[Oldmadham]

In late '50s/early '60s rural Australia, 32v DC generators were relatively common, both diesel/petrol, or wind operated.

In either case, they charged up a big bank of batteries so supply could be maintained with the generator not operating, the batteries also helped to stabilise the DC output to the home, workshops, etc when it was running.

"Inverters" were popular to allow a normal 240v TV to operate.
Some were rotary ones, but they were expensive.

By far the most prevalent ones used a "vibrator power supply", similar to those in car radios of the time, except that they operated at 50Hz, & both the vibrator & its associated transformer were very large.

They also had 50ft telescopic masts with massive antenna arrays to try to receive capital city stations, which for the first few years were all there was.

It is surprising to hear that people in the Scottish Highlands had similar problems.