|
| ||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
If you find this information useful and want to thank me, why not buy one of my low-cost "eBooks" that you can download direct to your computer? My books can be read on-screen or printed out on paper. They are full of colour photos and illustrations. http://www.The-Cool-Book-Shop.co.uk
IMPORTANT! Your email contains a link that you MUST click if you wish to continue to subscribe. If you don't click on the link you will receive a weekly reminder to click for four weeks, then a monthly reminder. All very annoying, I must admit, but I need to weed out the people who can't be bothered to unsubscribe or read this newsletter. I don't want to clog the Internet (or in-baskets of dead people or uninterested people), just for the sake of keeping the apparent numbers up. So, next month, we should see a massive reduction in "subscribers" from nearly fourteen thousand to (I suspect) a tenth of that. (If you don't subscribe to the email reminders you can still come here and read the archives.) If you don't want reminders, please unsubscribe now. For those of you who stay on board, I'll try to keep it interesting. You can contribute by submitting your own stories. Note: some subscribers' email software is not displaying the link correctly. It appears like <fred24@fsmail.net>" target="http://cgi.mail-list.com/reup?ln=satcure&nm=fred24@fsmail.net>">http://cgi.mail-list.com/reup?ln=satcure&nm=fred24@fsmail.net> Simply copy the part that looks like http://cgi.mail-list.com/reup?ln=satcure&nm=fred24@fsmail.net with your email address immediately after the "=" symbol. Paste it into your browser address line and hit the Return key. Free Channels Mike Hancox writes: I decided that it was high time that someone set up a constantly updated list (weekly) of all the FTA Astra 2 /Eurobird Channels, as that is all people keep asking me for So here I went - See http://www.watchfree.co.uk http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=160562982691 (Thanks to "I-Spy" for this tip.) I'm still trying to improve our communications. The "Sales Support Ticket" system is generally working well - except that the Sales girls are so busy in the office, they don't have time to read the messages every ten minutes. This means that, even if you tell them you want to cancel or change an order, it often gets sent out from the warehouse before your message is read. We don't want to punish you for making a mistake in your order so... Our next move is to introduce a dedicated computer IN THE WAREHOUSE purely for Order Change and Cancellation messages. That system should be up and running within the next week. It means that we should be able to catch orders before they go out ... I hope! My friend, who is Cretan and speaks no English, got his wife (currently in England) to call me to ask if I could help. Overnight his TV has stopped receiving local terrestrial channels, although satellite was still fine. On the way there, I mentioned to my wife that 90% of all TV aerial "faults" are caused by someone unplugging or switching off the Power Supply. But, although I saw a little box lying there, I assumed it was a splitter! (In the UK they plug directly into a wall socket whereas this was lying on the floor with three cables going into "saddle clamp" connectors). So we wasted some time checking for signals and climbing on the roof before I decided there simply HAD to be a power supply somewhere and started to search. It transpired that the dog had trodden on the aerial amplifier power supply, which was upside down on the floor on its on/off switch. It was switched off! Here on this little Greek island, I got Graeme to install my 1.2m Andrews "Channel Master" dish. Yes I could do it myself but I'm oldand Graham has far more experience than I have! You need "Flash Player" to watch this short movie--> (If it won't play properly, try again later when less people are watching it.) Unpacking the dish was hot work for me! I'm not keen on heights. Here I am, wondering if I'd bounce, while Graeme applies silicone to the mount bolts. Graeme makes the final adjustments to ensure reception of ITV, CH4 and Five. (The only barely watchable channels unless you are into religion, news or shopping!) A card is required for ITV and five, here, because only the southern beam is receivable. The "Freesat" channels are on Astra-2D - not receivable here with anything less than a 4m dish. I connected my Pace "Javelin" Sky minibox to a small portable TV to check that everything was working. The TV aerial left a lot to be desired. It had been installed by an idiot who hacked off an element in order to clear the steel pole, which was left sticking up through the aerial (ruining its reception). In addition, it had been wired up with RG6 cable and no silicone grease to protect the connections - with inevitable results. Lots of rust! I replaced it with a Vision V10-040 log-periodic. The transmissions are still analogue here and affected by reflections from surrounding hills. Needless to say, the log-p worked much better than the 4 year old rusty Yagi. The entire aerial system had been wired up like a ring main, with one socket looped to the next! By the third socket there was no useful signal. This mess had to be ripped out and replaced with a proper "star" arrangement using WF100 cable from a 4-output masthead amplifier. I hate stereotypes but there are five types of customer: 1. Time-waster Joe who means well but asks a lot of questions before purchase. Eventually, when he's squeezed as much information out of me as is humanly possible, he'll decide that my prices are way too high and he'll order off a different company, thus saving two quid. A month later, he'll write back with a question, about something he bought, which doesn't work as expected. I tell him to ask his supplier. 