Home satellite installations in Ireland - around 1983

Antenna

Came across an old Golden Pages phonebook (02* = mostly Co. Cork) and the TV dealer section (see attached) has a few dealers advertising satellite TV installations way back then - how much did it typically cost back then?, what type of equipment (dish-size/receiver) and what channels/worthwhile programmes were available?

L1011

I'll ask my partner, father has been installing satellite systems since then and might remember. Was mostly an enthusiast game back then anyway, feeds and similar. There were a few feeds for cable companies which weren't encrypted in any way at all, seeing as the kit was that expensive.

In 83, Sky Channel (now Sky 1) definitely existed but I wouldn't be sure what else there was going. The majority of of the early channels were from the other end of the 80s.

Antenna

I believe I made an error in my initial post - that phone book page may be from a year or 2 later than I suggested. Will clarify this when I can (will take some days).

L1011

If it is 85/86, there was a pretty decent range of channels by then... at least compared to living in two channel land anyway.

Sky Channel, in it's original Satellite Television guise, would have been broadcasting since late 1982 on the OTS-2 satellite, moving to ECS 1 (Eutelsat I-F1) in early 1984. However I really don't know what else would have been there in 1983 - it was 1984/85 when the use of satellites for cable relays in Europe really took off. Intelsat (504, 511, 604 or 601 depending on the era) at 27.5°W was a favourite, as well as 13°E, pre-Hot Bird.

Due to the high cost of the equipment, most were unencrypted. Several of these channels, such as the movie channel Premiere and Lifestyle, would transmit prominent warnings at startup and closedown stating that direct reception of the channel was unauthorised and illegal. Sky Channel was encrypted with the Oak Orion system at one point but I don't think it lasted long.

I know that The Children's Channel and Premiere shared a transponder at 27.5°W and that Bravo and Discovery Channel also launched there. Sky Channel were on 13°E from 1984 to 1988, and Super Channel launched there in early 1987. I'm not sure where the WHSmith channels were before their Astra days but I'm guessing it was 27.5°W.

Antenna

Apologies for my error/mixup in the initial post. The page in my original post came from a 1987-1988 book! Though that was a couple of years before Astra 19.2 ( launched in 1989 - it carried the original Sky-UK analogue service) so satellite viewing was still a very niche activity.

Attached to this post are the Television... pages from the 1983-1984 Goldenpages (business phone book, similar to Yellowpages for our overseas readers), which was a goldenpages for all the county outside the Dublin (01) area (before the book was regionalised outside Dublin) and the first page has a prominent ad for a satellite installer in Tallaght, Dublin. Some of the other ads are interesting - the 3rd attached page has an ad for a Dublin based supplier of "re-gunned tubes" and "rewound line output transformers" !!

Mike 1972

When did it actually become legal for an Irish resident to own satellite receiving equipment ?

Mike 1972

Antenna wrote: »

how much did it typically cost back then?

In the UK £1500 minimum (Single polarity LNB's alone were around £500 :eek: )

Antenna wrote: »

what channels/worthwhile programmes were available?

IIRC around a dozen channels (between 27.5 W and 13E) most (but not all) in English.

On the plus side the majority of channels were unencrypted.

watty

Mike 1972 wrote: »

When did it actually become legal for an Irish resident to own satellite receiving equipment ?

I think it was always legal but needed an extra licence (Like VHF for Private Marine or Aircraft still needs a licence, HF Air/Maritime needs an additional licence). But certainly about 1984 approx you still needed a Satellite system licence in theory. At some stage they made TVRO (TV reception) Licence exempt. MUCH later the domestic Two Way (Transmission up to 4W power in waveguide) licence exempt.

Onthe3rdDay

watty wrote: »

I think it was always legal but needed an extra licence (Like VHF for Private Marine or Aircraft still needs a licence, HF Air/Maritime needs an additional licence). But certainly about 1984 approx you still needed a Satellite system licence in theory. At some stage they made TVRO (TV reception) Licence exempt. MUCH later the domestic Two Way (Transmission up to 4W power in waveguide) licence exempt.

Were there actual consequences if you didn't have a licence?

Mike 1972

watty wrote: »

I think it was always legal but needed an extra licence (Like VHF for Private Marine or Aircraft still needs a licence, HF Air/Maritime needs an additional licence). But certainly about 1984 approx you still needed a Satellite system licence in theory. At some stage they made TVRO (TV reception) Licence exempt. MUCH later the domestic Two Way (Transmission up to 4W power in waveguide) licence exempt.

The £10 TVRO licence was a UK thing there was no such licence available in Ireland even to cable operators. Eventually the DoC allowed cable operators to carry satellite channels (initially restricted to two channels at any one time) but DTH reception remained technically illegal. This may have been down to the original 27.5W and 13 E birds being officially being telecommunications satellites carrying cable feeds rather than "proper" DBS satellites like Marcopolo (BSB). Astra AFaIK was something of a grey area ???

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

Were there actual consequences if you didn't have a licence?

In theory users could have been fined £100 and had their equipment seized. In practice the authorities had bigger fish to fry (it being the golden age of pirate radio) never bothered (doing so would have invited comparisons with the Soviet bloc)

watty

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

Were there actual consequences if you didn't have a licence?

I don't think so. I think one Limerick hotel had Russian Satellite TV for Aeroflot staff. But I could be wrong.

aerial man

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/3406/254497.jpg i can see our own ad! The number for the shop has changed since however

ISAA

I worked for may aerials, they started the satellite store 84/85 I think,
1.8 cosmos dishes, 4.3 noise lnb, gasfet,

3000 pounds installed on 27.5 west,
Premiere, childerens channel, mirror vision, cnn just started, cmtv.

The good old days.