How an old analogue system helped Michael Charles prepare for a German exam.
My contributor didnt want to be fully identified. This is the text from an email Michael sent. It has been very slightly edited by me.
Thank You!
Thanks for helping me to get started. I live in Derbyshire's Peak District, where
terrestrial TV reception is about 4 and a half channels. My Pace receiver and Amstrad mesh
dish set-up had lain unused in the garage since I paid £30 for it, 3 years ago. But I had
a German exam looming, and your site made everything sound pretty simple, so I had a go.
Location, location
The lady of the house was "not having an ugly dish stuck on the front of
the house" so I waited until she went to work one day. Compass in hand, I walked
around the garden like a nutcase until I found a sheltered spot behind the garage to site
the dish. Unfortunately this was well away from the TV screen...
Magic mirror
Working alone, with no portable TV to help, I had to improvise, I took a large wall
mirror and positioned it in the room near to the window, angled so that I could just see
the TV screen from outside as I moved the dish. Within 5 minutes I had a picture! I
began to work through the list, tuning in the channels. Soon I was watching high-quality
pictures and sound. It made the terrestrial channels look very second-rate.
Adventures in German
After a few weeks of immersion in German TV, my confidence in the language rising,
I set out on the Internet again. At (ed - link removed April 2003 - site no longer
active) I found a site with similar aims to yours, set up by Dieter Schmeer in
Pirmasens, Germany. Dieter's site is in comparison a bit dull and not too up-to-date, but
it does have a good Astra satellite radio programme list which I have found very useful.
Tips
Without a German satellite listings magazine, I struggled for a while to find any
teletext information to help. Then I found that Pro Sieben (11406 V) carries 'what's on
now' info about 20 of the major German satellite channels. You can find this on Pro Sieben
text pages 310 and 311.
Problems
These have been surprisingly few. I can't receive 10714 H (Kinder Kanal / Arte),
10729 V (CNBC Europe) or 10744 H (TV Puls), and 10803 H (N24) and 10818 V (Travel) are
very sparkly. This experience was repeated with the radio channels, so it looks like it's
common to the low frequencies. (ed - I think this problem is probably caused by an old
lnb. Replacing it should clear the problem)
At the moment I'm reluctant to move the dish, for fear of losing the channels I do have. I
initially had difficulty getting Viva Plus but found it on 11303 H , rather than 11303 V
on the list. (ed - Ah.... Well spotted... the chart has been corrected now!)
Cheap analogue gear...
A colleague told me he went to a 'radio rally' a couple of weeks ago, and was
talking about satellite TV to one of the traders there. The trader asked if he wanted any
analogue systems - he said he could offer them at 50p each, but my colleague would have to
buy 10,000! I intend to visit one of these rallies to check this out.
German exam
I sat this last week as a 'mature student'. Watching German satellite programmmes
has really helped me to progress. Thanks again.
If you arrived here from a search engine and dont see the frameset, click here to get to the front page.
The web site will not work properly if you dont.