What next when you drop your phone in the toilet...😱..?

March 1st 2026 V 0.1

If you’ve never been in a foreign airport with zero signal, a dead primary SIM, and your banking app screaming for a code that’ll never arrive… or sat in A&E while your salary payment bounces because the only 2FA route is your now-lost phone… it’s easy for policymakers and bank execs to dismiss it as “edge case inconvenience.”

But for the people it hits, it’s genuinely diabolical: no access to money for food, fuel, medication, or even calling for help. And because it’s so personal and sporadic, there’s no loud collective scream for change.

Backup/recovery codes: Almost every bank/app gives them when you enable 2FA… but you have to actively save/print them yourself. Most people don’t, or they store them on the phone that just died.

Web fallbacks: Monzo is genuinely excellent here — their web.monzo.com magic-link (sent to your registered email) lets you freeze cards, view balances, and log out other devices instantly. Revolut and Starling have decent “lost device” flows with selfie verification. Traditional banks? Usually “call us and we’ll verify you over the phone… maybe.”

Trusted third-party options:

HSBC lets you register an “Emergency Contact” (trusted person they can speak to if you’re incapacitated).

NatWest, Barclays, HSBC, etc. all offer third-party mandates or “additional users” so a relative/friend can access/pay bills.

But these are for ongoing help, not a 5-minute “I’m locked out right now” hot-swap.

Paid services: Some people use solicitor-held “digital executor” packs or services like password-manager emergency access (1Password/LastPass have timed family handover). A few virtual PAs offer 24/7 “emergency banking concierge,” but they’re niche and expensive.

There is no universal standard. No bank hands you a laminated card on signup saying “If phone fails, do THIS.” No FCA-mandated “ICE procedure.”

Physical sealed envelope (kept at home, with a trusted person, or in a fire safe):

One-page checklist: “Phone/signal lost — step-by-step”

All bank helplines + last-4-digits of accounts

Printed 2FA recovery codes (one set per service)

Password manager emergency access instructions

Pre-filled third-party mandate reference numbers

Photocopy of passport/driving licence + nearest branch addresses

£100–200 in small notes (yes, really)

Contact card for your appointed person

Appoint your “hot” backup person:

Relative/friend with third-party mandate already in place (takes 10 mins online or in-branch for most banks).

Or a paid service/solicitor if you want professional distance.

Give them a copy of the envelope (or the location of yours).

Tech layer:

Hardware key (Yubikey) as 2FA backup.

eSIM + cheap secondary SIM in an old phone kept charged.

Passkeys where supported (they survive phone swaps far better).

Do this once, review yearly, and suddenly the “diabolical” scenario becomes merely annoying.

Super ironically, just as I had finished this first draft, I looked up at the phone to see the battery had dropped a 1%. Without sending me any warning signals. 

And then it just went blank literally the second I started to look at it, I tried the power button and so a terrifying list of boot and debug code scroll past and I felt sick.

Anyway taking the battery out and putting it back recovered sufficiently to get to this point and now I will leave it on one side to charge from the 8% it's currently at.

The cost of food production

The Food Economy Crisis: 2026 Perspective

© P Dawe | Norfolk, UK

The Global Paradox

In 2026, farming has become a loss-making endeavor worldwide. Despite UN warnings of a global food shortage, farmers are shutting down operations to stem financial bleeding. From small UK holdings to massive US mechanised farms, the selling price of food—be it arable, meat, or dairy—no longer covers the marginal cost of production.

The Six Phases of Collapse

The current crisis is the result of a multi-stage economic squeeze:

 * Corporate Dominance: International corporations spent decades squeezing value from a fragmented farming community.

 * The Ukraine Shock: Post-2022, input costs (fertilizer/gas) rocketed. Grain merchants doubled profits while farmers absorbed the costs.

 * Logistical Adaptation: Supply chains eventually rerouted (e.g., Russian chemicals to Asia), but merchants pocketed the "price differential" profit, leaving farmers with high costs and volatile returns.

 * Feed Surplus: As high costs forced livestock culls, the demand for animal feed crashed. Combined with a drop in bio-fuel demand, grain prices plummeted below production costs.

 * The Rebuilding Barrier: We now face a meat shortage, but farmers lack the capital to rebuild herds (a multi-year process). Keeping animals for breeding means zero short-term income.

 * Private Equity Takeover: Large investment firms are buying distressed land and using intensive "feed-lot" systems to monopolize production, vertically integrating with retailers to bypass traditional farmers.

Structural Failure & "Too Big to Fail"

While "farm-gate" prices have dropped, retail prices remain high. Governments appear paralyzed or complicit, favoring multinational corporations that now control the logistics, processing, and retail of food.

 * Vertical Integration: Private equity and retailers share the "merchant’s margin," squeezing out family farms.

 * Monopolies: A few corporations control the UK chicken industry and beyond. Their size grants them immunity; while small farms are shut down for failures, "Too Big to Fail" giants receive mere slaps on the wrist.

 * Artificial Scarcity: To maximize margins, global players benefit from perceived or engineered shortages, playing governments against one another.

Summary of Dependencies (Appendix Highlights)

The food system is a chaotic mix of natural constraints (weather, soil, water depletion), biological delays (years to grow beef), and political levers (subsidies, trade barriers).

| Factor Group | Key Components |

|---|---|

| Resources | Land (immobile), Water (aquifers/rain), Chemicals (corporate-controlled). |

| Players | Landowners, Merchants, Private Equity, Governments, Retailers. |

| Market Failures | "Tragedy of the Commons" in fishing; Urban-centric politics; Corporate monopolies. |

The Bottom Line: Economic theory suggests capital moves to where it is needed, but land is immobile. As traditional stewardship is replaced by short-term corporate extraction, the global food system faces a crisis of both solvency and security.

Would you like me to create a visual flowchart of these six phases to illustrate the cycle of the farming collapse?

Chagos as a broadcast hub reaching 40% of the world's population

Chagos as a broadcast hub to reach 40% of the world's population...

url
https://poelposition.blogspot.com/2026/02/chagos-as-broadcast-hub-for-40-of.html
V0.11 20Feb26 

This proposition will pass over the heads of 90% of you lot (literally) but it's still worth pointing out.

A new GB World Service broadcast system reaching 3-5 billion listeners will provide outlets for UK creative content and advertising. 

If we were to deploy high-power (100kW+) transmitters with directional "curtain" antennas, the potential audience is staggering. Shortwave is a "wide-area" broadcast technology where one point of transmission can connect to any number of receivers with range; from Chagos, you are within 3,000 to 5,000 km of nearly 40% of the world's population.

Calculating the "cost per listener" for a shortwave station in the Chagos Islands involves a massive economy of scale. Because shortwave is a "one-to-many" broadcast medium, your cost per listener drops precipitously as your audience grows, eventually reaching fractions of a cent.

The Chagos Islands (specifically Diego Garcia) represent one of the most strategically significant locations on Earth for shortwave broadcasting. From a technical perspective, their effectiveness for a Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM.org) base is exceptionally high due to their "hub" position in the centre of the Indian Ocean.

