Captain Midnight broadcast signal intrusion
1986 signal intrusion of HBO's satellite feed
Captain Midnight broadcast signal intrusion
On April 27, 1986, American electrical engineer and business owner John R. MacDougall (using the pseudonym "Captain Midnight") jammed the Home Box Office (HBO) satellite signal on Galaxy 1 during a showing of the film The Falcon and the Snowman. The message, broadcast for 4.5 minutes, was seen by the eastern half of the United States (accounting for more than half of HBO's 14.6 million subscribers at the time) protesting HBO's rates for satellite dish owners, which he considered too expensive. MacDougall was working at his second job as an operations engineer at the Central Florida Teleport uplink station in Ocala, Florida, and vied with a technician at HBO's communications center in Hauppauge, New York, for control of the transmission. The technician attempted to increase uplink power but gave up because of the risk of damaging the satellite. MacDougall eventually abandoned his control of the satellite. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with assistance from the Federal Bureau...
Read on Wikipedia · Image John R. MacDougall, the signal intruder responsible, Public domain
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