The Neighbours

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!

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:47 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
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?

Could it possibly be pointing to

a) a signal from Crystal Palace reflected off some wall?

b) Alexandra Palace relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

c) Edmonton relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

d) Hampstead Heath relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

e) Kensal Town relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

Inquiring minds demand to know the answer to this perplexing puzzle! ;+)

In article ,
J G Miller wrote:
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:47 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
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?

Could it possibly be pointing to

a) a signal from Crystal Palace reflected off some wall?

b) Alexandra Palace relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

c) Edmonton relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

d) Hampstead Heath relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

e) Kensal Town relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

Inquiring minds demand to know the answer to this perplexing puzzle! ;+)

Hannington?

or is it re-transmitting a signal recieved from a satellite on towards a
neighbour?

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

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? ;+)

"Terry Casey" wrote in message
...

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.


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..

Terry you're a lucky old sod, thanks to New Labour you can bask in the sheer
ethnic entrepreneurial vibrancy of it all!.. BTW you don't happen to live
in the Bristol area do you?

On 17/09/2008 21:41, Ivan wrote:

you don't happen to live in the Bristol area do you?

How would that square with "Crystal Palace is to the south west"?

"Andy Burns" wrote in message
et...
On 17/09/2008 21:41, Ivan wrote:

you don't happen to live in the Bristol area do you?

How would that square with "Crystal Palace is to the south west"?

DX?

J G Miller wrote:
On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:47 +0100, Terry Casey wrote:
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?

Could it possibly be pointing to

a) a signal from Crystal Palace reflected off some wall?

b) Alexandra Palace relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

c) Edmonton relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

d) Hampstead Heath relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

e) Kensal Town relay, which although a relay, does transmit with
horizontal polarization

Inquiring minds demand to know the answer to this perplexing puzzle! ;+)

I think you are possibly directionally dyslectic!

a) The reflection would be, primarily, off the houses directly opposite
(50 - 100m max). The crossroads to the south is 90° (as near as makes no
difference) so, as the refective surface is tilted 13°E and Astra is
148° ETN (the aerial direction is approximate, so any difference between
True North and Grid North is immaterial) so the aerial, as viewed from
the houses opposite, is 71°W and the reflection 71°E. Adding back the
13° offset gives 84°EGN, 130° off the Crystal Palace bearing. (These
houses do have rear extentions but reflections of these would
re-directed off the adjacent property in the same direction.)

b, c, d & e) Are equally farcical! Even ignoring the low power of these
relays, they are all in completely the wrong direction! Their bearings,
wrt to the Astra alignment, and distances a

Alexandra Palace 131° 16km
Edmonton 151° 12km
Hampstead Heath 115° 18km
Kensal Town 107° 21km

Terry

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.


Hannington - 104° off-beam at a range of 97km?

Terry

Andy Burns wrote:
On 17/09/2008 21:41, Ivan wrote:

you don't happen to live in the Bristol area do you?

How would that square with "Crystal Palace is to the south west"?

I'm glad someone's awake!

Terry