2. Last-minute Joe who has no time to read the free information we provide and needs an answer now! He lives in a ten bedroom house and wants to watch Sky+HD, Freeview, Freesat, listen to music from iTunes and play Nintendo in every room. Please will we supply a list of everything he needs, by 9am, and he'll place an order right away. Oh, yes, and the "low loss" TV cable is already embedded in the walls and it's not possible to add any more cable runs because it'll spoil the flock wallpaper. He needs delivery today by courier and he's happy to pay for it because the installer is booked for this afternoon. I don't bother to reply because it's already 10am and we don't offer a same-day courier service - even if I could figure out what he wants, which is unlikely without a site visit (which I can't do). At 1pm he writes again asking "don't you want my business?" I don't reply because the answer is obvious but I don't want to upset him by committing it to writing. He might have Mafia friends. 3. Bipolar Joe whose message is timed at 3:00am and requests an immediate reply because he can't find a contact number on the web site but needs to place an order right away. This is followed by a message timed 3:20am asking why we haven't replied and suggesting that we are not to be trusted. An order for several items is timed at 3:40am but is quickly followed by a cancellation at 4:00am giving no reason. A meaningless rant arrives at 4:20am. I don't reply because, even though I like Stephen Fry as a TV personality, and he uses Apple Macs, I wouldn't want him as a friend. 4. Paranoid Joe who places an order but omits vital details such as his address. He spends an hour with Directory Enquiries trying to find our number then phones up and asks to place an order but refuses to give his card details. Later he emails a question about UFOs but gives a false email address. 5. Ordinary Joe who spends a fortnight reading all the available information on the web site, and in the eBooks, then writes a very intelligent question relating to a piece of essential information which I have unwittingly omitted. I reply politely and helpfully and he places a massive order, which gets shipped and arrives next day. Yes, OK, that one was obviously fictional; everyone knows we don't offer next-day delivery! I enjoy the Satellite Review Hello, I am a long-term English expat and I subscribed to your newsletter a long time ago. I have found much useful information and enjoyed reading it. I am now in Vienna, where useful reception of UK satellite channels is almost impossible and I have cable. But I am still reading your newsletter although I am not directly interested. I found myself wondering why. I think I just like your style, your impatience with people who ask dumb questions in bad english and I think you remind me of the England where I was brought up. Keep up the good work. All the best Jonathan Now I might start reminding people of the Greek island where they spent their holiday! I used Simon Speake in Sale for the replacement of a faulty PSU. He was superb. The job was done within an hour and I gave him virtually no notice before taking the unit in. Cost was also extremely reasonable for the quality and speed of service received. Had I been willing to remove the PSU myself I would have saved a further £16. Ken Penny Schenk Malcolm Thanks for your warning in the newsletter about retuning Freeview boxes. The link you gave told me the site was busy although it did display a page giving general information about retuning. A more helpful site seems to be http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051615 which has links to manuals for a wide range of boxes, and tabs linking to pages with transmitter information, historically, now and in the future, including channel numbers, frequencies, aerial groups, modulation, and multiplex contents. Best wishes Richard C. PS Since you re-write your email every month, wouldn't it be better to include a link the latest newsletter, instead of linking to the index and warning readers they may need to refresh it? Martin's reply: For various reasons, I don't want to do that. One reason is that I do a "copy-paste" and I have enough trouble just remembering to change the date and number, without adding something else for my aged brain to remember! I thought I would write to wish you every success in your new venture abroad. As one who quit the rat race in 1989 at the age of 54, I thoroughly recommend it. My wife and myself moved lock, stock and barrel to an Island off the coast of the then Yugoslavia. We have seen so many changes, mostly for the better, that I have started to write up our experiences. We live on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, a country which is currently trying to join all the other countries in the big EU. Of course nobody here wants to join, only the politicians. In our local markets we can still buy produce brought in by little old ladies from their gardens. Their home made olive oil leaves the supermarket brands for dead. We can even buy bent cucumbers! The butcher will cut you a joint from a carcass hanging up in his shop, just like it was when I was growing up in London after the war. The bureaucrats in Brussels would soon stop all that. One advantage that countries like Croatia have is that when they decide to update their systems they can go straight to the latest gear. When we arrived here, the house we built couldn't be connected to the telephone system. No demand they said, in fact there were hardly any phones on the island, and the Internet had yet to be invented. Making a call from the Post Office was a feat in itself, numerous clicks and bangs then if you were lucky you could hear a voice in the distance, sometimes it was the right one! When the Founding Fathers decided that if the country was to survive in Capitalist Europe a new system was needed, so they went straight for the latest equipment. Now we have the most mobile phones per capita in Europe and a super efficient broadband service. If you have a problem there is an 0800 number to ring where you always get an English speaking person to give you expert help. And you don't have to listen to Grieg's Piano Concerto for half an hour before they answer. I could bore you for hours with stories about our experiences, including