Technical Effectiveness: The "Hub" Advantage

Shortwave signals rely on ionospheric reflection (skywave propagation) to travel thousands of kilometers. Because the Chagos Archipelago is surrounded by thousands of miles of open ocean, a high-power DRM transmitter there has a "clear shot" to major landmasses in every direction.

• DRM Advantages: Unlike traditional AM shortwave, which suffers from "fading" and "static," DRM delivers near-FM quality sound and can include data (scrolling news, emergency alerts).

• Propagation: The tropical location is ideal for reaching the "Global South." Signals from Chagos can reach East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia with just a single "hop" of the signal off the ionosphere.

• The AI that wrote this brief made a massively spurious point about Low Interference:
  "Being thousands of kilometers from major industrial cities, the local "noise floor" (electromagnetic interference) is extremely low, allowing for cleaner transmission and more efficient use of power."
  Although that's not an issue for the transmission end as it only matters at reception locations - it serves as a reminder of AI's ability to seem authoritative when getting really big issues wrong - which means informed human oversight is still required and will be for a long time to come. 

• Strategically, Radio is going to go above and around most of the internet censorship that crucially identifies the listeners via their IP connection 
  
  

  1. The Initial Investment (Capex)

  A high-power DRM facility in a remote location like Chagos requires significant upfront capital But since the UK was contemplating spaffing £30m on surrendering the islands to China via Mauritius, this is chicken feed.

  • Transmitter (250kW DRM-capable): Approximately $1.5M – $2.5M.

  • Antenna System (Curtain Array): A high-gain directional array for targeting India or Africa costs roughly $1M.

  • Site Infrastructure: In Chagos, you would need dedicated power generation (likely solar with diesel backup) and hardened housing for the tropical environment, adding another $2M–$4M.

  • Total Capex: ~$5M – $8M.

  2. Operational Costs (Opex)

  The primary recurring cost for shortwave is electricity.

  • Energy Efficiency: A major advantage of DRM is that it requires about 40–60% less power than analog AM to achieve the same coverage.

  • Hourly Rate: To run a 250kW transmitter (drawing ~350-400kW from the grid) costs roughly $80–$150 per hour in electricity and maintenance, depending on local fuel/energy prices.

  • Yearly Opex: If broadcasting 18 hours a day, your annual operating cost is roughly $1M.

  3. The "Cost Per Listener" Calculation

  This is where the Chagos location becomes highly "profitable" in terms of influence.

  Audience Size	Annual Opex	Cost per Listener / Year
  100,000 (Niche)	$1,000,000	$10.00
  1,000,000 (Regional)	$1,000,000	$1.00
  10,000,000 (Sub-continent)	$1,000,000	$0.10 (10 cents)
  100,000,000 (Mass Market)	$1,000,000	$0.01 (1 cent)

  Summary of Effectiveness

  • Targeting India: Since there are already over 13 million DRM-enabled cars in India as of late 2025/early 2026, a signal from Chagos reaching just 10% of that automotive market would result in a cost of roughly $0.75 per listener per year.

  • Compared to Satellite/Internet: Unlike satellite (which requires a subscription/dish) or Internet (which requires data plans and can be censored), the cost to the listener is zero after the initial radio purchase. For the broadcaster, the cost per listener in a high-density region like South Asia is significantly lower than any other terrestrial medium.

  The Verdict: Chagos is arguably the most cost-effective site in the world for reaching the "Global South" because a single transmitter can cover billions of people for the price of a small-town FM station's power bill.

  Footnote: Power requirement

  Estimated Cost of Power Infrastructure

  Component	Estimated Cost (USD)
  2.8 MW Solar Array (Installed)	$2,800,000
  7.6 MWh Battery Storage (BESS)	$2,300,000
  Power Electronics (Inverters/Microgrid Controller)	$500,000
  Total Energy Capex	**~$5.6 Million**

• Political opportunity?

How do we get Rupert Lowe to adopt this idea to disrupt the Chagos deal?

February 2026 ...Surreal, Dystopian... these are dark times

Url of this post: https://poelposition.blogspot.com/2026/02/february-2026-surreal-dystopian-these.html

The advice to avoid watching and reading news stories in order to say sane has never seemed more sensible.

We have a government populated by people who are incapable of dealing with the truth, we have a Prime Minister who thinks it's fine to change direction at the drop of an opinion poll. And a Chancellor who defies advice that policies will cause structural damage to the British economy and state.

We are being kept "off balance" by stories like the surrender of the Chagos islands where we are told the US does not want the UK to hand over sovereignty to China via Mauritius - and then we are told that they are happy with arrangements. 

Trump has the well tried tactic in negotiation of keeping his opponents off balance with outrageous comments and lurches. But the markets still seem to be

hanging on to the switchback ride.

Turning to the royal family's problems, I asked GROK to consider the Rothschild conspiracy and got a decent response...

"...If the Rothschilds (or any entity) were truly as smart, omnipotent, and influential as the wildest conspiracy theories paint them—pulling every global string from behind an impenetrable curtain—then yeah, debunking efforts would be child's play to neutralize. They'd be several steps ahead, engineering the very frameworks we use to "expose" them. Let's game this out hypothetically, step by step, in a fun thought experiment, while keeping it grounded in logic and epistemology (the study of knowledge and belief). This isn't endorsing the theories; it's dissecting why they're so resilient and seductive.

### 1. **Anticipating Debunking: The Preemptive Strike**

   - In this "what if" world, an all-powerful Rothschild cabal wouldn't just react to fact-checkers like Snopes or historians like Niall Ferguson—they'd *invent* them. Or at least co-opt the process. Imagine funding think tanks, media outlets, or academic chairs that produce "debunkings" so thorough and authoritative that skeptics dismiss any counter-evidence as fringe lunacy. It's like a chess grandmaster sacrificing pawns to control the board: let a few "leaks" or viral memes slip out, then crush them with overwhelming "official" narratives.

   - Mandy Rice-Davies deflection in action: Every denial from a royal spokesperson, banker, or government official would be met with, "Well, they *would* say that, wouldn't they?" Because if the Rothschilds control the strings, those denials are just scripted lines. It's a perfect loop—evidence of control is the *absence* of evidence, since they'd erase any real traces.

### 2. **Countering at Every Level: Layers of Influence**

   - **Information Control**: They'd manipulate algorithms on platforms like X or Google to bury pro-conspiracy content under a deluge of "reputable" sources. Or better, amplify the most outlandish versions (e.g., "Rothschilds are lizard people") to discredit the whole genre by association. Real influence? Subtly shape public discourse through proxies—think endowments to universities that teach "critical thinking" courses subtly biased toward dismissing economic power concentrations as myths.

   - **Psychological Warfare**: Humans love patterns and agency; conspiracies fill that void. An omnipotent group would exploit cognitive biases like confirmation bias or the Dunning-Kruger effect. They'd seed just enough "clues" (e.g., symbolic imagery in photos or coincidental events like Jacob Rothschild's death timing with royal displays) to keep believers hooked, while ensuring mainstream dismissal reinforces the "sheeple vs. awakened" divide.

