Television magazine
 

One of todays bank holiday tasks was to fill the van with junk from the
loft, so the expedition ventured into the far corners. On top of a 'new in
box' squarial was a pile of 'Television' magazines from the late 70's,
early 80's. Apart from noticing how expensive everything was back then, the
covers struck me most. They seemed to alternate between a geek buried behind
a mountain of test equipment and a bird in her undies smiling to camera as
she holds out an obscure piece of TV innards. Times change.

"Dave Walker" wrote in message ...
One of todays bank holiday tasks was to fill the van with junk from the
loft, so the expedition ventured into the far corners. On top of a 'new in
box' squarial was a pile of 'Television' magazines from the late 70's,
early 80's. Apart from noticing how expensive everything was back then, the
covers struck me most. They seemed to alternate between a geek buried behind
a mountain of test equipment and a bird in her undies smiling to camera as
she holds out an obscure piece of TV innards. Times change.

I've got some old editions of Empire somewhere...

"Dave Walker" wrote in message
...
One of todays bank holiday tasks was to fill the van with junk from
the
loft, so the expedition ventured into the far corners. On top of a
'new in
box' squarial was a pile of 'Television' magazines from the late
70's,
early 80's. Apart from noticing how expensive everything was back
then, the
covers struck me most. They seemed to alternate between a geek
buried behind
a mountain of test equipment and a bird in her undies smiling to
camera as
she holds out an obscure piece of TV innards. Times change.

The letters page, as times changed, had various one man TV repair
outfits writing to lament the increasingly uneconomic progress of the
trade. While they were individuals of integrity trying to do a good
job, customers were taking an increasingly hostile view as repair
bills a substantial part of the cost of a new set. I believe this led
many businesses to subsidise the repair side from the sales side just
to keep the customers sweet.

The consequence of this was for many to restrict service/repairs to
the equipment they had sold, since if they did not, consumers bought
cheaper at the sheds but came to them for the service subsidised by
their own customers.

I wonder how the numbers who were forced to change trades/learn new
skills, compare to those in the more publicised aspects of the decline
of the traditional smoke stack industries.

Roger

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:47:04 +0100, "Dave Walker"
wrote:

One of todays bank holiday tasks was to fill the van with junk from the
loft, so the expedition ventured into the far corners. On top of a 'new in
box' squarial was a pile of 'Television' magazines from the late 70's,
early 80's. Apart from noticing how expensive everything was back then, the
covers struck me most. They seemed to alternate between a geek buried behind
a mountain of test equipment and a bird in her undies smiling to camera as
she holds out an obscure piece of TV innards. Times change.


Thanks for the post. At least you answered one question I have been
pondering over for the last couple of weeks. What to do with my loft
full of Television magazines going back to the early 70's. Bin them
seems to be the answer!

I Got out of the trade before I even started. Just kept the
subscription going to keep up with things. Glad I did. Too much work
for not enough money.

One other question perhaps you can answer. I can't remember if it was
in an early Television magazine or at college. I seem to remember I
heard the following comment. It was to do with Digital Television
(just a glint in the eye then). However I seem to recall that the big
selling point for Digital Television would be that ghosting and
reflected signals would be a thing of the past. the Television
reciever would be able to lock onto the strongest signal and ignore
the rest. Thereby a perfect signal every time and no need to worry
about small local transmitters being on the same frequency as the
reciever would take care of that interference problem. So a lot less
channels needed. So not sure if it the official line or just the
thoughts of a professional (semi-professional !)

Can't remember that one, but in the very early 80's the answer was cable. By
2000 we would all have cable, plenty of bandwidth, ability to carry 'pay to
view' channels and the end to all those aerials and transmitters. Parts of
Milton Keynes pioneered this new innovation, along with a new 'scrambled'
( erm, video inverted actually ) channel called ' SKY '

In message , Dave Walker
wrote

Can't remember that one, but in the very early 80's the answer was cable. By
2000 we would all have cable,

And then came along Telewest who seriously p***d off so many of their
potential customers when installing the system.

