[Synchrodyne]

To add a little to the channel “E1” saga, the ITU Stockholm 1952 (ST52) allocation documentation did not include channel numbers for any of the TV systems, just the channel frequency details. It looks as if it had been left to individual country administrations to assign channel numbers, and this was in fact the case for the UK, France and Italy (and later on, quite a few other countries outside of Europe).

On the other hand, Kerkhof and Werner (K&W) did refer to the 625-line (later System B) 7 MHz channels by the Roman numerals I through X, noting that I was a “short” 6 MHz channel, 41-47 MHz, then unusable, but possibly usable in the future if extended down to 40 MHz.

Whether the Roman numeral channel numbering was formal or informal is unknown, but it did point the way to the future numbering, including “E1”.

K&W published in 1952, but probably their writings represented the situation in the first half of 1951. For example, the French 819-line channelling plan shown is the original based upon 14 MHz spacing, whereas ST52 was based upon the definitive tête bêche plan, with 13.15 MHz spacing. Also, there was no mention of the Swiss proposal to use 5-pack rather than 6-pack sets of equalizing pules, which came out of the CCIR Geneva 1951 meeting.

K&W made no mention of the Russian 625-line system (which was the original with that line count), or its channelling plan. That omission may have been due to the cold war politics of the era. Also omitted was what became System N, in use in Argentina from 1951 September as far as I know. In this case, remoteness may have been a reason for its non-mention, although the first transmitter using this standard was a 1949 experimental installation in Torino, Italy.

Incidentally, ST52 included one assignment (Tours) for what became French channel F3. This was never used as planned, and was effectively made unusable when the standard receiver IF (28.05 MHz VIF) was adopted circa 1955. So F3 was another “ghost” channel.

I have attached scans of the pertinent K&W pages.

The ITU Stockholm 1961 (ST61) allocation documentation did not include any channel numbers for the VHF TV transmitters. But it did include the channel numbers for the UHF TV transmitters, one imagines because these were part of the uniform plan. This documentation also included the first use of System letters, A through L, for most of the various TV transmission standards then extant. (M, N and K’ were added a little later.) And the letters were shown for both the VHF and UHF cases.

All of this does leave the question - under whose aegis were the European E-series VHF channel numbers developed and promulgated. Perhaps the EBU? Some more research is indicated.


Cheers,