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Old 19th Apr 2014, 2:44 pm   #21
Hybrid tellies
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

Our first BBC2 TV was new dual standard rented GEC black and white set back in 1969. Despite being 40 miles away from the main Caradon Hill transmitter living in a coastal village and only permitted to use a loft aerial the reception was not too bad. It was better a year later when we upgraded to another GEC dual standard black and white TV which used a hybrid chassis. This set also had a UHF push button tuner, instead of the rotary one, and I remember well watching BBC1 and Westward TV opening up on UHF 625 from Caradon Hill sometime in 1970 or 1971.

BBC2 seemed to have a big draw with programmes such as Dave Allan, The World About us, a programme of silent movies and that David Bellamy programme about life on the sea beds around the UK. Only a few people in the village had colour tv and remember watching Pot Black on a friend's Pye 26" colour set which I think used either the 693 or 697 chassis.
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 8:17 am   #22
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

I note the BBC2 celebrations on the BBC websites don't mention the testcards.

Also I missed the Science Muesuem call for papers
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/abou...0412A2FA8&_z=z A poor webpage for a science entity as it appears to be undated and the closing date of 7th October didn't specify a year (and its not a cached page either ). Meanwhile for next weekend the resulting conference anyway is still on it seems. http://bbctwo50th.wordpress.com/
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 9:48 am   #23
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

I have mentioned this before on the Forum but as it's a 50th year celebration, I will repeat some of my exploits.
BBC2 began transmissions [just about] in April 1964. I was 15 at the time and of course in my white heat period. I converted a 17" Pye Continental to 625 UHF by modifying the video output, line oscillator and sound stages. An FM sound unit was employed from a Ferguson 436T obtained from a radio dealer for nothing that had come to grief in a fall.
Results were quite good with a three element aerial obtained from 'TELECRAFT'. The signal in Wimbledon was very strong but very slight grain could be seen on receivers with the then universal valve tuners utilizing the famous PC88 and PC86 valves and this with a signal fed from a loft aerial with low loss co-ax cable. Indoor aerials were useless..
Programme content from the start was poor lacking general appeal. It was television's version of the Third programme and let's be honest, if the pair of them had been turned off for good in 1968, I doubt if it would have made more than a few lines in the papers.
The tuning drives were a total nightmare and the lack of AFC that could have been incorporated at very low cost, resulted in tuning drift that was a serious problem with the early push button tuners that rarely landed in the same position twice..
The popular Pye 11U had a tangle of drive cord that just siezed solid after a bit of twiddling in the vain attempt to lock a signal. The Pye tuner [HOPT] was very low gain and considering Pye had been pushing for 625 UHF for many years, launching a full dual standard receiver complete with UHF tuner in 1961[V700D] I considered this a poor show especially as Pye produced very high gain VHF tuners from 1954. The Thorn valve tuners sat about mid way gain wise but the best of all was the unit manufactured by Philips. It had a Polythene cover with a copper screening sheet underneath. Other than the usual valve failure, these units almost reached the gain of the transistor units that became universal around 1965.
Fortunately for me the rubbish, dreary and unwanted programmes on BBC2 did me a very big favour. There was literally no interest in BBC2 and even owners of full dual standard receivers could not be bothered to install the required UHF aerial, a complete reversal of the situation in 1955 when the ITA fired up on channel 9 at Croydon. This extended the life of 405 receivers by at least 8 years and service work together with a brisk turn over in reconditioned receivers, kept me very busy until colour was introduced in 1967/69.
Do you remember the advertising logo of BBC2? Hullabaloo and Custard I think they were called. A Kangaroo and a little 'en in the pouch. Totally uninspiring and forgotton by the public.
To add to the misery the pictures lacked the sparkle that 405 line viewers had got used to. Pictures appeared grey and lack lustre often with an intercarrier buzz or sizzle on sound that was difficult to eliminate. AGC 'lock out' was another iritating nuisance. Remember, BBC2 had been sold to us with the suggestion that the pictures would be very much clearer on 625 with crisp FM sound...The guy that thought that one up probably moved on in life to sell double glazing in the 70's.
Things improved in the later 60's with push button tuners that stayed on tune such as the RBM 640 chassis and slightly better programmes but thinking about this, they were so few that I feel they could have been fitted into the BBC1 schedule.
My first 'proper' dual standard receiver was a Thorn 850 that I cobbled together with a Sylvania 23SP4 tube and a home made cabinet. It looked like something out of the 'Silence of the Lambs' but did perform well. The 850 Chassis was another broken wreck obtained from the same local dealer. A couple of Decca receivers followed before the purchase of a Murphy 22" colour receiver CTV2210D in 1968. Yes half a century..
Regards, John.
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 12:32 pm   #24
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

As John says the 625 pictures on early dual standard black and white sets were not to good always looking grey and flat compared to 405 line pictures. Mean level AGC, AC video coupling and AM- video modulation do not work well together. Looking back I think it was only the RBM with their A640 chassis which somehow provided good pictures and sound on both systems.
Thankfully things did improve with colour sets and single standard 625 black and white sets with the use of sync tip or line gated AGC and DC video coupling. Although some set makers, for some reason, still stuck with AC video coupling to the CRT with the resultant grey flat picture with no black level.
But despite the slow start by the late 1960's I can remember that because of the programmes BBC2 were now airing, under David Attenborough's leadership, BBC2 started to draw larger audiences which was reflected by the large number of UHF TV aerials appearing on the skyline.
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 2:38 pm   #25
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

The Pye/Ecko UHF tuners were very deaf, but I had a T433? Ecko set we used from about 1969 to 74 and being in a good location for Winter Hill the pictures were excellent, we used it on UHF only.
The RBM range certainly had good pictures, with was it DC coupled or black level clamp, cannot remember. The biggest complaint we had was the screen going black between captions etc. it was difficult to persuade some customers that was how it should be, they had got used to the mean level AGC giving a grey screen.
We did not have BBC 2 until 1969 but I did enjoy many programs from then onwards, but was not a popular station at that time.

Inter carrier buzz, I did not have too much of a problem with that once the alignment was done, but that was perhaps the sets we sold, I know some makes were not good in this respect. The only one I do remember was a Pye/Ecko single standard, their first one I think with a TBA570 if, apologies if that is wrong, it took a while to get a fix from Pye which was tacking a low value resistor, a few K across a couple of pins on the IC, no more problems after that.
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 3:00 pm   #26
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

Yes Frank. I had a number of customers that complained of screen blanking with the A640 chassis. Once they had viewed the receiver for a while they tended to get used to it but I suspect it was the outstanding picture that won them over.
A640, Without doubt the chassis that finally brought BBC2 into the living room reliably but still no AFC! The tuner had 100% reset, the only tuner I can recall that was capable. It was used in the dual standard colour receivers without AFC and I can only remember resetting the tuner a couple of times in 11 years. They don't make them like that anymore..John.
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 3:48 pm   #27
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

One thing is sure, the Journalists always seem to find the wrong sets for any vintage TV related matters.
From the the Daily Mail's Weekend supplement. A picture of a Continental TV set. Surely the classic early BBC2 ready set would have been the Pye V700DU or a BRC 850 model of 1963.

BBC2 came to the North-East of England in mid 1966.

DFWB.
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Old 21st Apr 2014, 3:58 pm   #28
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Default Re: 50 years of BBC2 this year.

...and it wouldn't have been in colour!

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