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Edited by Dynamic Dave on 08/08/2008 at 19:32
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Hello All,
Been rather busy, looked in to read every now and then though no time to post, hope all are well!
Here is one I thought someone in the backroom might be able to advise on:
Personal tax return for the self-employed sole-trader - can you offset a personal investment made into the business against net profit for tax purposes? This could be capital or equipment, for instance a privately owned computer used within the new business, likewise possibly tools etc. I am being given conflicting advice on this.
The point is that if you cant offset a personal investment made into the business against tax you can end up paying tax twice on the same capital. I.e. someone can earn a sum of money (say in employment) pay income tax on it and later invest it in a new business, then if that business makes a profit they would in effect pay tax again on the same capital if they can?t offset the capital investment against net profits for tax purposes.
Any ideas?
Thanks and regards.
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Hi Cheddar ( you have mail BTW )
I was advised by my accountant that it is OK to charge usage of personal equipment to your business on a pro-rata basis. EG if 50% of your phone calls or computer use are business related it's OK to make a charge in line with that amount of usage.
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Hi HB,
Thanks for the mail, all clear, good handle!
The charging for the ongoing or periodical use of personal equipment/premises/vehicles/phonelines etc to the business is clear.
It is the investment issue that is trying me, whether or not you can offset a personal investment made into the business against net profit for tax purposes?
Best regards.
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Sorted I think.
Investment sits in the capital account, is not offset against net profit, rather against drawings.
Unless it is a repayable loan where interest charges go against expenses.
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Doesn't sound sorted...
I think you're making this way too complicated. As you are self-employed, there is only one you - you are not a separate person from your self-employed self.
Drawings are pretty much irrelevant for a sole trader; they're only importantif you have a partnership or a company (in the latter case they're not actually drawings but dividends/salary); as a sole trader it is all your money.
So if you spend £1,000 on a computer in August 2008, that you use 60% for business use, then you can get tax relief on £600.
(If you spend over £50,000 on capital items in a tax year, then it gets more complicated, and if the expenditure was incurred in 2006/07 it is also more complicated. www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=166333...6 )
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Thanks Mapmaker.
So if hypothetically you start a new business and put - say - £1000 capital into its bank account then 6 months later you inject another £1000 and draw - say - £1000 per month, having made - say - a net profit of £15000 then this shows in the Capital Account as:
Start of period £1000
Net profit £15000
Capital introduced £1000
Drawings £12000
Balance £5000
My initial thought was that the £2000 introduced would be offset against net profit though I was of course wrong, instead it shows in the Capital Account the balance of which would only be £3000 without the investment, and the net drawings are then £10000, i.e £12000 minus the £2000 introduced.
Make any sense?
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Yes. You are completely correct. I personally think you're making things more complicated by thinking of a capital account. Most people find balance sheets harder to understand than profit and loss accounts - although you seem to be about there.
So much simpler to say:
Net profit 15,000 made by buying and selling widgets. £1,000 spent on computer, 60% business use; taxable profit = 14,400. [Different rules apply to capital expenditure prior to April 2008.]
Further £1,000 of your "capital" spent on buying widgets that have yet to be sold, so it's not profit, and it's not loss.
Your £2,000 introduced is just cash. It's not profit, it's not loss, it's effectively just helping your cashflow. As you rightly state, it is capital investment that continues to be there.
Drawings are of very little interest - again, they're just cashflow between your business bank account and your own bank account. As I mentioned earlier it would be different were you running a partnership or company.
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Any ideas as to where I can get a small nylon wheel for my 1930's type sliding door runner in my dining room ?
The wheel is about one and a quarter inches in diameter (30mm) and about five sixteenths wide (9mm)
The centre hole is about a quarter of an inch (6mm) in diameter
I could always grind some meat off a larger wheel and make the centre hole bigger/smaller, and of course it doesn't havta be nylon
Cheer's - Dog.
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Fishing/yachting tackle?
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Good idea, ship's chandler, may have some nice little nylon pulleys or blocks that can be butchered.
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B & Q used to sell a pulley (set into a steel bracket) that I've just measured as being 10.5 mm wide, outside diameter 37.5 mm, bottom of groove 29.5 mm diameter, centre hole (at a guess) 4 mm diameter ~ in the ropes/cables section. It looks as if it might be nylon or similar.
Edited by L'escargot on 04/08/2008 at 19:32
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Try a model shop (the Airfix type, not the young ladies!)