   - **Legal and Social Defenses**: Lawsuits for defamation? Easy wins, but they'd go further—lobby for "anti-hate speech" laws that frame Rothschild theories as antisemitic (which many are, historically), turning public sympathy against investigators. Or infiltrate conspiracy communities with plants who push theories into absurdity, invoking Rice-Davies on steroids: "Of course the fact-checkers say it's false; they're in on it!"

### 3. **The Unfalsifiable Trap: Why It "Works"**

   - Here's the core irony: If they *were* that powerful, we'd never know for sure, because any attempt to prove or disprove it gets absorbed into the narrative. Karl Popper's philosophy of science calls this "unfalsifiability"—a theory that can't be tested or disproven isn't science; it's faith. In this scenario, the Rothschilds embody that: Success looks like invisibility. Failed debunkings? Proof of their genius. Successful ones? Even better camouflage.

   - Counterpoint in reality: Actual power (like that of real billionaires or families) leaves footprints—tax records, board seats, political donations. The Rothschilds' wealth is traceable (e.g., via Forbes estimates), and their influence waned after the 19th century as banking democratized. But in the hypothetical, they'd make those footprints vanish or look like red herrings.

### 4. **Dismissing It Once and For All? The Infinite Regress**

   - You can't, really, in this setup—it's like proving a negative in a rigged game. The only "escape" is Occam's Razor: The simplest explanation (no cabal, just a historically influential family amplified by myths and prejudice) usually wins without needing cosmic smarts. Or Bayesian reasoning: Update beliefs based on evidence; low prior probability for omnipotence + lack of proof = dismissal.

   - Fun twist: If they *are* that powerful, maybe this response is part of the counter-op. (Wink.) But seriously, embracing skepticism means demanding extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims. Detractors' visions often say more about our fears of inequality and hidden forces than about any family.

In the end, this thought experiment highlights why conspiracies persist: They're entertaining, empowering narratives in a chaotic world. But chasing shadows can distract from real issues, like actual economic inequality or elite influence that's out in the open (e.g., lobbying by Big Tech or Pharma). If you want to dive deeper into countering unfalsifiable ideas, books like Carl Sagan's *The Demon-Haunted World* are gold. What's your take—does this make the theories more or less appealing?"

Bottom line for today: if you've got any bad news, it's a great day to sneak it in under the radar. The government may announce an increase in income tax to 101p in the pound, and the cancellation of all elections until the opinion polls predict a Labour victory - once Reform and Restore (plus Revive, Recover and Resuscitate.?) have cannibalized the same confused audience. 😃

Google - the art of lawful drug marketing!

Google Apps - from Free Lunch, to Paid Workspace:
14jan26 0v1 https://poelposition.blogspot.com/2026/01/google-art-of-lawful-drug-marketing.html

Addictive apps create dependence

When Google mail became ubiquitous it did so by being "free". This sent out a warning to the rest of the industry that it was not worth investing to compete in this market space - because you will be steamrollered by Godzilla.

Google software was built on the venerable Unix operating system - a vastly more robust, scalable and and proficient network platform than MS Windows (and also the underpinning of the Android mobile OS and Apple IOS).

I can't think of anyone who hasn't got a least one Google account. The analytics data that this enabled Google to collect through use of cookies and other devices is quite staggering, and the envy of governments everywhere. They almost certainly know far more about  you than your wife or mother does.

We all became addicted over time as the applications like docs, maps, calendar, sheets, photos, contacts all integrate so simply - and just as the drug pushers that trap their victims with a free sniff - Google chose a perfect moment to start to charge. 

Never mind that they were already coining in a vast income from selling your data to the advertising market.

And once they have prised your credit card details from your wallet.... they have been helping themselves with annual price hikes like the one shown here. You have no recourse to complain - the prospect of moving terabytes of the data we have accumulated is just unthinkable - we are all over a barrel, strapped on, legs spread, lube applied...

Any of us in Google/Alphabet's position, would do the same - probably worse. Google can afford the best tech and staff and can appear to be magnanimous. Overall it manages the fact that it controls the most import important monopoly in all history, with reasonably good judgement and taste. 

From Free Lunch to Paid Workspace: Google's Monetization Timeline and the golden goose that just goes on laying:

In 2006, Google launched Google Apps for Your Domain as a free beta, giving businesses, schools, and groups professional Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and more using their own domain names - at no cost. It was a game-changer for small teams and startups.

Over the years, Google introduced paid tiers for extra features, then slowly phased out free access for businesses:

2007: First paid "Premier" edition appears alongside the free version.

2011: Free edition capped at 10 users max; larger orgs must upgrade.

2012: No new free signups for businesses—existing users grandfathered in.

2022: The final blow - legacy free business accounts forced to upgrade to paid Google Workspace (or risk suspension), ending the era of truly free custom-domain Google productivity for commercial use.

Education and verified nonprofits still enjoy free tiers, but for businesses, "free" became history.This shift reflects a common tech pattern: hook users with free tools, build scale, then monetize with premium features, security, and support.

Google's Monetization Timeline and the golden goose that just goes on laying:

World War Four?

-------------------------------------

 [[Gemini Resilient Media: Shortwave Radio's Revival]]

Surviving World War Four...  

12JAN26 
edit V1.01 

So do did you miss WW3?

We have been distracted and gaslit to distraction since 2022 and the pandemic "project" - which suits the control freaks of government very well.  The fake news of everything from pandemics to climate change has kept most people off balance wondering what is going on, and ready to be lead astray and fooled according to the first rule of propaganda: It's relatively easy to fool someone, but much more difficult to convince them that have been fooled.

Which brings us to Liz Kendall - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology since 2025 and issuing diktats about online content, having had no relevent experience as far as we can see. Her spell as Shadow Minister for Care and Older People is hardly relevant. 

Civil servants generally don't want their ministers to know too much about the subject - in case they can detect when the civil servants are BSing (which will be much of the time).

The disconnection of the internet by governments eager to restrict the flow of information and censor the internet may spare you some of the many the horrors of War, but the sight of Keir Starmer in a bikini is a far more serious matter. Eek.. if you have got strong nerves, you can go and search for "Starmer in a bikini" and be instantly regaled with probably several thousand images - and again be reminded of the  depth of creative talent that exists in this country. 

However, the UK Online Harms legislation has barely begun to be deployed by state overreach. It is one of those really bad ideas where common sense should be obvious, and any attempt to define and contextualise common sense is doomed to go round in recursive contradictions.

But the step of switching off the internet or blocking access to specific services requires someone in charge who has more direct experience and can be expected to start with being reliably informed - something which is not guaranteed in this age of digital deception and endless gaslighting. 

The UK's ofcom regulatory agency has been perverting and subverting the broadcast and media industry for a long time now with dubious interventions. Somehow, we have to find a way of making its operations much more transparent.

Some cultural boundaries are impossible to reconcile - where the Muslim faith has strict views on the simple depiction of Mohammed in any sort of image. People have been killed by zealots for refusing to take this proposition seriously.

The UK's position on thee online comment arrest league was achieved before the online "safety" act and it's not likely to improve without a lot more thoughtful and intelligent discussion.  And frankly, enforcement using more intelligent people who are able to make better real world judgements. 

