Quote:
Originally Posted by terrykc
Courtesy of Alan Pemberton whose useful work has been archived here:
https://www.radios-tv.co.uk/Pembers/...ystems.html#E1
E1
The explanation from the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) is as follows:
The 41-68MHz Band I television allocation was agreed at the 1947 ITU (International Telecommunications Union) conference in 1947, and the first European channel plan was agreed in 1952 at the ITU conference in Stockholm. System B was at that time used by about a dozen stations and only three 7MHz-wide channels could be accommodated within the 27MHz allocation, so they were defined as 47-54MHz, 54-61MHz and 61-68MHz at the top of the band, leaving a 6MHz space empty at the low frequency end. This chunk of spectrum was not officially deleted from the plan until the 1961 Stockholm ITU conference, but in the meantime setmakers and others in the industry seem to have expected something to appear there and had named the other channels E2 - E4.
However, a few transmitters were known to use either 'E1', 40-47MHz, or 'E1A', 41-48MHz, during the 'forties or 'fifties, including ones in Bremen, West Germany, and at the Philips factory in Eindhoven in The Netherlands. |
This part does not seem to be right:
”This chunk of spectrum [41 to 47 MHz] was not officially deleted from the plan until the 1961 Stockholm ITU conference, but in the meantime setmakers and others in the industry seem to have expected something to appear there and had named the other channels E2 - E4.”
The ST61 documents show Band I as covering 41 to 68 MHz, as per the ITU 1947 original allocation.
As previously noted, ST61 did not show VHF channel numbers, only frequencies, and it is true that System B allocations started at 47 MHz, with none in the 41 to 47 MHz range. But the lower part of Band I remained in use and documented in ST61, examples being channels B1 and F2.
This list of European VHF TV channel numbers is from Wireless World (WW) 1959 March:
The information in the whole article was said to have come from the broadcasting organizations themselves and the EBU. So the ITU seems not to have been involved. The VHF channel numbers all have letter prefixes, as follows:
B for the UK (Britain, or really, UKOBANI)
E for Europe (Western Europe)
O for OIRT countries (Eastern Europe)
F for France
Where the above channel numbers were determined by appropriate in-country authorities (GPO in the UK?), it seems unlikely that the designating instrument included the letter prefixes. More likely they were added post facto, and perhaps informally. But their inclusion in the WW article suggests that by 1959 they either had a very strong de facto presence or had become de jure, perhaps adopted and promulgated by the EBU. Given that the ITU opted to stay away from the VHF channel numbering party, the EBU seems to fall into the “usual suspect” category. (I haven’t found mention in any CCIR meeting documents, particularly those dealing with the details of the various TV transmission systems.)
One wonders if the above quoted EBU missive on VHF channels was compiled by someone without full access to the history.
By the way, WW detailed the Italian VHF channels A through H in the country entry for Italy; these were shown without the “I” prefix sometimes used.
Cheers,