6th TV Channel!







                                by D!ck

Well,  okay,  not  quite.   If you live on the east coast like I do then
watch  the  weather, because whenever there's a big drop in air pressure
over  the  English  Channel  then it's possible to pick up pictures from
Denmark on your BBC1 slot.

The  channel in question is TV3 (not T/3 as I may have mentioned to some
people,  it's just a really bad font, okay?), it's not quite on the BBC1
frequency  but  is  just off, tune 6 into it when you get the chance and
it'll be there in future, weather permitting.

What  can  you see on TV3?  Well, unfortunately even on the best of days
the  sound  is non-existant, and you'll only get a decent picture if you
happen  to  have either a 12-foot ariel or some manner of signal booster
like I do.  I got mine to amplify my channel five signal, then moved and
found I had a corker picture anyway, but I kept the booster connected.

You can get a booster from Argos for about £15, though I wouldn't say go
out and get one just for the purpose of this experiment!

It  seems  that  the  bods  at Channel 5 have looked at TV3 and tried to
emulate  it, and have done quite a good job.  The style is much the same
with  the  arty  between-program shots, the news studio is all open plan
and the main newsreader on TV3 is a dead ringer for Kirsty Young.

Here's a snippet of timetable, this was broadcast on the 5th June:

        T/3
        06.28   Go' morgen Danmark
                Nyhederne & Vejret
                hver halve time fra 06.30
                06.40 Tegnefilm
                07.10 Morgan Chancen
                07.15 Locomotivet Thomas
                08.15 Locomotivet Thomas
        09.15   Go morgen Danmark (G)
        10.55   PAUSE

Thomas  the  Tank  Engine  in  Danish?   Cor!  Go' morgen Danmark is the
equivalent of Good Morning Britain, the studio is made up to look like a
kitchen  and  is  really  well  done,  the  presenters  seem relaxed and
professional, pretty good stuff.

Oh, and don't forget, when it's 06:28 in Denmark, it's 05:28 here!  What
was I doing up at this time?  You don't wanna know...

Back  to  the news:  The presentation is a lot more like America in that
the  cameramen  are  right  there on the scene of an event.  While I was
watching there was a shot of a fire, a couple of engines attending and a
car  burnt out in the street (which still had it's hazard warning lights
going  -  strange  but  true!).   All  of a sudden there was an almighty
explosion,  and  the  cameraman was right there to capture it, literally
within a hundred yards of the blast.

This  all  made for much better news coverage than you'd get here in the
UK, it's a pity we can't get this sort of thing on our own channels.

It's  cool,  if  you can catch TV3 then keep an eye out for it, although
it's  off  when BBC1 hits the air.  I have noticed other channels coming
through  in  the  past  though, so keep flicking to the snowscreens, you
never know what you might find!

Dick

[You can get TV3 on satellite as well as the other TVx channels and TM3.
Kei]


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