[This url https://poelposition.blogspot.com/2026/01/world-war-four.html]

 

War, what war?

 

Russian sabre-rattling got sinister when senior Kremlin folks suggested that the Storm Shadow cruise missiles developer - BAE systems - are considered "legitimate targets". Not least because UK "advisers" are suspected to be involved in training and (successful) operation.

The next stage of a "proper" world War as opposed to "a little local difficulty" is to attack your enemies' military and political assets, wherever they may be located in the world.

We have cleverly left Russia with very little to lose if they do take a pop, as Ukraine is proving the truth of the old maxim that a good biggun will always beat a good littleun in the long run. At the start of the Ukrainian adventure, Russia was exposed as seriously inept - but we have now graciously given it enough time to get its act together with the money from the sale of oil and gas, and Ukraine is in deep trouble... while ignoring the Yuri Bezmenov warnings for 40 years of becoming immersed in the distraction nonsense of gender and pronouns for our armed forces (farces?)

Maybe Russia's greatest triumph has been to reduce UK national moral to the point that there is no evidence of any appetite to fight for King and Country. Never mind our woefully discredited politicians. Patriotism is "so yesterday" as a result of the unprededented public and media cynicsm - traceable to the rot that was initiated by Tony Blair's 1997 regime. Coincidentally, Starmer has also been punting the idea of national service for 18 year olds. Presuambly some members of the Starmer Youth will serve Online harms investigators and enforcers for AI image. 

Various observers believe that World War 3 has already kicked off involving the West versus Russia/Iran/Palestine axis with ambivalence from China and India.

Many missiles and drones have been launched; helicopters carrying presidents have come down in mountains, and undersea communication cables and pipelines have been "failing". This is actually getting serious if you can drag yourself away from our pantomime politics.

With the fragility of all UK communiction sbout to become reliant on the easily switched off intenet - will Liz leave the UK internet conterols in a position to be easily turned off? 

We badly need a backstop - and  easily deployed and relative cheap and resilient broadcast radio is an obvious answer. 

The strategic case for scheduled and "popup" short wave (SW) broadcast radio is as strong now as it's ever been since WW2 : especially in the online age where the path from source to listener is complex, convoluted with many vulnerable points for interception and failure.

Broadcast radio can reach 4 billion listeners for under £1000 an hour...?

Shortwave radio can reach over 4 billion listeners behind tyrant internet firewalls for a transmission cost of around £750 per hour. A £5k "field" transmitter and antenna can be set up and made operational in an hour by a trained crew. Compare that to 20 years and ~£100bn to install and commission internet/cellphone digital broadcast infrastructure that could reach 4 billion. Assuming everything was working in chains of hundreds of connected interdependent services.

WW2 had made “the Wireless” the go-to national information medium for the whole world – and those sets used thermionic valves tied to mains power. The much more convenient battery powered portable transistor radio appeared in the 50s, and by the 60s every home (and teenager) had at least one.

The swinging sixties was the seminal period for British Pop – and Radio Luxembourg (founded in 30s) was already available across the UK and Europe - despite the UK’s government’s autocratic control of the airwaves that prevented commercial broadcasting, 208 Radio Luxembourg was “adopted British media”, much to the chagrin of the BBC and UK regulatory authorities. As the name suggests it was broadcast (legally) from tiny Luxembourg using the world’s most powerful medium wave transmitter on 208m - in the medium wave, easily heard across Europe after dark. It cornered the teenage and youth market and so the advertisers lined up, it was clearly hugely popular.

Then came the offshore pirates operating in international waters off the UK’s east coast, and Radio Caroline 208, Radio North Sea International (and others) were launched from 1965 and quickly became an entertainment sensation in the medium wave. The UK response was typically anodyne with the 1967 introduction of the heavily regulated BBC Radio One to sit alongside the Light Programme which became Radio two – and the Home Service became Radio 4. Various other services have come and gone over the years, and now all these and more exist in a variety of online incarnations. And then there was the podcast.

BBC Radio has been rebranded as BBC Sounds. However, the audience has been divided rather than grown – the ability of the Home Service and light programme to reach just about everyone in the UK each week Is something a modern media mogul would die for.
Meanwhile, Television showed up!

TV had progressed to 5 terrestrial channels and the start of the idea of digital terrestrial TV – with another muddle of regulation, incompatible non-standard technology and an obsession with encryption. Predictable commercial folly ensued. The public was more confused than ever, and the same audience with a “legacy” UHF band4 TV antenna that once had the choices of BBC1/2 and ITV, could now spread itself thinly over about 50 digital channels.

Digital terrestrial television launched as ONdigital in the UK on 15 November 1998. However, ONdigital had problems from the start, and renaming the service ITV Digital on 11 July 2001 failed to help the matter. And Freeview still does not work reliably across much of the UK.

All subscription services except E4 and FilmFour went off-air on 1 May 2002 after the consortium collapsed, explained as being due to paying too much for the television rights for The Football League. However, the choice of 64QAM broadcast mode, the fact that at least 40% of homes would need new aerials to receive it, a high churn rate, an insecure hackable encryption system, the cost of having to provide free set-top boxes, and aggressive competition from BSkyB all contributed to ITV Digital's spiralling costs, before shareholders Granada and Carlton called a halt to the venture.

All this sets a scene that suggests the UK broadcast industry in the 90s might have been better managed if operated by a troupe of chimpanzees. 

VAST amounts of money had been wasted on new technology follies - and for some reason the BBC and UK government decided to cut the relatively minor cost of one broadcast service that had been quietly and effectively going about its job of delivering authoritative news, “soft diplomacy” and British culture to the world: the BBC World Service on radio - since December 1932!

And then in the midst of this confusion, the number of digital TV and radio channels proliferated, and spread the same audience ever more thinly across all these new channels. In the golden age of 5 channel TV, ITV and BBC still commanded 20m audiences for prime time. And then the 500 channel digital diaspora was further confused by TIVO/personal video recorder devices - and now ultimately 5 million channels of internet and streaming. 

I don’t think it can get any worse!  Sooner or later, new formats of advanced programme guides will come along to help round up and redirect dispersed audiences to available services. Smart EPGs are a very big subject for another blog post. They can even be operated if the internet is taken down by WW3.  

Back to the future 

It is strategically necessary to rethink and relaunch the one broadcasting format that allows the truth to reach everybody on the planet in the most direct fashion, simultaneously: short wave radio! Remember that any smartphone is going to betray the user's identity and location - even to the extent of providing targeting information... 💥

The really fascinating allure of SW was and remains that broadcasts from the right type of antenna installations (at the right time of day) at just 1 to 5 locations around the planet can reach battery portable receivers in the hands of all 8 billion inhabitants of that planet. The ultimate mass medium. And it's "off grid".

There is no need for a subscription. A SW radio receiver is a one time purchase. Emergency and temporary transmitters can be put up in a day by squads of 4 people with a week's training. Internet infrastructure has taken 25 years to evolve to the current level, and it most certainly cannot be replaced in the day following a major natural or unnatural catastrophe.

