Licence fee?

Naked Gonad wrote:
CLicker wrote:
"Rastamon" wrote in message
...
"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Doug Smith wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:13:39 -0800, Charles Tomaras wrote:
Curious how a "detector van" is able to determine if you are watching
television? Do the UK purchased televisions have some sort of
transponder technology that can be read from the street?
All TV sets use Edwin Armstrong's "superheterodyne" circuit. A
"local oscillator" signal, at a frequency numerically related to
that of the station, is mixed with the incoming TV signal to
generate an "intermediate frequency" signal that is the same for
every station. (that way, most of the signal processing can be done
at the same frequency regardless of what station is being viewed)

Anyway, that "local oscillator" signal tends to leak out of the
wiring and get radiated by the antenna. That's what the "detector
vans" pick up.

Bear in mind, that the detector vans have a database of every TV
owner in the UK and can quickly check if a certain dwelling has a
paid up licence or not.So all they have to do is go to an unpaid
address and
sit outside in their van and check to see if a signal is being received
by the offender.It also applies to receiving TV on computers as
well,although I have no idea how they can tell if you are watching a
live broadcast by say, the BBC(the BBC channels are available online
to the UK).
Wow I've heard jokes about TV Police, but in this case it's actually
true. Sounds like Big Brother is watching. It give me visions of
Police dressed in SWAT gear, breaking down a front door and a guy is
sitting there watching TV in his living room. In an English accent,
one of the Officers saying, "You are illegally viewing BBC
programming without a license!" Then they take his TV and leave.
ROFLAMO!!!


Bring back Max Headroom!

To be fair to the TV Police, they only slap you around for a while
but the thumscrews bloody well hurt though.


And here I was thinking that was why your gonads were naked.

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

Naked Gonad wrote:

To be fair to the TV Police, they only slap you around for a while but the
thumscrews bloody well hurt though.

When they nailed my head to a table, I decided that television was bad
for my eyes.

"L Alpert" wrote (in part):

The Nova seris, Planet Earth series and Materpiece theater are
usually quite good.

Nova is mostly American made, but Masterpiece Theater shows are
British, generally BBC. In fact, nearly all adult fiction on PBS is
British. As for Planet Earth, not only is it from the BBC, it aired
in the US on Discovery, not PBS. The US version has narration by
Sigourney Weaver; I guess somebody figured Americans wouldn't be able
to understand the original narrator, Sir David Attenborough.

Del Mibbler

On Jan 26, 8:07*am, Doug Smith wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:13:39 -0800, Charles Tomaras wrote:
Curious how a "detector van" is able to determine if you are watching
television? Do the UK purchased televisions have some sort of
transponder technology that can be read from the street?

All TV sets use Edwin Armstrong's "superheterodyne" circuit. *A "local
oscillator" signal, at a frequency numerically related to that of the
station, is mixed with the incoming TV signal to generate an
"intermediate frequency" signal that is the same for every station. *
(that way, most of the signal processing can be done at the same
frequency regardless of what station is being viewed)

Anyway, that "local oscillator" signal tends to leak out of the wiring
and get radiated by the antenna. *That's what the "detector vans" pick up.

--
/home/w9wi/.sig

Agreed on the local osc. Do you think that with shields, input amps
and pads you could knock the LO radiation low enough to not be
detectable?

I remember many years back driving through remote Wisconsin farm land
at night how FM radio would flup out when passing lit up farm houses.
I always wondered if some of that was Ch 3 local osc which would be
107MHz. Idle wonderings.

G²

Jer wrote:
Naked Gonad wrote:
Jer wrote:
Naked Gonad wrote:
Jer wrote:
Rastamon wrote:
"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Doug Smith wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:13:39 -0800, Charles Tomaras wrote:
Curious how a "detector van" is able to determine if you are
watching
television? Do the UK purchased televisions have some sort of
transponder technology that can be read from the street?
All TV sets use Edwin Armstrong's "superheterodyne" circuit. A
"local oscillator" signal, at a frequency numerically related to
that of the station, is mixed with the incoming TV signal to
generate an "intermediate frequency" signal that is the same for
every station. (that way, most of the signal processing can be
done at the same frequency regardless of what station is being
viewed)

Anyway, that "local oscillator" signal tends to leak out of the
wiring and get radiated by the antenna. That's what the
"detector vans" pick up.

Bear in mind, that the detector vans have a database of every TV
owner in the UK and can quickly check if a certain dwelling has a
paid up licence or not.So all they have to do is go to an unpaid
address and
sit outside in their van and check to see if a signal is being
received
by the offender.It also applies to receiving TV on computers as
well,although I have no idea how they can tell if you are
watching a live broadcast by say, the BBC(the BBC channels are
available online to the UK).

Wow I've heard jokes about TV Police, but in this case it's
actually true. Sounds like Big Brother is watching. It give me
visions of Police dressed in SWAT gear, breaking down a front door
and a guy is sitting there watching TV in his living room. In an
English accent, one of the Officers saying, "You are illegally
viewing BBC programming without a license!" Then they take his TV
and leave. ROFLAMO!!!



