Pirate decoder boxes for analogue sky

Before you lock this I’m not talking about modern SKY digital here I’m talking about years & years ago here.

Did anyone ever have a pirate decoder box for analogue sky? I mean I remember it was like channel's 3,7,9,11,13 for sure were foreign channels scrambled.
I remember film net and RTL or something would 'come' thru sometimes and play the idents and stuff but just wondering if anyone ever had a decoder box and could see all the channels.
It was like an urban myth at the time that some people had seen them?

An old friend of mine had and I quote a 'bridged' NTL Analogue Box, which basically enabled that STB to view every channel on the NTL network for free, even the Pay-Per View channels were constantly on, though from what he told me this wasn't the first time he had it done and they got caught doing the same in his old house. Don't speak to him anymore Thank God, though having FTV Front Row had it's advantages

We too had NTL Analogue, but legally this time, for the duration we only had the Family Pack of channels, ie No Sky Sports of Sky Movies, but there were times where we had been given some channels by accident, on behalf of the Cable company. When Sky moved around a few channels in September 1997, we were getting Sky Movies Gold free to view between 11.00am and 4.00pm at the weekends, though it didn't take them long to realise that Sky Travel didn't broadcast at the weekend. At the same time Sky Sports 2 became a full time channel, we got that free for the best part of a week, as it once held Sky Travel, Sky Soap, The History Channel and The Christian Channel.

There were also occassions when they would block a channel signal because Cable didn't carry the channel, such as when we had an odd point in 1998 when CNBC was being carried in the mornings on Challenge TV, where as it previously was on Bravo, but Cable decided to keep it on our version of Bravo and show something else on Challenge TV.

*When I use the term 'Cable', it was more than one company for us, we've been under Nynex, Cable & Wireless, NTL and in the next year or two; Virgin.

Although not 100% relevant to the thread, I've currently got the basic analogue relay cable service in Milton Keynes. It consists of the five main channels including Anglia and Central South Regions as the ITV main channel, Sky One, QVC and News 24.

Set up wise is just a usual tv to video type cable running from the tv into the wall socket. However on my tv, it can go further down the band when tuning in and can go past the 21-69 UHF signal which for the analogue cable service in MK uses these frequencies. A lot of channels are partitally encrypted, meaning that depending on whats being played sometimes you can hear whats on and sometimes can see whats being shown but you could never be able to watch for more than 5 seconds.

As mentioned, a lot of channels are encrypted but unencryped on the tuning search means I can get E4, Sky News and Price Drop TV and CNBC from the hours of 5-9am. There was one point a couple of summers ago where we got CNN, MTV, Discovery, UK Gold and a couple of others but that liteally lasted a few days

I've still got a FilmNet decoder that used to turn transponder 11 on the analogue system into perfect porn.

Bought it from a "local dealer" just down the road for about £20, if I remember rightly.

Doesn't work any more, though, mainly because transponder 11 isn't FilmNet any more.

Thought about starting this a thread before but while I'm here anyone remember the number listings of the old analogue sky??? Or know where online it tells you?

From memory

3,7,9,11,13- Scrambled
5- Lifestyle
8-Sky One
30- Cinemania
32- Documania
46-Nickeldeon

Minds gone blank further more

Try a PM to Chris Wathen, "cwathen".

He's the forum expert on analogue Astra.

Funny you ask that, I've got a list here

***ASTRA 1A***
1 RTL 2
2 RTL TV
3 GRANADA PLUS/GRANADA MEN AND MOTORS/THE BOX
4 EUROSPORT/THE QUANTUM CHANNEL
5 VOX/SELL A VISION
6 SAT-1
7 FOX KIDS NETWORK/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL/CHANNEL 7 EUROPE
8 SKY 1
9 KABEL 1
10 3-SAT
11 BLOOMBERG TELEVISION
12 SKY NEWS
13 SUPER RTL
14 PRO SIEBEN (PRO 7)
15 MTV EUROPE
16 SKY MOVIEMAX

***ASTRA 1B***
17 PREMIERE
18 SKY PREMIER
19 ARD
20 SKY SPORTS 1/TV SHOP
21 DSF
22 VH-1
23 UK GOLD/SCREENSHOP
24 SKY SOAP/THE HISTORY CHANNEL/THE SCI-FI CHANNEL/THE ADULT CHANNEL/ THE CHRISTIAN CHANNEL
25 N3
26 THE DISNEY CHANNEL/SKY BOX OFFICE 1
27 VH-1 GERMANY
28 CNN INTERNATIONAL
29 N-TV
30 ORB
31 SKY SPORTS 3/TV SHOP
32 BR-ALPHA

***ASTRA 1C***
33 ZDF
34 LIVING/TVX THE FANTASY CHANNEL/GAY TV
35 TV TRAVEL SHOP/CHALLENGE TV/ FAMILY LATE/SCREENSHOP
36 PHOENIX
37 CARTOON NETWORK/TNT
38 QVC
39 WDR
40 HESSEN FERNSEHEN
41 DISCOVERY HOME & LEISURE/DISCOVERY CHANNEL/SCREENSHOP
42 TROUBLE/BRAVO
43 MDR 3
44 SKY TRAVEL/SKY CINEMA
45 BAYERN 3
46 NICKELODEON/PARAMOUNT COMEDY CHANNEL
47 SKY SPORTS 2
48 SUDWEST 3

***ASTRA 1D***
49 ARTE
50 CNBC EUROPE
51 DISCOVERY ANIMAL PLANET
52 QVC GERMANY
53 JAPAN SATELITE TV/CNE
54 ZEE TV
55 TELECLUB
56 UK STYLE
57 UK HORIZONS
58 GRANADA BREEZE/[.tv]/SKY BOX OFFICE 4
59 SKY SCOTTISH/SKY BOX OFFICE 3
60 THE RACING CHANNEL/SKY BOX OFFICE 2/PLAYBOY TV
61 PHOENIX
62 HOME ORDER TV
63 CHANNEL 5
64 TM3

Course, thanks Memories memories wodnerful memories

does analogue sky actully still work? if you plug it all in and see I mean

There's still a load of german FTA channels as 19.2 East on anlogue, so you'll be able to get them, but the UK Channels have long since left, as the analogue service closed in 2001.

Yep I know a few people with these type of systems

I had old analogue cable donkeys ago, but my old TV was capable of tuning into the encrypted channels, I don't know how it worked, but it just did

Cinemania and Documania are still there, it's encrypted for Spanish satellite subscribers.

No analogue Sky died out 2001/2, you will get to see Eurosport International and a few FTA channels, digital is the way to go now.

As to pirate Sky boxes, well let's just say that's the reason they launched Sky Digital very quickly.