Tim

Thanks Baz - just thought of that but you beat me to it[geek]

Lots of options. If the exisitng TV has an inbuilt digital tuner - i.e. does it get Freeview in the UK? - then, if your house in France is covered by the French version of Freeview (called TNT) then it may get French TV through the aerial. If it's only an analogue set, then on t's own, it will not normally be able to receive French TV unless it's multi-standard and not too many sets in the UK are.You can get set top boxes for this. It should, however, be able to receive TV from the UK via satellite when connected to a dish pointing to 28.2 east and and suitable satellite receiver. As I said, lots of options, but you've not said where you will be in France, what set you have - it's age and whether it's a digital ready set, or whether you have satellite TV in the UK. Come back whenever you like and with a bit more info from you we should be able to help a little more. Regards - Tim

Thank you (again ) Martin - my error - failed to see the litle '62' in the original post - silly me, but breakfast was waiting. You've summed up the situation very well. Here in Upper Normandie I can quite often get Wrotham BBC FM although I must admit it's not reliable. I only have a simple halo antenna for FM in the house. With a beam it would, of course, be much better. I have actually received DAB from the UK south coast but only under 'lift' conditions. I'd agree that satellite is the best for reliable reception. Tim

You don't say where you are or even whether you are talking about a radio for use in France. One thing I can say is that there is no DAB radio in France. Help with a little more info and I'm sure we can help in return. Tim

Bobc - thank you for that information - I had been thinking about the model you are talking about and, finances permitting, was considering getting one. I don't use the phone much - a lifetime working in telecomms does that to you - but thought my wife may prefer it to using a microphone - but when I suggested it, she refused. I must admit I was rather surprised but didn't argue with her - I know better than that[;-)]

I agree Bilbo - I found an old microphone lying around that works very well & I've got a desk mounted mike from the local computer shop for €5 for the laptop. Tim

A bit more info - I was reading 'in another place' about a few others who also had problems with ITV3 over the last week or so. They weren't able to nail down the problem either but ended up re-scanning as well. So it seems possible that something did happen, the trouble is - no-one has come up with what it was - curious. Tim

That is an odd one - I've just looked at the satellite frequencies for ITV3 and it shares the same transponder (frequency) as ITV3+1, Channel Islands TV, Scottish TV and Ulster TV - do you get any of these? If you do, then it gets even stranger!!![8-)] Tim

Agreed Martin - exactly what I would try- delete and re-load the channel. These FTA air boxes are great most of the time, but occasionally they get a bit quirky.

Gnomes are no longer available new so E-Bay is probably the only way to get one now. I did think about getting one, I must admit. The reason I didn't was that I wanted to be able to hear the radio station (or TV sound) on any radio in the house. It's all about what suits you best. Tim

[quote user="runningdog"]I can now play UK radio from my Freesat through my radio tuner / amp.  The wife is highly delighted! To compound my ignorance; what is a TX transmitter?  Many thanks to you all.[/quote]   Well done - glad you sorted it out. I certainly think it's the simplest way to get the radio stations without having to have the TV on. 'TX' is the abbreviation for transmitter - used in morse code and circuit diagrams etc. What I was talking about was, there is now legally (in England anyway) available small FM transmitters. These low power TXs are primarily designed for use in a car where you may have, perhaps, an MP3 player/iPod or some such like with all your music on it, but would like to listen to it in the car. Some recent car radios have the facility for you to plug your player in and play the music through the car's sound system. If your car radio cannot do this, then you get hold of one these things - plug your MP3 player into it - the TX then produces a low power FM signal which can then be tuned in on the car radio as you would any other radio station. The only thing is to make sure you are using an unused frequency. It is something like this I have been experimenting with. Regards - Tim

I've been 'playing' with this - I got hold of a small MP3 transmitter (TX) which is battery powered, rather than from the car cigarette lighter. It comes with a 3.5mm jack plug to put into a MP3 player - this also fits the output jack of the laptop so I can 'send' the internet radio to another radio/tuner in the house. I am, when I get the time, currently making up a lead (couldn't find a ready made one) to go from the RCA audio output from my Humax satellite receiver to the small TX. I was a little uncertain about whether this would work due to output levels/impedances etc. But I did a quick 'lash up' the other day and it seems to work. This should mean that I can use to same kit to send satellite radio to another radio/tuner in the house or garden. The final piece of the jigsaw is to try to run the TX on a small mains supply rather than using rechargables which only last for 7 or 8 hours. Work in progress.

Not all the UK originated channels are on Astra 2D - the UK channels are scattered over 5 satellites Astra 2A, 2B, 2C & 2D at 28.2 east - also Eurobird1 at 28.5 east. Most of the BBC and ITV channels are indeed on Astra 2D but the BBC radio stations are on Astra 2A for example. In practise, in fact, this makes very little difference as a correctly aligned dish will receive channels from all these satellites.   Regards - Tim

Dont' worry about that - I've helped a couple of people with these boxes - I usually remove all the pre-installed stuff on these machines - then connect to your dish pointing at 28.2 east for the UK satellites and do a transponder search. This will load all the transponders being transmitted from 28.2. You can then start to load the channels you want- either by just letting the box receive them all, or just to FTA (Free to Air). Because of the large amount of  'junk' channels I usually do a manual download - this saves having to remove the ones I don't want later. You will then have the time consuming issue of channel sorting which can turn in to an 'art'. Any problems - came back and I'll try harder. Regards - Tim   P.S. If you're not sure whether your dish is correctly aligned, it might be easier to start the part of the installation I've described on your neighbour's dish. At least then you will be able to confirm whether you are pointing at the right place in the sky.