surviving a civil war. but you will have to wait until I publish my book. Maybe I will avail myself of your eBooks service. Even though I haven't purchased much from Satcure I have been receiving 'Bounce' and communicating since the early nineties when satellite TV was new, and found the information I gained very valuable. So now I once again wish you all the very best in your new life. And some parting advice for you, learn the lingo, if you haven't already done so! James M Thanks, James. Our island is somewhat similar, although they are trying to impose a smoking ban in larger shops and restaurants. In practice, there will be so many get-out clauses that I doubt it will have any more effect than the law to enforce the wearing of crash helmets has had on motorbike riders, so far! (As a non-smoker, I'm actually somewhat disappointed but resigned to it. As an "outsider" I can't expect to have much say on what goes on. They'd probably shoot me if I tried. Yes - it happens!) We are indeed "learning the lingo" (and getting very good reactions from the locals when they see how hard we are trying). I am keeping a secret on-line diary, for friends and family, which will be published as an eBook in due course. Some of it will make you cringe and some of it will make you laugh till you wet yourself - it's been a "roller-coaster ride" - as they say on my favourite TV programme. BTW, those people who contribute to this newsletter can have a sneaky look at my on-line diary, if they ask me very nicely! Hi Martin, I read your rant about the Prudential. Its amazing how some big organisations can have such short sighted IT strategies when it comes to a simple things like making their website conform to W3C standards. I have the same problem with ParcelForce.net. That's another pretty huge organisation and yet they are quite happy to discriminate their customer base to users/companies that only have PC's and are able to run an archaic IE Browser. I started in IT pretty much when mainstream IT in companies was just getting started itself (back in the late 80's). I knew Microsoft when all they had to offer was MSDOS. I have implemented IT in companies over the years and have been partially responsible for the growth of Microsoft Operating Systems, which now I do feel a little guilty about if I'm honest. I switched to Apple a few years ago when I realised how far the MacOS had come and how disillusioned I had become with the Microsoft Bloatware products. It was a breath of fresh air and I can confidently say I will never be going back to Microsoft, ever. It's amazing how badly run the IT is in these organisations for them to be so incompetent to understand that "Internet Explorer" IS NOT A STANDARD. It's an awful browser experience and most of my friends who still use PC's, some of which are responsible for IT in organisations, have standardised on Firefox also! It's about time some of these companies stopped stagnating in the past and adopted a proper IT strategy which involves making sure their websites conform to W3C standards and not rely on some incompetent web designer who thinks if it looks fine on his Windows PC, that's all that matters. We are not asking for companies to make sure their websites work in Firefox or Safari. We are quite comfortable that if they just make sure they conform to the International World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards, we can take care of ourselves! Dave H Good morning. Although I've been receiving your email for some while, today was the first time I clicked twice to get to the actual newsletter. Really impressed, your grumpy old git style reminding me of the service life I left just over a decade ago. One thought - would it be possible to put the newsletter as the body of your email to us rather than having to click through twice. I know this may seem a bit daft, but I just think you would get a lot more readers, and it certainly deserves to be read. Out of interest I have the same thing with a couple of tech mags I receive - one Gizmag I read every other day as it arrives as a full bodied newsletter, open with intro paras and photos ready to be studied. The other mag involves having to open it up, wait a while for it to sort its format etc. I now rarely read it, except when plenty of time available. Anyway, hope this is worthy of consideration, as your productions is really good and deserves to be read by all recipients! Best wishes for your new life in Greece. Andy Buchan I used to send the entire newsletter as a plain text email. This resulted in a lot of "bounces" as certain key words and links triggered various spam detectors. Sending HTML "web page" emails (necessary if I'm to include pictures) would be even worse in creating more bounces and triggering spam filters. And I really don't want to clog the Internet email system by sending large files. There are quite enough people abusing it like that already. Most users are like me and limit the size of incoming messages to about 50k AND have image links disabled - requiring an extra click to load the images, if required. That means that 90% of the readership would not immediately see a nicely presented web page without clicking again anyway. For a while, I provided an option for people to get a plain text email on request, but it proved very time-consuming and I'm no longer looking for extra work! In addition, I would still have to provide the web page version, for those people who lost or didn't receive an issue. Consequently, I hope you'll understand why it's not going to happen. Martin Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419 If the link doesn't work for any reason, just search the main Firefox site (Add-ons) for 'IE Tab'. Download and install IE Tab. You'll then be able to read the PruMail using Firefox. I have it installed and have just tried your tinyurl link. When I use normal Firefox, I get the same results as you but when I use IE Tab, I can read it perfectly. The add-on transparently switches the engine that Firefox uses between it's own and IE. You will see the add-on