Satellite Television in the United Kingdom: 28.2°E

Satellite television in the United Kingdom is broadcast on 2 satellites. The Astra 2 satellites at 28.2°E and Eurobird 1 at 28.5°E. There is only 1 package on these satellites and that is Sky UK or BSKYB (British Sky Broadcasting). It has more channels than any other package in Europe and has a great selection of free to air channels including our national broadcasters (BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, Channel 4 and Channel 5). The channels on 28.2°E are encrypted in NDS Videoguard and are decrypted by a Sky Viewing card. The card also decrypts the channels that are free to view, even if one is not subscribed to any specific TV pack.

28.2°E has strong beams that cover the UK and parts of Europe (e.g. France, Germany, Italy, Spain). 28.2°E is in fact receivable outside of it's intended beam. An example, I was on holiday in Turkey a few years ago and they managed to receive Sky UK with a good, watchable picture. Unless it rained then it would go to the "No satellite signal is being received" message as is standard on Sky Digiboxes. Here are some pictures of the Sky Digibox EPG and the minidishes found on houses across the UK.

North Korean Television available at 78.5e

I thought I would talk about in this post how to receive television from the DPRK (North Korea) and with the recent death of their leader, Kim-Jong Il there will be some interesting reports on it. First of all this will not work in the UK and you will need a fairly large dish depending on which country you live in as it is broadcast over C-Band and not KU-Band. The channel is Korean Central TV (KCTV) and is broadcast via Thaicom 5 at 78.5°E. The beam is Global so it is receivable over Asia, Australia, Africa, Middle East and parts of Europe (see the coverage below). Again, please note that you will not receive this if you live in the far Western countries of Europe or North/Latin America. First make sure your dish is aimed at 78.5°east and input the following transponder into your receiver:

Frequency: 3505
Polarization: H
Symbol Rate: 3367
FEC: 2/3

There is no encryption on this channel - it is Free To Air. So enjoy :)


Also, below are some images from the channel, reference is dxsatcs.com

My Dish Setup: Triax TD88 + Inverto LNB

I want to talk about my satellite dish setup. Back in February when I originally started doing this hobby I purchased a very basic setup (Fortec Star) that was only really good for the strong satellites where I live (13e, 19.2e, 5w etc). However I have since upgraded to a Triax TD88 satellite dish. When I purchased the dish it said that it was 88cm in size, however when I got the dish I measured it myself and found it to be 94cm, not that I am complaining - the bigger the better! I also upgraded the LNB to an Inverto Ultra Black. This is a high gain LNB and so put together it makes the perfect satellite setup. I even managed to receiver BADR at 26 East, used for the Arab countries it is quite hard to receive in England without using a large dish (according to Satbeams.com I need a 100cm to receive 26e!). Anyway I will post some pictures of the satellite dish, which sits in my back garden, as well as that there is a video of my setup.







Video of my setup

Decided for a Change

I have decided on a change for the blog, I have changed the main subject of my blog to satellite television and FM radio. These are my 2 favourite hobbies and I will enjoy writing about them more so than writing about myself. I believe this will be a successful venture and will attract people who are also into this hobby as much as I am. So I would like to present - The Satellite TV and FM Radio blog.

Mexican Channels receivable in UK and Europe at 24.5w

There are TV channels available from Mexico on the Intelsat 905 satellite at 24.5°W. The beam that these channels broadcast on is called Spot 2. You can see from the image below that the beam covers most of Western and Eastern Europe with the strongest area being centred on France/Spain/Italy areas. I have labelled the beams to see what dish dish size is recommended for that country. There are 6 Mexican channels broadcasting from 24.5w, encrypted in Viaccess 2.5. They are as follows:

Clásico TV
RitmoSon Latino
TeleHit
De Pelicula
Canal de las Estrellas
Telenovelas

These channels can be decrypted and viewed by purchasing a subscription card and receiver for €269 (£225). The provider of the card is by a satellite shop called DD Electronics based in Paris, France. To program these channels into your receiver point your dish to 24.5w and input the following transponder:

Frequency: 11626
Polarization: H
Symbol Rate: 13500
FEC: 7/8

Lack of Xmas music on foreign music channels

I have recently noticed a lack of Christmas music on foreign TV channels. They all seem to be playing what they usually would throughout the year. Here are some screenshots from some French music channels which shows the lack of Xmas music, taken on the 18th December 2011.


