| News Sky-Plus SPECIAL? - NOT! This month's news letter was intended to be a "Sky-Plus Special". Unfortunately only three people sent in a contribution (see below). So we'll try again next month. Tell me about your equipment - good or bad. I don't broadcast my email address (minimises spam) so please contact me via the email form. You may find it easier to type your message in "Notepad" then copy/paste it into the email form. Please don't use this form for any other matters because the emails come only to me, which means that Mark won't see it and, if I'm away, you won't get a reply until I return.
My holiday report Since I've been busy, then away, I thought I'd include my holiday report. OK, it's completely off-topic but you might learn something useful anyway. Tuesday, August 28, 2007 I should have booked the taxi to get us to the airport by five a.m. but I like my beauty sleep so we arrived there at seven. That would have been fine but our son's girlfriend, Leanne, suddenly felt faint through lack of food and took herself off to the ladies room. Apparently there was no food there so she fainted anyway. Our son (Colin) brought her back in a wheelchair. We were told our flight check-in had just closed; no it hadn't; yes it had; but they would let us on anyway. We handed our baggage over to a clerk who was distracted by a million people queueing for a Tenerife flight. Somehow we found a sandwich for Leanne and reached the "gate" as the flight was boarding. We arrived in Crete at noon - about the time that our suitcases arrived in Tenerife. In the light of the ever-increasing restrictions on luggage because of terrorism fears you'd think this couldn't happen. None the less, our four suitcases went to Tenerife and we flew to Crete. Another three suitcases also went missing from our flight. For those unfamiliar with the experience, I can assure you that your stomach sinks after enduring the "carousel scrum" for over an hour, only to realise - when you are left in an empty room staring at an empty carousel - that your luggage wasn't actually on the 'plane with you. So we spent half an hour filling in forms - thank goodness I had kept those luggage security stickers on my passport! Thank goodness, also, that the holiday rep. and coach driver were willing to wait. We extend our apologies to the other passengers who had to endure the heat for our sake. The journey to Georgioupolis was uneventful - mainly because I didn't notice that my digital camera was missing until we reached the apartment. So far it had been a less-than-perfect Tuesday. But the weather and Cretan people made up for it. We ate a nice meal in a local restaurant then returned to the apartment where we hand-washed underwear and hung it beneath the air-conditioning unit to dry overnight. Wednesday, August 29, 2007 Gill (my wife) phoned the airport and was assured that our suitcases would be with us the following morning. But we couldn't survive in our travelling clothes so we donned our almost-dry underwear and caught the local bus to Hania to buy clothing, lotions and toiletries before having a rather nice lunch. I had to buy quite a lot of lotions because the local insect population had taken rather a liking to my blood group and I was covered with itching red lumps. (Here's a tip: don't believe what the local pharmacist might tell you about the efficacy of "Germolene" and similar potions. The ONLY stuff that relieves the itching is "Antihistamine Bite & Sting Relief". Naturally, I'd packed some but, unfortunately, it was sunning itself in Tenerife). We missed the "welcome" meeting but we already knew about the Greek toilet system. Curiously, the journey to Hania took an hour but the return journey lasted only forty minutes. Maybe it was downhill? We ate our choice of "Kleftico", "Stifado" etc. with a Greek Salad (superb beef tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, olives and tangy Feta cheese) then I strolled into the Internet Café and paid a Euro to check my email. Nothing that couldn't wait - my business was running itself. Oh, yes. Gill broke a tooth on the crusty bread. Thursday, August 30, 2007 Gill phoned the airport and was assured that our suitcases would be with us the following morning. Hang on! They told us that yesterday. Ah, but now the suitcases were at Gatwick. They'd journeyed from Manchester to Tenerife to Gatwick and tomorrow morning they'd be at our apartment by 9 a.m. Honest! So we walked into the village and paid for tickets to travel with the little road train to Kournas Lake. The nice German ticket seller came running up the road to drag us from the supermarket because the train was leaving immediately. Kournas Lake was very pretty and the other three (my wife, son and his girlfriend) pedalled round it for an hour in a little plastic boat. I sat in a restaurant and filmed them with my camcorder. It was quite exhausting and I needed two "lemonatha" to sustain me. Dinner that