Narrow-Bandwidth Television Association

I see VHF I antennas, how nice

In a German DX forum somebody posted a recent TV scan in Bangkok (Nonthaburi):


E05: Channel 5
E07: Channel 7
E09: Channel 9
E11: Thai-TV
E29: Thai PBS
E31: Channel 3 ("TV-3")


No VHF I. Is the antenna now defunct, or did he miss a channel?


Here's a photo from Loughborough (2 years ago), also with a VHF antenna (but I guess without much use):

Steve Anderson wrote:As the terrestrial channels are on VHF and the transmitters are scattered around the city, not co-located, you end up with the very familiar sight below...this is right across the street from us. You'll note the rather tasteful colours some people paint their houses.

Steve A.

All those aerials reminds me when Laurel and Hardy tried to erect an aerial in the film, "Hog Wild."...............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW-9vcYoj4A

Now THAT'S what I was talking about!

BTW some things never change do they?

The original Thai TV stations were on the Band I and rather imaginatively simply became known as 'Channel 3.5.7.9.11' and so on... when that band was shut down they migrated to Band II VHF (174-230MHz here) where most still are today...and retained the same names...it would confuse the public otherwise. Outside Bangkok these same stations would still be known by their Bangkok Channel number even though they were actually using a different channel.

There never was a Channel 1 in Band I.

A couple have since moved into the low-end of the UHF band (510-790MHz here). With the advent of digital terrestrial TV on the horizon the government has halted the migration to analogue UHF and for most stations it'll be leap from analogue VHF to terrestrial digital...but it's some years away yet.

Thai TV broadcasters have always resisted any change in operating (technical) standards and most would prefer to continue with 625 4:3 PAL. They simply do not want to spend money on new equipment for HD and/or digital terrestrial. They argue that most viewers don't notice the difference or simply don't care for it. The viewers too don't want to have to buy a new TV when there's nothing wrong with the old one...perhaps similar arguments to the delayed switch-off of 405 in the UK.

Now whether they can get their act together and locate all digital TV transmitters on one site per province/area remains to be seen.

Steve A.

You see a lot of VHF aerials on chimneys in the UK still despite the transmitters being switched of nearly 3 decades ago. Especially on terraced rows in towns. It's too much hassle to get up on the roof and take them down.

M3DVQ wrote:It's too much hassle to get up on the roof and take them down.

Unless the owners are.... "Hardy" souls

gary wrote:

M3DVQ wrote:It's too much hassle to get up on the roof and take them down.

Unless the owners are.... "Hardy" souls

O Gary, you have really earnt your "Laurels" with that

Viewmaster wrote:O Gary, you have really earnt your "Laurels" with that :lol:

At least one can say he's not resting on them!

I see Albert still has a Band1 'H' aerial (antenna) in his Avatar,

Cheers,

Graham

If you have a fetish for VHF antennas/aerials I'll try and take a picture of several condominium blocks in an area of Bangkok called Klong Toey next time I go along that particular elevated expressway. If you're into vertically polarized versions, sorry, all are horizontal here...

Steve A.

When i used to live in NSW i could at times in summer pick up new Zealand and Queensland New Zealand was easier it was on the lowest vhf tv channel...
I the late 80's i got into analog satellite tv Dxing that soon turned into digital Dxings with some large dishes i ended up with 1.8 meter for the Ku band local Aussats at the time 2.4 meter for Russia china and a 3.5 meter for the harder to get USA satellites .
My wife wasn't please with my old bachelor ways of satellite dxing not the dxing the dishes so they have all gone all i have left is the new pitiful foxtel dish 60cm ? an insult

Continuing with VHF antennas...as more and more people switch to cable or satellite services sights like this are becoming an eyesore here...

Steve A.

In France, if you don't want to pay the tax for public tv, you have to have the tuner removed from tv by a pro. Or, if you have a full analog tv, have to write a letter explaining that you have no way to recieve digital programms ( there is no analog anymore and everything is on UHF now )

The antennas in my town are a crazy thing too.
Now all the antennas must be UHF Yagi and must point almost to the south, where is the nearest transmitter.
A lot of people still have an horizontal VHF antenna, pointing west. It was meant to recieve Canal+ for the last 3 decades, but dont send anything at all since more than one year.
Ok they just don't bother to remove the antennas.

But when i walk in the oldest parts of the town i see bigger VHF antennas pointing north-est. They were put to recive ORTF and TF1 when it was a black and white channel, and nothing is send on this frequency since 1984
But some people still have the antennas

Didn't Canal+ use the VHF channels after the switch off of the 819 line system? In the north of France you also had RTBF 1 from Liége on Channel E3 until a couple of years ago.

Yes but in my town they bluid a new VHF transmitter much more closer, because the old TF1 819line transmitter was +100km away, and Canal+ used Discret11 ( and after Syster/Nagravision ) encryption system, and there was problems with the «décodeurs» in case of bad weather. The new antenna was only 5km away and is also used for FM radios.

I also live ±near the RFI shortwave transmitter and France Inter longwave transmitter.