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Thanks m8's ... I'll give em a go & let ya know - got to be better than buying a new sliding door gear, cos they's ain't cheap !
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We had a similar problem with an elderly sliding door on a garage (a work of 1930's art) when we moved here. I was put in touch with a firm called PC Henderson. They still exist !
www.pchenderson.com/sliding_door_gear_product.php?...e
They came up with an original wheel and ball races at no charge. May be worth a try.
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. I was put in touch with a firm called PC Henderson. They still exist !>>
Henderson Garage Doors, based in Durham City, but supply up and over doors all over the country - if you check, you might have a Henderson door.
Good thing about them is they tend to regard repairing an existing door as a challenge, rather than the usual 'bin it and buy a new one' attitude.
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I phoned them (ten years ago before e-mail nonsense) on the off-chance, their local rep called around, did a diagnosis and the replacement bits arrived (wasn't much of a missing piece) within the week - no charge.
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>>....and of course it doesn't havta be nylon
Get someone to turn one or more for spares ( on a lathe)
A small engineering co might help ( for a few pints) or a model shop may point you to someone.
Maybe a local secondary school / UNI with a lathe might accept a donation.
Good luck.
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Yep ... cheer's geezers, I have every confidence in tracking the little blighter down now, I'd almost given up, after emailing various co's a foto of it - with no result.
Dog.
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Having read the posts about the misfueling device and who would buy one,I always wonder who buys those wonderful limited edition plates, watches, clocks and Christmas mountains with little trains running around them. Readers of Viz will know the items as 22 dooda street. A fool and his money are soon parted but how did the fool get the money in the first place?
{subject line changed from default one, as per the Please Note at the start of the thread}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 05/08/2008 at 14:25
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I see my neighbour was up in court today, "For Application to Break Fixture".
Can anyone tell me please what that means (I've spent the last half-hour surfing to no avail).
They've already got reporting restrictions applying: "Order made under s39, CYPA 1933".
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I did 30s Google and found this:
"An application to break fixture is an application which is made by a legal representative such as a solicitor to change the agreed trial date on behalf of a defendant. This may be due to the illness of the client or because either the defence or prosecution has not had enough time to prepare the case. It is also used in civil cases if neither party is able to attend court due to unforeseen circumstances."
So if I am right you need lessons in Googling ;-)
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Yes, 4th hit on Google, you just beat me!
Of course this still leaves you wondering what he's charged with. :-)
JH
Edited by JH on 05/08/2008 at 20:28
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Yes! I must need Googling lessons. All I could find was a series of cases. I tried legal terminology and anything else I could think of. I looked in ASK as well. I limited searches to UK.
Many thanks anyway.
I do know what the accusation is.
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Well, what?
Surely he isn't the only serious criminal living near you bt?
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Lud! Show some tact. Well alright, I was thinking it :-)
JH
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Interestingly S39 Children and Young Persons Act 1933 involves here - to do with the restriction of press coverage to do with young people.
You mentioned this case before didn;t you ?
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Perhaps we'd rather not know after all then...
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PU. Yes I've mentioned it before.
Why do people assume it's a he? I've tried to be discreet, but damnit they're neighbours, and I want to know what's going on around me.
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bt,
We are all naturally curious.
As has been said, an application to break involves an application to delay a trial date and can be made by any side.
What you need to know next is if the application is successful, and if so, what is the new trial date.
Same as I said before, the court ought to be prepared to give you this limited information.
As you may now be realising, following a court case is 95 per cent diary work.
Keep your eyes peeled, check and re-check....
If there is a youth involved, the judge is going to be more reluctant to delay the case.
The old saying 'justice delayed is justice denied' is deemed to apply even more so to young people - they are 'fast tracked' through the system where possible.
Edited by ifithelps on 05/08/2008 at 22:36
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Bathtub Tom... all I did was google on the text you gave. Lesson over.
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Bathtub Tom... all I did was google on the text you gave. Lesson over.
I would be that rtj put double inverted commas around the text but BT didn't - this searches for the exact phrase.
So searching for "cats and dogs" finds web pages with the phrase "cats and dogs". Searching for cats and dogs finds web pages with the words cats; and; and dogs anywhere on them.
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And putting "cats+dogs" gives 482k hits and putting "cats-dogs" gives 298k hits etc etc etc. Googling can be an art form in its own right
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It's the sheer speed that's so breathtaking...:-)
I have a 360 page book on How to Do Everything with Google written by some of its own employees - what can be done and found out using Google is quite astonishing.
