Remembering Analog TV, TV Licensing , VHF and UHF.

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Remembering Analog TV, TV Licensing , VHF and UHF.

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#1500233 27-Feb-2016 00:26

I am 28 and I remember as a child in the early 90's Dad used to get up for work at 5.30am to catch the train from upper hutt into wellington.

He woke me up so he had someone to talk to during his breakfast because TV didnt start until 6 or 7am.

Yet at the same time I can remember being woken up at 1 or 2am because he was in the lounge watching a rugby game.

And then in about 2001 after we moved to Wairoa, mom was worried about a van parked outside our house one day and she was adamant that it was the tv licensing inspectors.

I can only imagine she was worried she forgot to pay the tv license as that must have been something my father took care of before he died. She must have quickly remembered licensing stopped by then though.

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#1500234 27-Feb-2016 00:34

Mspec:

I remember buying my first VCR, would have been in the mid eighties, cost me $2035.00 and was one the first front loading machines in NZ. It had a corded remote and you could record one thing a week that was on a timer. There was only one Video store at the time and I think it had around 15 titles to choose from.

I had a V8 landcrusier with a 350 chev motor in it and a CB unit. Back then (perhaps still now) you needed a license to use it. I bought an under the counter amp for it and got busted using it by some roving inspectors who were picking up my amplified transmit signal. Ahhh the fun days.

My oldest friend bought a VCR, $3k. Paid $500 for a remote. Huge price when compared to salary. My first VCR was a Panny NV370!

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#1500235 27-Feb-2016 00:36

raytaylor:

I am 28 and I remember as a child in the early 90's Dad used to get up for work at 5.30am to catch the train from upper hutt into wellington.

He woke me up so he had someone to talk to during his breakfast because TV didnt start until 6 or 7am.

Yet at the same time I can remember being woken up at 1 or 2am because he was in the lounge watching a rugby game.

And then in about 2001 after we moved to Wairoa, mom was worried about a van parked outside our house one day and she was adamant that it was the tv licensing inspectors.

I can only imagine she was worried she forgot to pay the tv license as that must have been something my father took care of before he died. She must have quickly remembered licensing stopped by then though.

LOL

When I was a kid in AKL, TV didn't start till 6pm or so, I think. I had to go to bed at 7! Then they changed summit so it was 7-30.

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#1500238 27-Feb-2016 00:39

gzt: Sunday night: Radio With Pictures followed by Sunday Horror.

Karen Hay

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#1500243 27-Feb-2016 01:16

prime was always complete rubbish for me for years and years. tv3 wasnt much better.

When i started watching Outrageous Fortune I missed the first couple of episodes, and then it took me about 4 or 5 episodes to realise Jethro and Van were identical twins (played by same actor) due to me not being able to really make out their faces :)

now my son complains if youtube on his smart tv buffers for 10 seconds....

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#1500245 27-Feb-2016 01:35

I remember when TV3 startedback in 1989. Growing up on the Kapiti Coast at the time, plenty of people were disappointed to hear that the new station wouldn't have a local transmitter at launch.

Lucky houses near the beach got a good signal from Kaukau on VHF channel 11, I think a few didn't even need to change their aerial. We were in the middle of town, and needed a new aerial pointed at Wellington to get TV3 - even then it was still noticeably fuzzier than TVNZ's signals.

Eventually we got a good strong local UHF signal for TV3, but wasn't for a few years after UHF was opened up.

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#1500253 27-Feb-2016 03:36

joshhill96:

The good old days where broadcast TV was in it's peak, SKY launched but there was no other digital option until Freeview arrived in 2006, for some it was only receiving 2 channels even 3 if you are lucky!

I remember when I was living in the Far North, we had no UHF band transmission so it was all VHF from several repeaters linked from Whangarei, terrible reception but still watched TV.

Share your ATV days...

I remember I cost my Mother a lot of money getting technicians to visit to re-tune the TV and VCR. I started having an interest in puling things to bits to see how they worked and tuning was where I started. Little rotary tuning discs on the VCR (corded remote - top loading) and the TV which has a special plastic tool to reach the tuning pots.

When TV3 started we got a flash Panasonic TV (free standing of course) with an InfraRed remote that slid into the TV when not in use. I think it only had 6 channels.

I used to rewire VCR output in to the antenna to try and pick up my kids movies on the bunny rabbits in my bedroom. It worked but pretty noisy picture.

Then I started volunteering in radio broadcast studios and quickly learn't the exciting new world of hi-fi VHS and in the 90's... NICAM digital stereo only on TV3 down here. That was the bomb. I finally figured out I could get a new VCR and plug that in to an old National Stereo amplifier and my old TV but I had awesome sound to watch Jurassic Park in.

