The Neighbours
 

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:19:31 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
I think you are possibly directionally dyslectic!
Probably -- I had incorrectly thought that the rooftop
antenna pointing at Crystal Palace was pointing in a south west direction.

So, using that as a point of reference, in which direction, is it
pointing?

Remember Sir, that you have the advantage of being familiar with the
local terrain, and some of us are only seeing these photographs without
that advantage.

The Neighbours
 

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:47 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...tv/neighbours/
cru3.jpg

In this photograph, the satellite dish is presumably pointing South East
towards Astra 28.2?

The wall height antenna appears to be pointing in the same direction
South East?

The rooftop antennas are therefore pointing south west to Crystal palace?

YES / NO ?

The Neighbours
 

On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:06:02 +0200, J G Miller wrote:

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:19:31 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
I think you are possibly directionally dyslectic!
Probably -- I had incorrectly thought that the rooftop
antenna pointing at Crystal Palace was pointing in a south west direction.

So, using that as a point of reference, in which direction, is it
pointing?

Remember Sir, that you have the advantage of being familiar with the
local terrain, and some of us are only seeing these photographs without
that advantage.

Inside the neighbours' house:

A: Have you noticed the man next door taking photos of our house and garden?

B: Yes. He seems to be fascinated by aerials.

A: So he does. I have a spare aerial.

B: Why don't you put it up and point it in a random direction.

A: [chuckle] That should give him something to think about.

The Neighbours
 

In article ,
J G Miller wrote:
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:47:51 +0100, charles wrote:
Hannington?
It appeared that the antenna was pointing east, so that would rule out
Hannington, unless they are trying to receive it through the back end of
the antenna, which does sometimes work in areas of strong signal.

or is it re-transmitting a signal recieved from a satellite on towards a
neighbour?
Would they not require a transmitting licence to do that? ;+)

since when have people bothered to try and get one? There was a Coral shop
in Shepherds Bush that did it.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

The Neighbours
 

Near here is Tolworth Tower, and in some places around there I'm reliably
informed that a better signal is to be had by pointing at the tower, then at
Crystal Palace.

Such is life I guess.

Actually, from your descriptions many of the elevation design solutions
have been used by me when I was young and playing with aerials, though none
were meant for long term use!

Brian
Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Terry Casey" wrote in message
...
When I mentioned a few of things my neighbours had been getting up to
recently, Bill Wright asked if there was any possibility of some pictures
for his rogues gallery.

Having eventually found a round tuit, I decided to sort something out.

I thought this might have a wider audience and did create it as a html
document with embedded pictures to make it easier to follow but,
unfortunately, I can't upload the image files for some reason. So,
instead, here's the version you'll have to put together yourselves!

If I resolve my upload problem, I'll post the url here.

Terry
__________________________________________________ ______

When a Somalian family moved in a few years ago, a large steerable
satellite dish appeared over the front door soon afterwards. It was
installed on December 25th (!) and spent much of its time pointing well to
the east. When they left, the dish went with them but the after the
current occupants, a Kurdish family, moved in, another dish appeared in
the same position.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/ktv5.jpg

This time it is a fixed dish. The next picture was taken with the camera
directly in line with Astra 28.2° so, although the dish now points west of
Astra, it will be obvious that the previous dish spent a lot of time with
nearly 50% of its surface hidden behind the window bay! The current dish
appears to be pointing to Hot Bird 6 at 13° which, by a strange
coincidence, carries Kurdistan TV.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/ktv1.jpg

The next thing to appear was a garden shed

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ours/shed1.jpg

which was soon adorned by a small UHF aerial at the northern end (furthest
from the house) with the cable clipped across the roof through the new
roofing felt ... As the backs of these houses face virtually due north,
and Crystal Palace is to the south west, the aerial was pointed towards
the roof at a jaunty angle! This obviously wasn’t a success as it
disappeared after a very short time.

I didn’t spot its replacement for quite a while – it was an Astra dish
fastened to the trunk of a tree at the bottom of the garden. Unfortunately
I didn’t get the chance to get a photo of either of these experiments
until after the surprise arrival of leaves on the tree forced a rethink!

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ghbours/s1.jpg

The current solution is a pole at the end of the garden, close to the
garden fence. The dish is very clearly fixed with a couple of wood
screws –

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/sfix.jpg

and the F connector could do with a bit of weatherproofing -

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ghbours/sf.jpg

but at least it’s close to the ground when attention is needed. (It also
has a tendency to sway in the wind ....!)

The cable is gravity fed down the wooden mast

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ours/spole.jpg

which is clearly marked “REJECT”! before being clipped along the top of
the fence

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ours/scab1.jpg

before running up to and along the roof of the shed, as can be seen in the
earlier picture. It finally enters the house through the frame of the
French Window.

The gazebos which can be seen (as well as some polyethylene sheeting at
the side of the house) are storage space for large quantities of
electronic equipment – mainly hands-free telephones but also including the
odd microwave – which arrive by the palette load quite frequently. (As
houses in this area don’t have rear access, it all has to be unpacked at
the front and ferried through the house by hand!) I dread to think how
much moisture is absorbed by this stock, particularly in view of the
horrendous downpours we’ve been having over the past few months.

