Granada Television Brochure, 1970s
Long Gone UK TV Shops
Memories of a Derwent Field Service Engineer
PYE Australia Circa 1971
Radios-TV VRAT
Fabulous Fablon
Thorn TX10 Chassis
Crusty-TV Museum, Analogue TV Network
Philips N1500 Warning!
Rumbelows
Thorn EMI Advertising
Thorn’s Guide to Servicing a VCR
Ferguson 3V24 De-Robed
Want to tell us a story?
Video Circuits V15 – Tripler Tester
Thorn Chassis Guide
Remove Teletext Lines & VCR Problems
Ceefax (Teletext)
Suggestions
Website Refresh
Colour TV Brochures
1970s Lounge Recreation
CrustyTV Vintage Television Museum
Linda Lovelace Experience
Humbars on a Sony KV2702
1972 Ultra 6713
D|E|R Service “The Best”
The one that got away
Technical information
The Line Output Stage
The map
Tales of a newly qualified young engineer.
Tales of a Radio Rentals Van Boy
Sanyo SMD
Disastrous Company Rebranding
1969 Philips G22K511
Memories Of The TV Trade
Crazy house
Dirty TV screens
Dual Standard and Single Standard CTV’s
Radios-TV on YouTube
The Winter of 62/63
A domestic audio installation
1979 Ferguson Videostar Deluxe 3V16
Music centre modifications
Unusual record player modification
B&K 467 Adapters
Mishaps In The Trade
1971 Beovision 3200
1971 Bush CTV1120
Granada Television Brochure, 1970s
Long Gone UK TV Shops
Memories of a Derwent Field Service Engineer
PYE Australia Circa 1971
Radios-TV VRAT
Fabulous Fablon
Thorn TX10 Chassis
Crusty-TV Museum, Analogue TV Network
Philips N1500 Warning!
Rumbelows
Thorn EMI Advertising
Thorn’s Guide to Servicing a VCR
Ferguson 3V24 De-Robed
Want to tell us a story?
Video Circuits V15 – Tripler Tester
Thorn Chassis Guide
Remove Teletext Lines & VCR Problems
Ceefax (Teletext)
Suggestions
Website Refresh
Colour TV Brochures
1970s Lounge Recreation
CrustyTV Vintage Television Museum
Linda Lovelace Experience
Humbars on a Sony KV2702
1972 Ultra 6713
D|E|R Service “The Best”
The one that got away
Technical information
The Line Output Stage
The map
Tales of a newly qualified young engineer.
Tales of a Radio Rentals Van Boy
Sanyo SMD
Disastrous Company Rebranding
1969 Philips G22K511
Memories Of The TV Trade
Crazy house
Dirty TV screens
Dual Standard and Single Standard CTV’s
Radios-TV on YouTube
The Winter of 62/63
A domestic audio installation
1979 Ferguson Videostar Deluxe 3V16
Music centre modifications
Unusual record player modification
B&K 467 Adapters
Mishaps In The Trade
1971 Beovision 3200
1971 Bush CTV1120
The End Of 405 Lines Television...
Not long away is the 30th aniversary of the end of 405 lines television in the UK.. I was full of flu, but did manage to switch on a 405 lines set for the closedown.. What a sad end.
I can remember in the days after switch off, turning the set on, on several occasions "just in case" and can recall seeing a static image, like a stored frame, from the last second of transmission.. I have no idea how long after switch off it remained "on air" but I seem to recall there being a caption to remind viewers that the VHF television service was now closed.
Interestingly, a day or so after the closure, on the local BBC news "Look North" from Leeds, there was an article about a guy from Sheffield (I think) who was still watching programmes on a 405 lines set (several of them in fact).
I was well and truly intrigued by this, and the article covered a little tour of this eccentric's house.. Upstairs, in what had been a bedroom, there was a couple of racks which filled the alcoves either side of the fireplace, and had rows of panels, festooned with connecting cables, in each alcove.. It was of course an analogue standards converter.
If I remember it correctly, this guy was, or had been, an engineer in television broadcasting.. He had built only one converter, and for the benefit of the BBC, it was their programmes that he was displaying on his tellies.
I've had a very quick peek on the net, but can't find any reference to him.. I wondered if anyone here might remember the news article? I have a name stuck in my head "Steve Birkett" or "Steve Burchill" or something along those lines (405 of them I wouldn't wonder ).
I also wondered if, come the day, anyone had anything in mind as a sort of 30th aniversary event?
What memories do you have from the end of 405 lines?
Marion
This is odd. I thought I was aware of all 625 to 405 converters that had been built. I wonder if it was an ex BBC CO6/501. This occupies 2 rack bays.
This was almost thirty years ago, but it didn't look like what I recall as an ex BBC, or ITV, converter.. From what I remember, it looked more like something built by a true enthusiast, with lots, and I do mean lots, of large PCBs, for a guide I'd say A4 and A3 (in terms of paper sizes) sized PCB, or Vero boards.. There was a lot of external wiring running between the two alcoves, and although he did explain the function of the system, it's a long time, and time fades the memory.
I do remember there was a receiver section (tuned to the BBC's local station) followed by the converter section(s) and finally an RF output section.
As I recall the CO6/501 has two sections occupied by the input line stores, and output lines stores, giving the appearance of two toriodal structures, stacked one above the other, in the rack.. This guy's converter (as far as I can recall it) did not have these distinctive structures.. Of course, the same technology could have been laid out differently, I suppose?
As I say, this was nearly thirty years ago, and it may well have been scrapped in later years, or assuming he was an older man, could have been dumped by his family after his death.. I'd guess at a million and one reasons why it may not be known about today.
Out of interest, I may try contact "Look North" just to see if they can shed any light on the story.. I will be busy over the next few days, but will dig a little deeper before giving up. (or should that be; giving Eyup? )
Marion
Steve Birkhill I'm sure was ex BBC and was a regular contributor on satellite television in PT magazine. Now I'm not 100% sure of this but I believe he was the designer of the Amstrad DRX100 satellite receiver.
John.
Could it be our one and only David Boynes
To be honest, Trevor, it could be absolutely anyone.. The only proviso would be that they lived within the catchment area of the Emley Moor transmitter, and were living in the area covered by the BBC's studios in Leeds.
As far as my long distant and dim memory can go, it was someone in or near Sheffield.
Marion
If it's Sheffield then it's a good bet it was indeed Steve Birkill. It appears from this site it was the Amstrads tuner he designed.
http://www.rwt.co.uk/old/rwtabout.htm .
John.
Steve wasn't living there in 1984/5 for sure,was working for a company on the
English/Welsh border concerned with Satellite TV and had a house near work.
Hugh
I can remember early CCD cameras. They had two dies in them and one was covered in black tape.
It acted as a frame store and was read while the other was exposed to the focused image.
I did not do an awful lot of work on them though.
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