BBC4 Astronomy Night

I went 13 years without a TV and know exactly what you mean..

It became a game for me. I was determined to make them spend =A310K
chasing me for a license I didn't need. First, I stopped answering
their stupid reminder after sending back some mildly rude responses.
This prompted about 6 months of regular parking outside my house or
checking around the back with handheld detectors. I loved twitching the
curtains and generally looking suspicious when they were about. If they
came at night, I occasionally used a torch and coloured cellophane to
make it look like there was a TV flickering in the living room too :-)

When they appeared to stop (or were getting better at hiding
themselves) I sent an anonymous letter saying it wasn't fair that I had
to have a license while the chap down the road at number 7 (me)
admitted to never having one. Guess what; they were back within a week!
Fun times... :-)

Just in case you think I'm arbitrarily bloody minded; my behaviour was
prompted by the license authorities themselves. They once turned up at
a new address with police and a search warrant after I'd only been
there a month. All because they had no record of a licence at that
address. What would my new neighbours think? I was utterly incensed and
threw a wobbly at 'em right there on the doorstep. I don't have a
frickin gun license, or a license for brain surgery, or a pilots
license, but I don't get threatening letters from them, nor do they
turn up on my doorstep with the cops to find out why not!!! It was
definitely one of my finer outbursts - all full of genuine righteous
indignation - grrr!

Sadly, my goading had to stop when I moved in with the missus 5 years
ago. She has a TV in practically every room and I'm more likely to
convince her to do without oxygen than to do without a goggle-box :-(

Cheers
Beats

"Martin" wrote in
:

I just love the BBC. You either have to pay another provider to get
BBC 3 and 4 (for which you are already paying for) OR buy a set top
box which might or might not work and you still might have to pay to
get a new aerial.

Whilst these off-topic rants by the anonymous "Martin" are as predictable
as the clouds that accompany the purchase of astronomy equipment, and
provide some mild amusement, I, equally predictably, insist on pointing
out that you do not need to pay another provider to receive BBC3 or BBC4
(or BBC7 or any other BBC domestic service) unless you have cable. Yes,
you do have to buy equipment, but having forked out £100 or less for a
satellite dish & receiver you can then watch all domestic BBC channels
for nothing.
--
Jim Easterbrook http://astro.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/
N51.36 W0.25

"Ed" wrote in message
...

"Martin" wrote:

I bet you've had the BBC come and visit you though demanding to
see your TV licence!

Tell me about it. Every few months I get threatening letters warning
about the penalties for not being licensed. So I reply stating that I
don't have a TV. A licensing officer arrives, has a look around etc.
They all must suffer from amnesia, because a few months later another
letter arrives, and the cycle begins again. :-(


If the police did this you could have them for harassment, but the BBC seem
to be a law unto themselves.

Martin

"Jim Easterbrook" wrote in message
...
"Martin" wrote in
:

I just love the BBC. You either have to pay another provider to get
BBC 3 and 4 (for which you are already paying for) OR buy a set top
box which might or might not work and you still might have to pay to
get a new aerial.

Whilst these off-topic rants by the anonymous "Martin" are as predictable
as the clouds that accompany the purchase of astronomy equipment, and
provide some mild amusement, I, equally predictably, insist on pointing
out that you do not need to pay another provider to receive BBC3 or BBC4
(or BBC7 or any other BBC domestic service) unless you have cable. Yes,
you do have to buy equipment, but having forked out £100 or less for a
satellite dish & receiver you can then watch all domestic BBC channels
for nothing.
--
Jim Easterbrook http://astro.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/
N51.36 W0.25

Er no, you still have to pay the provider in the first place. DUH! Ask Sky
or NTL to give you the kit fo free and see the reaction you get.

Martin

"justbeats" wrote in message
oups.com...
I went 13 years without a TV and know exactly what you mean..

It became a game for me. I was determined to make them spend £10K
chasing me for a license I didn't need. First, I stopped answering
their stupid reminder after sending back some mildly rude responses.
This prompted about 6 months of regular parking outside my house or
checking around the back with handheld detectors. I loved twitching the
curtains and generally looking suspicious when they were about. If they
came at night, I occasionally used a torch and coloured cellophane to
make it look like there was a TV flickering in the living room too :-)

When they appeared to stop (or were getting better at hiding
themselves) I sent an anonymous letter saying it wasn't fair that I had
to have a license while the chap down the road at number 7 (me)
admitted to never having one. Guess what; they were back within a week!
Fun times... :-)

Just in case you think I'm arbitrarily bloody minded; my behaviour was
prompted by the license authorities themselves. They once turned up at
a new address with police and a search warrant after I'd only been
there a month. All because they had no record of a licence at that
address. What would my new neighbours think? I was utterly incensed and
threw a wobbly at 'em right there on the doorstep. I don't have a
frickin gun license, or a license for brain surgery, or a pilots
license, but I don't get threatening letters from them, nor do they
turn up on my doorstep with the cops to find out why not!!! It was
definitely one of my finer outbursts - all full of genuine righteous
indignation - grrr!

