Disconnecting analog satellite TV: 4 years later (part 2)

    Hello again to everyone!

    4 years ago, broadcasting of analogue television channels from the Astra 19.2 ° E satellite constellation was completely stopped. These were the last satellites in the world, which at that time still broadcast television channels in analogue. This event could not go unnoticed by me, and I decided to record the maximum number of shutdowns of the TV channels using my equipment. How I did it and what came of it can be read in a cycle of two articles.

    In the first part of the article, I talked a little about myself and about what preceded the mass shutdown of TV channels on April 30, 2012.
    In this part, I will directly touch on the chronology of disconnecting TV channels, as well as technical issues related to the equipment used and the recording process itself. There will be more technical points, there will be photos and, of course, a lot of videos.
    Who cares - welcome to cat :)

    So let's go!
    April 29, 2012, Sunday, Minsk-Brest train. I arrive at 21:42 and run laden with suitcases with all kinds of iron, wires and cassettes flying home. Big Analog Shutdown is expected to happen on the night of April 29-30 German time. It was almost 5 hours in stock. It was necessary to connect all the equipment, twist both plates at 19.2 degrees East, prepare the cassettes and ... wait.
    At that time, I had two satellite dishes, two analog receivers, five video recorders, three of which were with HiFi-sound and LP support, and two televisions.
    Equipment list
    Receivers:
    - Nokia SAT 8003 S
    - Echostar SR-90

    VCRs:
    - Sony SLV-P58EE - modulator with D / K sound
    - Sony SLV-E160EE - backup
    - Sony SLV-E780
    - LG DCK688X
    - Blaupunkt RTV-760 HiFi

    TVs:
    - Electronics-409D
    - Casio TV-1400

    Tract


    The tract was built in a rather cunning way. Nokia receiver does not have such an OSD so as not to completely overlap the picture. Simply put, I could not display the current time in a corner of the screen. But Echostar was able to do this. In addition, he also showed SIGNAL STRENGTH directly on top of the picture, which was very convenient for fine-tuning the antennas. Also, a very good OSD was the LG VCR - at any time, the current time could be displayed on the screen.
    Because there were two receivers, and three VCRs, and the VCRs were quite different in recording quality, it was decided to do this:
    1) The signal from Nokia was supplied first to LG, and then to Blaupunkt. Thus, it was possible to get one record of “pure” air, the other with the current time, in order to make it easier later to navigate the records. The signal from Blaupunk with a composite went straight to Casio. This bundle was used to record a “specific” channel. Those. channel switching was mostly only on demand, or when nothing interesting was planned, the channels spun in parallel with the second bunch.
    2) The signal from Echostar went to Sony-E780, then went to Sony-P58EE. From the last RF signal went to Electronics-409D. On this bunch, I recorded zappings when I was next to the VCRs.

    Everything was written on VHS-video tapes, in total 6 completely recorded tapes E-180 and E-240 came out. Something was written in LP, something in SP. Subsequently, the tapes were digitized, cut and the most interesting was uploaded to my YouTube channel.

    Promised installation photos:
    Photos











    UPD: I found a video recorded on a VHS-C camcorder, where I recorded and briefly spoke in broken English about the installation. I apologize right away, I didn’t have conversational practice then, and I prepared the video on the English-language forum. As a result, it has not been published anywhere until now.


