1957: TV Comes to the SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS!

[G6Tanuki]

This was just the single BBC channel transmitted from Rosemarkie; Grampian ITV arrived from the Mounteagle transmitter in the very-early 60s.

https://youtu.be/WJADK-pscxY

Can anyone ID the portable-TV shown??

[Cobaltblue]

Looks like a PYE PTV

https://www.snellingsmuseum.co.uk/ar...sion/pye-p-t-v

Cheers

Mike T

[Chris R]

Excellent choice of sites.
We had a radio station on the Black Isle at nearby Callachy. Amazing coverage in all directions Low band, High band and UHF.

Chris R

[HamishBoxer]

One poor soul saying they cannot get a tv as no electric, terrible as late as 1957.

[trh01uk]

Originally Posted by HamishBoxer

One poor soul saying they cannot get a tv as no electric, terrible as late as 1957.

I'm told by someone who moved to my town in 1947, and who worked in the TV installation business, that remoter farms hereabouts (in Herefordshire) didn't get mains electricity until well into the 1960s.

Most of them had generators but I gather it was difficult getting a TV to work on the rather garbled mains supply they offered.


Richard

[pmmunro]

Originally Posted by HamishBoxer

One poor soul saying they cannot get a tv as no electric, terrible as late as 1957.

And not until the mid 1960s for some parts of rural Perthshire, even in one case although a small hydro-electric generating station was visible on the other side of the Loch.

The neighbouring Durris transmitter's aerials were struck by lightning during a lighting and snow storm and largely destroyed in December 1988? Lightning over snow is a wierd phenomenon! Much of the region, including the village south of Stonehaven where we then lived, was without power, and hence the normal means of heating, for 4 to 5 days. Most roads were impassible.

When eventually I was able to get back to work at Grampian Television in Aberdeen, one of the managers asked how our television reception was with Durris's temporary replacement aerials. My greatest concern had NOT been television reception.

It's very noticeable that the children, and possibly even more the adults, in the Rosemarkie area were not used to speaking to television journalists in 1957. Television must have brought an awareness of a much wider world to these people. I expect that the interview subjects were carefully chosen not to have too distinctive a Black Isle accent - beautiful but not easy for outsiders to understand.

PMM

[G6Tanuki]

I wonder if the lack-of-mains was, in passing, the reason for the portable TV to be featured? There may have been tractors, agricultural machinery [water pumps? circular-saw-benches etc] or cars whose batteries could power a portable for maybe an hour's watching per day with the vehicle/machinery being used to recharge the battery during normal working-activities.

I remember that growing up in the 'sixties on the Wales/Shropshire borders there were still some farms that had steel lattice towers that supported by-then-disused wind-pumps/wind-generators from the days before 'the electric' arrived. Or there was a Lister 'D' in an outbuilding that would be run for a few hours a day to power the milking-machine [and provide hot water from its cooling-tank!]

We tend to forget just how long it took for mains electricity to reach some of the remoter parts of these Isles. Plenty of places got a TV signal before they got mains electricity!

[Chris R]

I recall the Durris transmitter being struck. We were without tv for a considerable time. My wife was most put out, as she could not watch her current favourite series - "Bouquet of Barbed Wire" I seem to remember.
The aerials were housed in a massive fibreglass tube. The head engineer told me that there were actually several strikes and that the interior of the tube was carbonised. The replacement was not available "off the shelf" and a new one had to be manufactured.
We had a site near Durris and on one occasion had to walk up the hill through deep snow to attend to the standby generator, which had failed to start. All good fun!

Chris R

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by HamishBoxer

One poor soul saying they cannot get a tv as no electric, terrible as late as 1957.

The farm where my Mum grew up in Leicestershire didn't get connected to the mains until 1959.

[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.