But, the larger question is, was their finger resting on the trigger?

Firstly, it's not the police, secondly unless you are a persistent
offender,you will be given a warning to get one ASAP.


Say I borrow a TV from my neighbor while they're on a holiday trip.
Should I expect a knock on my door? Should I line the interior
spaces of my place with foil?

They'll probably tell you not to be a tight wad and go and buy your
own telly! ;-)


Why don't they just include the price of a lifetime license in the sale
of all new TV's? Seems this would also cover the subsequent sale of a
used TV to someone else in a private sale. IOW, the possession of a TV
automatically includes the license to use it forever. Or is the buyer
of a used TV expected to pay a new license fee?

The licence fee is per household,so if you wanted to, you could have
say, 20 sets in that house.

Jer wrote:
Naked Gonad wrote:
CLicker wrote:
"Rastamon" wrote in message
...
"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Doug Smith wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:13:39 -0800, Charles Tomaras wrote:
Curious how a "detector van" is able to determine if you are
watching
television? Do the UK purchased televisions have some sort of
transponder technology that can be read from the street?
All TV sets use Edwin Armstrong's "superheterodyne" circuit. A
"local oscillator" signal, at a frequency numerically related to
that of the station, is mixed with the incoming TV signal to
generate an "intermediate frequency" signal that is the same for
every station. (that way, most of the signal processing can be
done at the same frequency regardless of what station is being
viewed)

Anyway, that "local oscillator" signal tends to leak out of the
wiring and get radiated by the antenna. That's what the "detector
vans" pick up.

Bear in mind, that the detector vans have a database of every TV
owner in the UK and can quickly check if a certain dwelling has a
paid up licence or not.So all they have to do is go to an unpaid
address and
sit outside in their van and check to see if a signal is being
received
by the offender.It also applies to receiving TV on computers as
well,although I have no idea how they can tell if you are watching
a live broadcast by say, the BBC(the BBC channels are available
online to the UK).
Wow I've heard jokes about TV Police, but in this case it's actually
true. Sounds like Big Brother is watching. It give me visions of
Police dressed in SWAT gear, breaking down a front door and a guy is
sitting there watching TV in his living room. In an English accent,
one of the Officers saying, "You are illegally viewing BBC
programming without a license!" Then they take his TV and leave.
ROFLAMO!!!


Bring back Max Headroom!

To be fair to the TV Police, they only slap you around for a while
but the thumscrews bloody well hurt though.


And here I was thinking that was why your gonads were naked.

We're all naked underneath. ;-)

Neill Massello wrote:
Naked Gonad wrote:

To be fair to the TV Police, they only slap you around for a while but the
thumscrews bloody well hurt though.

When they nailed my head to a table, I decided that television was bad
for my eyes.

Yes, best to stick to masturbating,at least you go blind gradually. ;-)

"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Rastamon wrote:
"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Do Americans have to pay a TV licence fee like we do in
the UK?

Gonad

What do you mean by License fee?

Like a license to use or buy a TV? Nope. Unless it's a electronics
disposal fee, which is required by some States.
I mean that in the UK, it is illegal to use a TV without a licence.When
a TV is purchased in the UK,it is compulsory to fill a form out, stating
where you live etc.Detector vans ensure that no-one is cheating.
The fee at present is £150 per year.
It's the BBC basically that we are paying it for because they have no
advertising whatsoever on all their channels.It's definitely worth it
when you can watch a complete program without adverts every 10 mins
or so.

Gonad

==================
????????

My God!

You are kidding, right?
======================

Richard C. wrote:
"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Rastamon wrote:
"Naked Gonad" wrote in message
...
Do Americans have to pay a TV licence fee like we do in
the UK?

Gonad

What do you mean by License fee?

Like a license to use or buy a TV? Nope. Unless it's a electronics
disposal fee, which is required by some States.
I mean that in the UK, it is illegal to use a TV without a licence.When
a TV is purchased in the UK,it is compulsory to fill a form out, stating
where you live etc.Detector vans ensure that no-one is cheating.
The fee at present is £150 per year.
It's the BBC basically that we are paying it for because they have no
advertising whatsoever on all their channels.It's definitely worth it
when you can watch a complete program without adverts every 10 mins
or so.

Gonad

==================
????????

My God!

You are kidding, right?
======================

No kidding.

Wow, that was enlightening reading. I just never gave it any
thought as to how TV was run in other countries. The section
at the bottom discussing the pros and cons of license TV was
also interesting. Are we in the US paying for it anyway at the
checkout? And then I thought about the 2009 Super Bowl ads
comming up that are being charged at the rate of 6 million
dollars a minute. So that 6 million dollar minute is part of
my cost of a beer or a Sony HDTV huh!?!

Sure, but you buying the beer or the Sony TV is voluntary.