The stock obviously gets sold on at numerous boot sales and, on their
return from one of these, the lady of the house was seen to be brandishing
their latest acquisition in the TV reception game – a bright, shiny,
flimsy contract aerial. This appeared briefly immediately above the Hot
Bird dish but obviously needed a little elevation, so it was quickly
provided with a mast.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/ktv4.jpg

As you can see, considerable thought went into this. It may look like
broom handle, wedged into the top of the dish bracket, to you or me but
they were obviously worried about the performance hit of a metal mast
passing between the aerial elements ...

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ghbours/u1.jpg

Look closely and you will see the scientifically designed non-metallic
clamping mechanism

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ghbours/u1.jpg

and the graceful way that the downlead uses the folded dipole for support
as it prepares for its free-fall descent!

I’m surprised that they didn’t do more research before embarking on the
back garden sky dish as immediately opposite

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/cab1.jpg

is an excellent example of the well known ‘lob it over the roof’ method.

A few doors down, a house that has stood empty for a few years has been
split into two flats a recently been re-occupied. This pair of dishes
appeared almost immediately

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...hbours/2d2.jpg

Note how, in the process of installing the chimney mounted dish, the
coping stone on the firewall has been dislodged ...

Just round the corner, I spotted another new low-level UHF installation-

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/cru1.jpg

From this view, you can see it is trying to make up for its lack of
altitude:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/cru2.jpg

but I’m not sure if somebody hasn’t been given a bit of duff information
along the line.

The road runs virtually north/south (to the left of the picture is 13°
EGN. ) Crystal Palace is, as I said earlier, 214° EGN, so where is that
array pointing?

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...bours/cru3.jpg

Ah! Of course! with that bearing and upward tilt it’s obviously aiming at
Astra!

The Neighbours
 

What people require and what people actually do are often not related in
fact.

I've done some tests in years gone by and its surprisingly easy to move uhf
signals around this way, though a little limited as only one channel can be
done unless you get some very complicated gear.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"J G Miller" wrote in message ...
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:47:51 +0100, charles wrote:
Hannington?
It appeared that the antenna was pointing east, so that would rule out
Hannington, unless they are trying to receive it through the back end of
the antenna, which does sometimes work in areas of strong signal.

or is it re-transmitting a signal recieved from a satellite on towards a
neighbour?
Would they not require a transmitting licence to do that? ;+)

The Neighbours
 

J G Miller wrote:
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:47 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...tv/neighbours/
cru3.jpg

In this photograph, the satellite dish is presumably pointing South East
towards Astra 28.2?

The wall height antenna appears to be pointing in the same direction
South East?

The rooftop antennas are therefore pointing south west to Crystal palace?

YES / NO ?

YES

Also, if you look above the wall height antenna, you can see an Astra
above it.

Terry

The Neighbours
 

Peter Duncanson wrote:
On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:06:02 +0200, J G Miller wrote:

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:19:31 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
I think you are possibly directionally dyslectic!
Probably -- I had incorrectly thought that the rooftop
antenna pointing at Crystal Palace was pointing in a south west direction.

So, using that as a point of reference, in which direction, is it
pointing?

Remember Sir, that you have the advantage of being familiar with the
local terrain, and some of us are only seeing these photographs without
that advantage.

Inside the neighbours' house:

A: Have you noticed the man next door taking photos of our house and garden?

B: Yes. He seems to be fascinated by aerials.

A: So he does. I have a spare aerial.

B: Why don't you put it up and point it in a random direction.

A: [chuckle] That should give him something to think about.

Good try!

However, I noticed this aerial BEFORE I started taking any of the
photographs ...

Terry

The Neighbours
 

J G Miller wrote:
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:19:31 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
I think you are possibly directionally dyslectic!
Probably -- I had incorrectly thought that the rooftop
antenna pointing at Crystal Palace was pointing in a south west direction.

So, using that as a point of reference, in which direction, is it
pointing?


I think you've covered this yourself in a later posting.

However, you have far more than the photographs to go on - I had stated
that the bearing to CP is 214° EGN and Astra is going to be reasonably
constant for the purposes of this discussion, giving a difference of 66°
between the two.

I had also said that the road "road runs virtually north/south" so you
had plenty of information to go on.

Remember Sir, that you have the advantage of being familiar with the
local terrain, and some of us are only seeing these photographs without
that advantage.

If the local terrain was a significant factor, I would have mentioned it
but, for the record, for the purposes of this discussion, it is sensibly
flat with no major man made obstructions (although that is about to
change, unfortunately.)

Terry

The Neighbours
 

In article ,
Terry Casey wrote:
If the local terrain was a significant factor, I would have mentioned it
but, for the record, for the purposes of this discussion, it is sensibly
flat with no major man made obstructions (although that is about to
change, unfortunately.)

You're not saying more people actually want to live there? ;-)

--
*On the seventh day He brewed beer *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.