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I have a 360 page book on How to Do Everything with Google written by some of its own employees - what can be done and found out using Google is quite astonishing.
Preview it here, on Google Books:
tinyurl.com/65xxde
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If looking for a phrase then I would have automatically put the quotes in. Being a computer/IT person this would be obvious but maybe not to others.
So maybe some have really learned a lesson.
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So Google will wash my dishes? What else can it do in 360 pages, for goodness' sake!
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You can do funky filetype searches. So if you don't mind being extradited and going to a US jail, try something like
UFO filetype:pdf
or
USA war budget filetype:xls
for example.
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Or search for specific things within sites:
site:honestjohn.co.uk ford+focus
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Yeaaasss, Google is a seriously powerful tool. But 360 pages, and parting with hard-earned cash, or a free 1-page summary www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html
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360 pages. Very impressive but... how many can you remember? I can only remember about 4 keyboard short cuts (stop laughing at the back!) so I'll go for the one page summary. I found the phrase so I'm doing something right - has to be a first time for everything!
Oh - apparently you can put a flight number in and it'll tell you what's happening. "Delayed take off due to non delivery of lemon scented finger wipes", that sort of thing.
JH
Edited by JH on 06/08/2008 at 20:13
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You can now enter a airline flight number,and nothing else, and get a summary of the flight progress in real time!
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Searching for cats and dogs finds web pages with the words cats; and; and dogs anywhere on them.
When searching for cats and dogs the 'and' is a 'stop word', and Google only searches for pages containing 'cats' and/or 'dogs'. Otherwise the pages containing 'cats' and/or 'dogs' would be lost among all those just containing 'and'.
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I've bought a phone battery from Amazon via a trader.
It arrived today, but clearly isn't brand new - it has a few scuff marks on it and there are marks on the battery contacts where it looks like its been used.
Item was not described as used, BUT the words 'new' also didn't appear on the Amazon page.
Seller is only willing to give me a replacement if its faulty - is this correct?
Also what about postage costs for me sending it back (its not a lot, but i'd like to know)
Ta.
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Does a mobile phone receive texts while it's being charged?
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Yes if it is switched on and is in an area where it can recieve a signal, it can of course be charged while switched off in which case the text would not come through until it is next switched on.
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On First Great Western Intercity125s there's some lettering on the side of the power cars down near the bogies saying 'Load 2.2 tonnes evenly distributed'.
Is that effectively the weight per axle ie. total weight is 4x2.2=8.8 tonnes? Seems on the low side.
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On HST power cars, there's a luggage area behind the engine compartment, (which now also houses the tanks for the engine fire extiguisher system) and this text relates to the load that can be carried in this area, not the total imposed load on the bogies.
This compartment is almost never used for carrying any load, but, serves as an excellent place to house equipment while conducting in-service experimental & testing work.
A typical mkIII carriage weighs about 40 tonnes while empty, so, there's about 10 tonnes on each axle, rising by 2 or 3 tonnes when the carriage is full. There's 5 or 6 tonnes on each wheel, and a contact area between wheel and track that's about the size of a 5p piece!
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Ah, that explains it. Thanks.
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Presumably this is the area that was originally intended as a guard's compartment ( with window) , but not used a such because of noise levels ?
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NC,
On the refurbished FGW HST power cars this area is also fitted with the cycle carrying racks.
StarGazer
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Power Cars are about 17.5t per axle or about 70T all in.
You will find all the weight data painted on one end of the coach - Under a big C1 (or is it a C3) which is the gauge it can run on.
And one to think about - on some parts of the network if it meets the wrong train at the wrong time all the external door handles get knocked off because they are out of gauge!
Edited by ijws15 on 08/08/2008 at 16:35
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The other day I found an item which I didn't recognise. I can't got into details, but for various reasons I suspect it might be drugs related. It was a tube about the length of a cigarette but much thinner, appearing to be a white-ish substance wrapped in a clear cellophane-like material.
I've looked on a few drugs identification web pages but nothing matches what I saw, so hopefully it's nothing to worry about - has anyone seen anything similar?
Cheers
F
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I don't think anyone is going to give you a rock solid answer as to what it is from the info you've supplied. Why don't you just get rid of it in a place where it cannot possibly do any harm?
