SES Astra 1a Promo

[@dorlow3765]

I remember watching this right back at the start when sky first launched in the UK (late 80s). It played on a loop with a French and German language version too, all day, every day iirc. Fond memories of the music used in the promo and people born long after this promo get to see old indent cards for the early sky channels. They will never know the joy of turning on Sat1 as a 9/10 year old and occasionally seeing a promo for some adult show where women shake their tits around. Or watching Teenage mutant ninja turtles in German!

[@Matt571]

I remember the Astra promo well, my family first had Satellite TV in 91. I became fascinated by Satellite TV and I used to like going through all the German language channels. I noticed in the promo that the TV salesman at 10.54 switches to the SW3 Badn test card, but as far as I known SW3 was never on Astra. ZDF and Nord 3 were, and ARD 1 started on Astra in early 94, it replaced ARD 1 Plus, that was like the old BBC Choice channel.

[@msimpson7910]

The voice over was Mike Hollis, who was programme manager of Radio Luxembourg at the time.

[@bdavebaldwin]

thanks for that...been bugging me for years

[@techtinkerin]

Crazy dejavu from this!! 😁 Thankyou

[@briansergeant]

Didn't know Thames, TSW and UTV were shareholders in SES Astra!

[@anthonyperkins7556]

I had an 80cm dish in Lancashire North West England coupled up to a Nokia Satellite Receiver for Astra and it gave near 100% good reception with barely any sparklies and hi-fi quality Wegener Panda 1 stereo sound thanks to its genuine Wegener Panda 🐼 1 noise reduction fitted. The stereo sound was hiss free and free of noise sounding clean clear crisp and pleasant especially on Sky Movies MTV Sky One Sky News Sky Sports The Movie Channel UK Gold Lifestyle and others, plus the radio stations were of excellent quality too especially Sky Radio and Radio Luxembourg. Cheaper receivers without genuine Wegener Panda 🐼 1 noise reduction fitted such as Amstrads tended to sound hissy noisy and flat.

[@bdavebaldwin]

It’s a long time ago since I bothered with satellite but I think even then when Astra 1a was getting crowded they shared transponders and weakened the signal. Plus I got home one winter’s night to find half a programme blue screened thanks to snow on the dish.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

@@bdavebaldwin No, I don't agree channels sharing analogue satellite transponders doesn't weaken a satellite signal at all. There are many factors that determine how good a reception you get from satellite, satellite footprints / the dish size used / the received signal strength at your location / the satellite's transmitted EIRP / objects in the way of your dish i.e trees etc / the quality of your dish and receiver / and the noise figure of your lnb and signal to noise ratio of your satellite receiver. Astra tended to be received better on 60cm dishes in the south and central portions of England weakening the further north you went, north of Birmingham Astra got progressively weaker and 80cm dishes and up to 90cm dish sizes in Scotland guaranteed better reception giving a bigger received dBW gain and fewer to no sparklies. I invested in an 80cm dish and was happy with the results. The reception was 100% near perfect with barely any sparklies except the heaviest rain snow sleet and hail. The Amstrads were crap for pics and sound quality and were dreadful for weak Astra signal sensitivity with a shit signal to noise ratio and an annoying automatic frequency control circuit which would frequently drift off tune. The cheapie Alba / Bush Astra Satellite receiver equipment also suffered from crap reception on 60cm dishes and were worse for reception in Northern England too.

[@bdavebaldwin]

@@anthonyperkins7556 lost out on two counts. Amstrad decoder and North of England.

[@ianbennett66]

Yes I'll Remember Had Amstrads Satellite In 1990 Started With 16 Astra Channel's & Also Had Later 48 Channel's With 2nd Amstrad Box When Astra 1B & 1C Later Launched Great Day's When I'll Listen To Sky Radio & Listened To Radio Luxembourg With Hi-Fi in Stereo On Astra Channel 13 When I'll Had A Luxcrypt Decoder When RTL 4 Was Scrambled.

[@anthonyperkins7556]

@@ianbennett66 The Amstrads were dreadful for sparklie pictures - even with an 80cm dish, especially on the awful UK Gold and would give black and white sparklies in fine weather with awful signal to noise ratio and an annoying tendancy on the srx 100 200 and 400 to drift off frequency with a temperamental automatic frequency control circuit. They never used genuine Wegener Panda 🐼 1 noise reduction circuitry either sounding hissy and unpleasant.

[@luisreyes1963]

An interesting look at European Satellite TV. Wonder if it's still around in the era of Digital TV & Streaming Video. 📡