evening, for me, was "Mousaka" - mince meat pie with aubergine - followed by more boring emails. I think my son ate sausage and mash while my wife had that fabulous "Arni Kleftico": lamb which is cooked very slowly in a foil or paper wrap. (In the old days it was cooked in a clay oven). The girlfriend had "Stifado"; or maybe she had pasta. Heck, I'm not one of those sad people who keep a diary of everything they eat! Maybe it was rice. Oh, yes. I broke a tooth on the crusty bread. Friday, August 31, 2007 The 9 a.m. deadline came and went but we didn't. We had to sit outside the apartment and wait for our luggage. We didn't dare leave in case they arrived and went away again. So we waited. We waited until Leanne announced she was so hungry she could faint! Colin took her into the village to feed her, while we waited for our luggage. I was hot and went back into the apartment to check out the air conditioning. It was working fine. I checked it for an hour, just to make sure. Our suitcases finally arrived by taxi at 2pm - just two minutes after Colin and Leanne returned from Lunch. Gill and I went to eat while the two love-birds headed for the beach. Evening dinner, for me, was "Kouneli stifado". That's Greek for "cute little furry bunny rabbit stewed with onions and wine vinegar". OK, so I'm not a vegetarian. Please don't make a big thing of it. We watched a cute feral kitten climbing the vines. For some reason I began to wonder if the cute rabbit stifado really was rabbit. Leanne was looking very pink after an afternoon in the sun. Saturday, September 1, 2007 We visited possible house sites with a local estate agent. We are seriously thinking of selling up and living in Crete. Crete has a lot going for it, like sunshine, nice people, nice food. OK, the roads and plumbing leave a little to be desired and it's full of foreigners (mostly English and German) but you can't have everything! It was an exhausting day. I had a little siesta and woke at 7pm in time for beef stifado. I don't recall what everyone else ate. Look, I'm not a food junkie, all right, and I don't keep a diary! Leanne was decidedly red in patches and needed to be anointed frequently with "after sun" by Colin. Unfortunately, I wasn't asked to do it. I think I'm beginning to understand religion. If you are a prophet you can go around anointing young girls and nobody calls you a pervert. I think I have a copy of The Bible somewhere. Maybe I need to be saved. I wonder if prophets get discount for bulk-buying "after sun" lotion? If I kept a diary I could make a note to check on this at home. I should have paid more attention in "Religious Instruction" class. After the meal we were given "Raki", which I had to consume because nobody else would drink it. Sunday, September 2, 2007 Gill made a picnic then we hired a car to drive to "Bali", which is a seaside resort on the East side of Rethymnon. The nice girl in the car hire office spoke wonderful English with a trace of Australian and American. I congratulated her on her command of my language and she said she was born in Australia but moved to Crete quite recently. The car was a fairly modern Toyota Corolla with an automatic gearbox. (I prefer this when I'm driving on the "wrong" side of the road). Judging by its acceleration, it had a one litre engine - or maybe smaller. Rather like the old Fiat 500, it had a 0-60 time of "eventually". The brakes had an anti-lock system, I think. Or maybe the strange vibration when I braked was caused by a combination of the completely bald tyres and warped brake disks? I think the steering system was also "anti-lock" - judging by the vibration whenever I was brave enough to exceed 80km/h. We took a brief trip up a typical Greek "A" road to a picturesque village called Lappa where we had our picnic and met an old Cretan who insisted on showing us round his "museum" - a collection of wartime military helmets plus a weaving loom and other interesting household equipment, which was almost as old as he was. His explanation used a combination of Cretan Greek, English and German, although he professed no knowledge of the latter two languages. Leanne, it transpired, suffers from travel sickness so, after another brief sojourn along a twisty, narrow road, we crawled back to the National Highway to avoid filling the car with predigested picnic. Driving slowly is far more dangerous than driving quickly because it results in a procession of local drivers who are skilled at overtaking on blind bends. They seem to justify this by beeping the horn to let you know they are about to do something really terrifyingly stupid. The run to Bali on the National Highway was uneventful, despite the frequent attempts at suicide by oncoming drivers who insisted on driving on our side of the road. I wondered if it might actually be safer for me to drive on the left. For the benefit of those who've never driven in Greece, I should point out that Greek drivers