MTV Base

MCM Top

MCM Pop

M6 Music Hits

M6 Music Club

Christmas Day Radio Appearance

I will be making another radio appearance on 1Radio.org with my good friend Ceejay. This will be happening on Sunday 25th December 2011 at 4pm UK time. I am personally looking forward to this. It will be 2 hours and we will be playing pop music mainly from the 70s and 80s. I understand Christmas Day is busy for many people so for those who can't tune in a recording of the show will be available. After the Christmas show on New Years Eve (Dec. 31) we will be having 3 hours of the past guests from Ceejay's Solid Gold Sunday show which should be a server max out, and of course we have Jethro Sheeran on 1st January 2012. So it is going to be busy in the coming days for me and Ceejay on 1Radio. As for now we are concentrating on the Xmas show, so watch my Twitter/Facebook on Xmas day and I will inform you when I am due to go live on air. I look forward to it and hope to see you all there!!

Chat with Jethro Sheeran - Now Confirmed!

Hi guys, just a quick announcement that it is now confirmed Jethro Sheeran will be making an appearance on DJ Ceejay's show on 1Radio. This will be happening on the 1st January 2012. I am looking forward to chatting with him after and possibly before the show. Who knows, maybe Ed Sheeran, the man himself will also appear and I'll have get to have a chat with him also.

Jethro Sheeran - Cousin of Ed Sheeran

Hello everyone, as you will all remember in my previous post I talked about me being on CJ's show and chatting with Alabama Capital. Well next month (January) CJ is getting Jethro Sheeran on the show who is the cousin of British singer-song writer Ed Sheeran, well known for his song "The A-Team". Now, I always get to chat with CJ's guests, so hopefully I will be able to chat with Jethro and possibly Ed himself if he turns up. I will keep you up to date with that as it gets nearer.

My Radio Appearance

Hello everyone,

Last night I made an appearance on an Internet radio station 1Radio.org where my friend Ceejay (Chris McNally) is a DJ. I was on his show last night and had the pleasure of talking to Nathan and Caleb who are also known as Alabama Capital. It was a great show and an awesome night. I enjoyed chatting with them as they are great guys and have awesome music. If you missed the show live you can download it directly from here. We also had a famous record producer listening in called Shawn Campbell, who has worked with Usher, Rihanna and Jay-Z.

How to have bad table manners

As most of you know, Thursday was my birthday and on the Friday I was having a meal at TGI Friday's. That's when a thought occurred, how does one have bad table manners? I got my iPhone out and searched for the answer but nothing, so I thought I'd make this blog post on the subject. You could use this for example if you are going to be forced to dine with someone you do not like, follow these simple steps and you'll never have to dine with those person(s) again.

1) Always chew food with your mouth open
This one is quite easy, many people actually do this without realising that they are doing it.

2) Snack and Crunch
When eating you're eating make sure you snack and crunch on your food at a loud volume. Make sure that it can be heard around the entire table and also in the surrounding environment.

3) Eat fast
Always make sure you eat fast, do not eat slow. Try to make sure you make as much mess as possible, spilling on the floor, table and your shirt. Forget the use of napkins - wipe your hands on your shirt, trousers or on the table cloth.

4) ALWAYS speak with your mouth full
This is extremely important. Speaking with food in your mouth makes conversation difficult to hear, as well as that a mouth full of food is unpleasant for the other diners. If you want to ask your dining companions a question, do not wait for them to finish chewing - just ask away.

5) Reaching
Imagine an invisible boundary on the table which separates your personal space with the other diners'. Feel more than welcome to invade this space. For example if there is a bottle of ketchup next to another diner, don't ask them to pass the ketchup or even ask if you are okay to use it, just reach out and grab the object.

6) Stuff your mouth full of food
Always bite off more than you can chew, stuff your cheeks full of food and take exceedingly large bites. Also form a ball in one cheek and take a sip of your drink while chewing.

