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Martin963

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Everything posted by Martin963

  1. Probably relevant to very few, but if you are someone in the category I mentioned above there is now a temporary fix: TF1 have taken the initiative (no doubt to try and force a resolution to the dispute) and are transmitting TF1 and its stable mates free to air on Astra 1, entirely independently of Canalsat, so it is possible to get these five channels back on a TNTsat or Canalsat box by doing a manual scan. They won't turn up in the correct "positions" on the channel list, but will at least be watchable. 11377 MHz, 22000 kbps, Vertical pol, 2/3 FEC. Will be interesting to see what happens during the World Cup, and whether they will transmit those shows in the clear. Oh so precious copyright problems may prevent that. And of course it now means that TF1 and its associated channels are available partout en Europe on n'importe quel sat box. Affaire à suivre.
  2. @ Lehaut - that's interesting, because the business of the submarines listening to 198 kHz comes up often in technical forums, and has often been dismissed as a myth. So it's interesting to hear that it isn't. But one thing puzzles me about the story, there are a number (or were, at the height of long wave use) of other powerful broadcast stations that shared the frequency, and in many parts of the globe it would be hard to detect the presence of Radio 4 as it would be blanketed by the other signals, and of course even on long wave the coverage isn't world wide. But certainly in a huge area of the waters nearer Britain it would be a useful indicator. Although even Droitwich hasn't been without its problems, at various times the T aerial has blown away in a storm and the station has been off for three days at a time. I seem to remember that one of the longer outages co-incided with the Christmas invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets! As you say, it's been a reference for years, but its days are numbered, with a close down currently thought to be penciled in for 31st March 2023. The cost of the power for Radio 4 is now partly funded by the Electricity Providing companies (ie to keep the Economy 7 meters alive) and the BBC certainly want rid of it. Not dissimilar situation with Allouis on 162 kHz which carried France Inter and was France's radio willy-waving contribution to the race to be the highest powered station (over 2000 kW). Radio France no longer needed it in about 2016, and all was set for it to be turned off, until with two months to go someone pointed out that all the clocks in SNCF stations, and many other civilian clocks in France, were synchronised by an inaudible signal buried in the carrier (similar tech to what is used at Droitwich for the electricity meters). Emergency discussions were had, and now the ANFR (I think it is) pays for Allouis to radiate unmodulated carrier at about 900 kW, ie no audio but with the clock signal still available. It must have cost a fortune to run it for the last six years, and with the increase in industrial prices for power I guess there's even more urgency to finish the job of changing the clocks throughout France, that could - with modifications - perfectly happily run on the German time signal on about 77 kHz. Long wave is getting emptier and emptier, with Allouis gone in 2016 ish, and in the last three years both Saarlouis Europe 1 and Roumoules Radio Monte Carlo have been silenced. For the French peripheriques only Radio Luxembourg is left......
  3. I was about to write much the same Lehaut. The whole situation has been made more complicated by someone high up in the industry's aim to make it simple. The idea of a price cap expressed as a "typical" annual figure is nonsense, and finding out the price per kWh on Ofgem's website has - for years - been nigh on impossible. Many people (and this was demonstrated on the radio only a week ago) believe that the price cap means that - however much electricity they use - they can't be charged more than £x. In addition, there are many people who don't really understand that one's monthly debits are merely a "contribution" to one's balance with the provider, and that periodically the actual balance is struck and - if out of kilter by a lot - the next year's debits will be eye-wateringly higher. I've heard of people who simply argue and argue that they don't owe any more at the end of the year because "my debits have covered my use" and - sadly - in the end the providers give up and let them get away with it. Again, this is not helped by infrequent meter readings by the authorities and a complicated billing system that is - even when printed out in detail - incomprehensible to many. As you also say, smart meters can and do fail, ours went AWOL from the network a few days ago and I immediately rang our provider Octopus and requested them to reset it, which they did. But here in Britain they store only three months' worth of data (so I'm told), so if a network outage is longer than that it can make things very complicated. In the case cited by Gardian it's probably not easy, but it's absolutely vital that one watches one's meter like a hawk and that one reconciles what it says to the bills one gets. Again, who prints out an internet bill? Most people glance at the link and ignore it, but it's better to get to grips with one's account frequently. I must say that I resisted a smart meter for years, but because we have solar panels and a Tesla House battery we're able to use an Octopus tariff that is incredibly cheap (if you use it correctly) but requires a smart meter to take readings every half hour. But if our smart meter's initial problems are anything to go by, the problems that they throw up for the industry are huge, and I guess that many providers privately rue the day that such a ****-poor piece of technology replaced an annual manual meter-read. And one gathers that Linkys are no better, although we never had one. There could be further ructions here next year when - if it happens as planned - Radio 4 Long Wave (ie Droitwich/Burghead/Westerglen transmitters) is finally turned off. Buried within the carrier frequency is a signal that is used to control Economy 7 meters nationwide here. When the control signal goes the Economy 7 meters will cease to function reliably, and people are being warned that they will need to have a smart meter. The death-sentence has been delayed several times, but I suspect that the 2023 date will be respected, not least because powering a 500 kW LW transmitter is getting incredibly expensive, and the BBC have wanted to get rid of Radio 4 long wave for the last ten years.