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sq
I don't have it. I'm not looking for definite answers, but would appreciate any info - I'm not going to assume it's correct.
Edited by Pugugly on 07/08/2008 at 17:42
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Swan cigarette filters, used for roll ups.
Edited by CQ on 07/08/2008 at 16:31
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Swan cigarette filters used for roll ups.
Thanks CQ- I think that could be it. Something like this:
www.roll-ups.co.uk/ishop/879/shopscr4683.html
(not Swan but can only find pictures of the boxes)
Also, I found a website that said the smallest Swan filter tip is 5mm - the thing I saw I would estimate at about 2mm in diameter. Do they expand when unpacked?
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I'm fed up with finding them in the washing machine when the kids don't empty their pockets.
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Where is the drop-off point for passengers from private hire cars at Euston Station?
I have checked the website, which give info. for taxis, but not for private hire - any ideas please?
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www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/3022_DPPPEuston.doc
says "Getting to and from the station -
By Car
Private cars can pick up and set down adjacent to the set down point for taxis. Instructions for gaining assistance are as for taxis.
Short stay and long stay parking
These facilities are underneath the station. There are five car parking spaces for blue badge holders. Help points are located opposite the parking spaces for passengers to arrange mobility assistance to get to the concourse and platforms.
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If you get there early, then you can usually park in Drummond Street or nearby - and spend the time usefully visiting Ambala sweetmeat shop!
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Drummond Street Ambala sweetmeat shop!
Heh heh deepwith... they used to do some very nice lines in chutney and so forth too, not to mention quite decent samosas...
And you can eat quite well in some of the many restaurants there for not too much, especially if you like vegetarian stuff.
Edited by Lud on 07/08/2008 at 18:40
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>> Drummond Street ...... especially if you like vegetarian stuff.
MMmmm - Dwana Bel Puri is still wonderful and very very cheap - their shrikand is to die for and they don't muck around with it, just as you would have it in south India.
I have yet to have a sweetmeat that compared with Ambala.
To keep this motoring - husband and I have, in years past, driven up from Littlehampton just to have dinner at the Dwana and buy goodies from Ambala.
If you fancy a drive out from Kensington, there is a new and very very good South Indian in Twickenham.
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You use the taxi drop-off point, which is underground in front of the station. It is approached from the street that runs up the left side of the station facing its front from Euston road, a two-way street. Drummond Street exits into it nearby.
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Thank you all for your help.
It seems I have to slum it with the black cabs downstairs!
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Good Afternoon. I have an normal Sky Box working from a single LNB and cable thru the wall from the LNB/dish and signal strength is good, about 80%. I bought and installed a Grundig Freesat Box and it works fine. If I take the Sat feed and put it into the Sky box that works fine. The shop that sold the Freesat to me pointed out that I could connect an appropriate cable from an outlet on the Freesat box, labelled "USB Out" and connect it to the one and only LNB connection on the Sky Box ie the input.
However, when I do this the Sky Box tells me that it is not receiving a signal; it is fine if connected driect but will not accept a signal thru the Freesat box. Is the only solution the purchase of a dual LNB? I was told that what I have done should work and labelling of the inputs and outputs makes me think it should but it doesn't! Thoughts please! Thanks
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What will Freesat give you channel wise than Sky did not?
Something marked USB out woul make me think its USB as in Universal Serial Bus but in this content of telling you what to do must be wrong/different.
Intrigued to know what you can get on Freesat you cannot on Sky. They use the same satellites for a start.
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I bought it for the limited but slowly expanding HD content as I have an HD LCD TV. My mistake; the output is not labelled USB - it is LNB, the feed from the dish/LNB combination. A small co-ax cable with a rotating hexagonal locking collar that tightens the connection onto the equipment
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But the only HD channels at the moment will be BBC HD and ITV HD. Two. All the rest of the output is standard definition. Yes the box will upscale to HD but the TV with Sky would too.
You're a bit of an early adopter ;-)
with a good upscaling DVD player though you'd be surprised how close they come to blue-ray.
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Intrigued to know what you can get on Freesat you cannot on Sky
Are you asking to compare with FreeSky [or whatever the free SKY service is called]?
I too am thinking of cancelling my sub to Sky and go for the freesat HD option. Not too bothered about lack of HD channels at all. The fact they are free is what matters.
If in reply to Armitage it is confirmed by an expert that the LNB-output from his STB [set-top-box] should work, then I too would like to run two STBs off one LNB for connecting to two separate TVs. Obviously I would need to get the free Sky card to continue to use the Sky STB.