under the Firefox 'Tools -> Add-ons' menu and there will be additions to the right click context menu as well. Occasionally you'll need to tell Firefox to specifically use the IE engine but you'll get used to it. It's a great add-on and saves me lots of hassle. I've also customised my Firefox navigation toolbar and added an IE Tab icon for ease of use. BTW - I agree with your sentiments about the Pru! Bryan A Thanks, Bryan. Your link goes to a page for downloading a Windows plug-in. I use an Apple Mac computer. Several other people suggested this solution and I'm grateful for their replies, which will, hopefully, help some Windoze users. I do so agree about the lack of support for non-IE browsers. We have a Post Office Credit Card (Bank of Ireland) which we got because they are the cheapest for foreign transactions. They offer an internet banking service, but it only works through IE! Any other browser just produces an error message on the home page. I complain to their telephone operators (who are very pleasant) and they just say "yes, we know". Re banks - we have just sold the house on which our One Account mortgage was secured so we needed to move our current account, as they are tied together. We decided on RBS because they are part of the same group and use the same computers (I used to work at One Account in their IT dept., so I know!). It would be relatively easy then for them to close one account and open another, wouldn't it? Wrong. After 3 botched attempts on their part, where each time they told us that their "systems" meant we would have to start the application all over again from scratch, we went elsewhere. I am so tired of being told what I must do because of other people's "systems". Aren't you? I mailed you the other day about our attempts to get an Astra 2 dish. Yesterday I went into town to take the "*** little dishfitter" his 65 euros cash in hand price (yeah!) for fiddling with our existing dish and moving it to Astra 1, which left us no better off than before. He wouldn't take it because he still had some 'investigations' regarding Astra 2, and would drop by some time one day next week. I said he should phone first. "Why, aren't you there all the time, then?" I also asked if he could tell us first how much it would cost. "No." Why not? "Oh, so you want an estimate then?" Yes. "Oh, it will be something like 300 euros, maybe 400." I would have to speak to my husband. I wasn't sure about that. "You could always pay in instalments. I'll come this afternoon, after 2pm". Needless to say, he didn't. He will probably turn up next week with a dish we don't want and try to make out it was a special order. Best wishes Lorna. Central Eastern France. Just received your latest newsletter - thanks as always for an interesting read. I don't think you've covered this, so here's a contribution from me. Freeview HD will be launched in the Granada region, and in parts of Wales (those served by the Long Mountain transmitter), in December of this year. What many people don't yet realise, and I forecast a great wailing and a gnashing of teeth when they do, is that current so-called 'HD-ready' TVs are incapable of receiving Freeview HD because they're not equipped with DVB-T2/MPEG4 tuners. This applies not only to TVs already in people's homes but even those currently on sale in the high street. I understand that Toshiba has plans to manufacture TVs for Freeview HD but they won't reach the marketplace until next year; and at present there aren't even any suitable set-top boxes either. As things stand at the moment, we could have Freeview HD being launched on the Winter Hill and Long Mountain transmitters in December, and other regions elsewhere in the country early next year, with not a single person in the land being able to view it! For interest I do have a specific page on the switchover which I try to keep up to date, (caravanning holidays permitting!) It's at www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/freeview.htm BTW I just tried retuning my TV and Freeview+ recorder. The recorder ended up with Five allocated to channel 800 and if I tried to go to it in the channel guide, the receiver just jumped to ITV2 at channel 6 instead. Had to do the retune all over again to get Five in its correct slot. Oh, and the tvretune.co.uk website has crashed through overload (wouldn't you have thought someone might have anticipated that?!) Happy Christmas! David Sullivan. (David's message was held over from last month by mistake - apologies!) I've seen some strange satellite dish installations in my time, but this inverted dish spotted in my neighbourhood takes some beating! Of course, there's no reason why an upside down Sky dish shouldn't work perfectly well provided the dish is set at the right angle, but this one was aligned firmly with terra firma instead of pointing Skyward. Why anyone should decide to mount a dish upside down is another matter. Anyhow, it might make an interesting caption competition… Martin's comment: I don't do competitions any more - but don't let that stop you from emailing! I can tell you that, in New Zealand, they often mount dishes like this because it minimises interference from terrestrial transmitters. However, it has the disadvantage that the LNB and arm "shadow" a significant portion of the dish, thus reducing the available signal. I guess you could paint lines on it and make it look like a sundial. I'm going to be blunt: No they don't! The "beam" from the satellite comes in to the dish and is reflected at a fixed onto the LNB, so turning it up the other way the dish would be angled much further upwards - the LNB mounting arm would be getting on for vertical, still out of the way of the incoming signal. Try drawing out the signal path - the usual way with the incoming signal reflecting downwards to the LNB, then rotate it *using the incoming signal as the axis* and you'll see what I mean - the LNB and its mounting will always be out of the incoming signal path, which is one of the reasons for the offset design Howard Yes, of course you are right. The reason it minimises