7) 1/2 Bites
If you have placed an area of your meal on your fork, don't immediately eat the whole thing - Take 1/2 a bite of that food.

8) Fidgeting
Fidget with your tie, jewellery, adjust flatware, play with your (unused) napkin or hair, anything that makes your dining companions think that they are boring you.

9) Completing your meal
Once you have completed your meal, push the plate away in a small, but aggressive manner and make a table announcement that you have finished eating - This will make the other diners feel pressured to finish their food faster.

10) Slouch
Slouch on your chair, this will show that you are not alert or engaged in the surrounding environment.

11) Picking your teeth
No bad table manners would be complete without using a toothpick in full view of the other diners. When you are cleaning your teeth with your tongue make sure it is done at a high volume. This is an unattractive habit.

Sunburn :(

Yesterday we had some hot weather. Temperatures reached to a high 26.5°C (79°F). I was sat outside most of the day in it, in a t-shirt and a pair of trousers luckily. I only burnt my face and my arms but it still isn't good. I didn't use any sun-screen because I live in England and that is not usually something we think about here. I was out in the sun for about 4 hours yesterday. Well I don't mind that much, I am just glad we had some nice hot weather. Today has been warm also, however today it was warmer by .2°C.

Yesterday top temperature in Billingham was 26.5°C (79°F)
Today top temperature in Billingham was 26.7°C (80°F)

That is not much difference however I think it was more humid yesterday and it was sunny yesterday too, not a cloud in the sky. Today it was quite overcast but still quite warm. Also it doesn't compare to weather we have had in the past where temperatures have reached 31°C (87°F). Although it's not often that this happens in the north of England (it is more common in the south), it still does happen. Oh well, I am heading on holiday to Greece in August, I am certain it will be even hotter there.

Jack-Bromby.com is now on Facebook

Yes, the site now has it's own "Like" page. Check it out by clicking here. Please go to the page and click that "Like" button, and also don't forget that if you haven't already you can send me a friend request on my main Facebook account here.

Update - Gig/College/Weather

Hi everyone,

sorry for not updating but I keep forgetting. Either that or I can't be bothered. Just thought I'd let you all know I have now finished college and successfully completed my first year. I will be returning in September to start a media course and I am really looking forward to it. Also on Saturday 11th June 2011 I met up with Ceejay again, and also Craig, Jayde, Darryl, Mark, David Young so it was a good night. Photos are attached below. Recently I have put up my photo gallery as it was accidentally deleted by CEEJAY when we upgraded the site to Joomla, but it is back up now and hopefully I will upload some of my college work to that when I start my new course. Weather has been raining a lot but not really cold, it's suppose to be sunny and hot on Monday with temperatures reaching 30c (86f) in Southern England and 26c (78f) in Northern England. So I will look forward to that. Anyway here's the photos. The first one is of Ceejay (left) and me (right) and the second is Craig (left), Jayde (middle) and me (right).

My ten seconds of fame

Sorry for not updating, hope you all are enjoying the new site design. Tonight I had my ten seconds of fame on the Italian TV channel "RTL 102.5", and you can see the video of that here. Let me all know what you think. Just so you know, "Ciao da Inghilterra" is Italian for "Hello from England". Note it's best if you set the quality to 1080 and view in full screen.

Weekend meet up!!

Well what can I say, this weekend has been awesome! I am not home yet however, I am currently in the car going home. It will be a long journey :( well I'm sure I'll survive.

Firstly, who was i meeting? A few people I know off the Internet. My friend, Chris McNally (better known as Ceejay) had arranged a gig at a music venue in his area near Birmingham. The name of the venue was Base Studios and it's in a town called "Stourbridge". Anyway I was meeting up with him, and I also invited two other people to come - Darryl from Tonbridge in the south of England and also Mark from Lincoln, in the east of England.

Well we left Billingham at about 11am, travelling across Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and into Staffordshire. The whole journey took around 3 and a half hours and we stopped off at Trowell motorway services just outside Nottingham at about 1pm for a Burger King. While I was there I phoned Darryl to see where he was and he said he was walking to the hotel. So we had our food and continued the journey.