  4. Not that you hear any of that reported on the BBC, for whom of course it's only "Tory/Brexit Britain" that has any problems, while the EU is a paradise of smooth-functioning harmonious sunny-uplands. With the French AND the Italians to watch, it could be quite an amusing winter. Of course, von de Leyen said last week that she had "tools" to deal with the Italian system, so no need for any worry..... I actually feel very sorry for Mme Borne, I can list a lot of ex Premier Ministres who probably find life in such places as Le Havre and Prades an absolute breeze after their time in office. I don't on the other hand feel sorry for Macron, in fact his current situation is rather delicious to watch. And if he has to call another election when Parliament falls apart......
  5. It's funny how we distinguish between the suffering of a mouse (cute) and a rat (less cute). One of our three chats d'origine francais proudly brought in a large dead rat to the bedroom a few nights ago and was roundly congratulated. I daresay the rat was less happy with the situation.
  6. Nantes was in the news yesterday following the particularly nasty attack on a woman in the early morning last weekend, and TF1 interviewed another woman who is planning to sell her flat there, which overlooks an area where the drug dealers do good business. During the interview the dealers spotted her at the window and started hurling abuse at her, and the camera had to withdraw. I've no idea though whether Nantes is any worse than anywhere else of comparable size.....? But it does seem to have attracted some bad publicity recently as to how safe it is....
  7. A wholly appropriate and dignified day. Like others I thought the little heirs behaved so well, no doubt largely because Princess Katherine is real quality in everything she says and does. My only gripe was the use of "Holy Spirit" rather than "Holy Ghost" throughout the litany. For the D of E it was "Ghost", and I'm sure he would have carefully and firmly stipulated that in his wishes. I'm only sorry that the Queen didn't! 😀 May Her Majesty rest in peace.
  8. I'd be the first to admit that Truss is something of an unknown quantity to me. But to say that all she has done other than make a speech about cheese suggests that you haven't perhaps been paying attention. At the lunchtime of the day the Queen died she announced more useful policies in an hour than we've heard in the last 18 months, a British "tarif bouclier" and the re-starting of fracking being just two. As to her comments about Macron, many of us would entirely agree with her measured remark about the jury being out. In my lifetime I have never known anyone - claiming to be a friend - attempt to do so much damage to Britain, and I for one will never forgive him. Rubbishing the vaccine (and still refusing to admit he told lies about it), threatening to cut off electricity to the Channel Islands, supporting the invoking of the suspension of the NI protocol over vaccines, using Beaune as a constant attack dog against us whenever he couldn't be bothered to do the job himself, playing the constant bad cop against us in the Brexit process, need I go on... Macron has undone Anglo-French relations to such an extent that I doubt they will recover in my lifetime. Even I - a lifelong lover of France *and* its people - no longer rush to their aid when someone cracks a joke about them, and I no longer buy French products. I will review my stance when Macron goes, but in the meantime I would urge any British politician not to trust France or its president until 2027. I know, an extreme position, and I never EVER thought I would come to feel anything like this level of animosity. It grieves me, but Macron is the culprit, the only culprit. The only thing I would say about his utterances on the Queen is at least he recognises quality, and perhaps is dimly aware now after his election humiliations and his current political weakness that he will never EVER be fit even to wipe Her Shoes.
