From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast




Colour TV is Mid Argyil's Christmas Present

After rCyseveral delays in completing work at the new South Knapdale TV transmitter, many local viewers who had feared that their newly acquired colour sets would perhaps lie dormant until after the New Year were
pleasantly surprised on Thursday evening when the first colour
programmes unexpectedly came through.

After just over ten months work and at a cost of -u150,000 it is going to
be a colourful Christmas in Mid Argyll after all.

Having switched on the station for the test transmission on Thursday, engineers at the site decided to leave it on when everything appeared to
be working properly. rCLWe have gone ahead with the switch on although the access track is still slightly below the standard that we would like,rCY
said a BBC spokesman in Glasgow on Friday. adding that although the
station did not officially come in to full service until January 9 it
should operate normally from now on. He stressed. however, that if any breakdowns did occur in the initial test period these would take longer
than normal to repair because of the state of the track. He advised
viewers to be prepared for extended breaks in transmission.

The building of the transmitter on the 1,580 ft high site at the
summit of Meall Mhor hill, four miles north of Tarbert posed rCLformidable construction problemsrCY according to a BBC statement released last week.
The normal practice is to build an access route to the site but at South Knapdale the ground was so steep and boggy that this would have cost
-u70,000 rCo nearly half the cost of the transmitter itself.

As a result the BBC were forced to advise rCyrCLnovel methods of
construction and transportationrCY including the use of helicopter and
tracked vehicles, The transmitter equipment is housed jn a collection of twelve prefab glass fibre cubicles normally used as single units which
were transported to the site by sledge. !

The transmitter provides a relay link to stations now being constructed
at Craignure on Mull and at Cow Hill above Fort William in addition to
serving an estimated 2,900 viewers on both sides of Loch Fyne between
Furnace in the north . and Tarbert in the south. ITV is on Channel 60,
BBC-1 on Channel 57, and BBC-2 on Channel 63 all in colour.

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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 24/06/2026 21:46, JMB99 wrote:

Colour TV is Mid Argyil's Christmas Present

After rCyseveral delays in completing work at the new South Knapdale TV transmitter, many local viewers who had feared that their newly acquired colour sets would perhaps lie dormant until after the New Year were pleasantly surprised on Thursday evening when the first colour
programmes unexpectedly came through.

Daft question...

What needs to be altered to allow a transmitter that has been
transmitting 625/25 in B&W now to transmit in colour? Surely it's the
same composite video signal feed as before which is VSB-modulated onto
UHF. All the differs is that the composite video now has colour
sidebands and colour sub-carrier added to it, and these are within the existing bandwidth of luminance signal that the transmitter has been
designed for.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 2026/6/24 22:36:5, NY wrote:

On 24/06/2026 21:46, JMB99 wrote:

Colour TV is Mid Argyil's Christmas Present

After rCyseveral delays in completing work at the new South Knapdale TV
transmitter, many local viewers who had feared that their newly acquired
colour sets would perhaps lie dormant until after the New Year were
pleasantly surprised on Thursday evening when the first colour
programmes unexpectedly came through.

Daft question...

What needs to be altered to allow a transmitter that has been
transmitting 625/25 in B&W now to transmit in colour? Surely it's the
same composite video signal feed as before which is VSB-modulated onto
UHF. All the differs is that the composite video now has colour
sidebands and colour sub-carrier added to it, and these are within the existing bandwidth of luminance signal that the transmitter has been designed for.

I was wondering the same thing.

But it occurred to me that the new transmitter might have been the UHF transmitter altogether - with the existing service being the VHF one,
which of course would not have been colour (experiments passim), with
"their newly acquired colour sets" actually being UHF sets, or
dual-standard (though I don't know if dual-standard sets were produced
with colour).
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Hadrian's Wall has never been a border between Scotland and England. It
lies entirely within England but, when it was built in AD 122 by the
Romans as a defence against the raiding Picts, the future English were
still in Germany and the Scottish were still in Ireland.
- Michael Cullen, Skye, in RT 2014/12/6-12
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 23:16:06 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver"
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

(though I don't know if dual-standard sets were produced
with colour).

They were. The BRC2000 was the first all solid state TV chassis
(except for the CRT itself of course) in the world, and it handled
both 405 VHF and 625 UHF.

Britain seems to have the habit of inventing things or being the first
to implement them, and then watching the rest of the world copy them
and do them better.

Rod.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:41:12 +0100, Roderick Stewart <rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

On Wed, 24 Jun 2026 23:16:06 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver"
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

(though I don't know if dual-standard sets were produced
with colour).

They were. The BRC2000 was the first all solid state TV chassis
(except for the CRT itself of course) in the world, and it handled
both 405 VHF and 625 UHF.

Britain seems to have the habit of inventing things or being the first
to implement them, and then watching the rest of the world copy them
and do them better.

Rod.

Correction: I meant to say "the first all solid state *colour* TV
chassis in the world". I'm not sure who was responsible for the first
soloid state monochrome one.

Rod.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 24/06/2026 22:36, NY wrote:

What needs to be altered to allow a transmitter that has been
transmitting 625/25 in B&W now to transmit in colour? Surely it's the
same composite video signal feed as before which is VSB-modulated onto
UHF. All the differs is that the composite video now has colour
sidebands and colour sub-carrier added to it, and these are within the existing bandwidth of luminance signal that the transmitter has been designed for.

Adding a subcarrier means that there will be IPs so the amplifier has to
be linear and/or have correction to reduce the IPs.

South Knapdale used Plisch transposers, Main had a 50 watt Plisch valve amplifier incorporated and Reserve had a 40 watt Pye solid state
amplifier (and also Plisch transposer).

No idea what they have now.

Unusually I think there was also diversity - I think it followed the
diversity on the UHF receivers feeding the SHF Links but it was a long
time ago!

The Plisch equipment was very reliable and hardly ever needed touching.






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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

On 2026/6/24 22:36:5, NY wrote:

On 24/06/2026 21:46, JMB99 wrote:

Colour TV is Mid Argyil's Christmas Present

After rCyseveral delays in completing work at the new South Knapdale TV >>> transmitter, many local viewers who had feared that their newly acquired >>> colour sets would perhaps lie dormant until after the New Year were
pleasantly surprised on Thursday evening when the first colour
programmes unexpectedly came through.

Daft question...

What needs to be altered to allow a transmitter that has been
transmitting 625/25 in B&W now to transmit in colour? Surely it's the
same composite video signal feed as before which is VSB-modulated onto
UHF. All the differs is that the composite video now has colour
sidebands and colour sub-carrier added to it, and these are within the
existing bandwidth of luminance signal that the transmitter has been
designed for.

I was wondering the same thing.

But it occurred to me that the new transmitter might have been the UHF transmitter altogether - with the existing service being the VHF one,
which of course would not have been colour (experiments passim), with
"their newly acquired colour sets" actually being UHF sets, or
dual-standard (though I don't know if dual-standard sets were produced
with colour).

As a child we had a dual standard set that did colour on UHF. Thorn 2000,
all transistor. The repair technicians were reasonably frequent visitors.

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