When we had analogue TV and the signal to noise ratio was poor we would
say the picture was snowy.

When we had satellite TV with FM video and the signal to noise ratio was
poor we would say the picture had sparklies. They were white or black.
You had to tune the receiver to the midpoint where the white and black
were about the same intensity.

On modern HD CCTV snow can look like sparkles. Not at all like 'snow'!
We should have called 'snow' sparklies. But how were we to know?

Anyway, I well remember the excitement when I first dragged in a feeble
CNN from 27.5W, sometime in the 1980s. I used to watch CNN a lot after
that, then it was fascinating meeting some of the people I'd seen on
screen when years later I worked for CNN at their various London premises.

Bill

On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 15:56:18 +0000
Bill Wright wrote:

When we had analogue TV and the signal to noise ratio was poor we
would say the picture was snowy.

When we had satellite TV with FM video and the signal to noise ratio
was poor we would say the picture had sparklies. They were white or
black. You had to tune the receiver to the midpoint where the white
and black were about the same intensity.

On modern HD CCTV snow can look like sparkles. Not at all like
'snow'! We should have called 'snow' sparklies. But how were we to
know?

Anyway, I well remember the excitement when I first dragged in a
feeble CNN from 27.5W, sometime in the 1980s. I used to watch CNN a
lot after that, then it was fascinating meeting some of the people
I'd seen on screen when years later I worked for CNN at their various
London premises.

Bill

The time that I most appreciated CNN was when I stayed at the Shanghai
Sheraton for one night instead of the Chinese Guest House that we were
staying in for the duration while I was working there. This was in
December 1988.
The Guest house had several Chinese-language stations, including one
that showed the News in English at 11 pm every evening.

--
Davey.

Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky stuff and
vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast on uhf
using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an am receiver. It
was actually only seeable for a short time when it was under test before
its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

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"Bill Wright" wrote in message
news
When we had analogue TV and the signal to noise ratio was poor we would
say the picture was snowy.

When we had satellite TV with FM video and the signal to noise ratio was
poor we would say the picture had sparklies. They were white or black. You
had to tune the receiver to the midpoint where the white and black were
about the same intensity.

On modern HD CCTV snow can look like sparkles. Not at all like 'snow'! We
should have called 'snow' sparklies. But how were we to know?

Anyway, I well remember the excitement when I first dragged in a feeble
CNN from 27.5W, sometime in the 1980s. I used to watch CNN a lot after
that, then it was fascinating meeting some of the people I'd seen on
screen when years later I worked for CNN at their various London premises.

Bill

On 18/03/2018 08:41, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky stuff and
vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast on uhf
using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an am receiver. It
was actually only seeable for a short time when it was under test before
its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

I remember it but don't know of anyone in the UK receiving it.

Bill

Back in the day I did as i had a set which could have its if switched
separately to its tuner and pos/neg modulation. It was quite snowy and most
of the time merely had some kind of test pattern on it.

I suppose if we had had access to a proper fm demodulator for it, it might
have been better. It must have been back in the 1970s which seems ages ago
now. I can well remember the very first time I found sporadic E with an old
receiver and with a bit of wire on the shed roof Sveridge's Radio test card
was there on a band 1 channel. Amazing really.
Now hat have we got, nothing much, Still since I could not see it I guess
its just as well. I still have some Polaroid's of the test cards.
Brian

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"Bill Wright" wrote in message
news
On 18/03/2018 08:41, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky stuff
and
vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast on
uhf
using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an am receiver.
It
was actually only seeable for a short time when it was under test before
its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

I remember it but don't know of anyone in the UK receiving it.

Bill

Bill Wright wrote:

On 18/03/2018 08:41, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky
stuff and vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast
on uhf using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an
am receiver. It was actually only seeable for a short time when
it was under test before its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

I remember it but don't know of anyone in the UK receiving it.

Bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAcab_IDTiU

--


---
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Bill Wright wrote:

On 18/03/2018 08:41, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky
stuff and vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast
on uhf using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an
am receiver. It was actually only seeable for a short time when
it was under test before its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

I remember it but don't know of anyone in the UK receiving it.

Bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAcab_IDTiU

I am aware of that piece featuring Steve Birkhill, but isn't it all Ku
and C band?
--

Graham.
%Profound_observation%

In message , Ashley Booth
writes
Bill Wright wrote:

On 18/03/2018 08:41, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky
stuff and vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast
on uhf using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an
am receiver. It was actually only seeable for a short time when
it was under test before its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

I remember it but don't know of anyone in the UK receiving it.

Bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAcab_IDTiU

I remember Steve Birkhill's whiz-kid articles in the late 1970s and
early 80s. Lots of amateur DIY satellite stuff. Which magazine did they
appear in?
--
Ian

Television, formerly practical Television.
I did get that early sat, but you needed to find a pass where it was low
elevation, and I'm on top of a hill, so could just about get it. The problem
was that it seemed to move about so it was not quite geosynchronous either,
that was because it was gradually being shifted on station I assume. I bet
the old junk yard up at that orbit if full of old stuff now.

Future space archaeologists will be flying out and collecting them for
museums.

Brian

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"Ian Jackson" wrote in message
...
In message , Ashley Booth
writes
Bill Wright wrote:

On 18/03/2018 08:41, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes and nowadays of course the signal breaks up a bit with bloccky
stuff and vanishes altogether.
Does anyone recall that Indian satellite that did direct broadcast
on uhf using fm, but could be resolved by slope detection using an
am receiver. It was actually only seeable for a short time when
it was under test before its final positioning unfortunately.
It was way over the top end onf band five.

Times have certainly changed. Brian

I remember it but don't know of anyone in the UK receiving it.

Bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAcab_IDTiU

I remember Steve Birkhill's whiz-kid articles in the late 1970s and early
80s. Lots of amateur DIY satellite stuff. Which magazine did they appear
in?
--
Ian

On 20/03/2018 10:15, Brian Gaff wrote:
Television, formerly practical Television.
I did get that early sat, but you needed to find a pass where it was low
elevation, and I'm on top of a hill, so could just about get it. The problem
was that it seemed to move about so it was not quite geosynchronous either,
that was because it was gradually being shifted on station I assume. I bet
the old junk yard up at that orbit if full of old stuff now.

Future space archaeologists will be flying out and collecting them for
museums.

Brian


There's a lot of it up there now. Half a million items according to this:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

You'd need a very big dustbin lorry to collect that lot.

--

Chris