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derekdwc #684117 11th Apr 2012 5:56pm
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I've seen several different types of loudspeaker housing used, from steel, through Bakelite to plywood with a cream coloured leatherette finish. It was also piped into hospitals. A little selector knob and volume control on the wall next to the bed, usually a bit loose, led to either a headphones socket (for the S.G. Brown type headsets) or an outlet for an acoustic tube type headset. The system could also be found in schools.

The oldest window selector boxes that I remember were, as stated, brown bakelite. Initially their rotary selector had for positions, marked A B C D. A little later, they had six-way switches, adding channels E & F. Subsequently, this went up to a ten-way switch and now came in ivory coloured bakelite box.
Black sheathed distribution cables went around the back of nearly everybody's house, and where the two houses joined, a black box was fitted to take the lead-off cable to the house. The black box also contained a 'splitter' on a per channel, per house basis. This maintained the electrical integrity (or correct ballance) of the circuit.

Once in a while, the volume would go low. Then the Rediffusion man would come out to check the boxes, to see who had illegally connected his own loudspeaker onto the system, thus draining all the power due to the miss-match.
Although illegal connections were problem, the system could suffer from 'overhearing', or the bleeding through of the audio from an adjacent channel, and TV channels could suffer from 'ghosting' - a second, fainter image which was offset slightly from the wanted one. This assumes that it was not the sort of interference from foreign TV stations, should good weather and the cricket season ever coincide!

There are still a large number of abandoned relics from Redifussion to be seen in our streets. Apart from cables on walls, to wire wrapped suspended cables, brackets and poles, there are still street junction boxes and green cabinets as a reminder of the network.

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Old Redifussion kit in Earlston Road, Wallasey.
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derekdwc #684122 11th Apr 2012 6:06pm
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The Light programme became Radio 1 (and Radio 2?)
The Third programme became Radio 3
The Home Service became Radio 4.

Didn't the change of titles occur during the '70's ? Remember stickers were given out to cover up the "old" names on the dial.

The frequencies were all given then out in kilocycles. None of this kilohertz crud then!


derekdwc #684135 11th Apr 2012 6:32pm
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Radio Luxemburg was known by it's wavelength ,"This is Radio Luxemburg on 208metres medium wave". I got used to the Khz and Mhz in a later life, it started in the Military I think with the Frogs and what have you being in NATO so that all the publications were uniform. Could be wrong though it might have been European driven.


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derekdwc #684249 12th Apr 2012 5:58am
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All this talk of kilocycles reminds me, I must pump up me bike tyres!

Tatey #684294 12th Apr 2012 8:56am
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Originally Posted by Tatey
All this talk of kilocycles reminds me, I must pump up me bike tyres!


Make sure you don't give yourself a hertz attack.


Carpe diem.
chriskay #684329 12th Apr 2012 10:11am
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Rediffusion (Broadcast Relay Service Ltd) originally started off supplying cable radio services way back in the late 1920's before venturing into television. They also went on to become quite big in the world of analogue computers (Redifon) and aircraft flight simulators.

They introduced an early form of cable TV (known as "Pipe TV") as early as the 1930's but services were disrupted by the Second World War.

Norton #684406 12th Apr 2012 2:06pm
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Originally Posted by Norton
I've seen several different types of loudspeaker housing used, from steel, through Bakelite to plywood with a cream coloured leatherette finish. It was also piped into hospitals. A little selector knob and volume control on the wall next to the bed, usually a bit loose, led to either a headphones socket (for the S.G. Brown type headsets) or an outlet for an acoustic tube type headset. The system could also be found in schools.

The oldest window selector boxes that I remember were, as stated, brown bakelite. Initially their rotary selector had for positions, marked A B C D. A little later, they had six-way switches, adding channels E & F. Subsequently, this went up to a ten-way switch and now came in ivory coloured bakelite box.
Black sheathed distribution cables went around the back of nearly everybody's house, and where the two houses joined, a black box was fitted to take the lead-off cable to the house. The black box also contained a 'splitter' on a per channel, per house basis. This maintained the electrical integrity (or correct ballance) of the circuit.

Once in a while, the volume would go low. Then the Rediffusion man would come out to check the boxes, to see who had illegally connected his own loudspeaker onto the system, thus draining all the power due to the miss-match.
Although illegal connections were problem, the system could suffer from 'overhearing', or the bleeding through of the audio from an adjacent channel, and TV channels could suffer from 'ghosting' - a second, fainter image which was offset slightly from the wanted one. This assumes that it was not the sort of interference from foreign TV stations, should good weather and the cricket season ever coincide!

There are still a large number of abandoned relics from Redifussion to be seen in our streets. Apart from cables on walls, to wire wrapped suspended cables, brackets and poles, there are still street junction boxes and green cabinets as a reminder of the network.


Thanks norton, always wondered what those boxes were for.


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#684539 12th Apr 2012 9:34pm
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Radio One was launched as the BBC's (read establishment's) answer to the illegal pirate radio stations - most of which had some reference to the wavelength (in metres) that they broadscast on, as part of their jingles. At the same time, all the other BBC national stations became numbered. Remember how they rymed 199 & 259 for the Radio Caroline jingles?.