    Outage timeline


    A shutdown schedule was found at one of the forums on satellite reception, I was guided by it, but something went wrong the Germans were not particularly punctual in this regard, or I mixed something up somewhere, now it's hard to say, that was a long time ago:
    Outage schedule
    Detailed timetable for the closure of analogue satellite broadcasting
    and activation of the HD programming from ARD and ZDF
    As at 5 December 2011, subject to change
    29.04.2012 — 30.04.2012
    21:00 clock off Tp.49 (KI.KA) to closedown
    03:00 clock off Tp.30 (rbb)
    03:01 clock off Tp.35 (arte)
    03:02 clock off Tp.36 (Phoenix)
    03:03 clock off Tp.39 (WDR television)
    03:04 clock off Tp.40 (TV-hr)
    03:05 clock off Tp.41 (BR-alpha)
    03:06 clock off Tp.45 (Bavarian Television)
    03:07 clock off Tp.43 (MDR network)
    03:08 clock off Tp.48 (SWR BW TV)
    03:09 clock off Tp.61 (SWR television RP) by SES ASTRA
    03:10 clock off Tp.10 (3sat) by SES ASTRA
    03:11 clock off Tp.33 (ZDF) by SES ASTRA
    03:12 clock off Tp.25 (NDR TV)
    03:13 clock off Tp.19 (The First)
    The launching of the ARD and ARD-HD1-HD2 at Frankfurt starts on 30 April 2012
    03:15 clock or clock at 03:30. The HD programs themselves are only a few minutes after
    the activation of the respective carrier for the audience to be available.
    03:15 clock
    Injection of the beam transponder for ARD-HD1 19 in Frankfurt (The first HD, arte
    HD, HD BW SWR, SWR RP HD)
    03:30 clock
    Injection of the beam transponder for ARD-HD2 25 in Frankfurt (HD PHOENIX, NDR
    FS NDS HD, HD NDR FS MV, NDR FS HH HD, NDR FS SH HD, HD BR South, North BR HD)
    03:58 clock
    Shutdown of the carrier for ZDF-HD1 Transponder11 in Frankfurt (The first HD, ZDF HD
    and Arte HD)
    Then place the intrusion on the ZDF and ZDF Transponder 11 HD1 HD2
    Transponder 10 in Mainz.
    04:00 clock
    Injection of the carrier for ZDF in Mainz-HD1 transponder 11 (ZDF HD, HD zdf_neo,
    zdf.kultur HD)
    04:15 clock
    Injection of the carrier for the transponder 10 in Mainz (ZDFinfo HD, HD 3sat, KI.KA HD)
    03:00 bis 05:00 clock clock
    The launching of the program with regional WDR HD apart on the circuit
    SES ASTRA Tran

    So, further in the text, summer Belarusian GMT + 3 is given (mb I will correct everything later in German).

    April 29, 2012, 23:36. Zapping, receiver Nokia SAT 8003 S:

    As you can see, on many channels there are info cards informing that very soon the channels will leave the broadcast.
    April 30, 2012, 0:04. Also the usual full zapping after half an hour is a little worse in quality - the second plate was slightly knocked down, only fixed in the morning. Echostar SR-90 Receiver:
    Zapping at 0:04


    At 0:40 I recorded the broadcasting capping:

    At the end of the video, problems with sound - YouTube and copyright, damn it ...

    Then it was bad ... I strew my head with ash - I took a nap and set the alarm at the wrong time. Leaving one video recorder for recording on TV, another on the radio, he returned in the morning and saw that the TV was still on, but the radio was gone! Hooray, the first trip hooked.

    On April 30, 2012 at 4:00 Minsk time RTL-Radio leaves (there is a carrier, but the sound is chopped off) and the entire transponder with it. I did not fix the transponder number, apparently, at the same time, the rest of the trances started to leave.


    No sound at audio frequencies. What happened to the image?
    Let's see the capping at 5:16:

    We see that ARTE hung a translucent die, on many channels screensavers appeared that the channels were disabled. Tele 5 is still on air.


    Next, a pack of video is not from me, switching to info cards or completely disabling transponders:
    Missed outages from 4 to 5 in the morning
    rbb в 4:05


    MDR в 4:07


    ARD/Das Erste в 4:12


    PRO 7 в 4:49


    I also skipped the disconnection of Tele 5, so here is another video not from me.
    Tele 5 at 5:30


    After disabling Tele5, on its transponder some kind of game began to happen with a signal ( 5:59 in Minsk ) ...


    Image breakdowns are unclear why. I don’t have a spectrum analyzer, but it feels like a neighboring carrier was crawling and causing malfunctioning of the AFC receiver. On both receivers, the behavior was exactly the same. Who is attentive, he noticed the mouse cursor in the middle of the screen :)

    Further until the evening, nothing interesting had happened.

    Pack of zappings at 5:59 , 6:12 :
    Zappings at 5:59 a.m., 6:12 a.m.



