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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 1:16 am   #1
radiograham
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Default Supervertor.

Dug this out of the attic the other day, I remember we had this in the 70's to convert the local cable TV to a UHF signal, don't suppose I could find a use for it today?

Graham.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 9:59 am   #2
Welsh Anorak
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Default Re: Supervertor.

We used to supply a village on a cable system and used Labgear Televertas which are similar. However, I can't think of a use for it. Now if it worked the other way round...
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 10:13 am   #3
chriswood1900
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Looks like a simple up converter lifting the VHF channels on the Cable system into the UHF band for a standard TV. the only thought I had is it might work to lift the fixed 62Mhz modulator used in the cheap Chinese HDMI tv converters into something useful!
This is an example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-HDMI-...l/274325482875
There would need to be some tests to see if it had the range.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 12:58 pm   #4
akuram1
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Quote:
Originally Posted by radiograham View Post
Dug this out of the attic the other day, I remember we had this in the 70's to convert the local cable TV to a UHF signal, don't suppose I could find a use for it today?

Graham.
Was this to allow the system to feed a 625 only set?

See it was made by Teleng
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 2:13 pm   #5
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Surely, this was also be needed for a dual-standard set other than the very few in he UK that could receive 625 lines on VHF. Mostly, the system switch was between 405-line VHF and 625-line UHF only.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 2:32 pm   #6
AC/HL
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Found this on the net. Apologies for the piled up formatting, and the odd missing letter.

Quote:
More on foreign set conversion

I have rather a mixed bag this month, being mainly a round-up of all
those items which, for one reason or another, I have had to put aside
when they first came to hand. The most recent one, on converting over¬
seas colour sets, should be of particular interest to English migrants
planning to settle in Australia.


The following letter on converting f
overseas colour sets to suit Australian (
standards was prompted by the letter in
last September's notes, from Mr P. T. of (
Box Hill, Victoria, but it describes a quite t
different and very interesting approach t
to the problem. <

Dear Sir; '

I was interested to read -your column t
(September 1975) where Mr. P. T. '
described the conversion to Australian <
standards of a UK-standard colour TV i
set. I imported a Sony KV1330UB colour I
TV set from the UK last year; but took t
the precaution of first checking the costs
of conversion. UK readers might be t
interested to learn that a small company, <

Portatel Conversions, in Surrey (UK) /:
specialise in replacing front ends and t
retuning sound demodulators to con- i
form to Australian, South African, or any $
other standards. r

However a simpler; cheaper and (for f
a ham-fisted amateur) safer solution was c
to purchase a frequency converter to f
convert Australian VHF signals to the
UHF band, and to use the set's existing <
UHF tuner. Such frequency converters
are used in the UK in large blocks of c
home units, where CATV companies
install a UHF antenna with a UHF/VHF
converter and distribution amplifier near
the masthead. From there easily- <
manageable VHF signals are distributed t
to VHF sets (rented from the CATV com¬
pany), or to residents' own UHF TV sets, j

each equipped with the step-up con- \
verter on the antenna input. I bought this r
latter device—the "Teleng Superverter"— t
from Kindue Aerial Installations in Lon- (
don for about $25; it is mains powered
and draws only 1.3 W, so is left operating f
permanently. N

On arrival in Australia, the TV set (with t

converter) produced excellent colour t
pictures in the predicted positions on the ^
UHF dail (continuously variable on this
model) corresponding to the sum of the L
VHF channel frequency and the convert¬
er's local oscillator. (The "mirror image" I
of these frequencies, corresponding to c
the difference product, produced rather i

ELECTRONICS Australia, January, 1976


poorer colour pictures at the other end
of the dial.)

To receive the sound it was necessary
only to locate and adjust the sound IF
transformer, discriminator and sound
trap pre-sets in the same way as
described by your correspondent P.T.
The Sony service department in Sydney
were most helpful in providing this infor¬
mation. Additionally, I found that the
AFC reference frequency needed a slight
adjustment, possibly as a result of receiv¬
ing signals with a fractionally closer
frequency distribution of energy than in
the UK.

Should UHF TV ever become the Aus¬
tralian standard, I can simply discard the
converter. A word of warning to any
potential duty-dodgers, however—a set
must be owned and used by the intend¬
ing importer for at least 12 months before
shipping. Additionally, some foreign-
market sets (mine included) do not use
full PAL-D decoding, which means they
could display irritating Hanover Blinds in
problem reception areas.

Thank you for a most interesting
column which provides fascinating
"Whodunnits" for readers both inside
and outside the repair trade.

A.M.

Hornsby; NSW
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 4:21 pm   #7
Mr Hoover
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Default Re: Supervertor.

I remember Portatel Conversions mentioned
in the Australian article. Located in Sunbury on
Thames possibly? Think the owner was a
Mr Venell or similar name.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 4:26 pm   #8
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Here is a Tele-Verta of mine, as mentioned by Glyn above.

