13 Aug
2006
13 Aug
'06
12:41 a.m.
Roy J. Tellason wrote:
On Saturday 12 August 2006 07:49 pm, Don wrote:
Yeah, they've been around for years. It's illegal to have anything capable of
receiving TV broadcasts in the UK without having a licence (about 160GBP/year,
approx $140US). Doesn't matter if the equipment isn't switched on - if it's
capable of receiving a signal then a licence is needed.
The vans can only detect a switched-on set, of course. I don't know if they
can detect plasma screens or not - possibly, but not sure. Seem to recall that
they use a directional antenna and just pick up on certain frequencies
generated by all conventional sets.
IIRC, in the UK they have mobile units that
wander around trying
to see how many televisions each home has (?)
I remember reading about that some time ago (decades?) and wondering since
then how much that whole thing had gotten messed up since computer monitors
had come into the picture.
Not many people watch TV on a computer screen though. Who'd want to? They're
tiny in comparison to the average TV, plus the higher resolution of the
computer display actually makes for a worse picture
cheers
J.