terrestrial interference is that the dish ends up almost horizontal, as you say. Just a quick comment on the dodgy dish picture in the last newsletter. This looks like a perfect set up dish for amateur television reception. It's quite easy to change the lnb lo to 9GHz and use with an old analogue set top box to receive in the 10Ghz range. There are local repeaters scattered about the UK. Adjust the dish elevation to point at the horizon and Bob's your Uncle! So maybe dish not so dodgy after all! Thanks for the newsletters - always an interesting read. Regards, 2) Beware of the skew I came across another dodgy Sky install recently, although it looked absolutely fine. The signal strength displayed by the Sky digibox was good and reception of all the main TV channels was fine. But sound breakup was evident from some of the radio stations, a fault which I suspected was the receiver. A replacement box produced the same fault, so my attention turned to the dish. The affected sound channels were all broadcast from the Eurobird 1 satellite (transponder 12523V) at 28.2 deg east, so I selected the manual tuning menu of the Sky box (services, 4,0,1, select) and inputted this frequency. Sure enough the signal strength and quality readings were feeble. Next, I realigned the dish to 28.2 deg, with a slight nudge westwards. The signal strength immediately improved, however the bar graph signal strength remained weak. Then I spotted it: the LNB had been installed almost vertically, instead of at the 10-15 deg angle required to get the correct skew setting in this part of the country. Another small tweak and the signal strength improved once again. Switching back to the Sky default transponder (11778V) confirmed that there was no degradation of the satellite signal from the Astra 2A beam at 28.5deg East, so all problems solved and radio reception restored. I learnt two lessons here. 1) Be aware of the limitations of the signal strength bar chart on a Sky digibox and 2) Always check and optimise the skew setting on one of the weaker satellite signals. 3) Beware of DECT phones The problem here was picture and sound breakup from a few select channels, mainly movies and pop videos broadcast from 11623V. I swapped the Panasonic DSB50 receiver for a newer receiver and the problem was reduced but not eliminated. Then I noticed a BT Synergy DECT phone base within about a metre of the receiver. Disconnecting power from the phone immediately solved the problem, with picture and sound now excellent. Relocating the phone base in a different room provided a permanent solution, but I can't help feeling that the all plastic case of this Panasonic model makes it particularly vulnerable to RF interference. Contributed by Lawrence Pearce You asked for it Item 1. Interested to see your whinge about websites that fall over under non-exploders. FYI they also include Norwich and Peterborough Building Society's online banking (important) and Harrison Holidays (not really very important). Item 2. You were helful (nah! I really do mean helpful!) a few weeks ago in dealing with my enquiry about a U-shaped dish support 'mast'. You probably don't need to know the installation went superbly. Would you like a 'photo? Apart from a few bruises (my cable comes in a wall, through an eaves space, under a bedroom floor, through 2 eaves spaces, under another bedroom floor, through a third eaves space and down through an existing cable duct to reach the living room - about 30 m in all) I connected it all up, visually aligned the dish (thanks to a most helpful website pic) and it worked first time. Just very slight re-alignment to get the best available signal. We now have all the Freesat stations (mostly strength 9) and about 300 which the Panasonic TV calls 'Other Satellite'. Which seem mostly to be the same Freesat ones, plus a lot of heaving under-dressed women on telephones. Item 3. - serious, not funny. Tech query 3a . Can you paint a white cable black (to match the dish) without damaging the cable? Any recommendations as to paint? Yes - any oil-based outdoor paint should be fine. Tech query 3b . Can you use (e.g.) Hammerite paint on the dish without affecting performance? Hmm, provided it contains no metalic particles. I'm not sure about that. Response to newsletter:- I see someone asked about painting dishes. I have a 60cm metal dish pointed at Hispasat. It was looking blotchy with rust. I rubbed it down with a stainless steel scourer and applied two coats of Hammerite aluminium paint. It now looks great, and the signal level is 'excellent'. jim watt Tech query 3c . I bought a quad LNB 'for future expansion' but am only using one tail at present. Should I seal the other 3 against rain - and if so how? Presently I have fitted shoes with about 4 inches of cable and have applied sealant to the exposed ends of the cables - but this seems a bit clumsy. I use Blu-Tack myself but rubber boots will do. Or self-amalgamating tape. Item 4 . I like the shirt - where can I get one? Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't know. It came with the house, together with the previous owner's underwear (they don't fit me), books, tools, kitchen ware, most of the furniture and other items. When we arrived, it was like the Marie Celeste. Contributed by ATB RJ Thanks for all the contributions. Keep them coming! I find them fascinating. Those people who contribute to this newsletter can have a sneaky look at my on-line diary, if they ask me very nicely! If you have anything of interest to contribute, please contact me with details. What have you installed? What problems have you had? Have you been ripped off? Tell us all about it. (Make it interesting.) I promise not to make fun of your spelling or grammar. (I'll correct it.) Seaside Dishes We are now offering the Triax 60cm and 80cm fibreglass dishes. These are especially suitable for harsh conditions where corrosion may be a problem. A lot of people seem unaware that we also offer items such as LED torches, electronic hobby kits, Electrical items (plugs, sockets, timers), Tools, grease, glues, telephone