We arrived at the hotel, Premier Inn which is in Kingswinford, near Dudley. Once we were checked in and had our room I phoned Darryl again to see if he was at the hotel, he said he had got lost and his phone was nearly out of battery. He found out the name of the street he was on was Moss Grove so Dave put it on the GPS on his phone and we drove to pick him up. Well meeting him for the first time was awesome, he got in the back of the car and we drove him to the hotel in Kingswinford. He got checked in at the hotel and Dave went for a shower and we met back up with Darryl in the hotel restaurant ten minutes later. We drank in the restaurant and spoke with Darryl about everything.

At around 4:45pm Dave phoned for a taxi to take us to Base Studios. And it came at 5:15pm. Originally we had got into the wrong taxi but the driver did point it out and we got into the right one. I had my iPhone GPS on and had to give the driver the directions and I did go wrong at a couple of points but we got there in the end. Once we were outside Base I phoned Chris/Ceejay and we met up inside. Not long after we all arrived the sound checks begun which were loud. I also met Kev who is from Justin.tv and had driven all the way from Norfolk which is Eastern England. He had drove Chris to Base from his house. The doors didn't officially open until 7pm. Not too long after they did open I met Mark who had driven from Lincoln. He talked to me, Dave, Darryl and Chris and it was awesome. This was probably one of the best weekends I've had. When the bands started I recorded them for Chris with his video cameras. I had to wear some kind of device around my shoulder to hd the camera but everything went well and I successfully filmed all the gigs.

One thing I forgot to mention. I also met David Young who played at Base that night. David is an extremely talented young man and I urge you all who are reading this to check out his website www.davidyoung-music.co.uk and also check out some of his music on YouTube. My favourite song is "Time of your life".

Today I woke up around 5:30am, checked my emails, sent replies and went back to sleep. I woke again at about 10am, got up at 10:20 or so, showered and me and Dave went to meet Darryl. We then headed to the McDonalds around the corner, had our breakfast/lunch and when we had finished we drove Darryl to the train station. After that we headed off home.

And that was the entire weekend. I really really enjoyed it. If you want to watch the videos then go to the YouTube channel "UKgetdiscovered" and check the vids out. They may not all be on there yet as there is hours of footage needing to be edited.

Thanks for reading, peace out!

New Surround Sound System

Well today is the day I meet Ceejay. But I want to mention that yesterday (Friday) I got a new surround sound system from my Uncle because he got a new 50" 3D TV. I am going to set it up on Monday when I get the wires for it, here is a few pictures.

Tutto L'Amore Che Ho

Hey guys, well it is Wednesday in a few minutes here which is half way through the week. Of course you should all know I am meeting Ceejay at the weekend, as well as him and David Young begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting and Craig I will also be meeting 2 other people I know from the Internet - Darryl who is travelling from Tonbridge in Southern England and Mark who (hopefully) can come, will be travelling from Lincoln in Eastern England. I look forward to meeting all of them. Next, I urge you to check out this awesome song, it is in Italian and it's titled "TUTTO L'AMORE CHE HO" (All the love I have) by Italian singer-songwriter and rapper Jovanotti. Check the video:

New Housing Estate in Billingham - "College Gardens"

Hey guys, I just wanted to update my blog and talk about a new housing estate which is being built in Billingham, originally the site of an old college, it was demolished a few years ago and they have now begun building houses there and the estate is called "College Gardens". These houses are the newest in the town and are very modern, another thing which also makes these houses modern is some of them have solar panels which is of course very eco-friendly and can be used as a backup if the main power goes offline. Anyway I shot these pictures on Friday afternoon and thought I'd share them here. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. I may upload some more pictures in the photo gallery under "Billingham" and create a sub album called "College Gardens".

New YouTube Account - "CanalJackB"

Hello,

Just thought I'd inform you all I have a new YouTube account, the reason being my old one got deleted for a pathetic reason. My old account got deleted due to a 2 minute clip of The Simpsons on my 32" HD TV. 20th Century Fox complained about it and my account got deleted, stupid? I know, but f**k them. My new account is "CanalJackB" so check that out and follow it if you like. The reason it is called CanalJackB is because Canal is French for Channel so I thought I would give my new YT account some French flavour.

