The man, who during the interruption also threatened to hijack the signals of Showtime and The Movie Channel, was later caught and identified as John R. The intrusion lasted between 4 and 5 minutes and was seen by viewers along the East Coast.
The interruption occurred during a presentation of The Falcon and the Snowman. Eastern Time on April 27, 1986, HBO (Home Box Office) had its satellite signal feed from its operations center on Long Island in Hauppauge, New York interrupted by a man calling himself "Captain Midnight". MacDougall's message as seen by HBO viewers, behind the SMPTE color bars.Īt 12:32 a.m.
However, others have pointed out that the fact the "alien" voice spoke with a British accent and the fact that the "aliens" only managed to hijack a TV station in rural southern England make it more likely the source was a local human, possibly even one or more broadcast students or a Southern Television employee, pulling a hoax. None of the individuals responsible for the intrusion have been identified, although some people believe that the message could have originated from an alien race. The IBA confirmed that it was the first time such transmission had been made. The intrusion did not entirely affect the video signal but replaced the program audio with a six-minute speech about the destiny of the human race and a disaster to affect "your world and the beings on other worlds around you". On November 26, 1977, an audio message, purporting to come from outer space and conveyed by an individual named ‘Vrillon’ of the ‘ Ashtar Galactic Command’, was broadcast during an ITN news bulletin on Southern Television in the United Kingdom. Main article: Southern Television broadcast interruption Īs a cable television operator connects itself in the signal path between individual stations and the system's subscribers, broadcasters have fallen victim to signal tampering on cable systems on multiple occasions. Other methods that have been used in North America to intrude on legal broadcasts include breaking into the transmitter area and splicing audio directly into the feed. All that is required is an FM transmitter that can overpower the same frequency as the station being rebroadcast. Hijacking incidents have involved local TV and radio stations as well as cable and national networks.Īlthough television, cable and satellite broadcast signal intrusions tend to receive more media coverage, radio station intrusions are more frequent, as many simply rebroadcast a signal received from another radio station. For unauthorized broadcasting in general, see Pirate broadcasting.Ī broadcast signal intrusion is the hijacking of broadcast signals of radio, television stations, cable television broadcast feeds or satellite signals without permission nor license. To browse all of the currently accepted costumes, you can go to either of these listings:īrowse the alphabetical list of all currently approved 501st costumes.īrowse our costumes grouped by Detachment."Broadcast signal piracy" redirects here. That is information obtained from each of the Detachment forums. It is important to stress that these reference documents are not detailed costume construction how-to's. Definitely check out the Guide to CRL's and New to the Legion Costumes for more information.Įach reference guide contains pictures of the costume, and a detailed description of the parts. Detachments are viewed as the caretakers and experts upon the costumes in their care. This is normal, and expected depending on the theme of the Detachment. Sometimes you will find a Detachment that has costumes with only one type of prefix, and in others, there will be many different costume prefixes. For example, (TK) denotes a Stormtrooper - (CC) for Clone Commander - (TI) Tie Fighter Pilot.etc.Ĭharacters which are related by a particular theme are grouped into Detachments. To describe the costume reference library, we first have to give an overview of the costuming organization of the club.įor the purpose of identity and organization, costumes within the 501st Legion are listed with two letter designation prefixes.