We all remember Radio Luxenbourg on 208, which was a perfectly legal comercial station, but here's a bit of useless information. Remember how Luxenbourg used to fade in and out. No one could explain what caused it at first. When they did find out, they gave it the title of 'The Luxenburg Effect'.

Radio One came out on 247 metres (all on the Medium wave) which was the wavelength vacated by the Light Programs' medium wave transmitter. The Light Program was normally heard on 200 kilo cycles on the Long Wave in those days, but they had to call it 200 kilo Hertz (kHz) after we officially adopted the metric system of SI units in 1971.

When the local radio stations came about, starting with the BBC ones, they were normall refered to by their wavelength, thus Radio Merseyside was 202 and Radio City was 194, although their frequencies are 1496 kHz and 1548 kHz respectively. (200 metres equals 1500 kHz).

Did you know that City and Merseyside could be heard over the phone in the late 70's to early 80's. You just had to dial 194 or 202 to get them. Local rates, too!

Historically, locally, 202 metres had been the wavelength of the BBC Third Program repeater station, which had been located at the end of Bedford Road East, in Rock Ferry. This transmitter had to close and was demolished due to the construction of the Rock Ferry By-pass.

At a decision made by the World Administrative Radio Conference in 1979 (WARC'79 for short), they agreed that all long and medium wave radio stations around the world would be spaced 3kHz apart, and that they would be refered to in terms of frequency (kHz) rather than wavelength (metres). This meant that some of them had to make a slight change in their frequency, but not one that the user would generally notice. In the UK, this meant that Radio Two was no longer on 200 kHz as it had to move to 198 kHz. This caused some technical difficulties for those who used the Radio 2 carrier as a frequency reference.

WARC'79 also had a big effect on Band 2 VHF radio in the UK, but I'll cover that one another time if anyone is interested.

derekdwc #684585 12th Apr 2012 11:57pm
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I think anyone who was young in the early 60s will thank God for Radio Luxembourg - otherwise, we'd never have heard any pop music.

BBC radio at that time was intrinsically hostile to anything that smacked of youth, innovation or controversy. They thought they'd keep the masses happy with condescending rubbish such as Uncle Mac on a Saturday morning.

Even as the early 60s were unfolding with an astounding musical revolution, the Beeb actively conspired to deny it. Instead, it continued steadfastly to feed us a diet of blandness and conformity.

Meanwhile, Luxembourg was putting out the fresh, new stuff that young people wanted to hear. This was before even the pirate stations came on air.

Luxembourg pioneered the Top 20 - required listening on a Sunday night around 11pm. The format was later stolen and converted to television by BBC's Top of the Pops. Luxembourg also had programmes such as Battle of Bands, pitting two big-name groups against each other in a musical play-off.

Finally, of course, the BBC was dragged screaming into joining the rest of us in the real world and admitting that pop music existed. But the powers-that-be then immediately hijacked the new youth culture by outlawing the pirate stations and creating Radio One.





Last edited by yoller; 13th Apr 2012 12:01am.
derekdwc #684604 13th Apr 2012 3:16am
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I remember rediffision very well. My parents got in and i used to watch The Childrens Channel. It was big with the kids.. Lifestyle Channel had an amazing Earth Zoom show which was very instresting to me. Screen Sports for WWF (now wwe) wrestling. Sky.. (21 Jump Street, i was there for the Simpsons first show..) Music Television (MTV) always remember Money for Nothing (Dire Strights) then Sledgehammer.. It was an amazing experience.. as we only ever had 4 channels back in the Eightys.. A few other programs i remember.. Childrens Corner, Jack in the Box.. Heman, Braveheart, Thundercats.. Amazing memories.. as if they where yesterday.... Then it died.. We didnt bother with satelite so it was just the Four Channels once Rediffision finished. Good site chris thumbsup


Lee Mills

derekdwc #696125 23rd May 2012 11:01pm
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Anyone reply the little red and blue self adhesive diamonds that were provided for you to stick on your radio dials when they switched from Light, Home and whatever to Radio-1/2/3/4 ?

w10694 #696139 24th May 2012 5:44am
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Originally Posted by w10694
Anyone reply the little red and blue self adhesive diamonds that were provided for you to stick on your radio dials when they switched from Light, Home and whatever to Radio-1/2/3/4 ?


Yup. Still got them stuck to an ancient Grundig Transistor job stashed in the loft somewhere. Transparent little diamonds with 1,2 etc. printed on and a thin red/blue surround (?)

The Beeb's answer to Radio London, Radio Caroline etc.

#696143 24th May 2012 6:47am
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Radio Caroline. For those who remember - and those who missed a great chunk of broadcasting history ..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDDcz9o2yCs

#696145 24th May 2012 6:58am
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That's the ones. My grandad had them until about 30 years ago, your's may be the last ones left!

Originally Posted by Pinzgauer
Originally Posted by w10694
Anyone reply the little red and blue self adhesive diamonds that were provided for you to stick on your radio dials when they switched from Light, Home and whatever to Radio-1/2/3/4 ?


Yup. Still got them stuck to an ancient Grundig Transistor job stashed in the loft somewhere. Transparent little diamonds with 1,2 etc. printed on and a thin red/blue surround (?)

The Beeb's answer to Radio London, Radio Caroline etc.

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