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The 32nd of March.
Well, it is April the 1st and this is the time that all the
publicised changes on our satellites are about to take place.
For starters.
PAS 2: http://www.satcodx.com/pas2.shtml
At 07:00 JST (22:00 UTC) NHK started its digital package on
4,034 H, MPEG-2/PowerVu, SR 26470, FEC 3/4, line-up:
NHK World TV (525 lines, clear)
NHK World TV (625 lines, clear)
NHK World Premium (enc.)
Palapa C2: http://www.satcodx.com/palapac2.shtml
Palapa C2 is another example. For instance CNBC has disappeared from 3620
H. I have never really noticed but I thought all this time that this was a
vertical signal. The signal on 4040 H is still alive and well and
receivable here in Adelaide at S4 to S5 on a 2.4 metre dish. Vertical
signals from Palapa C2 have improved gradually over the past 12 months.
This is probably due to the continental shelf shift as the continents all
move around on the earths crust.
Anther development to look for is the introduction of dual language
programming. With the advent of digital technology you can hear it already,
nearly CD sound quality from some of the stations and the introduction of
multiple channels for radio and other services. Look out for dual language
programming on Indonesian and Chinese channels. Where the movie or series
originates in another language it will appear on one of these extra
channels. You know how annoying it was to watch the Sullivans on Mongolian
TV and only part hear the voices. It would be great to hear Burt Reynolds
in Smokey and the bandit in English as well as Mandarin and Cantonese.
In Europe there is a flourishing business in pirate cards to enable
you to watch a FORBIDDEN program such as the infochannel and the shopping
channels. They have been trying to give all countries different prices for
the same product. In Alaska a 50 litre fridge can be bought for as little
as US$10.00 but in Algeria the same fridge can cost US$300.00. Sort of law
of supply and demand. So who is ripping who off? Now you can ring up and
tell them you live in Alaska and get the fridge shipped to Algeria at a
considerable saving. Rupert Murdokk! has recognised the size of the
European pirate card market and is going around buying out dealers. This
way he gets rid of the losses he incurs on B. Sky B by having to change
encryption all the time and still reap the profits from both legal and
pirate cards. People who buy pirate cards can do so without them being
zapped all the time. Ruperts next project is to get his new system up and
running called FTA. Sky News on Asiasat 2 for India could be the start of
this trend.
You may or may not know that the propellant used in steering
satellites around the sky is UDMH that is unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine.
When satellites run out of this fuel they have reached the end of their
useful life and are de orbited. This lifecycle is about to be extended
using a Chinese Gung Ho rocket.
It uses an old principle from the strategic air command days when aircraft
were refuelled in the air. The Wan Ton launch facility will be used for all
firings and recovery of spent missiles is expected to use Great Wall
technologies and logistics. The rocket will be put into a high orbit in
the clarke belt and guided towards ageing satellites. It will not work on
satellites that have greater than 2 deg inclined orbit and those satellites
made with imperial refuelling nozzles. This rules out most American
satellites. There is something to be said for the metric system after all.
Because of this problem a consortium of US satellite operators is likely
to build an imperial rocket.
Legal problems arise here because if a satellite is abandoned and then re
juvenated by someone else, who then owns the satellite, does the law of the
sea prevail. We shall see lawyers making money here.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) today announced that it
was selling the entire set of frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum
in order to provide a permanent endowment for the United Nations family of
organizations for the indefinite future.
Yes they're all out to make money.
"We've learned a lot from our American colleagues at the FCC, said a
spokeswoman for the ITU. Their spectrum allocation auctions have
convinced us that the American model is better than the established ways of
allocating spectrum space. We will improve on their model by extending the
auction to include all frequencies above 20 Khz. So watch out there will be
more shuffling of channels than you have ever seen before.
Christian Lyngemark tells us that there are more than 3000 TV
channels out there in space, a lot of them already duplicated of course.
With the advent of charges and rental we could see the satelite population
all go on one bouquet of 2000, using a new system. It would probably be
called Scientific Murdoch and owned by Rupert Turner. I bet that guy hasn't
got satellite TV. How many Rupert Turners do you know?
It is expected that initial bidding activity will be fierce in the
visible frequency range. An ascynchronous source has reported that IBM is
considering a bid for the rights to exclusive use of Pantone 3462,
otherwise known as IBM Blue.
Cosmetics manufacturers are expected to buy the rights to use
approximately 218 different very narrow frequency ranges in the reds,
ensuring uniqueness for their extensive collection of lipsticks and other
cosmetics.
The U. S. Government will almost certainly appropriate the U.S. dollar
green part of the spectrum to protect the integrity of its money supply.
I wonder what they will do in Hong Kong and China? I bet they will
buy the red and gold bits of the spectrum. There is a lot of money to be
made by selling colours. Just ask the printing ink and paint manufacturers.
