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Old 18th Aug 2021, 3:16 pm   #821
Mr Hoover
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Woods View Post
The one on the left is a bit of a mystery. Is it pointing at an English transmitter in the south west or perhaps it was just installed backwards?
The English band 1 transmitters in the South West were all vertically polarised.
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Old 18th Aug 2021, 4:04 pm   #822
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Looks like a reverse install then unless it has been turned around for FM possibly
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Old 19th Aug 2021, 10:01 am   #823
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Hoover View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Woods View Post
The one on the left is a bit of a mystery. Is it pointing at an English transmitter in the south west or perhaps it was just installed backwards?
The English band 1 transmitters in the South West were all vertically polarised.
Redruth on ch1 used horizontal polarisation, but I doubt if this signal would reach South Wales apart from during tropo lifts.
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Old 19th Aug 2021, 10:16 am   #824
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Forgot Redruth. There was also Weymouth Ch1
at 50 Watts Horizontal, Sidmouth Ch4 very low, possibly H.. Barnstaple Ch3 and Bodmin Ch5 were also very low powered and Horizontal.

Last edited by Mr Hoover; 19th Aug 2021 at 10:34 am.
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Old 19th Aug 2021, 3:12 pm   #825
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

I may have solved it. Apparently at some point there was a repeater serving Cardigan on 2H, (Blaenplwyf was on 3H).
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Old 20th Aug 2021, 10:12 am   #826
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Re post no.825:

Indeed, there was a Ch B2 H-pol relay for Cardigan - 45 Watts.

The distinctive Delta match aerials are 'Telerection' make.
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Old 6th Sep 2021, 9:32 am   #827
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Today's resting place.
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Old 15th Nov 2021, 7:13 pm   #828
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Spotted today in Cholsey, South Oxfordshire - a classic dipole-and-director for BI and bayed Yagis for BIII.

Pointing East down the Thames Valley to get London BBC and ITV.

[Sorry about the poor photo - I only had my phone with me; I can revisit in a few weeks with the proper DSLR to get a better pic].
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Old 16th Nov 2021, 12:57 am   #829
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

I really like seeing these remnants of the 405 line era. I'm impressed by their longevity. Were some aerials built with better materials or design considerations? Or are prevailing winds, coastal air and chimney smoke more important factors?
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Old 17th Nov 2021, 2:18 pm   #830
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Yes it's fascinating to think that - at their youngest - they are near 40 years old, and I suspect a number of them are well over 60 years old.

An elderly friend whose father ran a TV shop in the 50s said that when ITV arrived, customers could have to wait up to a month for their new BIII antenna to be fitted and the local antenna-riggers were known to accept bribes [either money or a bottle of something] from customers who wanted to queue-jump. Some people also got their BIII antenna fitted in advance of acquiring an ITV-capable TV.

Considering the size of these antennas you would have thought that windage and metal-fatigue would have killed them off long ago, though the ones I post pics of are from Central England wich is not the windiest area. Ones in coastal towns would have had a far harder life!
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Old 18th Nov 2021, 11:19 am   #831
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

I fitted a few band 1 antennas in the '50's although that wasn't really my job, mostly facia mounted dipoles with 'twigs' for band 3 on a 'new' estate just round the back of where we lived, served by Crystal Palace and Croydon. Wonder if any of those are still there - I doubt it, although there are still a sprinkling down here in the west country, we were still on 405 when we moved here in 1970.

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Old 3rd Dec 2021, 6:55 pm   #832
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Lived here for 21 years and it took till today to spot what looks like a band 3 aerial peeking over the rooftop of the local opticians.
I don't have an image editor on this pc so here's the pics on google
******************************N8PDiQutzNz2dfH67
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Old 3rd Dec 2021, 7:55 pm   #833
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Interesting they are both horizontally-polarised; i wonder which relay-transmitter they point at?
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Old 3rd Dec 2021, 8:06 pm   #834
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

Hi G6Tanuki they are both the same aerial probably pointed at Tacolnston after a quick look at google maps it seems to point roughly at Norwich which would be correct. It's opposite and just along a bit from the post office on New Road on this link https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.82...6.75z?hl=en-GB
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Old 3rd Dec 2021, 8:13 pm   #835
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

After a bit more research Mendlesham served Anglia TV and covered up to North Walsham on channel 11 Horizontal polarisation so maybe it's that one

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/info/405/itv/east.shtml
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Old 4th Dec 2021, 12:12 pm   #836
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

My wife and I did a 'Beatles Tour' of Liverpool recently. It was great to see that the National Trust had gone to the trouble of fitting an H type aerial to John Lennons childhood home when returning the property to it's 1950's setting.

Photos of the property prior to around 2003 when the NT aquired it show a normal 625 aerial.
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Old 8th Dec 2021, 10:00 pm   #837
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

I hope this isn't too boring - moderators delete if it is:

As schoolboys my friend and I were both interested in TV. Whilst I could see the Crystal Palace and Croydon transmission masts from my house, and needed almost no aerial, he lived only 5 miles away but lived in an area where reception was so difficult that many people directed their aerials north towards East Anglia (Mendlesham CH11H). Whether pointing towards London or East Anglia the aerials were big things.

I later learned from aerial contractors that it was hobson's choice: either a very directional array to reduce ghosting on CP/Croydon or a high gain array for Mendlesham.

I digress. In the area where my friend lived there were street after street of derelict terraced houses waiting for demolition. On these houses were very big aerial arrays. Why would we want them? Well we had become interested in DXTV (long distance TV reception) and were building some large arrays for home and wanted the materials.

How to get an aerial down without climbing? Find the downlead, gradually break the cable clips by whipping and tugging until the cable is free. Start rocking the aray - the higher the mast the more chance of success - until the mast breaks, then run!. Hopefully the array won't be too damaged and materials can be salvaged. Invoking 'run' was particularly pertinent once when the mast and chimney came down.

We built some big Yagis. My location was best as I had a clear path to Lille and could often receive band 3 819 line pictures, with sound from another TV, because of the big vision to sound spacing.
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Old 9th Dec 2021, 12:16 pm   #838
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

We originally received Alexandra Palace and many sets had separate band 1 and 3 inputs which was fine. When crystal palace started up you could almost run the lights off it as we were looking straight at from Petts Wood, my original home, which was OK with the separate aerial input sets as you could just attenuate Band 1 but the later single input sets were grossly overloaded.

Some bright spark brought out a tuned band 1 attenuator which had an adjustable iron core for band 1, the problem was though that the bandwidth was quite narrow which meant you could either attenuate the sound or the picture - it was difficult to do both!

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Old 9th Dec 2021, 2:00 pm   #839
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

We had a relative now long gone due to family issues who lived in Kent.
They could see the TV mast from the garden.
They just had a bit of coax with about 3 or 4 inches stripped back. It got a good signal wherever you put the end. It used to trail onto the floor behind the set.
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Old 10th Dec 2021, 11:17 am   #840
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Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

That's what I had for a long time for Digital down here in Dorset. Stockland Hill transmitter is only about 7 or 8 miles from us but there is the top of a hill between us. On analogue we had a weak signal and ghosting on BBC1 and 2 with a proper aerial, since we went digital the TV's upstairs in what used to be our B&B rooms will work without the aerial plugged in! and the downstairs set worked with just a broken coax!

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