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In general, these were used in blocks of flats with aerial distribution systems that would have been too lossy at UHF frequencies. Initially a single VHF channel that did not clash with the existing 405 line VHF BBC/ITA services was assigned for BBC2, in Salford where I worked, this channel roughly corresponded to the System A Channel 8.

I disagree that dual standard sets that could work at VHF 405 and 625 were rare. Thorn, 850 900, 1400 come to mind as well as a Philips and RBM chassis whose push-button tuners could be preset for the combination of line standard and band.

BBC1 and ITV were duplicated on UHF at the end of 1969, and production of sets switched to single standard like the Thorn 1500

Now there was a need for two additional VHF channels, to be found in the VHF band for BBC1 & ITV 625 and these set-back boxes to convert the signals back to UHF.

I am sure it was all swept away long before Channel 4 came on the scene.


For any Premier League Rolex collectors watching, I've even found the "Box & Papers"
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 5:20 pm   #9
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Default Re: Supervertor.

I used to modify dual standard receivers to work on 'wired distribution' as it was called in London. It was only a matter of keeping the VHF oscillator running when switched to BBC2/625.
Receivers did not require a UHF tuner but needed to be fully dual standard of course.
To be honest I absolutely hated it! It was usually found linked in to older 405 line VHF communal aerial systems in local authority flats and was either grainy, covered in patterning, mushy sound, horrible or just completely unwatchable, probably due to lack of maintenance. I think the translator/amplifier cabinets were valve units manufactured by TELANG' [?] The channel used for BBC2 was band 1 channel 5 in London and the South East.
Luckily at that time and for a number of years there was little of interest on BBC2 so the terrible pictures were largely not viewed by Mr Average. John.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 5:51 pm   #10
1955APREN
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Reminds me of my servicing tv; s in mid Wales town of Newtown. No tv without one of these
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 6:29 pm   #11
dazzlevision
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort View Post
I think the translator/amplifier cabinets were valve units manufactured by TELANG' [?] John.

TELENG - TELefusion ENGineering Limited.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 7:39 pm   #12
akuram1
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Default Re: Supervertor.

High quality equipment for wired tv systems, amplifiers, tapper units and even signal strength meters.
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Old 2nd Jun 2020, 8:39 pm   #13
Welsh Anorak
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Default Re: Supervertor.

The system we owned/inherited was pretty good, and provided four channels with teletext and Nicam well into the Nineties, all upconverted at the subscriber's end. The furthest subscriber was over a mile from the aerial!
It was the adoption of Sky that did for it in the end.
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Old 3rd Jun 2020, 12:11 am   #14
radiograham
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Default Re: Supervertor.

I dont remember the set we had at the time only it would be about 1975,pretty sure it was 625 line not dual standard and we used the convertor to be able to use the wired distribution system .
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Old 5th Jun 2020, 11:12 am   #15
Welsh Anorak
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Yes - there was no need for a dual standard TV as the converter changed 625 line VHF to UHF. If you had a continental TV such as the Korting then you could just use an appropriate channel which some of our subscribers did, though these sets were pretty old by then.
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Old 5th Jun 2020, 12:51 pm   #16
Restoration73
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Default Re: Supervertor.

I remember we had a CM6022 in stock, a customer brought back a video game from the
US (c. 1980, NTSC) on ch. A3. Despite the loss of colour and sound the TV synched up OK
when tuned to the relevant uhf channel.
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Old 5th Jun 2020, 8:13 pm   #17
Ed_Dinning
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Default Re: Supervertor.

In our early married life we lived in a new block of flats in Stirling. This had all channels distributed on VHF. We had been given a Bush TV125 but without the UHF tuner.
It worked perfectly well on BBC2 by flipping the system switch

Ed
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Old 6th Jun 2020, 9:54 am   #18
mickm3for
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Hi here in Chatham a lot of the equiptment is still in place, old street cabinets
wiring along the houses etc, the system was Radio Rentals orignaly used for audio later for tv, In the latter early days of Sky they had a filter in the input to the Televerter to remove the scrambling frequency Radio Rentals put on the signal so they had a second Premium service. this included Sky, Eurosport, and Mtv, The filter could be made using a coax stub cut to the corect length.
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Old 13th Jun 2020, 12:40 am   #19
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Default Re: Supervertor.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Moll View Post
Surely, this was also be needed for a dual-standard set other than the very few in he UK that could receive 625 lines on VHF. Mostly, the system switch was between 405-line VHF and 625-line UHF only.
Many dual standard sets could be made to receive 625 VHF easily. I used to watch RTE on the 12-13 position on the VHF tuner when in Devon for example.

The upconverters were necessary for 625-line UHF only receivers, as the majority of UK colour sets were.

They were also useful for DXTV too of course.
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