet stream.

You also can buy these ready made things with TV tuners desgusied as Media Centres all ready to run. Media Centre PCs. They will stream to Xbox too.

k974

basically so whats the cheapest and easiest way for someone whos not too computer friendly to get rte in oz/nz

watty

You need an Address in Ireland and broadband in the Irish Address and oz/Nz address too.
512k upload would give half decent picture with MPEG4

100K upload is Mobile Handset / Web TV quality


Usually it is the Upload rather than download that limits quality.

Richard

On a complete aside, I did read somewhere (on MHP, I think) that in the thirties, someone took a TV to Australia and actually managed to pick up BBC TV! I suppose the airwaves were much, much quieter back then!

watty

Sounds urban myth. The record may Co. Clare Band I received in Stevanger in Norway.

Zaphod

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV/FM_DX

Capt'n Midnight

Richard wrote:

On a complete aside, I did read somewhere (on MHP, I think) that in the thirties, someone took a TV to Australia and actually managed to pick up BBC TV! I suppose the airwaves were much, much quieter back then!

Back in the days when TV was on VHF band I (1) you could pick up UK channels in South Africa when the conditions where right.

But the long distance propogation caused lots of problems with stations in other countries, so VHF I was left a long time ago and is only used on cable these days.

VHF band III isn't used in the UK anymore even though they didn't propogate that far, It's all UHF there and soon to go digital.

VHF band I is about 10 times the wavelength of UHF, so it behaves very differently to UHF and it "skips" off the atmosphere in exactly the same way UHF doesn't

44–68 MHz: VHF Band I Television (channels 1–3)

174–230 MHz: VHF Band III Television (channels 4–11)
470–806 MHz: UHF TV channels 14–69

DMC

Of course, Band III currently houses DAB in the UK and in some other parts.

watty

Zaphod wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV/FM_DX

Hmm. The trophy for VHF transatlantic Amateur communication has never been won.

I'm skeptical on that Wiki entry. Also in 1930's any transatlantic propagation experiements on VHF would be CW or Voice. Not 405Line TV which was experimental.

At 45MHz perhaps a signal during extreme Trop conditions transatlanic (Band1) might be detectable, but viewable on 1930's receiver? No.

Re: South Africa:
I have a South African Communications Engineering friend, I will check.

The amount of signal you need for Video is enormous compared with AM voice which is enormous compared with SSB, enormous compared with CW. (All 405 was AM audio, 625 uses FM Audio, both use AM vide, but opposite polarity)

I'm not saying it has never happened, but could not have been watchable or regular.

Zaphod

The source for the jpg scan is Television magazine, October 2005 -"The Days of 405-line TV"

spurious

Haven't heard DXing mentioned in ages...a reminder of my ill-spent youth.

I remember the thrill of hearing local Sydney radio during a high sun spot activity period. I would imagine TV signals would be unwatchable, even if technically 'received'.

78s.

Ulsterman 1690

At 45MHz perhaps a signal during extreme Trop conditions transatlanic (Band1) might be detectable, but viewable on 1930's receiver? No.

the intercontinental reception of BBC was probably the 41.5 MHz sound carrier which being AM could have been picked up on a 1930's communications reciever (albeit a top of the range model)

I have seen reports of sound from both Alexandria/Crystal Palace and Divis being recieved in North America.

Incidently very sensetive VHF recievers were available in the 1930's (albeit at a price. They were used in Britain (and to a lesser extent in Germany and the US) for something called "radar". It should be also remembered that the bands were practically empty then (interference rather than noise often being the main limititing factor in modern RF communications)

watty

Yep I'll buy occasional reception of the sound on a professional receiver.

I'm more familar with WWII communications gear than non-military gear of the Era. I've used and owned R1155, W.S.19 Rx Only and used W.S. 88 and W.S. 19 Rx/Tx all in late 1960s.

I have a friend with private radio museum with gear going back to 1912.

The Radar used Klystrons and Magnetrons and receiver sensitivity would be poor by modern standards.

Where I live RF solar/ galactic noise is the limit on many bands, not Interference. In the City would be different. LF (50KHz to 500KHz is much noiser than then) but 5MHz to 50Mhz the limit is now background noise if there isn't actually a station. The actual receivers are MUCh more sensitive and much lower noise.

My very early 1980s FT101ZD 160m to 10m (1.6Mhz to 30MHz) outperforms anything from 1930s or 1940s. For a "busy" RF environment my Grinel/Racal TR16 has better interfence rejection/ filtering but not as sensitive.

My Domestic Sony ICF2001D outperforms may 1960s and 1970s receivers and my new 100kHz to 460MHz Rx coverage HF/VHF/UHF TX FT817ND has receive performace that is hard to believe in a box that can hang over your shoulder.

It's an interesting subject.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.apts.org.uk/recording.htm - 1930's Transatlantic no idea how authoritive it is though.

http://newton.phys.keele.ac.uk/ITTphys/WEATHER.htm

BAND I signals are known to reflect from the F2 layer and the range covered can be extremely great. During the sunspot maximum period of 1957 - 58, the Channel 1 television transmission from Crystal Palace was received clearly in South Africa!

watty

Hmm.. we have had some kind of roll back. Earlier posts today lost.

Zaphod

10GHz ATV Record - Television, Jan 2005






F2 Propagation - The TV-DXers Handbook, R Bunney




A google search for one of the 405-line Television article authors (Garry Smith) has this on F2 DXing:
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Lot/2941/f2/f2.htm

1957 reception of BBC in Australia:
http://www.geocities.com/toddemslie/n_burton_BBCtvdx.htm
http://www.geocities.com/toddemslie/George_Palmer_TVDX.html

DMC

Prior to the loss of posts earlier in the day, Richard hinted at the folowing.....

This from the MHP....



And the description....

ljones wrote:

Ok, then -- I know what you're saying? "What is this?" -- what someone got when they tried tune into a dirty satellite TV channel? Some weird new cult tuning into Channel 77, awaiting a message from some aliens and god? Nope. In this case, it's actually a photo ("television" magazine, 1979) of BBC1 being received directly (not by cable or satellite) in perth, australia in 1979. This picture has always intregued me though -- and I can't see what it's supposed to be (so how did they ID it)?

I think you can clearly see the isthmus of central america.

Capt'n Midnight

watty wrote:

Hmm.. we have had some kind of roll back. Earlier posts today lost.

IIRC you said that they got very long distance on 10GHz and I went "Holy fup!"
and then wondered if SKY would be interested in such long distances

watty

I think the conculsion is that while it is Technically possible to recieve Band 1 nearly anywhere, regular watchable TV is not at all likely and may have only happened on a few occassions in last 70 years.

Also Band I Tv is gone.

Out to space is easy...

I know a guy in Cork who has using the Moon as a reflector has worked Every continent and New Zeeland on 144Mhz. (The moon can be visible in NZ and here for about 10 minutes).

For those interested

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2006/10ghz_distance_record.htm

http://www.nzart.org.nz/nzart/update/eme.html

http://waas.stanford.edu/~wwu/frankb/microwave.html

Records (but not accurate! some of these beaten!)
http://www.nzart.org.nz/NZART/vhf/world_dx_records2005.html

Intersting stuff:
http://www.qsl.net/g3pho/news1.htm

zilog_jones

Zaphod wrote:

Looks better than Chorus analogue MMDS