    At 11:19 the broadcast continues to be conducted by HSE24 , Arte with a die and Eurosport . Looking ahead, I will say that Eurosport turned out to be a long-liver - it was the last to be turned off. In some places, in the background there is a sound track, there are teletext signals.
    Zapping at 11:19


    At 12:15 it’s already seen that Arte stopped broadcasting, there was only a die and a still image in the background.
    Zapping at 12:15


    At 15:44 HSE24 is already disconnected. The moment of shutdown was not recorded.
    Zapping at 15:44 after disconnecting HSE24


    Further, the situation does not change much until late at night.
    Zappings at 16:21, 18:23 and 19:40




    During this time, I managed to do many other useful things, simultaneously clicking through all the channels. I made a list of transponders and scored them all in the receivers in the necessary sequence, so that later it would be easier to navigate. I did not have time to do this right from the night:


    May 1, 2012, 0:40.
    / me at work :)


    On the air only Eurosport conducts a useful broadcast ...


    Just a couple of minutes after zapping, the transponder that previously broadcast the rbb channel was turned off .
    1:04, rbb is gone


    1:16 - the transponder that was broadcasting before this HSE24 is turned off .
    HSE24 is already gone


    As you can see, only Eurosport is on the air . You can pay attention that in one channel English is broadcasted, and in the other - German audio tracks.

    The most delicious thing is disabling Eurosport .
    Information from the forum:
    Eurosport will either close Midnight Paris Time (uplink) or Midnight UTC (international satellite time) UTC midnight would mean 01.00 UK / Portugal time, 02.00 Central European Time.

    In fact, they disconnected at 2:30 in Minsk. Video:

    A little comment on the video itself. At the very beginning it is clear that some kind of game is going on with the signal. For a few seconds, something incomprehensible was going on, something was spinning with the transmitter, but apparently the engineers decided to give people a snooker :)
    At this moment, we see the last ID and - tadam - colored stripes , and the stripes with decent interference. Eurosport standardly completed its broadcast and at this frequency should begin broadcasting the night telemarket. But he worked for only a few seconds - the carrier was turned off.
    EVERYTHING. The last analogue satellite TV channel has completed broadcasting.

    More zapping at 2:49


    At 3:11 am quietly turned off the transponder, broadcasting before this channel QVC . Here is a video of disabling it:
    Disabling QVC




    May 1, 2011, 4:20 - the last recording made by me from the analogue.


    At that moment, 19 transponders gave a picture ; on the air they sagged for another month.
    Screenshots with info cards

    on May 11, 2012, transponders broadcasting RTL , RTL2 and SuperRTL left the air .
    On May 15, the Kabel 1 , Phoenix, and WDR transponders disconnected .
    May 30, 2012 - all remaining analog transponders are turned off, the carriers are removed .
    That's it, the era of analog satellite TV is over.
    As you can see, everyone left the air boring, uninteresting, only Eurosport was distinguished by its glitches.
    The most interesting thing is that after turning off these transponders for a very long time remained without a signal that what is happening on them at the moment can be viewed on Lyngsat or checked yourself. In 2012, there were no plans to launch new channels on these transponders. They planned to put them into commercial operation only by 2016. And, one wonders, why was it turned off if there was nothing to hammer the tanks?
    In general, they fulfilled their plan :)

    In Germany’s cable networks, analog channels were also turned off, dice example:


    A little material on the topic:

    Page about Atlantic Bird 3
    Page about analog Astra
    Here is another big table where the history of broadcasting analog TV channels to Astra is painted. Everything by dates, in detail with transponder numbers.
    Topic on the profile forum dedicated to disabling the satellite counterpart.
    A playlist where all videos are collected in chronological order.
    And an album with photos on Google Photo.

    On this my story can be completed. I hope that I managed to convey to you the main chronology of events of four years ago, and you learned something interesting and, perhaps, useful for yourself from these articles.
    I will be glad to hear your opinion as a whole on the statement, maybe there are some comments and suggestions.
    The plans are to write an article about disabling analogue broadcasting in the Republic of Belarus, about how to get and decode Teletext from the most standard VHS records, as well as an article on how to make high-quality rolling of BGA chips at home with a minimum of costs. And then we'll see how it will be :)

    Subscribe to my YouTube channel, go and subscribe to our VK group dedicated to the first museum of retrocomputers in Minsk.

    Thank you for your attention, waiting for your comments!

    Also popular now: