18th Apr 2012, 12:04 pm | #121 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: 1966-1976 Coverack in Cornwall and Helston Cornwall. 1976-present Bristol/Bath area.
Posts: 2,967
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
We said goodbye to analogue TV from Mendip a couple of years ago. Due to the weather conditions I could only just about see CH5 from Croydon on CH37 via my DX setup, D100 tuner, loft mounted Grid aerial with low noise mast head amp. I just saw it drop out at 00:32 this morning. I watched the BBC1 announcement on my iphone.
So what next? I shall try and monitor the last analogue signals from Blue Bell Hill and perhaps Dover until June. Not sure whether Heathfield has already gone DSO or not so will have to check up on this.
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Simon BVWS member |
18th Apr 2012, 3:34 pm | #122 |
Hexode
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Billinge, Wigan, UK.
Posts: 492
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Well done John HKS I wish I could have done similar but no room here for vintage TV's sadly.
The analogue from C/P must have been on reduced power because I have not seen anything from C/P as the weak signal I have seen on CH 33 is Bilsdale off the side of the aerial and the same goes with Croydon. So I now will rotate the aerial and enjoy analogue from Bilsdale until autumn and I will upload my last reception from C/P with teletext clockcracker page as a way of my own celebration. Andy
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18th Apr 2012, 5:23 pm | #123 |
Hexode
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Location: Essex, UK.
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
"And finally....." > As used to be said on "That's Life"
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6.3v on my heaters is no longer enough to get me going in the morning!! |
18th Apr 2012, 5:46 pm | #124 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Dukinfield, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,038
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Quote:
I was quite upset when I finally got to bed. When you have spent all your working life with first of all monochrome analogue followed by the wonderful analogue PAL colour system, it is a wrench to suddenly realise it's gone forever. PAL in particular was a work of art, as was NTSC from which it was developed. All those bits and bobs to keep it sync'd up and behaving itself - the burst gates, the PLL'd s/c osc, the synchronous demods. The clever interleaving of the Luma and the chroma, the careful choice of frequencies and offsets, all to squeeze the best possible results out of the available technology. That was my life, that was.... And just look at what passes for a 'good picture' on Freeview! No fine detail to speak of, edge enhancement to give it the illusion of sharpness, odd-looking faces with spots and stubble that seem to move independently...
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Andy G1HBE. |
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18th Apr 2012, 7:20 pm | #125 |
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
One good thing about the DSO is the signals are up by 10dB or so, strong enough to use my pocket digital TV with it's weeny aerial downstairs 20 odd miles from CP. I got it for the supurb FM radio in it, better than any analogue FM radio I have used while walking. Now I can get the digital radio stations too (4extra is good and in stereo on DTV unlike DAB where it is mono).
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18th Apr 2012, 8:48 pm | #126 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
The signal from CP was incredible. Three of the receivers we were playing with employed valved UHF tuners [PC88/PC86] and operated grain free without aerials.
It really was great fun and I must thank Gerry for allowing us to cram his home with nasty television receivers. To be honest he absolutely loved it and we really did have a great time. A really good send off! Regards, John. |
18th Apr 2012, 9:02 pm | #127 | |
Tetrode
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Eastbourne, E. Sussex, UK.
Posts: 96
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Quote:
thanks Lau. |
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18th Apr 2012, 9:24 pm | #128 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
I doubt if the pictures would be good enough quality for the Bulletin Laurence but I certainly will post a few more here as I believe Petertheorgan will. Thanks by the way. J.
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18th Apr 2012, 9:30 pm | #129 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
I should add that we had a super display at Gerry's on Sunday. Loads of telly junk all working with guys bringing along their treasures for test. What with Auroras, distribution amplifiers, diplexers, the museum standard converter and dual standard receivers, it was a mind blowing experience to connect it all up. We had great fun meeting everyone. Gerry even put on his white laboratory coat. I'm still unpacking the plastic boxes containing all the leads and bits and bobs...J.
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18th Apr 2012, 11:35 pm | #130 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Devizes, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 650
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Hi John,
Please do let Carl have the pictures for the BVWS Bulletin. I am confident that they are good enough and certainly most interesting for the membership. Mike...
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Mike Barker. |
19th Apr 2012, 9:37 pm | #131 |
Dekatron
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Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Thanks Mike. I have had a word with Peter and he is going to forward me a few pictures of the closedown to add to mine. I will write a little article and let you have it ASAP. John.
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19th Apr 2012, 10:35 pm | #132 | |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 2,508
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Quote:
I could not help thinking during the day, as we twiddled with MPEG-2 encoded streams being squashed down to the minimum bitrate to allow dozens of connections from each gigabit port, that it was a step backwards. Even HD, crammed into 10Mbps of MPEG-4 (or worse, upsampled 720 over an HD channel where all the bandwith is being used up to encode the artefacts) looked like a crude, 'painting-by-numbers' imitation of the clean, natural pictures I had grown up with in the bygone era of analogue broadcast. Yes, bygone era, it took a while to sink in. Lucien |
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19th Apr 2012, 11:28 pm | #133 |
Hexode
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Bromley, Kent, UK.
Posts: 332
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Yes Lucien
you are correct ,,,,,,,it has been a little under the weather for some time but John W and I have just recapped it and now it is working beautifully , the photo is not really correct for the evening , but i will also add a photo of it showing analogue on the last night Peter |
19th Apr 2012, 11:32 pm | #134 |
Hexode
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Bromley, Kent, UK.
Posts: 332
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
a few more photos of the evening
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20th Apr 2012, 9:03 am | #135 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Peter, I can't help thinking, by the look of that picture, you appear to have come into contact with the mains EHT supply from that Philco we were working on. I don't remember you touching it but it only takes a split second of inattention...Come to think of it, by the look of my picture, I came into contact with it around 1960..
Really great pictures. John. PS I missed from the list the RGD TV/radiogram seen working behind Gerry. |
20th Apr 2012, 9:19 am | #136 | ||
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Killamarsh, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK.
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Quote:
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20th Apr 2012, 11:33 am | #137 | |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Faro, Portugal
Posts: 270
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
Quote:
Don't forget Crystal Palace was conducting 625 line tests from late 1957 and into 1958 on approximately Ch 44 (The Uhf channels weren't allocated till 1961) using 6.5 MHz intercarrier sound,some 405 transmissions were also made I believe. There then was a bit of a lull where narrowband squarewave signals were put out on the same frequency for propagation tests. By 1961-62 Ch 44 was back doing colour tests and joined by Ch 34 to enable Secam and NTSC comparisons in real time,not sure if 6.5 or 6MHz audio was used then.Possibly even Pal was included by mid 1963. Towards the end of 1963 Ch 34 was converted to 33 in preparation for the start of BBC 2 and 44 went off the air. Old Practical TV magazines have a lot of references to all this activity. Cheers Hugh Hugh |
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21st Apr 2012, 9:55 pm | #138 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK.
Posts: 848
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Re: Crystal Palace DSO is looming...
It mey be just me, but now I turn on my TV and see just static I lose enthusiasm to even turn on the digital converter. My enthusiasm to watch live TV has waned and I am turning to my collection of tapes instead.
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