  9. Probably only affecting a few people on here with Canalsat or TNTsat boxes, but not for the first time, a battle of wills is taking place between Canal and TF1, which led two days ago to the TNT service on 19.2 deg E (TNTsat and Canalsat) suspending TF1, TMX, TF1 Series Films, TMC and LCI from their offer. Something similar happened five (ish?) years ago. A battle over who pays what, Canal feeling they give TF1 access to their customers and TF1 arguing that their presence enhances Canal's offer. In the past this would have been stamped on by the CSA, but TNTsat is no longer recognised as an "officially sanctioned" method for receiving the whole set of TNT channels, unlike Fransat which retains the badge of approval. The last dispute lasted about four days, will be interesting to see where this one goes. It should be stressed that reception using a TNT box with a terrestiral aerial, Fransat, BIS, and the unofficial multistream versions of the TF1 stable are unaffected. My TNTsat box just gives a message saying the channels are no longer part of the offer.
  10. French TV reports that the Germans are all over the east of France hoovering up petrol which is 50 cts cheaper; they're even bringing jerry cans (how appropriate!). Apparently their fuel price subsidy was taken away at the same moment as the French subsidy increased. As Ken says, sooner or later someone is going to have to pay for all these subsidies. My theory is that this is Macron's sh*t-scared tactic to avoid another Gilets Jaunes uprising, given that they often start during the rentrée and - oh my goodness me - it happens to be the rentrée right now..... Coincidence - non non non.....
  11. Meanwhile here in Devon I've just looked at this morning's temperature and we are at a giddy 8.5 deg C.... That said, it's incredibly dry even here, our well is empty and we're syphoning out the bath water via a magnificent half-inch hose to water the apple trees, more to save water costs than to save South West Water, lest anyone thinks that I'm virtue signalling. The ground is hard as iron and the fields a very un-Devon-like brown..... Still, in this part of the world a dry August is a bit of a novelty!
  12. I try to keep an open mind on the whole climate business, the scare tactics used by some I find pretty repellent. That said, I had a look at Humlum's paper in order to try and find what he (?) had to say about the aspect of global warming that I find hardest to refute, namely what appears to be the very clear signs of glaciers in Switzerland and France melting at what even I would call an alarming rate. I haven't been through with a toothcomb but Humlum seems to only mention glaciers in relation to the minor effect their melting might have on sea levels. I had hoped he would explain how this melting can be explained in any other way than global warming. But before anyone asks, no I don't see how long distance transport or heavy industry of any sort is going to be powered by "green" electricity in any meaningful form for the foreseeable future, and I remain deeply mistrustful about much of what the Green lobby spout. Seems to me that we should be building nuclear powerstations (preferably the smaller sort that seem to have fewer problems) à l'outrance.
  13. It now transpires that the video footage from 200 cameras in the Stade de France was wiped - as it usually is - after eight days. To keep it any longer requires a requisition from the police, and no one (apparently) thought to ask for one. How very convenient. Still, I titter that every time TF1 talks about the story it's labelled as a "fiasco", and the wiping of the video was described as a fiasco upon a fiasco. Remarkably honest analysis given that they *could* have just taken the Darmanin line and blamed it on everyone except the French.....
  14. SOSH and Red by SFR both worked for me. Having sold up a few years ago I've hung on to the contracts, as getting new cards without a French address might be difficult. Friends took the Red/SFR card over to their place a week ago and it worked perfectly in their house router.
  15. I've been pleasantly surprised how French TV has "called out" the nonsense spouted by Darmanin, TF1 did a report last night where various French official claims that "it was all the fault of the Liverpool fans" were comprehensively debunked. That said, however one polices something like that there's always the chance of things going wrong. And as one naughty comment this side of the Channel put it: "I've never heard such whinging from Scousers since the invention of the locking wheel nut".
  16. A nice present. EDF were very generous when the July 2019 storm knocked out the supply for a total of five days where we had the house in 24. And that had the amusing incidents where *I* - perfidious Albion - had to show the repair teams who had driven down from Brittany how the local network was organised, and where the substation was. And then tell them that they'd only got one of the three phases back in service, but when eventually they realised that "l'Anglais a raison" they did a very good job. Back in Devon our village has had no internet or telephones for the last 16 days, following an incident where a lorry on the main road brought down the fibre cable and caused sufficient sag on the 150 pair phone line that it too had to be brought down. We're rather hoping for over £100 in compensation, having finally been put back on two days ago. It's an ill wind and all that, but will pay a large chunk of the 4G subscription for the back-up that we keep to cover just such an eventuality.
