Trade Test Transmissions

[Peter.N.]

It was at Evoluon that my colour blindness was confirmed to be mainly green deficiency, I had always thought it was red because that was the colour I have most problems with.

Back in the days when you had to set up Purity, convergence and colour balance most of my problems were with red.

I would set up a TV on the bench and deliver it only to receive a phone call in fairly short order to say that everyone's face was green, I hastened to the customers house and set up the red with them watching until they were happy, this was a bit of a pain which I eventually overcame before delivery.

If I turned the red up until I could actually see it and then back it off until I just couldn't, that was spot on, never had a problem after that.

Peter

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Peter.N.

If I turned the red up until I could actually see it and then back it off until I just couldn't, that was spot on, never had a problem after that.

I haven't thought of myself as having a colour vision deficiency, but that's exactly what I have always done too.

Cyan looks like a cold white to me, but adding red until just see a change in the lowlights has served me well.

At Granada TV Rentals, when we did our colour TV training, the first thing the trainer did was give us a test to see that we could identify the primary and complementary colours displayed on the Thorn 2000 up on the wall.

Anyone who failed the test got their P45...

[Peter.N.]

I did well then, I was in the trade for 50 years mostly self employed. The first Bush colour sets I remember had what looked like a map of the London underground on the convergence panel with a 'start here' indication, you would go right through it and then have to start again because the settings were interactive. But things were much easier to repair then.

Peter

[space_charged]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

Evoluon
It's the tube that makes the Colour ('..a bluey green known as cyan')
Captive River ('build you dam where the river is narrowest')
ISTR one about electrical safety - 'Switch off, Isolate, Dump and Earth' - S.I.D.E

These are some of my top favourites. I first saw them on a b/w TV, a Philips G23T210 (one of which I've just got working). Later on I saw them all in colour. I would LOVE to have some of the above. I work with potentially dangerous electrical stuff and I've never forgotten SIDE!

[lesmw0sec]

If I could go back to pre-colour days, I recall that some of the music which was transmitted with the test card was rather good, including some excellent Latin-American stuff. Wish I'd recorded it, the quality was rather good too.

[Peter.N.]

Yep, Herb Alpert was favourite for some time as a result I still have most of the records used.

Peter

[Panrock]

Originally Posted by space_charged

I work with potentially dangerous electrical stuff and I've never forgotten SIDE!

Nor me. This excellent mnemonic must have saved some lives over the years.

"If only the chief engineer hadn't had to go to the dentist!"

Steve

[space_charged]

Originally Posted by lesmw0sec

I recall that some of the music which was transmitted with the test card was rather good, including some excellent Latin-American stuff. Wish I'd recorded it, the quality was rather good too.

Yes, once UHF/625 started up the sound was FM and the quality was very good too. I used to make direct recordings to a Philips reel to reel tap recorder from my 625 lines converter. The converter was attached to a Philips 17TG100U, the only one I know of that got BBC2!

Sadly I don't think I ever recorded the test card music. These days I need a test card to adjust and set up my many restored TVs. I've put together some music and created a video of TC-F and TC-C. I usually play it through a Humax PVR which has CVBS out. That either goes into a UHF modulator for "modern" TVs or the Aurora for older kit.

[space_charged]

Originally Posted by Peter.N.

...what looked like a map of the London underground on the convergence panel with a 'start here' indication...

Ah yes, the Bush/Rank/Murphy all transistor set I think. Our first colour TV was one of these. I used to "do" the convergence on it for my parents. When the CRT started to age, I bought them a re-built tube. I had to take out the old one of course, the deal was based on exchange for your old tube. It was fun setting it up, right from "square one". Back then, I had to rely on the transmitted test card F. Apart from that, it only ever had one fault, the BR in the thryistor power supply.

[Studio263]

Originally Posted by GMB

A friend and I actually traced the locations of where "Home made car" was filmed, by watching it endlessly and noting small clues from the background like which way the TV aerials pointed and the shape of the roads.

