14 Dec
2011
14 Dec
'11
4:47 p.m.
On Wed, 14 Dec 2011, David Riley wrote:
This was pretty common practice over here in the
'80s; Most game
consoles, computers which could connect over RF and VCRs had a choice of
channel 3 or 4. The RCA jack usually cabled to a coupling box with an
F-connector input and output to pass the other signals through; my
experience was that they did a rather poor job of spectral isolation,
though, so channel 3 would leak into channel 4 a lot. I suppose the
switch was in case you had local broadcasts occurring on channel 3 or 4,
which we certainly didn't in Baltimore; anyone know the story behind
that?
DC had a chennel 4, didn't they?
Some areas have a channel 3.
The switch was so that you could use whichever was clear[er] in your area.
In addition, damn near everything came with a crappy inline switch box,
that served as a balun (sp?), as well as let you leave your connectors
hooked up and switch your TV back and forth between your antenna and
Coco/game/etc. Just connecting your Coco in parallel with the antenna on
the TV made it easier for your neighbors and FCC to see your signals.
I also recall that the VCR made a much better
modulator than the one
built into most game consoles (the ones that had composite output,
anyway), interestingly enough.
In those days VCRs ALSO had better tuners than TVs did. You could
sometimes receive some stations better by tuning them with the VCR, and
then RE-broadcasting from the VCR to the TV (on channel 3)
Our VHF channels go from 2 to 13 (I don't remember
the story behind why
channel 1 is missing) and UHF covers 4 to... 68?
14 to 83
Most of time the 3 major networks ran on VHF, because
it reached
further; we always had a harder time receiving the UHF channels at home
when I was growing up.
"premium" over the air. UHF was where you would
find PBS, and 'B'-level
stations. Half a century ago, UHF on a TV was OPTIONAL, and added almost
$50 to a $100 B&W Philco 17" "portable". My brother and I were fed up
with my father's thrift store [almost working] TVs, and bought a new one;
my father chipped in the money to add UHF. I remember watching Kennedy's
Cuban missile crisis speeches on it, and my father saying, "The son of a
bitch has gotten us into war." - and the traffic on Massachesetts Avenue
("embassy row") was bad all night for a week.
In the 1970s, there was one very popular UHF RF modulator ("SupRMod"??) on
channel 34?, but KICU was (is?) on 36, and there was some deranged
speed-freak preacher dude on 38? 24 hours a day. THAT RF mod'lator was
probably responsible for the standardizatioon on a 4 pin on Berg, with one
pin out as a key, on Apple][ and eventually on CGA.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com