--
Alan

In article , Dave Walker
writes
Can't remember that one, but in the very early 80's the answer was cable. By
2000 we would all have cable, plenty of bandwidth, ability to carry 'pay to
view' channels and the end to all those aerials and transmitters. Parts of
Milton Keynes pioneered this new innovation, along with a new 'scrambled'
( erm, video inverted actually ) channel called ' SKY '

Basildon, Essex had a cable system in the 50's that continued to operate
until recently. Apparently local bylaws prevented houses being fitted
with external aerials which the town planners considered unsightly -
hard to believe if you have ever been to Basildon!

It was a pretty primitive system with about a dozen channels including
TV and radio all on separate bits of copper selected from a dial switch
on the wall of each house. Audio was at baseband with the video
modulated onto that at some RF, which required some form of adapter to
feed into a normal TV.

Don't recall too much about it apart from being able to hang an 8ohm
speaker directly on the cable output and listen to the TV or radio
without actually having a set, although they did frown on that as it
tended to blow drivers up if too many people on the same line did it.
;-)
--
Kennedy
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's ****ed.
Python Philosophers (replace 'nospam' with 'kennedym' when replying)

In article , says...
Can't remember that one, but in the very early 80's the answer was cable. By
2000 we would all have cable, plenty of bandwidth, ability to carry 'pay to
view' channels and the end to all those aerials and transmitters. Parts of
Milton Keynes pioneered this new innovation, along with a new 'scrambled'
( erm, video inverted actually ) channel called ' SKY '



I had a cable tv rented from Rediffusion in the 1960's. It was only one
cable and only worked on their special TV set. The controls were on a
wall switch between the cable entry and the TV. The sound and picture
were excellent for those days, though only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, in black
and white. It also downloaded FM radio, and although power was required
for television viewing, the radio worked without it.
--
gbh
gbh04 is a spamtrap
all post is deleted

"gbh" wrote in message
...
In article , says...
Can't remember that one, but in the very early 80's the answer was cable.
By
2000 we would all have cable, plenty of bandwidth, ability to carry 'pay
to
view' channels and the end to all those aerials and transmitters. Parts
of
Milton Keynes pioneered this new innovation, along with a new 'scrambled'
( erm, video inverted actually ) channel called ' SKY '

I had a cable tv rented from Rediffusion in the 1960's. It was only one
cable and only worked on their special TV set. The controls were on a
wall switch between the cable entry and the TV. The sound and picture
were excellent for those days, though only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, in black
and white. It also downloaded FM radio, and although power was required
for television viewing, the radio worked without it.

Yes I remember my brother having that sort of setup in Bristol.

--
Max Demian

"Max Demian" wrote in message
...
"gbh" wrote in message
...
In article , says...
Can't remember that one, but in the very early 80's the answer was
cable. By
2000 we would all have cable, plenty of bandwidth, ability to carry 'pay
to
view' channels and the end to all those aerials and transmitters. Parts
of
Milton Keynes pioneered this new innovation, along with a new
'scrambled'
( erm, video inverted actually ) channel called ' SKY '

I had a cable tv rented from Rediffusion in the 1960's. It was only one
cable and only worked on their special TV set. The controls were on a
wall switch between the cable entry and the TV. The sound and picture
were excellent for those days, though only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV, in black
and white. It also downloaded FM radio, and although power was required
for television viewing, the radio worked without it.

Yes I remember my brother having that sort of setup in Bristol.

I had Rediffusion cable in Gateshead in the 60s and early 70s and it was
awful. Moved to Washington (a New Town on Wearside) in the early 70s and
they had cable TV (BBC and ITV Tyne Tees plus Yorkshire TV) to which some
satellite channels were later added on a subscription basis. It was managed
by the Post Office (later BT) and wasn't bad - immensely superior to
Rediffusion.

JohnT

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 15:38:19 +0100, "JohnT"
wrote:


"


I had Rediffusion cable in Gateshead in the 60s and early 70s and it was
awful. Moved to Washington (a New Town on Wearside) in the early 70s and
they had cable TV (BBC and ITV Tyne Tees plus Yorkshire TV) to which some
satellite channels were later added on a subscription basis. It was managed
by the Post Office (later BT) and wasn't bad - immensely superior to
Rediffusion.

JohnT

Was there not a company called British Relay who also ran cable
systems in some towns? ISTR in some provincial town in the past couple
of years the council got involved as the abandoned cables were causing
a nuisance. Threatening to fall of lampposts or something.
G.Harman