About 2001 I moved to Balclutha and the local UHF repeater behind our house only gave us good TV3 reception. 1 & 2 were crap. So I decided to learn about satellite TV (decoders were $600) but digital though... never had an analogue one but did get to play with an analogue receiver to find hidden sub-carrier's on Sky's transponders carrying audio feeds for a few clients.

With digital though I could get 1 & 2 free via satellite (way before Freeview) and using S-Video to a widescreen CRT was heaven. The picture was outstanding.

Then came sh$#y LCD screens that even with S-Video looked like a bad picture all over again. It really ruined a decent SD picture at the time. Yeah now we have HD... a better way to hide the flaws of an LCD screen but it's still not as stunning as the early analogue HD wide-screen CRT's either when it came to HD.

In my living room I still have a well maintained CRT and will be bitterly disappointed when it finally goes poooffffff.

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#1500317 27-Feb-2016 11:37

raytaylor:

And then in about 2001 after we moved to Wairoa, mom was worried about a van parked outside our house one day and she was adamant that it was the tv licensing inspectors.

I can only imagine she was worried she forgot to pay the tv license as that must have been something my father took care of before he died. She must have quickly remembered licensing stopped by then though.

Ahhh, yes, I remember Lindsay Perigo's campaign to kill off the TV licensing fee back in the late 90s. The concept of a 'TV licence' always seemed a bit nutty to me.

robjg63

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#1500327 27-Feb-2016 12:26

In the early 1970s in south Canterbury, there was a period of a week or so where the local TV broadcasts where suffering from occasional interference. The local paper said they were because of some very odd atmospheric conditions at the time and that the interference was actually caused by Australian TV signals that were actually reaching as far as nz.

One day when the TV picture was getting odd ghosting on it I decided to try that mysterious channel changer dial and after fiddling a little I was amazed to see another program quite clearly. I remember watching most of a episode of F-troop and being quite excited by that. This was in the day of single channel TV and F-troop was definitely not coming from the NZBC. It fizzled out towards the end of the show. Over the next day or 2 whenever there was ghosting on the TV I would try fiddling with the tuner. Occasionally there were a few minutes of programs and once quite clearly a test pattern which said HOBART.

According to Google it's 1,925km from Hobart to Timaru!

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ScuL

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#1500359 27-Feb-2016 14:24

One day when the TV picture was getting odd ghosting on it I decided to try that mysterious channel changer dial and after fiddling a little I was amazed to see another program quite clearly. I remember watching most of a episode of F-troop and being quite excited by that. This was in the day of single channel TV and F-troop was definitely not coming from the NZBC. It fizzled out towards the end of the show. Over the next day or 2 whenever there was ghosting on the TV I would try fiddling with the tuner. Occasionally there were a few minutes of programs and once quite clearly a test pattern which said HOBART.

According to Google it's 1,925km from Hobart to Timaru!

What you're describing is a phenomenon commonly referred to as "DXing" .. Trying to receive signals that are far beyond their intended range of reception.

In Europe the signal density is so intense (because of many small countries within close proximity) that it becomes difficult, although it happens particularly with radio signals.
What was really ground breaking is attempting to pick up US or Canada based signals from the Boston/Nova Scotia areas in western Europe (UK/Belgium/Netherlands/France)

If the atmospheric conditions allowed it was well possible to tune in to American AM signals at night time (between midnight and 5AM when most European transmitters would shut down)

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.

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#1500439 27-Feb-2016 16:43

alasta:

raytaylor:

And then in about 2001 after we moved to Wairoa, mom was worried about a van parked outside our house one day and she was adamant that it was the tv licensing inspectors.

I can only imagine she was worried she forgot to pay the tv license as that must have been something my father took care of before he died. She must have quickly remembered licensing stopped by then though.

Ahhh, yes, I remember Lindsay Perigo's campaign to kill off the TV licensing fee back in the late 90s. The concept of a 'TV licence' always seemed a bit nutty to me.

I suspect those vans were more of a PR stunt than anything else - intended to catch a few but scare the bejesus out of the rest.

In the mid '70s, the powers that be must have decided that TV licensing take-up was unreasonably low. They employed several regional "managers" responsible for improving TV licensing stats and introduced a TV campaign "fear and terror" warning about the penalties if you were to be sprung by one of the aforementioned vans.

My late uncle was one of such managers. Duties were supposed to include visiting retailers so that they'd distribute info about licensing when people inquired about buying TVs, probably pamphlet drops etc. My uncle would get a car from the public service garage, load it up with camping gear etc and go on holiday for weeks at a time. Legend has it that he managed to do absolutely nothing work related while employed by the PO. Of course the TV ads worked - he was presented with charts and graphs and took credit - a big pat on the back - for meeting and exceeding his targets. A couple of years of doing nothing was enough (he resigned, left the country and became sharebroker). At his farewell, the Postmaster General presented him with a beautifully framed and personally signed letter of commendation, specifically mentioning how integral his efforts were to the outstanding success of the campaign.

If they bring back TV licensing - I want that job.