Pembers' Ponderings

Contents

Personal reminiscences and photographs of the early years of CEEFAX and ORACLE from an enthusiast, viewer and constructor

Some memorabilia concerning the British 405-line black-and-white television system that was in use between 1936 and 1985, including details of the Bands I and III transmitter networks and links to other 405-lines sites.

These days test cards are often used merely as a way of identifying a satellite link and long gone is the era when even outside programme hours television stations still had an appeal and a personality of their own.

An A to W of the television test card including photographs of cards old and new from the UK and abroad, featuring 405, 625, colour, widescreen - even some 30-line captions.

Focusing on cards and captions used outside the UK between 1967 and 1976, including some off-screen shots of long-distance reception.

Technical details of many of the test cards used in the UK over the years, together with specifications of international colour bar and PLUGE signals, and discussions of aspect ratio, resolution and gamma.

Details and potted histories of television transmission standards used around the world through the ages including the obsolete 405- and 819-line standards, the current 525- and 625-line standards, NTSC, NIR, SECAM, PAL and MAC colour standards, all the CCIR transmission systems, and vhf, hyperband and uhf channel allocations in use in the major countries.

Download this handy VTR Countdown Ident Clock for the BBC Micro and Acorn RISC OS computers. Make your home videos look as if you mean it.

A simple modification that allows the popular pocket world band receiver to be backlit permanently when plugged into a mains power supply.

The complete Installation and Operating Manual including circuit diagram for this 1960s valved medium and short-wave general-coverage receiver.

Geostationary satellite finder