leads, batteries, power supplies and other stuff - too much to mention. A company in China have just e mailed me to say they have some Sky Plus remotes for 2.45 USD . Yangzhou Sanxing Technology Co Ltd. A friend of mine has informed me that these are already finding their way onto eBay but the quality is shit; in fact he says that a person selling them has loads of bad feedback, which all relate to the Sky Plus remotes he has sold - no one is happy with them. They do say the remote is not a genuine one but you can easily miss seeing this on the auction page. Michael Dranfield http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1986459 I don't know whether you've mentioned PIXMANIA before but this bunch of scumbags masquerade as a British shop - they used to advertise under a .co.uk domain name for example. It's actually British owned ( By DSG, owners of Currys, PC World etc, Head office Hemel Hempstead ) and your electronic goods are dispatched from UK warehouses BUT if you dig right down into the VERY small print you find it actually operates as a French company. This means that they hide behind FRENCH law when you have a problem with an item. Is this anything to worry about, you ask ? After all, we are all Europeans now. Well, yes. It means that, although my digital photoframe was bought from pixmania.co.uk, paid for in Sterling and dispatched from a shed somewhere in the UK, when it developed a fault after a little more than 15 days, I was told I had to post it with insurance and tracking to the outskirts of Paris. This had to be at my expense and, if they did not agree it was a manufacturing fault, I would have to pay to get it back and sort the problem out myself ! Cost for postage to meet their requirements would have been more than £20 one way. Complaints to DSG are simply ignored and, as the item cost less than £60 I simply threw it away. Expensive lesson learnt and another customer seriously p*ss*d off. If you live in Britain and shop on the internet make sure you really are buying from a company operating under UK law. chris s For the record, SatCure operates under UK law. Frankly, I don't see how a UK-based company could avoid it. I would have contacted Trading Standards immediately. Goods should be returned to the warehouse or shop whence they came, unless the seller gives an easier option. DISCLAIMER: The above "whinge" is reproduced in good faith on the assumption that the facts are correct. I've had no dealings with the companies mentioned. - a selection from this month's emails (If you are a new subscriber I'm afraid that you might find some of my replies a little blunt to the point of being rude. That's just the way I am after answering customers' questions for the last fourteen years. Please don't take offence. Sometimes I'm a little tired, ratty or impatient and it shows! Generally, if you ask for a free reply, you'll get what you pay for.) Dish 1 - combined 13/19 disecq enabled single output LNB. Dish 2 - Astra 28. If I feed the 2 outputs to a disecq switch and run a single cable to the decoder will it switch between all 3 satellites or cause a conflict? Is there a solution? I would appreciate your help. Phil P. Hi, Phil. Unfortunately, AFAIK, it's not possible to cascade DiSEqC units. Fit two separate LNBs to Dish 1 and use a 4 input DiSEqC switch. Alternatively, use a single dish with 3 LNBs. I use a Toshiba recorder with the Skart attached to the Digibox and the aerial in attached to a Freeview box with a modulated output so I can record one / watch another, pause live TV or have 2 TV's on different channels all for free. We are on Sedbergh relay transmitter so the day after the Freeview retune downgraded my channels getting this message from Sky left me not well pleased. Geoff H. Hi, Geoff. Unfortunately, I don't see a technical question here and I don't advise on personal choices. My own FTV card lasted 5 years and I think that £4 a year for what it gave at that time was reasonable. Now that it gives only Five and Sky3 I might think twice about renewing since I get those programmes on Freeview anyway. Edwin No idea, sorry. Post your questions in the various forums. Somebody will know. I am told that high gain units (0.2db) are noisy but a good quality 0.3db unit is better for use in France. ??????? The existing single LNB gives 50% signal strength but 75% signal quality. Could you please advise Many thanks Alexander D. Hi, Alexander. Choice of LNB doesn't matter, provided that you have the correct size dish and the LNB matches it. Noise figures are totally meaningless. They are based on inspired guesses and marketing hype. If I understand what's required correctly I need to replace the existing single LNB with a quad output LNB and take one connection to the sky box and a separate connection to the Freesat box &endash; this will leave 2 LNB outlets spare for future use. (It seems to make more sense to use a quad output LNB rather than dual output as this will give me an upgrade route) Is that understanding correct and will both Sky and Freesat work 'together' in this setup. They ought to. I am uploading 2 photographs which may help you advise which of the Quad output LNB's on your site is required. Please don't bother. We provide dimensional information and photos on the web site so you can decide for yourself. Note that the early type with very small "spigot" appear to be unobtainable now. Paul A. Original discussion? (Anyone else expecting me to remember an enquiry from yesterday, or before, better think again. I have to keep a diary just so I know what I had for breakfast. Also, if you want to keep me sweet, break your messages into sentences.) I have a Thomson DSI8215 SkyHD box that I purchased off eBay. I've heard these suffer from PSU problems. In general the box works but I do have intermittent problems with the Sky+ functionality but don't know if that's related to the PSU issue. At some stage however I would like to replace the PSU but am slightly confused with the order process. It sounds as though I have to send off my existing PSU before I get a replacement