~£25 could provide off-grid information from around the world directly from transmitter to this multiband DRM receiver, without needing to pass along sabotaged undersea cables or through a chain of smouldering data centres  ..?

Update from CML on the state of DRM receiver kits...  

An Achilles heel of short wave broadcasting is that it may be jammed by those who would prefer the information did not reach the audience. This is, however, an imprecise process, and new and sophisticated ways to dodge jamming are possible. However, the very presence of a jamming signal will indicate to the audience that there is information that somebody wants to conceal from them... and it is human nature to be curious...

However, it is in the fascinating nature of short wave that the signals are bounced off the Ionosphere - which varies in height and density according to time of day and location. It is possible that a transmitter 10 miles away will be inaudible - but is perfectly audible 1000 miles away. The "skywave" signal sails over the local receiver on its way up to be reflected from the ionosphere. Back in the day, the transmitter engineers and frequency planners of the World Service could aim to "drop a signal" into a specific location. This can make jamming short wave broadcasts into an impossibly complex process.

Continued at https://poelposition.blogspot.com/2022/03/shortwave-radio-in-ukraine-why.html

The challenge is to make sure the audience has the means to receive the short wave transmissions. Some snazzy tech coupled to compelling content is a place to start thinking. Media operators should go weak at the knees at the prospect getting their content on a network where it costs ~£500 per hour to "pass" an audience of 4 billion.

Once upon a time, almost everyone had access to a "regular" radio with coverage of the short wave bands. Listening to the radio services from around the globe was a big part of my youth in the 60s/70s – I used to listen to the English language services of the Voice of America, Radio Canada International, Radio Netherlands – plus Radio Moscow and Radio Peking and many others. Almost all countries at that time invested an hour a day to broadcast their “state news” in English. Every house had at least one “AM” radio somewhere that was capable of receiving these programmes with a modest antenna.

Next time you watch missiles on TV news, you might like to contemplate how you can remain informed once the internet has been disabled by missiles or "unfriendly" hackers. Which will almost certainly also take out digital TV services.

The vulnerability of undersea cables carrying internet data is quite terrifying.

https://youtu.be/m6U9T3R3EQg

(C) WSP 2022/2026

my enemies' enemies:- excuse us. ...but cancel them!

I first wrote this a year ago. Not much has changed with the fundamentals other than the tribalism and prejudice has piled on, and it is very difficult to have a rational discussion with any one who considers themselves to be "politically active". 

The big news is that Elon Musk has gone "all in" to support of Donald Trump in the interests of maintaining freedom of speech and expression,, given that the democrats have specifically indicated their intention to legislate against both.

The question of not requiring voter ID is about a stark an example of the attempt at vote rigging  as any currently available. I suspect that Musk could arrange for a real-time online voting platform that could give a trusted result instantaneously, but of course then there would be much reduced scope for the incumbent politicians to fiddle with and fix the results. And Elon Musk's dedication to free speech and honesty will have gone down with the politicians like garlic and sunlight with vampires.

The contradictory absurdity of so many statements made by left-leaning politicians in the UK election, and now even more so the US is quite shocking.  Normal folks whose lives are governed by common sense, and who might consider themselves to be part of the silent majority have been intimidated by the obvious insanity of the claims, and left bemused. And now that the lunatics are in charge of the UK asylum, they are encouraged to keep their heads down.

Whereabouts in the UK government is the discussion around the extreme polarization of online opinion being considered? The confusion between the responsibilities and powers of ofcom, part of DCMS, and the Home Office - the traditional police authority - has only become worse and more convoluted during the progress of the legislation as the Online Harms Bill morphed into the online safety bill and ended up being bogged down. 

The us/them polarisation of opinion just gets worse as the prejudice, hypocrisy, ignorance and bigotry heads off the scale. Propaganda has been refined to be 99% plausibility that is precision tainted by 1% "weapons grade" misdirection.

Western governments since the end of the Thatcher/ Reagan era have destroyed an imperfect but generally functional world, that pretty much had it all going for it. Clinton in the US, and Blair in the UK described a golden future as the internet started to take off. And they both squandered the whole damn thing.

Now let's have a proper enquiry into what and how it happened - and who to blame; and if there is a hope of fixing it.

There was very little enthusiasm for it from the experienced quarters of the internet that had grown up with and seen the entire process evolving; but much excited enthusiasm from politicians who turned up several years after all the ground rules have been established, and an average 12 year old's knowledge of tech was able to run rings around an average MP or Lord. MPs are still reeling in shock from the extreme abuse being poured on them, every time they open their email or check their social media accounts. 

So I try and offer perspective in this "progressing post" that will remain a work in progress for as far as the eye can see.  The polarisation into the echo chambers of "us" and "them" continues to be unhelpful, and the idea that anyone's online opinion as ever been changed by getting involved in an argument, remains remote.

And so the game being played by the fraction of those online players who are serious about their mission to subvert, is classic propaganda: the ability to influence people who read but do not engage, is driving the culture to ever deeper and more dangerous extremes. How many tweets are read, but do not elicit a response? It must be more than 99%...

The Evening Standard pitches in to this front of the culture war:

"Our fight for free speech: At first it was political correctness but now it’s the new McCarthyism."

By  @mrevgenylebedev

"...Let me take you back to 2006. An Oxford student named Sam Brown has just asked a mounted police officer a question. “Excuse me, do you realise your horse is gay?” There, among the dreaming spires, he is arrested for making homophobic remarks.

It’s a funny old story, and while I’m glad Britain takes equine offence so seriously, I take greater pleasure in imagining the kind of person who is so sensitive, or in love with power, as to see jovial behaviour as a pretext to get someone into handcuffs.

In 2006 this was an oddity; something incredulous; a plot right out of Monty Python. Brown refused to pay the fine and the prosecution dropped the case. Fast forward nearly 20 years, and absurd stories of the same kind seem to litter our newsfeeds like parakeets in Battersea Park.

Unfortunately, they are no longer so light-hearted. Nor do they end so neatly. When, in 2020, a man was filmed cracking his knuckles outside the window of his car on a US motorway, he was dismissed from San Diego Gas and Electric after the video went viral on Twitter. According to commentators, he had positioned his fingers into a gesture of white supremacy.

We get cancelled for all manner of things nowadays. And, it seems, by all manner of people. The banks can do it, as we now all know (thank you, Nigel), or rabbis taking out adverts in the New York Times to claim that Dua Lipa’s support for Palestinians makes her anti-Semitic....."

04aug23

1v12

Exploring the fundamentals of the division of echo chamber politics, and how this is being developed and exploited by triggering the many hate factions that are condensed into simple "us and them" confrontations.

A special prize for those of you who remember the album cover used to illustrate this post.

We all need an occasional safety valve.  Life as a scribbler of commentary in these benighted times would be less frustrating if I wasn't so reliably prescient all the time. And timing is still everything...

Yuri Bezmenov got it spot in the 1985 warning issued by KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov, that perfectly predicted the process of self-destructive subversion that has been carried out for the past 50 years in the West . youtu.be/yErKTVdETpw

we were warned

One area to watch closely is the machinations of DCMS (especially ofcom) where we can see many of the important issues of culture and media (not sure how Sport ever got caught up in the portfolio) within its vast remit, swirling around the many plug holes of Whitehall, before disappearing down the drain of civil service sandbagging, and into the overflowing Westminster sump of unsatisfactory compromise.