The house is just around the corner from where I live, although the adjoining garage is sadly long gone - there is a house of little merit there now. If I had the money I'd buy all three and bulldoze the middle one! The fence of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) is just visible at the end of the road. The circle (where the hero catches the tinker) is a few streets from there but still close by. The garage (where the girl works) is on the road between Farnham and Bordon, its still there (just). I'm not sure where the countryside you see right at the end is, or indeed the scrap yard you see at the start, but they must be around here somewhere...

[red16v]

I used to live in Whitehill (just down the road from Bordon), is the garage the one just down from the Forest Lodge Garden Centre? Just curious, if it is I drove past it every day for 7 years without realising.

Edited to add. I once had the pleasure of briefly meeting James Hill (the Director of the home made car) when he was editing the pilot episode of Wurzel Gummidge, and what a very pleasant and unassuming man he was. I was too bashful to tell him I always liked the home made car.

[red16v]

Originally Posted by space_charged

Yes, once UHF/625 started up the sound was FM and the quality was very good too. I used to make direct recordings to a Philips reel to reel tap recorder from my 625 lines converter. The converter was attached to a Philips 17TG100U, the only one I know of that got BBC2!

Sadly I don't think I ever recorded the test card music. These days I need a test card to adjust and set up my many restored TVs. I've put together some music and created a video of TC-F and TC-C. I usually play it through a Humax PVR which has CVBS out. That either goes into a UHF modulator for "modern" TVs or the Aurora for older kit.

Recently finished transferring some of my old quarter inch tapes including few minutes of original early 70's test card music. I intend to put it up on youtube some day soon I hope!

[emeritus]

When I discovered that test card transmissions were to be discontinued I recorded an hour or so on a vhs tape. Never had occasion to use it and I don't recall what the music was.

[Andrew2]

Originally Posted by lesmw0sec

If I could go back to pre-colour days, I recall that some of the music which was transmitted with the test card was rather good, including some excellent Latin-American stuff. Wish I'd recorded it, the quality was rather good too.

There are two CD's of Test Card music - 'Test Card Classics' and 'Big Bandwidth: Test Card Classics 2', both on the Flyback label.
I got mine many years ago and I have no idea if they are still available. The tracks are the proper original ones taken from yer actual tapes. Very nice, and even after all these years I still seem to know what tune comes next!

[petertheorgan]

Is my imagination or memory playing tricks or did one of the test card tracks have dogs barking in it ?

[space_charged]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

I got mine many years ago and I have no idea if they are still available.

Yes they are still available. I've just ordered them.

Chas

[AJSmith625]

Originally Posted by petertheorgan

Is my imagination or memory playing tricks or did one of the test card tracks have dogs barking in it ?

If you go to this below, then go about 22 minutes into the clip you will find the track with the simulated dog bark at the end. This piece was played with the BBC2 test card just before 'Play School' coming up to 11am in the mornings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDLenpIjSx0

Alan.

[AJSmith625]

Thinking again, funny how the brain comes to life in the early hours, there was another test card music track made of dogs barking, again usually played just before the start of childrens programmes.

Alan.

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by Panrock

Nor me. This excellent mnemonic must have saved some lives over the years.

"If only the chief engineer hadn't had to go to the dentist!"

Steve

I still mentally go through SIDE whenever I'm working on stuff that can give you either a belt, or put you on the other side of the room. And it was the trade test film that drummed that home back when I was early teens.

It was pretty much a thing of its time production-wise. Note that everyone is a bloke. Not a woman to be seen (she probably brought around the tea). How times have changed, where we have at least three female heads of state (UK, Germany and Iceland), and the Director General of CERN is a woman.

When I was still recruiting, given two similarly qualified candidates, I used to choose the woman. On the basis that a woman had to be so darned determined to pursue a career in engineering or science, that she had to be the better bet.

Craig

[Studio263]

Originally Posted by red16v

I used to live in Whitehill (just down the road from Bordon), is the garage the one just down from the Forest Lodge Garden Centre? Just curious, if it is I drove past it every day for 7 years without realising.

Yes, driving from Farnham its the second one along, not the used car lot, the other one. There is a row of houses set back from the road (also visible in the film), then a modern forecourt canopy. The garage buildings in the film are just after that.

The house is in Cambridge Road West, Farnborough. The circle of houses is Church Circle, which looks remarkably unchanged since the film was made (the clutter of ugly modern cars aside!).