On a more positive note many of you may remember Ceejay from Justin tv. Well on the 26th of this month me, Dave and Dawn are driving down to Stourbridge near Birmingham to meet him at a gig that he has organized at a local music venue called "Base Studios". I am looking forward to this meeting as not only will I get to meet Ceejay, but also Craig, David and possibly Darryl. If you don't know who David is I will explain, he is a local singer and songwriter and is only 14 years old, check out his website at www.davidyoung-music.co.uk for more information about him and to listen to his songs.

Thanks for reading and keep following :-)

Weekend trip to Dover

Hello everyone,

I just thought I would inform you of my trip this weekend, I am going down to Dover, a small town on the south coast of England. From Billingham this would be a 5 and a half hour drive however we are leaving on Friday night. I finish college at 5:15 PM, after that my dad will pick me up in the car, drive back to Billingham so I can get my stuff for the weekend, then we will be leaving straight away. We are leaving on the Friday evening and heading down to Girton, a village near Cambridge to stay over on Friday night. Via the A1 this will be 197 miles, at least 3 hours and 28 minutes on the road plus traffic. Then on the Saturday morning we are leaving Cambridge and heading to Dover which is 122 miles (2 hours 11 minutes on the road). Then we are driving back to Billingham on the Sunday, which by the way will be my website's 700-day anniversairy. So I am looking forward to the weekend, I have included screenshots to suggest the route and how long it will be.

It is also worth noting that I have updated the website, links to my Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles are now under my Twitter box on the front page.

New 90cm Satellite Dish to watch foreign TV channels!

Hi everyone!

I have some exciting news, I recently purchased a 90cm satellite dish and a receiver so I can watch foreign TV channels across Europe, Asia and Africa. Well I got it set up last night and working, originally I did not know where I was pointing and only received one channel - 'SOS Kanal' from Serbia. Last night I moved the dish some more and received Italy and Poland from Hotbird 9 at 13.0 East, I can only receive the free channels but it's still fun. I have received the main channels e.g. Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Retequattro, Canale 5, Italia 1 (Italy) and some Polish stuff, some music channels, news channels etc. I can also receive Rai Sport 1 and Rai Sport 2 (Italy). Right now I am tuned to RTL 102.5 TV which is an Italian radio station and TV channel. Pics of my dish and the stuff I can receive are at the bottom of the post. Oh and one more note, my email address has changed, it's no longer uklive9@gmail.com it is now jack@jack-bromby.com so if you have any enquires please email there or use the contact form on my website.

Website - 2 years old/Windows Vista laptop damaged

As most of you know my Windows 7 laptop screen broke and is now in the shop for repair. My only other option was to use my Windows Vista. Well, that option is now out the window. I was walking down the stairs with my laptop this morning and as I did so the laptop fell right out of hands, down the stairs and landed on the floor. I was hoping nothing would be damaged but I was wrong. I turned the laptop on and although it started up successfully the screen had been damaged, I don't mean it had smashed, I mean it would come up with white and black colours and it would be all screwed up. I couldn't see anything. I tried plugging this into my TV but it was set by default to extend onto both displays so that was no good. Eventually, I find that the laptop begins emitting light smoke somewhere out of the back so I quickly turn it off before an issue that requires the use of a fire extinguisher arrises. Unfortunately I have no laptop now until my Windows 7 is repaired, even that could take a while. My Windows Vista had all my music, movies, Skyrock recordings etc. on the hard drive. Right now I have to use my dad's laptop to update the blog.

On a lighter note however, my website (www.jack-bromby.com) has now been on the web for 2 years! Since January 3rd 2009. I really didn't expect it to still be up this long but it is. I am happy anyway, plus it has just been renewed by Ceejay (Chris McNally) until the end of 2012, although it won't actually go offline until January 2013 even then I will be renewing it then for another 2 years too. However there has been some problems with the server today and I have found sometimes it won't load properly or redirects to Flirp.net. This is a problem with GoFreeserve who host my website and is out of my control. It usually fixes itself so the site may experience some downtime but it will eventually fix itself and be back up 100%.

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