Lopon Passang helps install a fishbone antenna

Installing a fishbone antenna to watch BBSTV is the latest craze in Bartsham and many other gewogs in Trashigang dzongkhag since BBSTV went nationwide on February 20.

Many homes, including rural households in the 16 villages under Bartsham gewog, are busy these days installing the antenna.

“We are very happy,” says the 64-year-old former Bartsham gup, Tshering Phuntsho. “Everybody here is excited about the antenna. It brings Bhutan live to us and now it is as good as being in Thimphu.”

According to local residents, apart from asking remittances from relatives working in other parts of the country, people are borrowing money from each other to buy the antenna.

Installation in most homes is done by a self-trained “all-round emergency maintenance personnel”, a Zhungkha language teacher in the Bartsham Lower Secondary School.

“I have installed numerous antennas so far,” says Lopon Passang. “I learnt the process through trial and error.”

Most buy the antenna from a shop in Trashigang town for Nu. 1,060. Some get it from the border town of Samdrup Jongkhar at a cheaper price.

But many say that the reception is not clear.

“For clear spotless reception one has to install the antenna on a hilltop,” says Tshering Phuntsho. “Not everybody can do that since it requires buying extra wires.”

The unclear reception has, however, not dampened the excitement over the “fish bone”. People in Bidung gewog, about nine kilometers from Bartsham, have also started working to “bring Bhutan in our homes”.

Today people in Bartsham muse over the wonders of changing communication technology.

“First, we had nothing but a radio to update us about the world outside,” says another local resident. “Then came the time when we watched endless Hindi movies on videos. Then we installed dish antenna when television came in 1999. Today we watch BBSTV live.”

Many people who spoke to Kuensel said that BBS was the most important channel for them.

Television dish installed in Bartsham during the television heydays after 1999 catches as many as 25 channels, say the local residents. It brings home BBC and numerous free Indian channels such as Scopus, Akash Bang, CB9, Gyandarshan and a string of state based DD regional channels.

Bartshampas are now waiting to derive some happiness from the mobile 'phone.