Edited by jbif on 07/08/2008 at 18:35
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If we're talking one TV then not sure what Sky Freesat and BBC/ITV Freesat give that differs. If AS is keeping the sky subscription then I'm not sure what has been gained.
I'd have thought junk the Sky box and channels and use the BBC/ITV Freesat one but he wants to have both. Hence me being curious.
We have cable so that's a different kettle of fish altogether.
The other reason for my reply is in case AS and others think they're getting HD output with Freesat apart from BBC HD and ITV HD (more will come - maybe another 2-3 channels). We are so far behind the States and Japan for HD.
Edited by rtj70 on 07/08/2008 at 18:51
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The problem that you have is that the required polarity of the LNB is selected by the voltage sent from the receiver.
Polarity Selection
Vertical 11.5V to 14V
Horizontal 15.5V to 19V
If you try to loop thro the second receiver the LNB will not necessarily receive the correct signal. It may work for some channels where the polarisation is the same - try changing channels on the receiver that is not in use. There maybe other problems with the receivers sensing a 'cable fault' and turning off the (or limiting the) supply current, depending on design.
Hiband selection is achieved thro a superimposed 22kHz tone and this can give you potential conflicts.
With some receivers you can configure the ouput options, but I would avoid this type of configuration unless you fully understand what you are doing. Get a multi output LNB and re- cable.
pmh
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Sky Technical told me that interlinking the FreeBox to the Sky Box, with a cable won't do it - and they seem to be right! The answer is swap the cable over when I feel the need and later get a dual LNB installed to get the signal, albeit from the same sat, to the two different boxes. Thanks for the input.
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For the benefit of anybody who may want to connect two digiital sat receivers (Sky + Freesat in my case) to one dish/Lnb, without buying a dual LNB the answer is to buy a "Two Way Satellite Splitter" from Maplin - Ref BM90X @ £9.99. This enables the required connection; one of the 2 devices has to be ON all the time, not standby, to provide the power to the LNB. Swapping between devices is then achieved by using t sockethe TV remote to select the appropriate input. It is working well for me and was a lot cheaper than buying and fitting a new LNB plus drilling another hole in the wall for the lead. A result!
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I have an early Sky+ box and an all channels subscription.
It will not now pick up some of the channels it used so.
Those effected are some of the shopping channels, which I'm not too bothered about, and some of what I would call the fringy film channels.
These include Movies4Men, Movies24 and Zone, I like some of the American TV movie-type stuff on them.
Other movie channels, sports and BBC, ITV, dlocumentaries, news, etc, still work OK.
Any ideas?
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SFAIK you are not paying Sky a sub for the shopping channels or the 'B' movie channels - they are free. Sounds more like a signal problem than Sky Card/ sub problem but, as ever, I am ready to be told different! How does the problem manifest itself? Are the programmes in the grid but you can't select and view them? Normally, if you select a subscription channel without a sub you get a message saying Ring 0870????? To view this subcription channel. What do you see?
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 07/08/2008 at 20:40
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AS,
As you say, it must be some sort of signal/equipment problem as the channels are bundled with my subscription.
And I used to be able to get them - nothing's changed my end.
They appear on the grid as normal and if I select one I usually get the on screen message: For your information: no satellite signal is being received.
Some of the shopping ones pixellate dreadfully and the sound comes through like a dodgy mobile phone call.
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Ifithelps - let me help! I am NO expert but if you are getting messages saying No Sat Sig, other than in a rainstorm, it may be that your dish has moved out of alignment or perhaps your LNB is near death! Try this. While watching any Sky channel press the green Services button on the remote, scroll down to signal test and press OK and you should get a 5 box grid, the top 2 of which are signal Strength and Quality These are grey bars which read from the left and should be at least 2/3rds of the way across the box. If they are OK then so is your signal and I am out of ideas.(This is from memory - I am not watching Skt tight now) If the signal is weak I'd go for alignment or a ropey LNB. Can you hitch your box up to someone elses dish to compare signals?
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AS,
I will try the signal strength test when I get back in front of the box in a few days' time.
Don't seem to watch so much telly these days which is why I've not tried too hard to sought this out.
And the thought of calling Sky is enough to put me off watching television altogether.
But it would be nice to have their stupid box working as it should.
