Early British relay.

[Heatercathodeshort]

I found this interesting. John.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltI09lTuGjk

[simpsons]

Me too.

Chris

[Nickthedentist]

What an amazing period piece. So much to spot. A different world from today.

Thanks John for pointing us to this.

[akuram1]

Very interesting film and it just shows how everything was much cleaner then. People now have little interest in keeping things tidy.
In the film it has a great picture of the Angus Hotel in Dundee, this was demolished a number of years ago and replaced by a huge Debenhams which is now empty.

[G4CMY_Tony]

I was brought up in Gloucester and remember my Grandmother's house was wired up to "The Link" as it was known locally in the early 60s.

I remember the radio channels were piped to a small loudspeaker (and, presumably, amplifier) in the kitchen.

[Nickthedentist]

I think the LS might have been entirely passive, with nothing more than a matching transformer and selector switch.

[slidertogrid]

Wasn't Radio where the relay started? My mum always called them "BRW" British Relay Wireless ? Our TV had a row of buttons on the side they were the channel selectors when on TV and the Radio stations when on Radio.

[Radio Wrangler]

The LS was entirely passive. British relay had some banks of rather generous power amplifiers distributed around their network.

David

[Heatercathodeshort]

Originally Posted by slidertogrid

My mum always called them "BRW" British Relay Wireless ?

Your mum was right. John.

[Hartley118]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

The LS was entirely passive. British relay had some banks of rather generous power amplifiers distributed around their network.

David

Once British Relay evolved from radio programme distribution to TV distribution, the TV channels were modulated on an RF carrier. Did the radio programme distribution also then change from straight audio to channels on the TV carrier?

Here in Cambridge, much of the city was once served by British Relay, and some of their infrastructure still remains to be found by archaeology-inclined techies. In the early 1990s, a new enterprise, Cambridge Cable Ltd wired the city with coax cable which carried multiple TV channels and FM radio too - I still have the now-redundant cable feed to my FM tuner as an alternative to the antenna. Did British Relay use a similar system for radio on their cable?

Interestingly, that original Cambridge Cable coax infrastructure now supplies us with Virgin broadband internet at up to 500Mbps in addition to all the digital TV channels. Coax is great!

Incidentally, there's an interesting British Relay Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/British-Rel...=page_internal

It's full of nostalgic recollections from ex-employees.

Martin

[CambridgeWorks]

We saw a loudspeaker box with a name or logo, part of an old wired audio distribution system in Valletta, Malta. I imagine it dated back to WW2 or maybe post WW2?
ISTR it was in the QE11 bar, next to the entrance of the Lower Barrakka gardens.
If I find the picture, I will post it here.
Rob

[Mike Phelan]

Originally Posted by Hartley118

Incidentally, there's an interesting British Relay Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/British-Rel...=page_internal

It's full of nostalgic recollections from ex-employees.

Martin

As an ex-BRW employee, thanks for that link, Martin. Brings back memories

[slidertogrid]

David[/QUOTE]


Here in Cambridge, much of the city was once served by British Relay, and some of their infrastructure still remains to be found by archaeology-inclined techies.
Martin[/QUOTE]
A lot still remains here in Peterborough. this is a terminal box on my Mum's neighbours' house. Built in 1974 they were all wired for relay and even had a communal heating system. Both now long gone!

[dave walsh]

That is indeed a fascinating film and not at all as Londoncentric as I expected given the trip to Scotland. Here in Lancs I refer to the Ramsbottom Relay which is not a microwave link or cable system but a mini version of the Winter Hill TX next to the site of Grants Tower on the eastern heights and which fell down in 1944. From the 50's onwards we had a Redifusion cable system [multi stranded and operating at 9 megs which explains the AR88's in the British Relay short!] There was still a redifusion shop in the seventies and the cable only came off my house a decade or so ago! You changed channels via a box on the wall including radio programs which played through the set LS-no need to switch on.No front end tuner of course! I was never a Redifusion customer as the signal had improved by 1974 but others were loyal to the brand.

The town had been divided in the sense that those at the southern end of the valley could get the
Winter Hill signal but others were on cable and quite proud of it. I've never been able to find out how they got the WH signaL and transferred it to the distribution point however Or where that was? The shop was tucked under the westen side of the valley several hundred feet below the top and good reception.

When I started to visit Bexhill on Sea in 1998 I heard a lot about co channel intereference [pun intended] ie 405 lines and double that from France. Eventually i spotted a Rediffusion plate in the street and found that there was a Cable Company in Hastings set up to defeat the shadow images that also covered a number of locations including Bexhill and Shoreham where my brother in Law now lives. John Logi Baird lived in Bexhill from the start of the war. His death in June 1946 removed the possibility of him taking a look at this problem but his colour tv transmissions in 1936 [to cinemas] were carried out via telephone lines, another type of cable TV perhaps? In a sense now very up to date if you watch "on-line".

Dave W
Rammy

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by dave walsh

From the 50's onwards we had a Redifusion cable system [multi stranded and operating at 9 megs which explains the AR88's in the British Relay short!]

I don't think it does Dave.

As far as I know, those AR88s were configured as a diversity pairs to receive continental stations, principally Radio Luxembourg on medium-wave.

[dave walsh]

Well thanks for that info Graham. It was just a guess on my part really as I wouldn't have considered Luxemburg being on the radio station list [too far North in the Valley]. I wasn't on cable in the 70's as i said. When I moved into Ramsbottom full time [having visited since the mid sixties] it took me a while to realise that the Redifusion shop was a cable service I went to someone's house and he showed me the set up! He thought it was an advantage to have the "free" radio stations [even though he had radio sets in the house] and said I can get BBC radio as well! I'd lived in Stubbins at first [no cable and a mile away but it was now in Lancashire due to boundary changes [1974].This was much resented as locals felt Stubbins to be a part of "Rammy" . Some didn't even bother with Bury, shopping in Bolton! it was only when I relocated to a house in Ramsbottom itself
that I found the channel switch on the wall which Dave Moll is now the custodian of. Re the diversity set up you mentioned, I wonder if the people operating that in the fifties would have been doing the same sort of thing during the war? I believe there is a replica Diversity Set Up at Bletchley. I've an AR88 that seems to have been in that role. It's numbered 32 0n the front!

Dave



Dave Moll has put a picture of the wall switch on the Roger Ramjet thread re Cable TV in Leicester!

[Rich Woods]

I’ve posted in the Redifusion thread a question about any information about the 1950’s cable TV system used in Louth, Lincs. If anyone has any information, could you let me know please?