Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

"charles" wrote in message
...
In article om,
wrote:
On Aug 24, 10:51 am, Andreas Schulze-Bäing wrote:

Would it be an option in that case to share the one satellite dish
between the four bungalows? You just need to install a quad LNB instead
of the standard single LNB, enough high quality cable, three more used
skyboxes plus card and... well an agreement between the elderly
neighbours that this might be a cost effective solution.

Andreas

Unfortunately that's not a viable option.
You would run into some serious electrical safety issues by doing
that.

Adjacent houses are almost always on different phases of the 3-phase
supply.
This is to balance the load on the cable that runs down the street.
The result is that there will be 415 volts between the live pins of
mains sockets in adjacent houses.

Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced load'
requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen bungalows,
built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm sure there are
plenty of similar situations in other places.


However should a piece of faulty equipment develop a live chassis, then the
screening on the feeder connected to the other dwellings will also be
rendered live.

As any unfortunate aerial rigger who has been at the top of a wet aluminium
ladder whilst trimming a length of coax connected to a live chassis
(especially back in the days when ac\dc television receivers were common)
can no doubt testify!





--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:41:35 +0100, charles
mused:

In article om,
wrote:
On Aug 24, 10:51 am, Andreas Schulze-Bäing wrote:

Would it be an option in that case to share the one satellite dish
between the four bungalows? You just need to install a quad LNB instead
of the standard single LNB, enough high quality cable, three more used
skyboxes plus card and... well an agreement between the elderly
neighbours that this might be a cost effective solution.

Andreas

Unfortunately that's not a viable option.
You would run into some serious electrical safety issues by doing
that.

Adjacent houses are almost always on different phases of the 3-phase
supply.
This is to balance the load on the cable that runs down the street.
The result is that there will be 415 volts between the live pins of
mains sockets in adjacent houses.

Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced load'
requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen bungalows,
built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm sure there are
plenty of similar situations in other places.

Could be either\or. Depends on what the local loadings are like.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

In article , charles
scribeth thus
In article om,
wrote:
On Aug 24, 10:51 am, Andreas Schulze-Bäing wrote:

Would it be an option in that case to share the one satellite dish
between the four bungalows? You just need to install a quad LNB instead
of the standard single LNB, enough high quality cable, three more used
skyboxes plus card and... well an agreement between the elderly
neighbours that this might be a cost effective solution.

Andreas

Unfortunately that's not a viable option.
You would run into some serious electrical safety issues by doing
that.

Adjacent houses are almost always on different phases of the 3-phase
supply.
This is to balance the load on the cable that runs down the street.
The result is that there will be 415 volts between the live pins of
mains sockets in adjacent houses.

Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced load'
requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen bungalows,
built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm sure there are
plenty of similar situations in other places.

Its more to balance the load on the transformer rather than the cable...


That was prolly fed of a single phase 11 kV feed...
--
Tony Sayer

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

Would it be an option in that case to share the one satellite dish between
the four bungalows? You just need to install a quad LNB instead of the
standard single LNB, enough high quality cable, three more used skyboxes
plus card and... well an agreement between the elderly neighbours that this
might be a cost effective solution.

I did try to suggest this. It would have been easy to cable as the
houses are not far apart and would certainly have been good for the
end house and perhaps the next one as they were too close to the trees
for sat reception.
Although I do take the point about possible safety issues.
My customer did not like the idea of using her dish for them all so I
had to give up on that idea and leave them to think about it. Perhaps
they will reinvent the idea themselves eventually.

I must go back and have a look to see what the current situation is. I
dont go that way very often.

Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera when I went the second time
to do the job but I have another job to do nearby soon so I will try
to remember to take it and take a shot of the current situation.

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

In article om,
wrote:
If you need to do this, say for instance in a block of flats, you
would need to employ the services of someone like Bill to install a
professional distribution system. *In this case of a few old people,
it's probably not cost-effective.