always straddle the white line. It doesn't matter which white line, as long as they have something to follow. It's wise to follow their example to avoid confusion. Don't flash your headlights because this simply means "I am in a hire car and my headlights work". Likewise, don't toot your horn unless you really intend to do something unbelievably stupid and dangerous. And don't make any hand gestures inside the car. Any hand movement inside the car means "it is safe to overtake me" or "I am invisible". If the car is stationary, a hand gesture can also mean "I will pay you ten Euros to clean my windscreen". Avoid gestures inside. However, it's quite OK to hang your arm out of the window and gesticulate wildly. This means "I am having a conversation with my passenger". Driving in Crete can be exhausting because you have to watch in front, to the sides and behind (if the car is fitted with a mirror). I was exhausted after returning from Bali, so I don't recall if or what we had for dinner. But it was probably delicious. Monday, September 3, 2007 We had breakfast in the apartment then walked to the main road to catch the bus to Rethymnon. At the bus stop I got engaged in conversation with a Greek lady who, it transpired, had lived in Australia for the last thirty-five years. After she told me that, I felt a bit stupid for greeting her in Greek then commenting on how good her English was. I get caught every time! I am now determined to learn the Greek for "Hello, were you born in Australia?" That will become my standard greeting. The bus arrived on time and the ticket seller ran across the road to check our tickets. The bus conductor made his way down the aisle, tearing tickets in half as he went. As I (at the rear of the bus) had all four tickets and Colin was sitting at the front with Leanne and no tickets, he was forced to tell the man that his dad had the tickets. Apparently this resulted in a shrug. However, when I tried to explain (in Greek) why I had four tickets, it caused confusion and I was nearly thrown off the bus. It might have been my accent or the hand gestures I accidentally used. You have to be careful; never spread your fingers and wave. And never mix up the Greek words for "ticket" and "idiot". When we arrived at Rethymnon I realised that my camcorder was no longer over my shoulder. I ran after the bus, waving my arms. (There's no point in running after a bus without waving your arms). Anyway, it was merely moving to its parking slot so I could have saved the effort. I clambered on board and asked if my camera was there. The driver and conductor motioned me to take a look, which I did. No camcorder! Darn, I must have left it at the bus stop near Georgioupolis. We found a cafe with a free table and fan outside and sat down for drinks. When it's thirty-five in the shade, drinks are required every hundred metres or less. After that, we spent a couple of hours zig-zagging through the narrow streets of the port - an activity which Gill calls "shopping". When you are "shopping" it helps if you have no idea what you are looking for. At least that's my impression. Many people accosted me because I was wearing my favourite T-shirt which has emblazoned on it (in Greek) "Sorry but I am English". Everyone wants to know why I am sorry. I always tell them (in Greek) "because I don't speak Greek" and "were you born in Australia?" Confusion is my middle name. Finally, we had done enough "shopping" and headed back to the bus station, laden with carrier bags bearing gifts for friends and relatives; mostly heavy gifts made from glass or ceramic. The bus journey was uneventful, if cramped. The air-conditioning was actually working (the busses improve year by year). And, when we reached our apartment, I found my camcorder on the bed where I had left it. Tuesday, September 4, 2007 We had breakfast in the apartment then the others went to do some last-minute "shopping" and left me to listen to an audiobook on my iPod. The coach arrived on time and we were bundled on board with about 40 other blotchy, red, sweaty bodies. On arrival at the airport, I left the others with the luggage while I went to the lost-property office to locate my lost camera. The girl was very helpful and spoke excellent English with just a trace of accent that I couldn't place. As usual, without thinking, I complimented her on her English and she informed me that she was from South Africa. Anyway, my camera had been found and, after a little form-filing exercise, was returned to my possession. I rejoined my family in the check-in queue and absolutely nothing went wrong after that. The flight was on time; our taxi was on time, and we arrived home with all our possessions intact. This morning I visited the dentist and had the broken tooth smoothed off. It didn't need to be filled. Things are beginning to look better but I need a week or two to recover from this holiday. Your Sky+ Reports Thanks to those who responded.