Thanks,
IIH
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I agree with previous posters, this looks like a signal reception problem, not a card problem. The satellite signals are broadcast across a number of RF frquencies, with a number of channels on each frequency. I haven't had chance to check, but I suspect the named channels are on one freuency, or at one end of the band. Most likely culprits are slight dish misaligment, or as I've had in the past, tree foliage partially obscuring the dish.
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My gob was totally smacked I have to say! I was watching with my newly acquired HD TV box and the whole thing was just amazing.
As a sour aside I wasn't too impressed to read about a UK boxer who having had £150K of public funding over two years, turned out to be too fat to fight and came back home! Too many pies perhaps!
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Thats a bit unfair AS-
The lad was reckoned to have a good chance of a medal. Imagine how you would feel if you had trained for years and are then pulled out at the last minute.
My understanding was that he was devastated when his coach reckoned it would be unsafe for him to lose the 3lbs required quickly to hit his weight category.
Seems to me therefore he was picked for the wrong weight category so whose faulyt is that?
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It was wholly fair.
Its not like he didn't know six months ago:
1. What he weighed
2. What he needed to weigh
3. The date that he needed to hit the target on
It's a stupid idiotic error, he'd thought he'd already won it and took his eye off the ball.
Bit like the snowboarder at the winter olympics who thought she'd won, showed off and fell.
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Very unfair on a lad who has trained for this moment for years. If he had been on drugs I could understand it .
IMO he was picked for the wrong weight category.
However as I understand it he only had to lose 3 lbs .... and why were the boxing squad management and trainers not aware of his percived weight problem before they took him all the way to Beijing.
Some starvation, senna pods and sessions in the sauna and he could have shifted the 3lb in no time - how do you think jockeys do it?
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Jockeys can ride when they are a bit knackered because the horse does the real work. Senna pods and saunas would really take the edge off a boxer close to fight time, surely?
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I am kind of anti boxing, actually anti any sport that has the objective of inflicting pain/damage. Some sports have an element of danger such as motor sports though without inflicting pain / hurt being an objective of the sport.
Though I do feel sorry for the guy, his nutritionist has said that he was not allowed to work with him in Macau and reckons that if he had he would have made the weight.
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Actually I think the pies comment was a cheap shot and not in the olympic spirit - sorry; the last thing the lad has been doing is filling his face! However I do stick with the view that, for a sum of money that could have done a lot of real good in this country, we can be disappointed with the outcome. He knew what had to be done and by when and didn't make it.
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What Olympic Opening Ceremony?
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What Olympic Opening Ceremony?
The one which opened at 08:08:08:08:08:08 Chinese time.
I agree with AS. It is a sign of the future development potential of China. The world has seen nothing yet. I guess the West will be overtaken by China in economy and technology within 10 years.
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The one which opened at 08:08:08:08:08:08 Chinese time.
Yes - they are so highly developed . . . . it was superstition that caused them to pick this time to start the ceremony. Not a good sign for a global power, but suppose they can't be any worse than the US under Bush.
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Well you can't begrudge them a little bit of a right to superstition. Better that than the superstition which led to Bush and Blair getting messages from their belief in the greatest super-being who told them to go to war in Iraq.
Edited by Pugugly on 08/08/2008 at 17:30
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Well NASA through this superstition nonsense out years ago all went well until Apollo 13 took off at 13.13 hrs on that fateful day....
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superstition. Not a good sign for a global power
The people who get to run global powers are not generally superstitious types. But they do understand the power of superstition with their millions or billions of subjects, who have to be jollied along and kept voluntarily in line... so much less tiring and expensive than the other thing, and so much better for long-term stability too.
China has emerged from several decades of brutal reform and sometimes very destructive ideological and political confusion with its intelligence at least intact. A lot of people seem unimpressed by the fact that it embodies the world's oldest real civilization by far.
No one, least of all the mighty, is beyond reasoned criticism. But I can't help seeing a lot of the western guff about Tibet, human rights, pollution, resource imperialism and so on as shrill, self-righteous humbug, and often no more than damn cheek. More sour grapes and economic anxiety than anything else.
We in the West aren't all bad either, but some of us are or have been pretty bad and the rest of us aren't beyond criticism by any stretch of the imagination.
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Glued to the screen for almost a minute. Will be trying to avoid any more contact for (how many?) weeks.
The oriental cheerleaders were responsible for the delay in switching off.
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I hope it's on the news later on.
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I think you can safely assume that it might make tonight's news!
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