The only thing that will be exempt will be the Primary colours and any
mixture of the same. A similar rule of thumb is expected to be applied to
other frequencies already in use.
The latest edition of Tele Satellite International crossed my desk
yesterday and I think a couple of features from it need to be mentioned.
The global satellite chart by Satco Dx runs to 48 pages this Month. There
are nearly 500 regular contributors to this chart. There are even some from
South Australia. If you see a new happening, station, satellite or even
something out of the ordinary just email webmaster@satcodx.com with your
report.
If you have seen a new service the following is the required information.
Satellite name, frequency, polarity, service, system, sound if, language
and any comment.
Asiasat 2 3660 V TVSN PAL 5.5 Chinese. Good signal
If you have a digital setup additional info is also very helpful.
Symbol Rate, Forward Error Correction(Fec. for short.)And the video and
audio pids if you can supply them. You are rewarded in the update charts
with seeing your name up in lights.
When you subscribe to the magazine you can see your name there as well.
Which brings me to another point....
Would you like to subscribe?
The magazine is puplished bi monthly and you get 6 issues a year.
It takes you 2 months just to absorb the info in one edition.
There are more than 200 pages of info there and it is no good if you are
colour blind as there is colour everywhere. Pal, NTSC, SECAM and Pantone.It
is not encoded and there is no conditional access to worry about.
For Australia and New Zealand.
You can do this by sending the equivalent of US$100.00 to...
TSI Subscription Service
PO Box 263,
Parkholme
South Australia 5043
Alternatively,
Tele Satellite,
Christine Williams,
PO. Box 1124,
Ascot,
Berkshire, GB-5L5 0XH,
Great Britain.
Email: chris@TELE-satellite.com
Other statistics from the satellite chart
158 different satellites
3892 tv channels and 3675 lines of internet home pages.
There are many colour pictures of tv screens from around the world. About
90 this time.
Product reviews of IRDs, tracking devices hyperband tv set for your pentium
computer and a satellite phone.
Other features include rocket launches and future satellite deployments.
There are 12 pages this month from sat city of new products.
Look for these at
http//wwwsat-city.com
This is a nicely bound square backed glossy publication that possibly has
nearly 10 per cent of its content as advertisements. That is 24 pages out
of 246. There are 6 issues a year and it takes you nearly 2 months to
absorb all the information contained therein.
There is one other article that is seasonal as well it is about sun
outages, but we scooped them on that deal.
How many of you have been out to see where the sun falls on your dish.
Crossover time for me is today or tomorrow.
The following is another reinventing of the wheel as Sports Pacific
Network on Intelsat 701 is already doing this and I think it is spreading.
By providing a service and using sponsorship from around the Pacific to
fund it is not entirely a new concept. With the cost of IRDs conditional
access modules and administering a card system Australia looks like taking
the bit between the teeth and putting its pay tv via satellite FTA. Why do
you ask? They are copying terrestrial television that has been successfully
making profits for years. They are going to take in global advertising to
pay for it all. Star TV in Asia could conceivably do the same. To protect
the viewers, common sense will prevail though, with Discovery, Future
Technology, The Shopping and Lifestyle (porno) channels will all be
tastefully encoded. This protects the viewers' health as too much lifestyle
television could be a health hazard. To access these channels you will only
need to use the local magnetic transit card as used in your country. TVSN
the Australian shopping channel that emanates from Sydney will actually
give some of the cheaper goods away and just charge you for delivery. This
cost will probably double to help this promotion. This can be seen on Pas 2
and Asiasat 2.
KIBC on Palapa C2 and EWTN on Pas 2 will try experiments with
interactive TV. You will purchase an interactive module at minimal cost and
put it on top of the TV set. When the collection plate is passed around
during a church service all you need to do is drop a coin or two in the
slot on the top of the interactive module. A technician in an armoured car
will call monthly and service your module for you at no extra charge.
The New Zealand stations on Intelsat 701 will probably stay there and it is
expected that CNBC will keep scrolling along. When there is no stock
exchange information they intend putting subliminal messages on the scroll
tape such as buy! buy! buy!
You may not know this if you live in another part of the world but
Australia is introducing digital tv around the country for us terrestrials.
It is likely that the European DVB standard for terrestrial tv will be used
but in order to be unique Australia is likely to choose an esoteric
standard of its' own. This way we can buy specially designed decoders at
twice the world price. Remember Plessey and Australian only B-Mac
receivers. Because we had tv channels all over the vhf band our
broadcasting authority was going to introduce FM radio on an unused segment
of the uhf band. The frequency? Around 400 mhz. You see we Australians
strive to be different.What a good time to re-introduce a TELEVISION
LICENCE?
Scary Huh!
Oh!
Cheers for now catch ya later.
Bevin.
ŠApril 1998 All these Ideas are copyright April 1998 by Bevin Boden.
I must go and count my money now I'm going to be rich.
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