one. I obviously don't want to do this as I'd have no TV. Would you be able to advise me on the order process for this? I'm based in the UK. Many Thanks Andy Hi, Andy. Your options are set out clearly, here, under "Your options":- http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/psu.htm (I almost wrote "By an amazing coincidence, your.." then it occurred to me that this might come across as somewhat rude. See - I am mellowing!) Subject: Boosting the signal from a communal aerial We live in a terraced house in Orpington (South East London) and we are using a communal aerial system which is directed at the Crystal Palace transmitter. The system was installed in the mid 70's so I guess it is an MATV system, I can see a small box on the wall outside with the word "Wolsey" on it which seems to have a through cable and two output cables (ours and our next door neighbours). I'm having trouble distributing the freeview signal around the house and would like some advice. We have a freeview TV (Panasonic TX-P37X10) downstairs which is primarily feed by Sky+ so freeview would be an added bonus. This is the TV that the communal system originally feed, currently it is not connected at all. We have freeview TV's and twin tuner PVR's in two bedrooms. The problem has got worse since the retune last week we have lost more channels from freeview, we always had problems with ITV1 and Channel 4 on freeview but have now lost Channel 5 too. I guess these channels are all on the same multiplex (I think Mux 2 on Channel 22) so we have lost them all now. We also have never had a usable Channel 5 analogue signal. When Bedroom 1 is directly connected to the areial I can receive all channels. If I look at the signal strength for Channel 5 on the Humax PVR it reports Strength of 35% and Quality between 50% and 70% which is generally watchable, BBC1 reports Strength of 45% and Quality of 100% which is much better. If I simply join the second bedroom using an old splitter that is in the loft (a small junction box with one input and two outputs with some resisters between the input signal core and all three outer sheaths) I lose signal on all channels on Mux 2. I have a 6 output Antiference A260 distribution amplifier in the loft which I tried to use the fix this problem in the past without success. If I connect only one bedroom up to this BBC1 signal strength goes up to 74% and the quality remains at 100%, for Channel 5 the strength increases to 69% but the quality drops to less than 10% and I'm unable to watch any of the channels on Mux 2. Attaching the second bedroom doesn't affect the signal strength. I noticed that the distribution amplifier is automatically supplying power to the aerial, not sure if this is a good thing or not. Is there a way of stopping it automatically supplying power as I assume the communal system will already be powered? Another thing that I have noticed without any of the cables connected to each other is a DC voltage on the outer cores. If I measure the DC voltage between the inner and outer cores of each of the three cables (Aerial, Bedroom 1 and Bedroom 2) it is zero in all cases. If I measure the voltage between the Aerial outer core and Bedroom 1 outer core I get about 10 volts. If I measure the voltage between the Aerial outer core and Bedroom 2 outer core I get about zero. If I measure the voltage between Bedroom 1 outer core and Bedroom 2 outer core I get about 7 volts. Bedroom 1 has a new Panasonic TX-32LXD85 TV and a Humax 9200T PVR, the Humax does have a setting that allows it to supply antenna power but this is switched off. Bedroom 2 has a Panasonic TX-26LXD70 TV and a Topfield TF5800 PVR, neither of these devices have an option for antenna power. Is this normal? Will it be causing a problem? Is this likely to be fixed by using a different distribution amplifier? Is there any other information that I can give you or any tests that you would suggest doing? Thanks Robbie Hi, Robbie. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the Antiference A260 distribution amplifier so I don't know whether it's suitable or not. If you read our web site pages you'll learn how a system ought to be wired and why. Start here: http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/amps.htm You can prevent current flow from an amplifier etc. by decoupling the cable. See http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/decoupled_cable.htm You don't have to damage your existing cable; simply connect in a short length of new cable and work on that. Unfortunately, I can't follow your "picture in words" very well. Not your fault - just that I'm accustomed to working from a wiring diagram. I strongly recommend that you draw one, including information such as cable type and length and calculating attenuation in each. It will make the whole problem much easier to understand. The amplifier should be connected at the point which gives the best signal. Select it for a suitable gain so that the signal at the far end of each cable is roughly the same as the signal entering the amplifier. That way, each TV/receiver is getting the best possible signal (and the same signal as the rest). Finally, the use of old (probably poorly-screened) cable and unscreened wall sockets will greatly reduce the chances of success. You might like to read our "Freeview Bible" for a better understanding. http://www.satcure.co.uk/book.htm#freeview I think your robots are overrun! 14.45 today Thur 24 Sept - e-mail: order reached warehouse. 