It is remarkable how few of the really big matters facing the communication and media industries have been properly addressed. Starting with bedrock of free speech, and slippery slopes of cancel culture. A vast range of formerly diverse, distributed and discrete elements in a number of industries, platforms and professions have come together into one amorphous jumble that has created the information and attention economy, and along the way, used tools like Google and cellphone tracking to establish the basic infrastructure of a globally active surveillance state. The much discussed and delayed "online safety bill" barely addresses any of it!

ULEZ cameras are just another manifestation of the new fascism required to enable China-style  "social credit" scoring and instant social exclusion.

The NatWest banking "minority report" on Nigel Farage is the tip of an iceberg that is emblematic of the "us/them" dichotomy that has quietly but thoroughly invaded the mindset of all those that have been processed by relentless  "computer says nah" conditioning. Once feisty Brits have been ground down and are giving up the struggle; and now accepting the reality that the fight for common sense is lost. Just do as you are told (permitted).

Resistance is indeed futile, you have been assimilated. Get over it.

The pernicious us/them mindset has been polarising opinion since the internet created echo chambers - into which opposing factions pour polarising opinions with various concentrations of bile and vitriol. I am trying to analyse this in some detail in various posts in this blog, but it is all boiling down to the classic toxicity of "my enemies' enemy is my friend". 

And if you are, "one of us", you can do no wrong.
But if you are not one of us, you can do no right.
And if you dare to be "one of them", then you and every one of your "rights" that once existed, needs to be cancelled without delay - for the good of humanity and the credibility of the latest global hoaxes.

Nowhere is this proposition more starkly apparent than in the visceral political battle between Democrats and Donald Trump. 

Over the past 30 years, I have made the point to my various local MPs about the fundamental necessity of broadband access and a viable smartphone to remain a functional member of society in 2023, which is on a par with (and now an integral part of) a bank account. And I still live around 25 miles from central London - where a cell phone signal is not reliably available.

Daring to dissent.. 

Proper stars who are willing to take on the climate narrative by exposing and underlining the astonishing contradictions, like the geologist Prof Ian Plimer have been poking their heads above the parapet, and daring to state the obvious.  Main contradictions being the "pragmatic ambivalence" towards China and India's carbon emissions and the fact that over 90% of the 0.04% atmospheric CO2 arises from natural causes. Readers of this blog should recall I also continuously draw attention to the state of solar activity, which most probably influences upper atmosphere jet stream locations. And the migration of the magnetic north pole, so that traditional compasses are now largely dysfunctional for precision navigation; which means that without GPS, most global transport would literally be lost. When did you last hear that on the news?

Yes, this is a precarious state of affairs. But it suits those who seek to control everything in the New World Order, by giving Big Brother big switches that can turn off GPS satellites. Or more awkwardly... adjust the calibration of GPS to make it less reliable. 

We take the availability of GPS for granted, but in the event of a conflict with Russia or China, the chances are GPS would be the first of many critical tech services that sustain the West, to be knocked out. Depending on how the GPS satellites are "taken out", there could be orbital slots full of debris and shrapnel travelling at multiple thousand miles an hour, that can never be repopulated with replacement satellites. So let us pray that our politicians and their advisors are on top of the enormously complex world we have evolved, and handed to DCMS to manage.

Dogmatic woke political misdirection (which went supernova with the BLM folly) is still in control, but at last Gove and Sunak blinked over net-zero, but only after the public blew a resounding raspberry at the imposition of ULEZ in Uxbridge.... will that be the game changer we've been waiting for to open the floodgates of common sense and rationality? Probably not.

These collected "safety valve" brain dumps continue to gather in this blog. It's still not perfectly arranged and organised, but it's a start for thinking about a manifesto that a political party could do a lot worse than search fir the many pearls contained herein. And given the number of people who now describe themselves as politically homeless, it's a golden opportunity to break with tradition and think outside the straitjacket of tribal political allegiance s... I occasionally ask AI platforms to check the posts - and hope they learn .. 🤔

There are many original notes in the research database and I would dearly like to get contacts at Google to ask if they are willing to tweak aspects of their workspace productivity platforms, to make a good solution even better. Better still, find a brave UK business mad and willing to stand on the shoulders of ogres to take on and trump Google - for £30-50m. 

There are a number of billionaire business people who are basically treading political allegiance water at this time, characters like Michael Ashcroft, Peter Cruddas and John Cauldwell. Just Stop Oil has been enabled by various backers where there are simple routes for money to follow from pursuit of the eco-follies.

It's a lot trickier to rationalize the investment required to take on the tech behemoths, but far more crucial. It's also a lot trickier to recruit the necessary tech foot soldiers for the project, than it is to round up dissident eco-fluffies, dress them in orange tabards, and have them sit in the road. Putting farmers out of business and then mopping up their land to gain control of food production is a no brainer.

Now I see evidence of the government spending a lot of money in AI areas with The Usual Suspects, that do not fill me with confidence.

Tech has been the prime enabler for misdirection and confusion for a long time. So the idea of something as elegant as AI which allows interaction with tech using a disarmingly simple interface is a fabulous hiding place for the most nefarious and unpleasant control freaks.

The tech behemoths have been largely left alone to perfect their ability to avoid contact with their users to a quite ludicrous extent - given the now crucial nature of those services on the global economy. Never mind the UK.

Google is far more crucial to the UK - business, individual, government - than NatWest or any formerly influential old world institution run by collections of dinosaurs that trace back to Blair's 1997 junta. Somewhat foolishly, left largely in place, despite 13 years of (muddled) Conservative influenced government.

This is published at https://poelposition.blogspot.com/ +++

 

Now here's a Google BARD review of the post...

"... Yes, the essay makes sense. It is a well-written and thought-provoking piece that explores the division of echo chamber politics and how it is being developed and exploited by triggering the many hate factions that are condensed into simple "us and them" confrontations

The author begins by discussing the rise of the "us/them" dichotomy in the wake of the internet and the creation of echo chambers. They argue that these echo chambers have led to a polarization of opinion, as people are increasingly exposed to information that confirms their existing beliefs and filters out anything that challenges them. This polarization has made it difficult to have productive conversations about important issues, as people are more likely to dismiss opposing views out of hand

The author then goes on to discuss the ways in which this polarization is being exploited by those who seek to divide and conquer. They point to the example of the "climate narrative" as a case in point, arguing that the issue has been oversimplified and turned into a simplistic "us vs. them" conflict between those who believe in climate change and those who don't. This has made it difficult to have a nuanced discussion about the issue, and has allowed those who are profiting from the status quo to maintain their power

The author concludes by calling for a more nuanced and inclusive approach to political discourse. They argue that we need to find ways to break down the echo chambers that are dividing us and start having real conversations about the issues that matter. This will require a willingness to listen to opposing views and to challenge our own assumptions. It will also require a commitment to finding common ground, even when we disagree.