Your system is obviously being overwhelmed by all those megawatts you're pumping out Martin!!

Not sure about about the Sky + plus Ron, but I'm sure that someone on here will tell you - but to be able to get one channel and watch another you need a twin lnb for the dish and a second receiver of some kind, although I did notice that our local Leclerc has a twin tuner sat box for sale - not tried one though. I've got a couple of Sky boxes and they work quite well with a Sony DVD recorder which has a 'synch record' facility - this enables you to put programmes to be recorded in the Sky planner and the Sony 'talks' to the Sky box and records automatically - almost like a Sky+ box. Tim

Yes Paul - I think you're right - I've got one I'm playing with at the moment. Do you have one? If so, which? The reason I suggested the physical link via the RCA sockets directly to the stereo amp is simply because it's simple!! Especially as it is probably all in the same room. I also agree with your internet radio comment - I'm sorting out the connections for my little transmitter at the moment so that I can use it for radio from the laptop or satellite receiver. Tim

Ok - trying not being too pedantic here but you are not getting Freeview channels - Freeview is the terrestrial system for TV in the UK - what you have is Freesat. So you have a satellite box to get TV channels from the UK - on the same satellite are most of the UK radio stations - the simplest solution is to connect the audio output from the sat receiver to a spare input on the stereo amplifier.This maybe called 'Aux' or a spare tape input could be used.  This then means that whatever radio station your sat box is tuned to will then be able to be played out through your amplifier. You won't have to touch your sat dish. Tim

Radio 4 on 198 kHz is indeed audible on long wave over most of France - I've even just about heard it on my car radio in the Lyon area and beyond. The BBC World Service is also very loud here on 648kHz. Nearly all the UKs radios stations are transmitted on satellite at 28.2 east - you don't say what equipment you are using so can't help much more until you give more info. A French TV will certainly not help to get you UK radio. I use a system of either the internet or satellite and a small transmitter to send the stations to a portable radio and I think that's about the only way to do it. A bit more info would help - regards - Tim Edit - another way I also use is I have a stereo amplifier and speakers in the same room as the TV and satellite box. On the rear of most satellite boxes there are two audio out sockets - normally known as RCA sockets. These should be the stereo left and right out sockets. I run a cable from these to the 'auxilliry in' sockets on the amp. Voila - you can now turn on the sat box - tune to the radio station of choice and listen through your stereo and turn off the TV.

I'm my own worst enemy sometimes Ernie[8-)] - I find it difficult to say 'no'.

I tend to agree with you Ernie - but in the end, the reason that I decided to leave Vista on this relatively new laptop was because I often get asked to sort out friends and relative's computers, and it was only going to be a matter of time before one of them popped out and came back with a Vista OS on their machine. I thought I ought to, at least, have some sort of idea of how it worked - just in case. As it's turned out, I think if you were to see this machine you may think it was running XP anyway - I suppose turning off alot of the 'bells and whistles' has helped.I also got it working very well over my own little network with a couple other machines running XP. I make no comment about whether it's a flop, or not, all I will say is that I have had no problems at all with it - and it certainly seems to be more resiliant against some of the usual internet junk than XP. As far as Linux is concerned - I am already running Unbuntu on a spare machine - so far so good, although I've not had a good play with it yet. To sum up, so far I've had no reason to want to change it to an XP machine. But as with all these things - it's kept 'under review'. Regards - Tim  

Ditto - I think it's coloquially known as Tawkspawt - or something like that.[:)]

Thanks Martin - I haven't looked but perhaps they also moved to the 2D sat?

If you get a satellite dish and point it at 28.2 east and a digital satellite receiver you will be able to get all the BBC TV and radio channels, including 5 Live for the footie, without subscription - not sure about Talk Sport - never really heard  it apart from at one time you did need a Sky card for it, but most of the UK radio stations are also on the same satellite system so it may be ok. TV channel Sky Sports news is one of Mr.Murdochs' pay channels on satellite ( I know it's on Freeview in the UK, but even there it's days may be numbered) so without a Sky box and subscription you will not get it. Someone else on here may know a little more. Any problems, come back with them on here and we'll investigate further for you. Regards = Tim

I've been running Vista on my laptop for 6 months now and I've not experienced any of the problems you're describing. I was a little nervous about getting Vista as I am pretty 'au fait' with XP but I'm happy with Vista. I'm not sure about your display problem, but as far as the e-mail address issue is concerned - have you taken a look in the Windows Mail 'Tools' menu? In there you will find 'Options'. Select that and then select the 'Send' folder. Put a tick in the box marked ' Automatically complete e-mail addresses when composing' and this should sort out your problem. I hope this helps - Tim