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News I'll be on holiday in Köln for the next week and I'm not planning to take my laptop. Mark will be looking after the technical enquiries and Sales are unaffected by my absence. Welcome Welcome to new members of the SatCure mailshot list. Regulars to the SatCure sites may have noticed an annoying "pop-up" that entices people to sign up. I apologise for this monster but it seems to be working. For the first time our membership has exceeded 7000 people! That's a lot of people who have an interest in Digital TV. Write to us! I do my best to bring you interesting news and information on a monthly basis but sometimes I run out of ideas or can't commit the time to do it properly. Therefore I welcome contributions from you. People like to read about your equipment - what you have installed, how you did it, any problems you overcame etc. It doesn't require an essay - just a few photos with notes. We offer a tenner for the best feature each month. That's a reasonable profit for a few digital photos isn't it? Email Martin direct. (Please don't use this email form for technical enquiries and remember that I'm on holiday till April 8th). Millionaire No, not the TV programme. My friend, Reggie, who is a multi-millionaire, has come out of retirement to teach you how to make money. Anyone interested to know how Reggie made his millions (without using eBay!) should visit the web site: http://www.knollhouse-interforum.com TV to come through mains supply Soon you could be piping digital TV around your home via power sockets. At the Cebit technology fair, German hi-tech firm Devolo is showing off home networking technology that can handle signals from a set top box. More... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6457741.stm Analogue TV switches off in October About 25,000 households in the Whitehaven area of western Cumbria will be the first to have the old analogue signal switched off, from 17 October. BBC Two will be the first channel to go, with the remaining analogue channels switched off on 14 November. More... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6453087.stm Rivals unite to oust BSkyB from Freeview BBC and ITV appeal to Ofcom over pay-to-view plan. The big guns of the British television industry are lining up to strip BSkyB of its stake in Freeview, the free-to-watch digital TV service led by chairman Tom Betts. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to tell Ofcom, the media regulator, that Sky should forfeit its shareholding in Freeview if it is allowed to replace its free channels on the digital platform with pay-to-view channels. More... http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2368894.ece
New Products 
Send Sky packing with our new "SkyPacker" SL65-12 digital satellite TV receiver. Although this product is tiny, it is fully featured and equally suited to use in a motorhome, caravan, bedroom or living room. It can't decode CH4 or Five but how often do you watch those programmes anyway? BBC and ITV rool OK. Runs off 12 volt power supply or car battery. Heck, you could even take it on your camping trip! More Info.
Satfinder meter kit We are now offering a dish alignment meter with compass, battery holder and connection leads at an introductory price of £19.95 (+ postage and vat). See demo movie. Full movie available here. 
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| 40mm LNB bracket with adapter to fit Sky minidish. This bracket is normally used with a Triax minidish but fits other Sky minidishes and may give reasonable results. We recommend that you slide the adapter fully into the dish arm. Then slide the LNB bracket into it and stop when you get maximum signal reading. Adjust the LNB "skew" (rotational position) for maximum signal quality before tightening the small bolt at the top. LNB bracket |
Freeview aerial success! Michael had problems getting his Freeview channels back after the huge aerial pulled his chimney down! He didn't want to rebuild the chimney and put the same monster aerial back and I was convinced that, with a bit of tweaking, a tiny log-periodic aerial would do the job. Well, it took a few weeks of tinkering but I'm pleased to say that he was successful. You can read the full story here: http://notonyourtelly.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1051 (was...) http://p206.ezboard.com/fsatcureforumfrm9.showMessageRange?topicID=181.topic I'd like to add my thanks to Michael for his patience, perseverence and faith in my knowledge! Become a Digital TV Installer - update SatCure's training course to teach people how to install "Digital TV Systems" (aerials, dishes - fixed and motorised - distribution systems etc.) is going well. Several dozen people have already signed up to learn how to make money in the run-up to "analogue switch-off". The course includes audio interviews with time-served installers. Click to learn more:
http://www.satcure.co.uk/course.htm Sky+ £10 recording contract only Many people want only Free To View (FreesatFromSky) programmes but they want to be able to record them on a SKY+ Digibox. Sky's answer to this is "you must sign up for at least the minimum Sky package". You need to speak to a supervisor at Sky to get this done. Because of a limitation in their computerised billing system, they have to create a minimum-package Sky account for you then immediately cancel it, leaving only the £10 a month charge still active. It's a total pain trying to find someone who knows how to do this. To be honest, it's probably easier to sign up for the minimum package then phone up later and say you've changed your mind and you want to cancel, leaving only the £10 a month recording facility. If you already have the equipment you have to ask for "a second-hand contract". (top) Questions Wiring question - Cust Ord: SAT017072 I have purchased the Budget RF Modulator MODUL3P. Could you please send me the instruction to adjust to PAL-G (it was not supplied in the delivery). The instructions for use are not supplied direct with your purchase. You will find the link to download them in your "KEEP-ME" email that you received when you placed your order. We try to minimise wastage and time by providing instructions for many products as a "secret" web page or a document that you can download. This fully automated system has the advantage that you can read the instructions before your order arrives. The illustrations can be in colour and you can print out a copy or simply view it on-screen. Mark at Satcure Technical
