405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

[dglcomp]

One of the TV's upstairs at what was my Grans would sort of work on digital with just the aerial lead connected and going nowhere (Bushfield Rd. Crewkerne, receiving Mendip) and in another room a loop antenna fixed to an old Fidelity CTV could receive digital before switchover.
I also remember going to an engineering training place on the Granby in Weymouth/Chickerell and whilst waiting to be picked up watching TV on an Amstrad TV/VCR with no aerial socket! (it had broken off), I know that the Weymouth transmitter in Wyke is very strong there.

[Peter.N.]

We used the Wyke transmitter here on the east side of Charmouth for a while until they put in a repeater on Stonebarrow hill. We had a problem with it though, at certain times of the day BBC2 would fade out for a while, we came to the conclusion that it was 'tidal fading' at certain tide heights you would get an anti phase signal reflected off the sea.

Peter

[G6Tanuki]

Seen yesterday in Bristol, on the roof of what is now a Polish 'corner-shop'.

The short-ish BI single-dipole, and orientation of the BIII elements [which couple to the BI dipole] suggests it was once tasked with receiving BBC from Wenvoe and ITV from St.Hilary from across the Bristol Channel.

[Mr Hoover]

Doesn't look like it was in one of the more
difficult reception areas in Bristol.

[Hybrid tellies]

It looks like this was aerial is in a good reception spot for 405 line TV reception. BBC1 from Wenvoe on ch5 and HTV on ch10 from St Hilary.
On the whole 405 line reception from the transmitters, both located in South Wales, across Bristol was pretty good. I think the bad or black spots were covered by cable TV.

[KeithsTV]

Spotted this "new" installation last Sunday in the soon to be opened 50s section at the Beamish Museum.

Are they hoping for the resumption of 405 line transmissions?

Keith

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Hybrid tellies

It looks like this was aerial is in a good reception spot for 405 line TV reception. BBC1 from Wenvoe on ch5 and HTV on ch10 from St Hilary.
On the whole 405 line reception from the transmitters, both located in South Wales, across Bristol was pretty good. I think the bad or black spots were covered by cable TV.

Yes, given that a significant part of the signal-path was across water, I would expect good reception, though tidally-induced multipath could perhaps be an issue?

"Telly's on the blink again".... "No, that's the Severn Bore¬!"

[Hybrid tellies]

I think it also helped that the Avon Gorge or the River Avon valley went the right direction enabling both VHF 405 line signals from St Hilary and Wenvoe to propagate into and across Bristol.

[Peter.N.]

Originally Posted by KeithsTV

Spotted this "new" installation last Sunday in the soon to be opened 50s section at the Beamish Museum.

Are they hoping for the resumption of 405 line transmissions?

Keith

Only on Band 111 apparently. The other one is VHF radio is it not? I take it that is in the '50s town. We will be up there later in the year.

Peter

[KeithsTV]

It could be but the nearby Pontop Pike Band 1 transmitter was on channel 5 and horizontally polarised.

The ITV transmitter was at Burnhope, also not too far away, and was opened in 1959 so that house could be dated to the very late 50s.

We're planning to return sometime in May to see the new section.

Keith

[Peter.N.]

Yes it occurred to me after I wrote that could be the case. In Kent we were on channel 1 Alexandra Palace then Crystal palace and our dipoles were nearly 11' long so never came across Ch5 or horizontal band 1 antennas.

Thinking about it there is only about 10 mhz difference between the top of band 1 and the bottom of band 2 so could be either. We will see what's connected to the other end of it when we go.

Peter

[KeithsTV]

It doesn't look as if there's a cable connected to either aerial. Perhaps it's still Work in Progress!

Keith

[ntscuser]

The larger of the two aerials appears to be rotated thorugh forty-five degrees which I would expect if it was a FM aerial?

[dub_boi]

When I was a young child, the skyline of Dublin was crowded with enormous aerials, typically a 5-element Band I pointing north for BBC1 from Divis and a 12-element Band III pointing east for HTV Wales from Arfon. After restrictions on cable TV were relaxed in 1974, 'piped' tv quickly spread across the city and such aerials became largely redundant.
There are a few still around, typically now toothless affairs with most elements missing. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find a relatively intact example on the roof of a 1960s-era nursing home recently in the north Dublin suburbs. In this case, the Band III is pointing north for UTV from Black Mountain, which possibly offered better reception at this particular location.

[Rich Woods]

Cool

[marceljack]

Was it really for reception of british transmitters ?
I thought the 405 lines TXs were all in vertical polarisation ...

[Mr Hoover]

Originally Posted by marceljack

Was it really for reception of british transmitters ?
I thought the 405 lines TXs were all in vertical polarisation ...

No, not all.Ch 1 and Ch 9 Belfast were horizontal
which these were aimed at.
East Anglia was a horizontal area as was the Northeast.
A lot of the band 1 low power relays were horizontal as well.

[dub_boi]

Originally Posted by marceljack

Was it really for reception of british transmitters ?
I thought the 405 lines TXs were all in vertical polarisation ...

Arfon on Ch 10 was also horizontally polarised, and such aerials were were common in Dublin. As a kid I remember the first time I saw vertically polarised aerials directed at Brougher Mountain on ch5 and thinking 'why are they the wrong way around?'!.

[Rich Woods]

I think the amount of survivals of large 405 line TV aerials is a testament to the quality of installation work at the time. Definitely not bodge it & scarper!

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by dub_boi

When I was a young child, the skyline of Dublin was crowded with enormous aerials, typically a 5-element Band I pointing north for BBC1 from Divis and a 12-element Band III pointing east for HTV Wales from Arfon. After restrictions on cable TV were relaxed in 1974, 'piped' tv quickly spread across the city and such aerials became largely redundant.
There are a few still around, typically now toothless affairs with most elements missing. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to find a relatively intact example on the roof of a 1960s-era nursing home recently in the north Dublin suburbs. In this case, the Band III is pointing north for UTV from Black Mountain, which possibly offered better reception at this particular location.

There were still some huge Band I arrays south of Dublin when I was last in the Republic in the 90s, clearly visible from the DART train. They were VP and pointing east, presumably working Holme Moss which was quite a stretch. I imagine they'll all have fallen down by now.

You're right, all the pubs seemed to be using cable by then, but the hotel at Dublin airport seemed to be getting a UHF off air feed from Divis for some reason.