Make/model: PACE BSKYB3100 = PVR2 - [9F21nn] Name: Chris Davies SKY PLUS REPORT I must say that recently my box has been almost trouble free except for the odd lock up requiring a reset. The box did fail after 12 months and a few weeks but sky very kindly repaired it although strictly speaking it was out of warranty. I have since taken out sky repair contract which is very expensive but I thought that some goodwill was due from me as they had shown some by repairing the unit out of warranty. My video recorder has been somewhat redundant since I got sky+ and having looked at some of the alternatives from other suppliers I cannot see how it can be bettered. I will guess that some other people will have had horror stories to tell but I think that it is one of the best products I have ever used and have recommended it to many of my friends and family who are also pleased with it.
Make/model: None Name: Clive Savage SKY PLUS REPORT I was tempted when the £10 recording fee was abolished, but my trusty TIVO is still doing an excellent job of recording from my Sky Box. Maybe someone would like to do a comparison of the user interfaces? I will do this myself if some wants to send me a Sky+ box for testing... ;)
Make/model: PACE BSKYB3100 = PVR2 - [9F21nn] Name: Simon Styles SKY PLUS REPORT I find my box with the larger 140GB disk added very good indeed. The occasional freeze up but nothing to worry about. Really am very happy. Simon
(top) Questions I have Installed SKY+ into my home some months ago and I am very happy with it. Recently Sky introduced the procedure of switching off the SKy+ box during the night hours when there is no activity for approximately 2 hours. I have other recording devices i.e. JVC and Toshiba. I have tried to record some overnight cartoons from Boomerang onto DVD for my grandchildren, and have rised at 3am in order to switch on the sky box in order to receive the signal, however a after about 55 minutes the unit goes into standby mode (I am back asleep at this time). The result being that I have only obtained 55 minutes of cartoons on a DVD that has been recording for 4 hours. My question is: Is there any procedure that you know of whereby I can overide the switch off at my choice? As a matter of interest I am fully in favour of the controlled switch off as an energy saving action. Many thanks. Arthur Hi Arthur, I have just turned off my auto standby as it was causing all sorts of problems with my box. Simply follow these instructions. 1) Press SERVICES on your SKY remote, followed by the number 5 2) Scroll down to "Auto Standby" and change to "OFF" (using left and right cursors) 3) Scroll down to "Save Settings" and press "Select" This will sort out your problem. Best Wishes Mark at Satcure Technical
Under order number SAT018987 of 3 July 2007, I purchased a reel of WF100 satellite cable and two Labgear PSC050 5-way earth bond plates for a multi-LNB satellite installation. Although you sell earthing products, your website does not appear to include any advice on the technical details of earthing (for protection against both lightning and static electricity). Therefore, I would be most grateful if you could answer the following: EARTHING of DISH (1) If I purchase your 4 ft x 5/8" Earthing Rod, what size of earthing cable should I use to collect it to the dish frame? [please suggest either cross-sectional area in square mm, or diameter in mm of the multi-stranded copper] (2) As an alternative to installing the Earthing Rod, can I just feed the earthing cable into the house and down to the main earth connection situated below the electricity meter? Or, is it better to direct the lightning surge current straight down to ground on the outside of the building? EARTHING of CABLE (3) I want to put the earth bond plate inside the house, just behind the receiver (about 8 metres from where the cable comes into the house). Can I just connect it to the earth in the adjacent 13 A mains socket, so that any surge just bypasses the receiver connected to the same socket? Or, is it better to run an earthing wire directly from the bond plate to the main earth connection situated below the electricity meter? (4) Should the earthing cable from the bond plate be the same size as that from the dish, or can it be smaller? I apologise for the length of the questions, but hopefully the answers will be much shorter! By the way, I am a mechanical engineer with a reasonable knowledge of electrical matters, so I only need basic advice on these practical aspects of satellite earthing. Michael S Hi, Michael. None