15.07 today Thur 24 Sept - e-mail: order despatched. Reality: order delivered to my house yesterday - waiting when I got home! Many thanks - superb service as previoulsy. I always feel slightly guilty for not ordering anything more than the odd control or piece of equipment given the value I get out of the technical side of the site. (Yes I have an e-b-o-o-k as well). I hope I repay a little by recommending the site whenever possible and appropriate. Thanks again. Mark Sorry, Mark. I have no idea how that could happen! The emails get sent automatically when the order is downloaded and when the Picking List is printed. In theory, it's impossible to send an order until these have occurred. I can only think that the emails got held up in a server queue somewhere. The reason I'm emailing is that I understand that a £25 deposit is taken for a PSU repair and is refunded in full or partially, based upon the extent of the damage to the PSU I sent back: "As a general rule, if the box comes on or shows any sign of life whatsoever, the PSU is repairable for the standard charge. Otherwise, have a look at resistor R15. If it is damaged, the PSU has had a major blow-up and is probably NOT repairable at the standard charge.". From my own inspection, my returned PSU met these requirements: The SkyHD box from which it was extracted would reach standby and could be forced to update the firmware (I only attempted once). No damage appeared to be present to resistor R15 or the PSU fuse. Checking my Visa statement, the deposit has been taken and not yet refunded. Is a refund due, or has there been some additional problem with the PSU that I returned? Regards, Andrew Sorry, Andrew. As you know, the old PSU gets sent to the repairer for inspection and repair. If he's on holiday or forgets to report back, the refund gets delayed and, as many things are still done manually (I know!) there's no automatic reminder in place. That's it for another month, folks! Latest SatCure eBook updates 1-10-09 "The Freeview Bible". 15-10-09 "Understanding Sky Digital TV and Freesat". 22-10-09 "Beginner's Guide to Receiver Repair" (free with kits). Meet other Satellite TV enthusiasts and put your questions or points of view here Need to buy wholesale stock to sell on eBay or on your web site? Thinking of starting your own business? Click on banner above. All kinds of video tapes transferred to DVD, UK's lowest prices and top quality. Experienced engineer and a personal service. Most tapes just £10 for 2:30 hours or less in quantity. I can't recommend this forum for Expats too highly. It's run and moderated by Kay who puts in a lot of hours to make sure everything runs smoothly. If you are outside the UK or thinking of emigrating then you need to look in here! Looking for a TV or VCR remote control? Look no further. only £18.80 inclusive from SatCure! Your advert could be here! Contact us for details. Electronic kits and gadgets. Start a new hobby! Ideal Presents. News
There is a new Facebook group, "Sky Customer Service is a crime against its customers", that is looking for stories/posts from aggrieved Sky customers to support their push for three simple changes to improve Sky Customer Service:
My Installation
Monthly Whinge
Feedback
Hi Martin, really enjoy the newsletter. Just wanted to tell you my mother once had a French property transaction nearly wrecked by Barclays rejecting her perfectly good signature on a cheque. The French take a "bounced" cheque very seriously and all hell broke loose. She sued Barclays with the help of her then partner a solicitor, and won about £6000. Hope you prevail!
Martin, regarding your problem with The Pru. On my Apple Mac with Safari 4.0.3 it does show the page with all the fields visible, so at least they could be filled in but even Google Chrome does not display it correctly so The Pru is at fault and I agree with you. I noticed in the source code that they have 'fixes' for Exploder 4 so they will cater for the 'bugger the world' Windows user who hasn't upgraded since God knows when, but not Apple Users!! Never mind have another glass of red wine. enjoy your Island, nice to see you have at last joined the rest of us expats (I came to SW France 9 years ago) and if I could solve the exchange rate problem I would sever all connections with the UK, fat chance. Cheers.
Freeview retune comment
Good wishes
Short Sighted IT Departments in Large Companies
Well done
Your Monthly Whinge - PruMail
It states: "IE Tab is not available for MacOSX."
Your whinges
Readers' Contributions
1) Dodgy Dish Installations 
Hello Martin, 
New Products
Beware the Scam!
Read about a UK company supposedly selling TVs direct to the public:
Another company to add to your whinge list:
Questions
I wish to use Disecq switching between Astra 28/Astra 19/Hotbird 13 from 2 dishes.
I set up my Freesat from Sky on a Pace box with help from your booklets some time ago and purchased the £20 card that I thought was forever. Sky are now asking me for another £20 or I lose channels. What is the best thing to do? Pay up through gritted teeth or change to Freesat from BBC/ITV? I don't have an HD TV but could consider preparing for one.
I have an interesting problem with my Sky+ - for any disk related functions (Record, Pause, Playback) I get the message "Sky+ Recovery failed - call Customer Services blah blah blah...". I never saw this message before and a comprehensive google search (and review of your forum) doesn't find it either.
Hi, I need to purchase a twin-output LNB for our Sky Box in SW France. We have a 80cm dish that fits a 40mm LNB.
I want to add a Freesat box and still use my existing Sky standard box &endash; these will located in different rooms in the house - each attached to its own Television set &endash; no Sky Plus or HD upgrades for Sky are planned.
Tried doing what you said but still cannot bring up the secret installer menu have you any other suggestions please regards Paul.
Dear Sir,
Freeview Enquiry
Happy Customers
Firstly - Many thanks for your service. You've saved me no end of grief from my other half. The replacement PSU ordered was quickly dispatched and was a simple installation. My Sky HD box is back up and running with all recordings still accessible.
Minor updates.
Minor updates.
Minor updates to explain about electrolytic capacitor fitting.
is an audio enthusiasts' website, run purely for the fun of it. No money involved at all! Take a look. 
The SatCure Satellite Review is written for the customers and subscribers of the following websites:
http://www.satcure.com
http://www.satcure.co.uk
http://www.satcure.net
http://www.your-book.co.uk
http://www.The-Cool-Book-Shop.co.ukcopyright © 2007 SatCure