  17. LIke you I don't watch the Eurovision Song Contest, but even I had become aware that either we had - over the last few years - become totally talentless (musically speaking) as a nation, or that voting had little to do with the music and a great deal to do with how other nations currently perceive each other, fairly or unfairly. There seemed little doubt that Russia had over a few years got a fair few votes from the East bloc because the latter were scared of them, and that we got very few votes because we were perceived as "b!ggering up the EU dream". Well, haven't the jolly old tables turned now. I was delighted to read the headlines this morning. Good for Ukraine and good for Britain! I suspect The Guardian and its aficionados on here are having a collective nervous breakdown, although they seem to have gone a bit quiet. ? On that subject it was fascinating on this forum when the war started to see the usual suspects coming out virtue signalling and damning Britain for its slow response to taking in refugees. Now of course we could have done better, but different countries have different strengths, and one of ours is that we have the sort of military know-how and hardware to assist Ukraine in the fight, and given that we are such an over-crowded island (and that other places like Italy are crying out for more people to revive their rural areas) we did what we were best at, and let other countries do what they are best at. Of course the BBC and similar only see things through their own Britain-bashing prism, so jumped on the slow response in taking in refugees and soft-pedalled all the other vital contributions we were and are making. So it's nice to see that SOME people and countries view us favourably, and last night seems to confirm it, however obliquely.
  18. It's good that Macron is being "called out". He really is a dreadful little creep, and personally I think the damage he has done to Anglo-French relations over Brexit won't be repaired in my lifetime. Which is a shame because ten years ago I really felt that relations were the best they ever had been, but Macron's pettiness and vindictiveness has smashed all that.
  19. Excellent. It really is a brilliant system. We've been reminded just how brilliant here in Devon where - on Wednesday morning - our 70 Mbps fibre cut out for the first time in five years. A patrol along the phone line back to the exchange revealed that a lorry on the main road between our village and the larger village with the exchange had downed the fibre line, as well as countless branches as it thundered northwards - it seems it was overheight but that's another story. The 150 pair analogue cable was left sagging but intact, but BT had to fell it at lunchtime as it presented a danger to high lorries. So we've been out since Wednesday lunchtime and won't be reconnected until next Wednesday. I say we're out, because unlike almost everyone else in the village our 4G router was up and ready to go, and we simply swapped computers laptops tablets straight on to it, and EE are providing their usual excellent signal at 40 Mbps. I have to say there seems to be considerable irritation amongst our friends that we're OK and they're not! Funnily enough, it's the poshest ladies of the village here (and we're not that posh overall compared say to the South Hams) who are squawking the loudest..... So all that experience pioneering the system in France (as reported on here a few years ago) has come in useful again!
  20. So so sorry to read this chessie. Utterly awful treatment. I'm also sorry not to be able to contribute anything useful, other than on line sympathy, but which you have form me in spadefuls.
  21. Many years ago we came off the A10 near Niort and went through the cash/cards only line, the personned (see what I did there) kiosk having closed some months before. Mrs W was driving (right hand drive) so I was in the passenger seat battling the machine. Put in a €50 note and - with much triumphant clattering - about 37 euros worth of one euro coins piled up in the sick-bowl provided for the purpose. Mrs W had placed the car conveniently close to the machine to carry out the transaction, but this positioning rendered picking up the coins both difficult (question of angles) and time consuming. Inevitably I dropped several trying to scoop them up, and then found I couldn't open the door because we were so close to the machine. Thankfully there was only one car behind us, but he was adamant that he wasn't going to reverse to give us room to manoeuvre away from the machine. We couldn't go forward because the boom risked coming down again, and the car behind then immediately taking our place and making crawling about on the ground difficult. In the end the man behind backed - with very bad grace - and I was able to get out of the car and grovel. Is there a limit on the size of note usable at a supermarket self-checkout?
  22. So - if I understand you correctly - you're now saying that a phone plugged into the Bouygyes 4G router DOES allow you to make calls.....?
  23. I've always believed that one of our national traits (whether as British or as English) is to be rather understated in all things, which for me means being quietly comfortable with my nationality, and I suppose - never really having thought about it - that is how I feel about the situation. I don't go round flag waving, but I'm most certainly not going to go around being ashamed of which country I belong to. What I can't stand though, and what we've seen more than our fair share of on this forum (at least until recently) are the people who "do down" Britain at every opportunity, who really ARE apparently ashamed of every aspect of Britain and its history. Of course we should be aware of previous shortcomings, but many of those who flagellate themselves and others on these things are in fact guilty of encouraging the most dreadful policies in our own time, but are too hypocritical to see it, blinded as they are by their own self-loathing, self righteousness and need to virtue-signal.
  24. Delighted to bang on! (Hope my information is accurate!).
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