of us is qualified to answer your questions fully but basically: Electrical connections (i.e. earth bonding) to mains wiring should be tested by an electrician who is registered according to Part P of the building regulations. Earth bonding is generally a requirement in a building where there is a possibility that the associated metalwork may become live during a fault condition. (It has nothing to do with lightning protection). Lightning protection should be carried out by a company with the necessary experience. In general, it's impossible to get complete protection from a lightning strike on a domestic building but it is possible to reduce the damage that might be caused by a nearby strike. A direct strike will destroy most of the electrical wiring, metal pipes and conduits in the fabric of the building. Thankfully, direct strikes are rare in the UK. The commonest risk from lightning is a strike to a part of the external telephone system - usually miles from the house. BT provides very basic protection in the Master Jack socket but it's easy to improve upon this. I would add from my own experience that protection against static electricity from airborne dust can be applied quite simply by connecting any screw on the metal dish bracketry to the LNB "F" connector or outer shield of the cable and by connecting the outer shield of the cable to an earthing rod outside the building. The wire can be as thin as you like because the current is negligible. In the USA and other countries, it is mandatory to connect the dish directly to an earthing rod. I've never ever heard of a dish being struck by lightning in the UK but, if you want to do this, use the thickest copper wire you can find. (The stuff used to connect starter motors is available in short lengths from scrap yards). Or you could buy ordinary copper pipe and flatten it to make a copper strip. Drill a hole at each end for a brass bolt. Weatherproof it with Denso tape. Some protection from mains voltage surges can be gained by fitting one of the many "surge protector" units available. The amount of protection depends mostly on the proximity and quality of the connection to ground. Best Wishes, Martin New Products | 
| DENSO TAPE Used by British Gas for sealing underground joints against moisture. This 2" wide tape must be the most disgusting stuff on earth. Imagine soaking a bandage in cow poo and you are getting close to its texture. Thankfully, the petroleum-based goo smells more like the oil-smeared pit in your local garage than cow poo, so you won't need a peg. But you WILL need polythene gloves and old clothes because this sticky stuff gets everywhere! So what use is it? See More Info | | | |
Happy Customers Hi Martin, Thank you very much for the final installation of your "Digital Installer" e-course, and the 'mention in despatches'. I've enjoyed the entrepreneurial approach in which it has been presented and you seem to have overcome many problems to deliver the course in a practical and pragmatic way. Over the years I've had course to use your services from time to time and your consistently high quality products and service has led me to recommend you many time to the engineering and non-engineering fraternity of friends and colleagues alike and it says something when none of them have had anything but praise for your assistance with products and advice. Hopefully, I shall make use of the information that I've learnt whilst subscribing to this course and maybe even make some money from it! Very best wishes for the future, Alan
Order number SAT020380 I just wondered if you were going for the world record for the quickest and most out-of-hours reply to a question? I placed my order at 11:59pm, with a question in the 'notes' field, and had a reply in under 10 minutes, which is amazing as I didn't even spend all that much. So thank you, Martin. I hope the delivery is equally impressive, the rugby world cup starts this Friday after all! Riki
Regarding Customer receipt (Keep-me): SAT020082 Very quick delivery - desoldered old components & soldered new ones - now works perfectly. Thanks very much. Paul (Actually, we had a lot of unhappy customers in August because Nicola went on holiday and we had temporary staff handling the orders but using Nicola's email address. This resulted in much confusion and distress - especially for me because I didn't even know she was away! Anyway, I hope those affected will accept my apologies for the chaos.) (top) Latest eBooks How to Fit Extra TV Points - 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 