Speaking of old people, I've just watched a documentary from Ch4 about
the oldest people in the world - all of them older than 100. A
fascinating programme, and surprisingly moving to see how cheerful most
of them were. One old dear was asked by the interviewer how she felt
about being on television, and didn't appear to know what television
was. I'm not completely sure if she was joking, but it is a sobering
thought that people in that age group will have lived a large chunk of
their lives before television was invented, so it is entirely possible
that some of them simply never bothered with it.

I think I already feel the same way myself about things like computer
games, and "blogs" (whatever thay are), and I haven't understood the
noises young people listen to for at least thirty years. If by some
miracle I live to be more than 100, middle-aged people who are not yet
born may be marvelling at my lack of comprehension of some everyday
gadget that they all take for granted. I wonder what it will be?

Rod.

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

wrote in message
ps.com...
On Aug 24, 10:51 am, Andreas Schulze-Bäing wrote:

Would it be an option in that case to share the one satellite dish between
the four bungalows? You just need to install a quad LNB instead of the
standard single LNB, enough high quality cable, three more used skyboxes
plus card and... well an agreement between the elderly neighbours that
this
might be a cost effective solution.

Andreas

Unfortunately that's not a viable option.
You would run into some serious electrical safety issues by doing
that.

Adjacent houses are almost always on different phases of the 3-phase
supply.
This is to balance the load on the cable that runs down the street.
The result is that there will be 415 volts between the live pins of
mains sockets in adjacent houses.

Anyone installing a system like this in the UK could find themselves
in hot water if there was a fault in one house that caused damage (or
worse, an electric shock) in another house.

If you need to do this, say for instance in a block of flats, you
would need to employ the services of someone like Bill to install a
professional distribution system. In this case of a few old people,
it's probably not cost-effective.

Sorry, Ian.

........................

It isn't much of a problem to earth bond the installation though, and that's
all that's needed. We usually employ a qualified electrician to do this and
the cost isn't great.

By the way 'a few old people' probably means 'a few people with more
disposable income than the average young family'.

Bill

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , charles
scribeth thus


Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced load'
requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen
bungalows, built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm sure
there are plenty of similar situations in other places.

Its more to balance the load on the transformer rather than the cable...


That was prolly fed of a single phase 11 kV feed...

nope, feed from the 440v cable going down the road.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

In article , charles
scribeth thus
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , charles
scribeth thus


Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced load'
requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen
bungalows, built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm sure
there are plenty of similar situations in other places.

Its more to balance the load on the transformer rather than the cable...


That was prolly fed of a single phase 11 kV feed...

nope, feed from the 440v cable going down the road.

Well if it was fed on a 440 supply on a single phase..

...Think about that Charles;?..

And where did that cable go in turn?..
--
Tony Sayer

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , charles
scribeth thus
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , charles
scribeth thus


Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced
load' requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen
bungalows, built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm
sure there are plenty of similar situations in other places.

Its more to balance the load on the transformer rather than the
cable...


That was prolly fed of a single phase 11 kV feed...

nope, feed from the 440v cable going down the road.

Well if it was fed on a 440 supply on a single phase..

No, it was a single phase tap off from the main road.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

Dangerous digital rip-offs
 

In article , charles
scribeth thus
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , charles
scribeth thus
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:
In article , charles
scribeth thus


Not nowadays. True, that used to be the case, but the 'balanced
load' requirement vanished years ago. A local development of 2 dozen
bungalows, built over 20 years ago was fed from one phase only. I'm
sure there are plenty of similar situations in other places.

Its more to balance the load on the transformer rather than the
cable...


That was prolly fed of a single phase 11 kV feed...

nope, feed from the 440v cable going down the road.

Well if it was fed on a 440 supply on a single phase..

No, it was a single phase tap off from the main road.


I very much doubt that they had just the one tapping in use, the others
must have been going elsewhere...
--
Tony Sayer