Sadly, my goading had to stop when I moved in with the missus 5 years
ago. She has a TV in practically every room and I'm more likely to
convince her to do without oxygen than to do without a goggle-box :-(

Cheers
Beats

That sounded like fun. Shame you couldn't have recorded some of it. Did you
know that if you have a TV in the loft that no longer works it is still a
requirement to have a licence? So be warned anyone thinking of owning an
antique TV set as a non working show piece!! Or that old Betamax VCR you are
hanging on to !

Martin

"Martin" wrote in
:


"Jim Easterbrook" wrote in message
...
"Martin" wrote in
:

I just love the BBC. You either have to pay another provider to get
BBC 3 and 4 (for which you are already paying for) OR buy a set top
box which might or might not work and you still might have to pay to
get a new aerial.

Whilst these off-topic rants by the anonymous "Martin" are as
predictable as the clouds that accompany the purchase of astronomy
equipment, and provide some mild amusement, I, equally predictably,
insist on pointing out that you do not need to pay another provider
to receive BBC3 or BBC4 (or BBC7 or any other BBC domestic service)
unless you have cable. Yes, you do have to buy equipment, but having
forked out £100 or less for a satellite dish & receiver you can then
watch all domestic BBC channels for nothing.
--
Jim Easterbrook http://astro.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/
N51.36 W0.25

Er no, you still have to pay the provider in the first place. DUH! Ask
Sky or NTL to give you the kit fo free and see the reaction you get.

Which part of my message do you not understand? Yes, you do have to buy
kit (satellite dish and receiver) as I said, but no, you do not have to
pay Sky anything to receive BBC services.
--
Jim Easterbrook http://astro.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/
N51.36 W0.25

"Martin" wrote in
:

Did you know that if you have a TV in the loft that no longer works it
is still a requirement to have a licence? So be warned anyone thinking
of owning an antique TV set as a non working show piece!!

Yet more lies, "Martin". Haven't you got any other hobby horses to ride?
You keep falling off this one.
--
Jim Easterbrook http://astro.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/
N51.36 W0.25

"Jim Easterbrook" wrote in message
...
"Martin" wrote in
:

Did you know that if you have a TV in the loft that no longer works it
is still a requirement to have a licence? So be warned anyone thinking
of owning an antique TV set as a non working show piece!!

Yet more lies, "Martin". Haven't you got any other hobby horses to ride?
You keep falling off this one.
Except he is right on this one.
It is the TV 'tuner' that matters. If (for instance), you have a VCR
sitting in your house, faulty, but with a working tuner, they can
technically require a license payment!. The 'odds' are if it ever went to
the magistrates court, the judge might well be more 'sane', and accept
that the unit could not be used, but in law, they can persue this.
I had the job some years ago, of removing the tuner assemblies from a
number of VCR's for a local school. They didn't have a TV aerial in the
building where they were to be used, but if the tuners were left in, they
had to pay a 'bulk' license for the entire building. They could get the
units with tuners much cheaper than the ones without, so it was worth
paying me to take them out.
You can have a TV set with the tuner circuitry removed, without license.

Best Wishes

Since nobody actually replied on the content of the programmes, did
anyone actually watch it ?

Well, i thoroughly enjoyed the Sky @ Night perseid watch, but skipped
the 'life out there' part.

The "invaders from mars" film was really entertaining - not seen that B
movie since i were a lad.

The Hubble Space Telescope program seemed to be a re-work of the ESA
dvd that was given away by New Scientist (?) recently. It was
re-narrated by Chris Lintott and reduced in length, not bad - though i
preferred the original Bob Fosbury narration.

The programme about amateur astronomers was quite well done - Martin
Mobberley featured with his hair-dryer but avoided the topic of
spiders. There was both high tech and visual observing. But a little
too much Terry Pratchet for my taste.

The 'history of sky at night' was quite a good look back over the 50
years. Certainly some entertaining clips.

So, all in all i thought it was a good evenings viewing. Well done to
the BBC for showing it at all. And of course if it was not for BBC 4 it
would never have been made.

Callum

That sounded like fun. Shame you couldn't have recorded some of it.

Didn't have the equipment (for obvious reasons :-). It would have been
a giggle. Given my pugnacious approach, I had to be squeaky clean on
having no tuners in the house at all (and tuners capable of TV
reception can hide in unexpected places - a multi-band radio scanner
can receive TV sound for instance).

My "battle" with the license people became an occasional lunchtime
topic at work. The guys there (bless 'em) reckoned it would be funny to
poke a Casio LCD TV through my letterbox and get me caught! They didn't
though...

Anyway - we're way OT here - must stop - been fun reminiscing though
:-)

Cheers
Beats