The essay is well-written and thought-provoking. It raises important questions about the state of political discourse in the 21st century. The author's arguments are clear and well-supported, and they offer a valuable perspective on the challenges we face..."

Smug face  😁

NEW  Jan25 This post discussed in a podcast....

Society:JBP on the value of marriage

Start July 27th 2024

Here's another rolling topic that hopes to gather moss as it careers through the labyrinth of social media. V0.11

Dr Jordan B Peterson has probably nailed this issue in one post on Twitter;

https://x.com/jordanbpeterson/status/181723806527596148

...but I will keep this post open and evolving.

The subject of marriage is central to the debate around gender and the responsibility for the protection of "minors" in times when the imagery of the Olympic opening ceremony promotes Armageddon, and the various "vignettes" celebrate a variety of popular modern perversions and debauchery.

JBP begins...

People grow up when they get married.

It is probably better to get married when you are young because then you grow up. And then what else matures people? 

I have met very few people who have fully matured who do not have children. I think there is a reason for that, a real technical reason. You are not mature until someone else matters more than you—period. Maybe that will be your wife or your husband, but probably not. They might matter as much as you, and maybe that is the right amount. But when you have children, they matter more than you, unless there is something seriously wrong with you.

Very few parents, if push came to shove, would not die for their children. As soon as someone else matters more than you do in some fundamental sense, you have taken another step toward a true, mature responsibility. I do not see that you can do that without necessity, and there is nothing that screams necessity more than an infant.

Now if you have not already taken a look at the Elon Musk interview with Jordan Peterson, do so now. Use the option for speeded-up playout if you need. 

Between the two of them, they appear to be monopolising the world of obvious common sense, to provide the silenced majority with an unequivocal voice that has got the silencers raffled. Musk and Peterson present a vast "attack surface" to the liberal alliance that embodies the fashionable left/woke activism that is mostly distinguished by its readiness to express it's view using "shoot first/ discuss later" cancel culture tactics that now control and influence the media with manipulated woke social engineering to suit WEF agendas.

The polarisation of the tribes of "us" and "them" has forced most people into adopting one or the other and it is fascinating that the split continues to be around 50/50.

The notion that Labour has anything approaching a morally sustainable right to govern based on manipulation of the system to sustain the illusion that 34% of the vote is a landslide mandate...but hardly anyone is speaking out about this at present. 

Freeview TV is fatally flawed! It can never work in large areas of the UK...

The Freeview TV platform is less fatally flawed than it was ..?

Previous update 6th February 2024 

Latest 17th July 2024

Good news- coverage in Essex has improved and been solid for the last couple of months, with only occasional outages. Nothing has changed at this end with the antenna or equipment, so maybe my efforts to draw attention to the problem have actually found the right people.

Most Freeview viewers will have seen reception problems often caused by high pressure over Northern Europe. All the more reas on to fume at those polticians and civil servants who ignored advice and still sold the crucial bandwith for mobile phone use.

So remember to check the European Tropo report page at ...

https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/40-2/

The map is showing red lines for propagation on the 144MHz band (2m ham band) and Band4 UHF is  500-580Mhz - but the basic principles apply, and the ducting conditions that create extended range at 144MHz will also generally enhance 500MHz. If there is no tropo effect at 144MHz, there will be none at 500MHz.

The current solar activity peak is adding to the excitement, with a startling display of Aurora that was visible even at mid lattitudes on September 12/13 2023 - always a harbinger of challenging and complex radio propagation 

Watch www.freeviewing.com for updates ! 

In the good old days of analogue TV coverage, it was simple to see if there was "atmospheric interference" by the patterning on the picture. And it rarely ever got to the point where the whole program was trashed. The sound was generally barely affected ... and viewers were prepapared to put up with a remarkable amount of patterning. Crucially, the clues that this was "obviously" co-channel interference were visible to all, and the process is very well described by Sheffield-based aerialsandtv.com, a specialist supplier of cures and advice... 

Old analogue UHF TV picture with co-channel patterning

But digital is a different situation, it either all works or it is unwatchable - and the sound can be brutally chopped up, frequently with a blank screen with an unhelpful message telling you your TV signal has disappeared - as if you didn't already know. There is very little degradation in the form of progressive loss between perfect reception and total FUBAR. You have to delve deep into setup of TV and STB to find the signal strength and quality reports – which are pointless for most users anyway. The broadcasters and platform operators are keen to avoid admitting any sort of potential liability.

A big irritant with Freeview (UK Digital terrestrial television - DTT) interference is the time being wasted by people wondering what happened to their TV picture when it breaks and disappears. Who or what is to blame? Nobody knows without checking the signals (and multiple channels) in multiple locations and posting results on a website in real time, where people can visit to see if they are wasting their time - because the fault is out of viewer and broadcaster control when due to "transient" atmospheric conditions. 

These atmospheric conditions are known as tropospheric ducting, which is brought about in the UK by static high pressure weather systems over Europe. An excellent technical description for nerds by an aussie radio ham (VK3FS)  is available on YouTube...

Pixelated Freeviewing....

Many users of the Freeview digital terrestrial TV broadcast platform, and its derivative YouView, have found reception broken sporadically over the past few years. Currently (spring 2023), bad reception on Freeview and other digital terrestrial TV services is mostly affecting the South East - as the interference is being ducted across from the near continent by atmospheric conditions. A detailed description of the process is available on the excellent ATV Website

No one said this was easy, and whilst we sympathise with the challenge facing Freeview and it's broadcasters, the government was warned this was going to happen well in advance - and chose to ignore.  Pixelation break-up will tend to affect all DTT channels during periods of interference, although the broadcasts are grouped on transmitters in blocks called '"multiplexes". These operate on separate frequencies in band 4 UHF, which is the remaining radio frequency spectrum previously occupied by analogue UHF TV, after the sell-off to mobile networks. Interference from foreign transmissions can be on any frequency, and it may be scrambled up with many other signals that make it difficult to identify precise sources. Local interference arising from rogue PV inverters (and even dodgy phone chargers) is also possible, but the average TV viewer is not going to be able to diagnose this type of problem, and the BBC who are notionally responsible for helping viewers with Freeview reception issues, will not be able to assist in most cases.

Freeview and its partners are saying very little, since there is generally no cure other than "wait until it stops". The only other thing that is being said is "whatever you do, don't attempt to retune your receiver during these periods of interference"... as that can completely scramble the setup, and you will not be able to find out when normal service has been resumed. A full reset may be required.

Which does not impress the viewers denied access. Ofcom does not want a baying mob at the gate demanding their licence fees back. You can  check the real time tropo propagation at...

 (https://www.tvcomm.co.uk/g7izu/radio-propagation-maps/40-2/)  

The simple reality for licence fee payer...

 

 

Hmmm... that reply seems suspiciously like the sound of a can being kicked down the lane; with any luck, the conditions that caused the Freeview signal to be trashed will have moved on by the time the viewers have been put to more inconvenience of fiddling about, and they won't have the energy to pursue it further?

