Radio & TV reception near Brighton in the mid '60s

[SteveCG]

I was not in this part of the world in the mid '60s but I've always wondered what the 405 line TV and the MW and VHF radio reception was like with all the Continental transmissions about?

I've read of the new local radio station being right down at the bottom of the dial (88.1 Mc/s ?) with the Third on 194M, and 405 line on channel B2 (which had been originally on B3).

I have a feeling that 'co-channel' was quite an issue. Can anybody remember??

[tony brady]

we moved into the area in 1967. we was on the isle of wight transmitter for TV as we couldn't get a decent signal from the Brighton transmitter on race hill ( nor could some people in Brighton). from time to time we suffered from ghosting. I can't remember whether this was on 405 or 625 as at that time we had 2 aerials. The local BBC radio Brighton was on 95.3MHz, I don't remember any being on 88.1. Later on there was a continental station on 87.5MHz which I could pick up.

194m became the Capital radio AM frequency. I used to listen to capital and bbc radio London on fm so had a 6 element antiference aerial in the 70s. With the right weather I sometimes got Spanish or Polish radio on the same frequencies with the aerial pointing at London. If I'd had it on the roof with a rotator I would have got a lot more but the Sussex weather would have wrecked that pretty soon!

[dave walsh]

I've mentioned before that both my "home" town Ramsbottom [I actually come from Bury] and Bexhill down on the coast were cable pioneers, although the Rammy problem was a big hill not co-channel intereference. I found a tell tale Rediffusion plate in the pavement when I began to visit Bexhill [there was a cable centre based in Hastings]in 1998. French signals at 819 would create major ghosting in the sixties [roughly 2x405 lines] and there were all sorts of difficulties that locals had to simply put up with apparently.

Even in 1998 there was a problem with background images here on 625 lines [Analogue] during hot summer weather. There were all sorts of dire predictions then that the Digi-Al reception switch wouldn't work [as it was "all or nothing" signal wise] but in fact and in general, things immediately improved! The extra channels [like BBC4] were a plus.

Dave W
Bexhill on Sea
Home of J L Baird

[Nuvistor]

Hi Dave,
When did Rammy get the cable system? I was helping erecting aerials in 62/63 and we occasionally went to Rammy. If my memory is correct it depended which side of the valley the house was whether it was "acceptable " ITV or " acceptable " BBC. Down at the bottom of the valley was bad for both. It's possible the cable didn't service the homes we visited.
Frank

[dave walsh]

I think you are right that you weren't sent to cable homes then Frank. There was a Rediffusion shop on Bolton Road West until the mid eighties and the service probaly started in the fifties. I had two houses [including the current one] with a cable but was never signed up myself [there was a relay TX by then on the valley top. I did three weeks at Xmas 1966 with the Coop TV Shop in Bury [my total experience in the trade].

As you say homes on the west side of the valley were blocked by Holcombe Hill from getting Winter Hill signals. The further east and south you went though some transmissions came around the corner of Holcombe. Despite my technical interest and presence in Rammy it wasn't until some considerable time after I actually moved there [in 1974] that I found out probaly about half of the town was on a wire. Most of that was in the air though, rather than in the ground as now!

I recently got a Rediffusion Cable Set [no front end tuner] courtesy of Mike Barker BVWS stalwart. I enjoy asking visitors if they can spot what's different about it [ie no tuning buttons].

Dave W

My post 3 should read "began to visit Bexhill in 1998". The Hastings Cable Company was long gone by then.

[hannahs radios]

I don't know about Brighton but I know that in hastings when we had analogue TV there were 2 relays the main one which had channel 5 and the old town one which didn't. Reception in parts ofore village the wrong side of the hill was truly awful much ghosting and weak signals despite 32ele UHF high gain aerielse. radio wise reception of radio 1was excellent from the Bexhill relay on 1089KC/s as was south coast radio on 945Kc/s this later became capital gold then just gold and now sadly is smooth radio.

[Nuvistor]

Thanks for the info Dave, it was an interesting 12 months putting aerials up. Most of the time is was straightforward but the difficult one were more interesting to me, don't think the riggers thought that though.
After the 12 months I got put with a TV engineer on bench work but the aerial experience was not wasted, all learning.
Frank

[SteveCG]

For what it is worth, I have a mental image of trying to tune in the Third on a transistor radio where, at that end of the band, the slightest touch lost you the tuning point. And at night-time a cacophony of whistles...

I found the performance of most of the cheaper transistor sets of that era was a little 'lacking' shall we say at the bottom of the MW band.

[paulsherwin]

TV reception was and still is better in Brighton than many areas of inland Sussex. This is simply because Brighton aerials pointed N, E or W while inland ones pointed more or less due south.

[hannahs radios]

In Brighton I seem to remember that Whitehawk Hill was the relay site. Is that still so?

[SteveCG]

Following on from post no. 9 - Roughly how far outside Brighton did you have to be to get to the point where TV (B1, 405 line) from Crystal Palace was as 'good' as from the B2 Brighton relay?