100 years of BBC
 

On the 10pm news tonight, they were celebration the BBC 100 years since first broadcast. Some time in the Science museum (I think), but it was first "trailed" with the announcement "2LO calling, 2LO calling" and there were two superimposed whistles, though not in the Science museum part.
Am I right in thinking such whistles are always superhet receiver related, and that there was no such thing 100 years ago?
OK, just me being picky, or WRONG,but would like to be certain.
Les.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

A beat between two carriers has always been so, no need for a superhet to show this up.
But, back then the chances were pretty minimal to be sure.
The people who produce this stuff wouldn't have a clue in reality.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Whistles from maladjusted super-regen receivers quite common in days before superhets. Superhets were the cure for these problems.

But as said above, the producers of these programmes aren't likely to have a clue.

There are unwritten laws in film and broadcasting: If an old radio is shown, there must be whistles as sound effects. If a horse is seen, there must be a whinny or snort heard, even if you can see it keeps its gob shut... and so on.

David

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

As Eckersley said - "Don't do it, please don't do it"! I recall having a fist shaken at me from next door when messing around with a one-valve regen. receiver!

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

It always amuses me that when a vintage radio is shown in use or implied that a recording made in the days of lively short wave that many of us remember of the tuning dial being quickly turned always seems to be inserted.

To be fair, though they may sometimes be clueless, a lot of the people making these features they will have minimum time to do it. They grab the first thing in the SFX library and any further research is out of the question. The second rule is that drama is more important than accuracy.

In my experience, when similar situations have cropped up and my knowledge has allowed me to lend some authenticity I have often been slapped down. The ‘suits’ are only interested in shifting the job: what can be got away with and that the average customer will accept is the norm.

When pointing out the most glaring of issues to one very frustrating fellow I worked with his usual response was a cussed “I don’t care!”

I used to make a note on the job sheet of the conversation in case there should be some come back. Our stuff had longer exposure to scrutiny than a TV or radio programme.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

These programmes and news features are made for a general audience, most of whom will have no understanding of the issues involved. The 'olden days' cues used for TV footage are even worse - monochrome conversion, fake dirt on the image, desaturated colour, bizarre 'lines' supposedly simulating 405 pictures etc. The assumption seems to be that the audience consists of idiots (which may actually be accurate in many cases).

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

I have seen much more recent archive (around 20 years old or less) video broadcast getting this 'horizontal lines' treatment too, (and this on footage that was archived by broadcasters, not a domestic recording).
Is it to simulate analogue co-channel interference? (and if so, what's the point? and It isn't as if everyone suffered from it, and if they did it might only have been occasional)

Co-channel with analogue, where offsets were used, led to a very fine venetian blind pattern similar to the above effect deliberately done on some archive footage when rebroadcast

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

The attached is from "Wireless Constructor" May 1925.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence* of the American** people – HL Mencken

* taste is often substituted

** Other nationalities are available and are no doubt similar in this respect

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

As I was watching the news about the 100years of the BBC I noticed a shot of aerials above a row of houses, so just had to go on iPlayer and take a screen grab. Imagine the radiated signal from one of these with an oscillating regen!

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

I would be more inclined to respect the BBC overall if they reiterated their catastrophic shortcomings regards Cliff Richard, and also the Late Late Breakfast Show. (to mention but two.) All i heard them say on the day of the centenary was their history had 'sometimes been tragic'. To mark this occasion i feel some humble pie is due, even if it's not the first serving.

If they've already done this, then i withdraw the criticism- to some extent.

Dave

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

That's a classic. I'm sure it appeared in non-technical publications of the time too.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Amazing pic, thank you. All obsolete (for "local" stations) as soon as the ferrite rod came along, I suppose.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

By the mid-30s the coming of cheap superhets and frame-aerials made things a lot easier; even a 'poverty superhet' - some of the Round Ecko types - [frequency-changer, IF stage and a diode detector feeding a 'high slope' pentode output valve like the EBL31] would work well-enough to receive the BBC when fed from a 15-foot-long indoor bit-of-wire stapled to the pelmet/picture-rail.

Long outdoor wires were so consigned to the crystal-set or TRF types, or those more interested in hearing transatlantic/European stations on their upmarket six- or seven-valve radiograms/consoles.

Ferrite rods were a post-WWII invention.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Most houses retained their longwire aerials until the 60s though, and most 50s 'main sets' still expected an external aerial. There was no reason for people to take them down unless they fell down in a gale. My parents' modest interwar semi still had a longwire until about 1965 - I remember the knife switch on the windowsill for use in thunderstorms.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Yes, as a kid we had a knife switch on the window frame connected to nothing at all (this was the seventies) It had a token ceramic handle.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

So that's what it was for !.

My Gran's house had a knife switch on a window frame. It was about 2 inches long, and had been painted over so many times it was hard to recognise it at all. There were no signs of wires, so I had no idea what it could be switching.

Now I know.

Thanks,

Buzby

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Knife switches were indeed often left in place when the wiring was removed, sometimes because they were firmly painted in place after several coats of Dulux, and sometimes because removal would require redecoration.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

I never came across knife-switches, though I _do_ remember in the 1960s getting a tingle when as a junior-school kid I '[ecovered' a porcelain Egg-insulator from a disused wire-antenna that clearly was still connected to an AC/DC receiver.

Re: 100 years of BBC
 

Sorry but I have never heard of these. What was a Knife Switch? LOL