Free F1 2012 Season

2012-02-15 19:20 By Jason Birch

This year the F1 season is no longer free to view in the UK, though it may be possible to view the entire season for as little as £50. Opposed to a Sky HD scubscription in excess of £240.

Formula One motor racing is a sport followed by many thousand dedicated people in the UK. It's not just a sport though, many of the teams are based in the UK and there are many more highly skilled engineering companies, manufacturing leading edge technologies for the sport within the UK.

So with so much which this country relies on at stake, why would the F1 board of directors risk destroying the fan base in the UK. By allowing the big corporations, already brimming with cash to attempt to profiteer from the sport. In the contrary I believe the sport can only suffer from this move. Lets face it, cash is tight these days and Rupert Murdoch, who was never very popular, is at the butt of capitalism, lawsuits and scandal currently.

There is evidence that it may be possible to view the full 2012 season of F1, technically for free. There is a small outlay cost, the possibility that the television channels involved may not ultimately transmit the coverage, and the coverage may not be quite the same quality which it would be on the BBC. I feel the costs, risks and compromises involved are worth taking, allow me to explain.

The Research and Theory
According to this Wikipedia page. There is a German free to view channel (RTL Television) on the Astra 1 satellite, which will be broadcasting the complete F1 2012 season coverage for qualifying and racing.

If you do not have a satellite receiver, or like me you have one aligned to the Astra 2 satellite and don't want to keep realigning it for each F1 race. There is at least one very cheap deal for a complete satellite receiver kit. I know this for sure as this morning I purchased one and by 14:00 it was up, running and receiving the "RTL Television" channel. The kit I purchased was this one for £50.

Costs
As stated above the satellite kit containing everything required can cost as little as £50. In addition I have ordered an extension cable from eBay for £3 as the 10m cable in the kit wasn't quite long enough for where I wanted to place the receiver. It is possible to align the dish without a meter, but I found one on eBay for about £15, and this makes the process much simpler. Apart from this I do not anticipate any further costs if all goes well.

Risks
It is always possible that the information I have found on the internet is incorrect or inaccurate. It is also possible that the F1 directors will change the rules at any time, as they prevented the free viewing of the season in the UK this year. And the satellite channel may change it's policy at any time too.

Compromises
The "RTL Television" channel has advertising on it, so it will be like viewing the coverage on ITV again, rather than the uninterupted coverage on the BBC. The commentary will be in German, so this is a little disapointing. The quality of the coverage is unknown, however I think that the video coverage may be the same for all broadcasters of the events, and it is just the commentary which varies between broadcasters.

Fitting & Aligning
I have fitted a dish previously and it was just as easy for both of the dishes I have fitted. Follow the instructions to assemble the components on the ground first. Then use the bracket as a template to mark the drilling points on the wall. Look at the other dishes on your road to get a rough idea of the direction it should be aligned to. It is very important to read the instructions in the kit, there are only a few pages to read.

Align the dish vertically and horizontally using the meter. Turn the gain up on the meter, then align the dish, turning the gain down to mid meter every time it approaches the top. This will home in on a satellite. After aligned use the quality meter on the satellite receiver to polarize the LNB (the signal receiver on the dish, where the cable plugs in). The LNB can rotate and will probably be best aligned near it's vertical position.

The final part of the installation is routing the cable from the dish to the receiver. This can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. I took some time and care to route the cable in order to prevent drilling, but keeping the cable hidden.

Here's hoping this solution works for 2012, even if it doesn't I think it was worth the cost and effort as I now have coverage and channels from two separate satellites.