"Goodnight Satellite"

[2415]

I now own the Ku-band FTA satellite in my house installed by Dr. Sat, so thanks pwrsurge for putting the dish up! :up

I really love watching the live satellite feeds because, for the most part, there are no advertisements. I like watching news and sports feeds in natural sound, without commentary, so watching the live satellite feeds on is like when you're in the events. It's nice for me to watch live events that is happening around the world.

I have a few questions for anyone at SatelliteGuys: When a feed is going to be over, a "goodnight" slate is used. I know that "goodnight" is a North American term for ending occasional transmissions. Why does "goodnight" make sense for North Americans than "end of transmission" or "feed over"? Does the "goodnight" slate exists way back in the 1970's? Who coined the term "goodnight"? Is "goodnight" popular with North Americans?

I'm just curious about these questions.

 

[FaT Air]

I've seen the 'GOOD NIGHT SATELLITE' slates since the early/mid 80's. I've also seen END OF FEED, END OF TRANSMISSION. (and probably a few I can't remember at the moment) Don't know who started the good night satellite though. Probably some bored uplink tech. But it's 'stuck' with a few.
I'd like to know where/how they come up with some of the uplink ID's. Just saw one with the slate 'Blizzard uplink #1'. When the feed went live there was sunshine and palm trees. No evidence of a blizzard.
(BTW: got another 6 inches of snow here last night. Luckily the forecast winds didn't.)

 

[pwrsurge]

I now own the Ku-band FTA satellite in my house installed by Dr. Sat, so thanks pwrsurge for putting the dish up! :up

Wish I was installing satellite dishes for a living instead of working in STB firmware development projects as it's a LOT less complicated field of work!

You can thank Dr. Sat on his own FTA forum at DigitalHome.ca as I believe that's the only forum he has time to actively monitor.

 

[olliec420]

When feed hunting I sometimes leave the micro on and when the feed ends and I come back the next day I some times see the "goodnight satellite" still there.

 

[Bob2011]

Many people like to use a phrase with words that rhyme because they are memorable. It was probably put up by some guy bored with color bars or a test pattern.

 

[toucan-man]

Reminds me of the POP3 at my local ISP, where the conversation with the mail client would include a NOOP, and the reply was +OK NOOP to you too ! That extra silly stuff would change periodically. Not sure who would ever read it.

 

[GI_Joe]

Speaking of slates - Does anyone have a screen capture of the following: The History channel from a few years back when they had a problem and showed the "man on the beach" for a month. Also ANY screen capture of the oil spewing from the well during the BP disaster?

I had them both and I lost them with a hard drive failure. Post them here if you can..

Thanks,

 

[skysurfer]

I've seen the 'GOOD NIGHT SATELLITE' slates since the early/mid 80's.

Ditto. Since 1989 for me when I put in my first dish.

I'd like to know where/how they come up with some of the uplink ID's. Just saw one with the slate 'Blizzard uplink #1'. When the feed went live there was sunshine and palm trees. No evidence of a blizzard.

If it was NBC, they name many of their in-house (non-vendor) uplink trucks and this transmission you saw likely was from the uplink truck named Blizzard (and probably based in their Chicago bureau -- I have no official list of bureaus/named trucks).

 

[Larobpra]

Speaking of slates - Does anyone have a screen capture of the following: The History channel from a few years back when they had a problem and showed the "man on the beach" for a month. Also ANY screen capture of the oil spewing from the well during the BP disaster?

I had them both and I lost them with a hard drive failure. Post them here if you can..

Thanks,

Should be able to find a man on the beach pic in an old History Channel thread here.

 

[FaT Air]

Old Man On The Beach channel #8
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BP+underwater

 

[olliec420]

just turned on the input the micro is on and saw this, had to post it lol

its not goodnight satellite but i think it needs honorable mention!

 

[skysurfer]

i like one of the G16 Ku-band news truck uplinkers named Lisa who puts a graphic of Lisa Simpson on her color bar slate. I'll have to screen cap it when I come across it again.

 

[Art7220]

ABC used to have a C-band channel where it showed a color bar and you would hear a tone, then it would stop and someone would say, "Left Right" then the tone again. Is that still on?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I still love this one.