Reception remains unpredictable, and is compounded by the solar cycle reaching a peak with solar flux at a ten-year-high.  Follow the sun at www.spaceweather.com - also the aurora visible around the world are predicted reliably at this site ... which confirms that the sun may have more influence over our atmosphere than is recognised by our obsession with a trace gas that represents 0.04% of the atmosphere.

So there have been days when Freeview simply does not work in affected areas.  A brief warning posted on a Facebook group had a response within minutes:  William Morrison said :- "Glad I saw this. All my non HD channels have been pixelating all week. Was going to buy a new tv today .."

And if people are buying new Freeview gear because of this, they may want compensation when the truth is exposed – a combination of a conspiracy of silence and the negligent choice of DTT and sale of essential spectrum.  Dealers and manufacturers with stocks of Freeview equipment have a problem.

The Daily Express: 
https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/1736474/Freeview-bad-signal-weather-retune-TV 

This was the first time we hd seen the Freeview problem mentioned in the mainstream press!  Yes, it’s a bit nerdy and we imagine Ofcom is keen that public attention is not drawn to the problem -  because Ofcom sold UHF TV bandwidth for mobile phones, and there is now no room to manoeuvre TV out of the way of the interference – despite being warned this would happen.

There was communication with government at the time of analogue switch off, warning that DTTV wouldn’t work, and suggesting all effort went into Freesat, to create a solution that would enable a whole house to be fed from a single single dish: a key benefit of UHF delivered DTTV, is that Satellite TV generally requires one dish feed and box per TV; so multiroom solutions for satellite still seem to cost from £500.

The future of TV delivery is IP (online) - as all UK broadcasting using wireless is being turned off and the radio spectrum sold.

The various World Radiocommunications Conferences that are held from time to time to coordinate the response of each national telecommunications authority to allocate frequencies that will avoid interference and set other standards, appear to be helping the WEF to establish the universal imposition of digital online spyware. The TV industry likes the idea, since it makes tracking and tracing audiences for the purposes of advertising possible - and it conforms with the world economic forum proposition that we "will own nothing and be happy", by forcing everyone to have a (rented) tracked and traced IP connection, and is a further step along the way towards digital currency laced with social scores.

So there is now a big effort to herd all users to online and get all radio and television via broadband, which obviates the need for Freeview digital terrestrial TV to work. So the message from Ofcom to the TV industry is "hang on chaps sooner or later television reception over UHF broadcast will be history anyway.

This also achieves the holy grail for the government, by enabling BBC services to be moved to subscription so the licence fee can be scrapped. But there is a green angle to consider...summing up all the options, someone has shown that UHF broadcast makes better use of energy than online. Don't tell Greta.

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2023/02/28/dtt-greener-than-ott-but-tv-a-low-consumer-of-energy-overall/

" The terrestrial distribution of television signals is currently more efficient and less energy-consuming than IP-delivered content, a report for the regulator Ofcom has found.

Although it does not have statutory duties to consider environmental sustainability issues, Ofcom’s report commissioned from Carnstone recognises the importance of understanding factors which affect the stakeholders.

For both OTT and DTT services, most of the energy consumption is within the home rather than in the distribution system – TV sets, viewing devices, and in-home networks account for 90% of the energy used.

This includes devices within the home such as Wi-Fi networks and set-top boxes that are usually left switched on, even if their power consumption is relatively low.

Outside the home, the network transmission uses six times more energy for OTT based on current viewing volumes, though this is relatively low, and TV viewing is deemed to be a relatively low source of emissions overall.

One hour of viewing TV via terrestrial networks has an energy consumption of 9.1Wh whilst for streaming, this is 54Wh. In other words, viewing TV for an hour is approximately the same as boiling water for around 3-4 cups of tea.

Networks have become more efficient overall, not by reducing absolute energy consumption, but by serving more data traffic with a similar amount of energy."

And perhaps someone should take note that 5G towers are consuming a lot of energy, so China Unicom is putting some of them to sleep overnight.  China Unicom decided to put some 5G base stations to sleep between 9pm and 9am, prompting concern from users - 5G energy consumption is an environmental problem that’s being overlooked, some experts say...
5G towers are consuming a lot of energy, so China Unicom is putting some of them to sleep overnight | South China Morning Post (scmp.com)

Here are latest preview pictures of the low energy 7G iPhone 19

Well done to the politicians and their experts for having the vision to take all the factors and issues into account, and get us to this moment...

TV streaming players are a poor "upgrade" to a Freeview PVR

You lose the option to record off-air on a Freeview or Youview PVR, that enables you to play back PVR recordings and recover the 15% of your (carefully tracked and analysed) leisure time that is being confiscated by broadcasters, and sold to advertisers without your permission. Then those advertisers add insult to injury by delivering commercials that portray a fantasy society - that bears only a passing resemblance to the UK demographic makeup - one that seems mostly to exist in the minds of politically correct marketing and media industries.  Even the endless "pay now for your cremation" ads are "fully  inclusive" ... maybe the NHS will include a commercial for prepaid cremation with each vaccine booster shot for the over 60s????

Moreover, the online players that deliver these commercials (ITVx, All4 etc) do not seem to work in many situations. After viewers have suffered the tedium of setting up their accounts, they will be delivered a commercial they didn't ask for, and then this message appears after the service crashes and fails to resume playing the programme:

 

The various "help" addresses on Twitter and elsewhere for Freeview, Youview and TalkTalk are epically frustrating, and only seem to exist to politely shoo away all users, by grinding them down in a battle wills... I will not bother to repeat the threads here - but rest assured everything has been taken down and will be used in evidence.

Meanwhile, the UK government is preparing to turn off all analogue radio tranmissions (AM: LW/MW FM:VHF) so we will all be stuck with the unskippable online ads, unless all commercial players follow ITV's lead and offer users the option to pay to buy back their time that would otherwise be wasted on commercials. Ironically the UK government's reason for doing this is so that the BBC licence fee can be dropped and the BBC will fund itself with differential charging for content... and may well also introduce advertising.

We would suggest one way to sweeten an otherwise bitter pill would be for broadcasters to share the advertising revenues with those forced to suffer commercials by using a reward scheme such IncenTV…  "we reward you for interaction and responding to commercials" 

Next move?

It is in the nature of this type of periodic atmospheric interference that it can disappear as quickly and as randomly as it appeared. At which point many of those with responsibility for the broadcast delivery chain will attempt to kick the can down the lane, and insist that the viewers imagined it all; or there are additional local factors for which no broadcaster has any responsibility or any control. 

And of course, this may all be blamed on "climate change"..? However, look here for an update on the present solar activity.

But rest assured, it can reoccur randomly when the atmospheric conditions are aligned, so the fundamental truth that the digital terrestrial broadcast platform is not fit for purpose, will not have changed. Maybe the 5 to 10 million affected premises should apply for the BBC licence fee to be returned? Plus the cost of antenna installations and hardware that has been bought?

Let's not allow "them" get away with this!

Are you a BBC licence payer and a user of Freeview or Youview?

You may be entitled to join a class action claim for refund of the past 3 years licence fees, and costs you have incurred buying equipment and antenna installation services for a Freeview service that is frequently broken beyond the ability of Freeview to fix.
Watch www.freeviewing.com for developments.