I personally believe
that the detection vans are a complete myth.

nevertheless I've still always had a license just in case (not that I ever watch anything on the BBC of course)
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:49, 3 replies)

this is also my belief.
what technology could they POSSIBLY have had in the 70s that would tell them whether you'd been to the post office or not?
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 12:53, closed)

They're not
they can quite easily tell you've got a TV going. They are however very VERY rare.

Your problem is that they don't need a lot of them. They don't need to bother checking houses with TV licences, so that's about 95% of the population dealt with.

If you don't have a licence, they'll assume you have a TV anyway, which is generally true. They'll write to you, many people will react to the warning and get a licence.

After that they'll maybe send a van round. They don't cruise the streets, they're targetting specific addreses that have no licence, and have been warned.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 13:00, closed)

are you sure you're not getting this confused
with scooby-doo and the mystery machine?
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 13:23, closed)

Could be
and I'd have got away with it if . . .

Hmm. Daphne.

Back in a minute.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 14:42, closed)

It used to be easy with CRT TVs with their enormous HV flyback transformers
now that LCDs are becoming so commonplace they don't require the same 30,000 volts spikes at a characteristic frequency which is easy to pick up with a directional antenna. Some people used to build an improv Faraday cage to try and get around it and/or to stop the CIA from reading what was on their PC monitors... tinfoil hat time.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Fri 11 Nov 2011, 13:14, closed)

I don't have a TV
Having recently moved, I got the standard 'death destruction hell and pestilence' letters from the licencing people, which I ignored. A couple of weeks ago I was mowing the front lawn when a man came up and told me he was from the TV licencing people.
"Haven't got one" I told him.
"Do you mind if I have a look?" he replied.
"No mate, knock yourself out - the door's open".
"Well that won't be neccesary sir, anyone who'll let one of us wander round unsupervised obviously doesn't have a set" he said - and then he got back in his car and buggered off!
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 14:33, closed)

You miust be in the tiniest
of minorities.

I'd have told him to piss off.
(username failed moderation, Fri 11 Nov 2011, 14:42, closed)