No Satellite Signal

When we moved into this house, I was rather delighted to find a satellite dish on the side. After some time I got a cheap second hand set top box for it, then a remote. Before going on holiday, I finally got a viewing card too.

Except the box didn’t like the card - refused to accept it. In desperation I ended up giving Sky the go-ahead to come out and look on it, taking the assurance that they’d replace the box if they couldn’t fix it, as a good enough reason to spend £65.

One box with a faulty card reader replaced, the viewing card was sorted out and finally I could watch ITV and Channel 4. Well I could do that anyway as I’ve got Freeview, but now I could watch ITV’s regional news for the North East, or adverts only intended for Channel 4 viewers in Scotland. Wow.

Then on Thursday whilst we were watching Lost, the signal went. Just like that. Today it did the same - just lost the signal lock and this time, it wouldn’t come back.

I went outside and started nudging the dish a little - it’s attached to the balcony so is easily reachable. But try as I might, I just could not get the confounded signal back. Once or twice it did return only to disappear almost instantly.

I probably nudged the confounded thing into every conceivable position about fifteen times and still no joy which, depressingly, meant I missed a programme I wanted to watch that’s only shown on ITV1 Tyne Tees.

Technology. Supposed to make our lives easier you know. So they claim. Yet here I am, spending half my afternoon trying to get the satellite dish in exactly the right spot to get a signal. As if I haven’t got better things to do…

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