Hi I am currently taking the Satcure ecourse for Installing Digital TV Systems, currently at lesson 11. I couldnt find another email adress within the course to contact Martin Pickering, so could you please forward from here. Thanks.In lesson 11, you show how to fit an RJ45 plug to a cat5 cable. The list of colours to pin numbers is correct, but the photo shows the plug fitted to the cable the wrong way around. If you hold the plug with the lug underneath, and the cable going down towards you, pin1 is on the left, but the Photo shows it on the right. I will try to send a Photo of a commercial plug in an attachment. Regards, Robert E. Hi, Robert. I researched this carefully and I'm fairly sure my version is correct. (I've seen commercial versions use several variants). Of course the colour code doesn't really matter, provided both ends are the same and the twisted pairs are where they should be. Anyway, thanks for the web page links which I have added to the relevant page of the course. You can, if you wish, discuss this with other course members in the private section of the forum. Martin
Re: None of the above apply from Dave G - Cust Ord: SAT016906 I recently purchased a BD2362 SmartEye remote extender from yourselves to control a SKY+ box in another room. The house is new build and has tv co-ax sockets in most rooms. The LCD TV in the second room is connected to the SKY+ box via this distributed system. I do not know model number, but there is a SKY link 4 way splitter in the attic. The SKY picture comes through (with very good picture) I have connected the sender to the LCD TV but an unable to get it to control the SKY+ box. I have read about LCD tv's interfering and have located it the full cable length away and the side, but this maked no difference. I have confirmed that the sender is working by connecting it to the rear of the Sky box and here it changes channels ok. I also has another SKY Link sender which I use to control the SKY+ box inside a cabinet, and this too would not change the channels. I suspect the problem lies with the distribution system or the length of the cable run? Can you please give me some pointers Many thanks Dave G Hi Dave, The most likely cause of the problem is that the Aerial sockets are isolated, meaning that the voltage required for the SmartEye to work does not pass through, you could always change the sockets for un-isolated versions which may solve your problem. http://www.satcure.com/accs/page15.htm#plates Regards Mark at Satcure Technical
HD Ready? Many of you will know that OFCOM (with our illustrious government's backing" is planning to sell off the old analogue TV spectrum to the highest bidder, Inevitably this will mean no High Definition Freeview broadcasts in the near future (if ever). Members of the HDforAll campaign - which includes industry heavyweights such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sony, Samsung and the Dixons retail group - want Ofcom to ring-fence up to one third of the spectrum for digital terrestrial TV viewers. What you may not realise is that, even if HD programmes were broadcast to your aerial, your "HD-Ready" TV would not be able to display them without your purchasing an HD receiver. More here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6451041.stm and here: http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=491604
Happy Customers For the first time ever we haven't had any "thank you" messages from customers. In fact the number of orders has been lower than usual. I don't *think* we are doing anything wrong but, if we are, please let us know! We've had three reports of shopping cart problems this month. Two customers very kindly took screenshots of their order page and the error message, so we were able to determine the cause of the fault and correct it. The third customer moaned but didn't help so we're not sure if there's another fault or not. I realise it's a big imposition but, if you DO have problems, we'd really appreciate it if you could take a screen shot of your "shopping cart" page and a screenshot of the error page and explain to us exactly what happened. Some people, with poor English, were having trouble getting their message through to us, so we've made it easier for you to contact us by reducing the level of spam filtering in our email form. It should now be easy to contact us but please ensure that your message is reasonably free from typos and txt-spk so we can understand it! Anyway, we really DO want to hear from you so please let us know if you like our web site, the way we handled your order (or not). Email page.
(top) From Sky Digi Online ( http://www.media247.co.uk ): (top)
eBook Updates No updates this month. - All eBooks have been moved to a more reliable secure server which requires a username and password. If you can't access it, please contact us (wherever you bought it - SatCure or The Cool Book Shop) with your proof of purchase and ask for the new download information, stating exactly which eBook(s) you purchased and the EBK number(s).
http://www.The-Cool-Book-Shop.co.uk | 
"Installing a Sky Minidish" tutorial on DVD. Click 
