The logic for this came from the ABCB Technical Report from 1974 on UHF TV. A summary from EA magazine at the time:
The UHF channelling arrangements,
which have the support of representatives
of the Australian television industry who
were consulted on the question, envisage 32
new television channels, numbering 28-32
and 39-63 in the frequency bands 526-582MHz
and 614-814MHz, and will supplement the
existing 13 channels in the Very High
Frequency (VHF) band. The non-
continuous numbering system for the UHF
channels arises from the desirability of
arranging for uniformity between
Australian channel numbering and
frequency allocation and the present
overseas (European) practice.
Worth noting that Band IV was expanded to Ch. 28-34 in 1976, and Ch. 28-35 a couple of years later. Also of note was the ABCB was discussing the possibility of UHF FM Radio at the time.
In the 1990s there was also discussion of creating Channel 27 after reallocating some bandwidth which Telstra was using for two-way comms at the time.
From memory, I think they stopped making rotary dial TV’s in the late 80’s - probably around the same time as portable black & white TV’s were phased out.
my grandparents’ colour TV which dated from the mid-1970s I think had channels 21 to 68 or 69 on the dial. Not sure why it began at 21 as I don’t think anything below 28 was ever used. Given it was the 1970s and UHF was still some years away, maybe the manufacturer was pre-empting the possibility of that range becoming available.
That Sony trinitron and sets like it with the 2 rotary dials were popular in motel rools in the 80s and 90s. I can recall having lots of fun on trips with seeing what could be received.
Possibly. It was brand name “General” which might have been European. It had the correct VHF dial for Australia but just the weird range of UHF channels. It was an early colour set probably 1975 or 76, so some years before UHF began here.
So the original UHF channel numbers of 28-63 were based on the European 8 MHz channels, and at some stage, they must have changed over to 7 MHz channels numbered 28-69!! I was never sure if this actually happened or it was my imagination. Does anyone know when the changeover occurred?
It would have been 21-69 and based on the the European UHF channel numbers and frequencies.
I remember back when DTV was in its infancy, a friend of mine was complaining that he had to remove the TV antenna lead from the wall socket in order to watch videos because he was literally getting no picture. He knew I was a (sort of) expert on this so he asked for my help. The problem was the RF output was Ch 36, which happed to be the same frequency as an Illawarra DTV station. Despite being in far NW Sydney, the signal from Wollongong was quite strong, slightly better than the Sydney locals. It was the so called “digital hash” that was wiping out his VCR. It was a very simple fix; change the output RF channel. What drove him crazy for 6 months took me less than 60 seconds to fix, lol.
I came across a few people too who had stereo VCR’s and connected via RF, so it wasn’t just for picture it was sound too that RCA plugs were a boost. if they didn’t have a stereo TV, I’d suggest at the very least connecting to a stereo if it had an aux input.
Also, the early model Optus Vision boxes. It had an RF output also and mono only RCA plugs. Bizarrely, you could get a stereo output but only through RF! I cannot think of another example of RF stereo before the age of DAB.
It would’ve been in the late-1970s when the ABT decided to go with 7 MHz channel bandwidth for Australian UHF TV, probably to maximise the number of channels within the given broadcast bands with little loss of discernable picture quality.
Another factor was from the mid-1960s there were several UHF links (7 Mhz channels around 800 MHz) used for relaying TV signals to translator stations. Some examples included BCV-68 at Gredgwin near Boort which had an off-air feed from BCV-8 which was re-transmitted on narrow beamwidth UHF to the BCV-11 Goschen transmitter near Swan Hill, and a similar UHF link to BTV-7 Nhill from Mt Arapiles (off-air BTV-6).
The first widely received and broadcast UHF TV stations in Australia were SBS-28 in Sydney and Melbourne in 1980. They had 7 MHz channel bandwidth.
My parents were given a Thorn Colour TV in 1979, which I inherited when I left home on the early 2000’s. With the aid of a set-top box, it worked until I sold it (still in working condition) in 2023 to a television production onpany to make a TV show set in the 80s.
Yes, my children watched Play School on the same TV as I did!
Whoa, that’s cool. I always wondered how they would make it so just the text displays on the screen though? The color on that slide looks solid. Is it actually transparent?
