For UHF, I think everyone's first experience at a consumer level would have been when SBS moved from 0 to 28.

Channel 10 occupied Channel 0 in Brisbane and Melbourne from their launch date up until just before the launch of the SBS. Channels 0 - 5A haven't been abandoned completely, just for TV transmissions. I think Channel 0 was originally intended as a diving platform for new channels only and this lead to 10 and 28 occupying 0 for time, though 10 occupied 10 from the outset in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth as far as I know.

Network 10 was known as the 0-10 Network because of this and SBS's original ident was Channel 0-28, and for clarity, Channel 0 was always pronounced Oh, not Nought or Zero.

When the UHF band was allocated for television it originally included channels 21-69, the frequencies for all these channels can be referenced from an old Jaycar or Dick Smith catalogue in the data section. I am not sure if Channels 21-27 were ever used though and Channels 34-36 were reserved for VCRs computers (remember when they were text-only and could run on televisions) and game consoles.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I remember seeing Ten on 0 on my first visit to Brisbane.

There used to be an amateur wideband TV band in the lower UHF too, I used to watch them broadcast on occasions. They transmitted from the inner city somewhere with low power so it was quite grainy by the time it reached to the outer south-west.

The department has since removed that allocation, and so it is no longer possible for the general public to watch amateur TV.

Melbourne's Ch 0 (yep, pronounced Oh) would often propagate well beyond its intended viewer range.

Bendigo viewers could receive it with the correct antenna. I lived in a flat in Bendigo and on a good night received Ch 0 with two alligator clips
attached to an indoor ivy pot plant climbing across the wall.

That all changed when Ch 0 became Ch 10. Viewers in rural communities lost their "big smoke" station overnight.

An excellent DX frequency.

Yes there have been many reported instances of TV around 40 - odd MHz being received a very long way away, starting with BBC Alexandra Palace signals received in the US in the late 1930s. This resulted in the only recording of pre-war TV that exists - on film of course. (Not counting mechanical TV)

I have personally seen NZBC received in Sydney. Once in Seven Hills in about 1970, 2nd time Collaroy Plateau, about 1975.

Before BTQ0 became BTQ10 it was commonly received as far south as the Northern Rivers area, where it was the only Brisbane channel that could be received. They had the most incredibly huge transmitting array on the largest tower in order to get the same ERP as the other channels. Cost them a motza.

CH 0 used to be often used by translators using vertical polarisation.

Way back in the 70's while watching GMV6 (Goulburn Valley Victoria) the picture lost frame sync and audio.

Ch3 (ABC) was OK, but Ch6 was still wonky.

Suddenly a foreign picture crashed through, followed by audio. It was a TV program from Tassie. (Dodgy memory cells are saying Hobart)

This was amazing to an apprentice radio mechanic (that was what we were called then) and I race outside to be confronted by the thickest fog I had ever seen------thick and silent, absorbed all sound, incredible.

Back inside, the program was now quite clear, and a much more interesting program than the one I should have been receiving. Another ten minutes or so it began to fade into noise and flutter, audio vanished and sync drift---both V and H this time.

GMV 6 returned. Outside, still a thick fog, so I cannot say if any correlation existed, but around the same time, local CB Radio operators reported fantastic DX from the USA.

How amazing are radio waves----?

How amazing are radio waves----?

JC Maxwell had them sussed out back in 1861.

Unfortunately during JC Maxwell's era the Ionosphere/Lithosphere boundary was unknown.

This is why Tesla thought he had discovered a new way of propagating RF energy---he had no way of knowing that the Ionosphere/Lithosphere boundary prevented his signals from flying off into space. Instead they followed the resonant cavity around our planet which led him to believe he was pumping energy into the earth.

I wonder if what we think we know about RF today will be proved wrong tomorrow-----always learning!

During the 90's I did quite a bit of DX TV. I used a Mitsubishi Thorn CTV, and an ordinary TV antenna. Most of the time the antenna pointed north, but sometimes it was placed on a rotator and turned around.

I was able to watch many stations up the NSW coast (and recorded some with a VCR), and into QLD.

One day I was able to get poor pictures from South Australia.

Around this time was when aggregation was being phased in, and new stations were populating UHF.

The conditions were favourable at times, especially in the evenings and into the night and early morning. I received stations at Taree, Grafton, Gympie, Tamworth and Newcastle. Most of these were available night after night. Once I even got the UHF stations at Wyong (CH 69, etc).

FM was good too, back then there were still lots of unused gaps, so I got stations as far away as New Hebredes (in French), and New Zealand. Plenty of QLD stations and all around NSW.

I don't think any of this would be possible any more, as digital TV doesn't carry as well as analogue (at least I've never seen DX digital TV). The FM band here is completely full, so it's difficult for far-away stations to be heard.

I think the most astonishing thing was one day I was repairing a Philips TV for my father, and when I finished I put it on a table in the middle of the room and used its built in rabbit ears. When I switched to Channel 0, in came a perfect colour picture and sound of a cricket match on NZ Ch 1. Just incredible. It couldn't happen today as I believe NZ has since abandoned VHF TV.

All this agony could have been avoided had they adopted the American channel scheme in the early 50s like Canada did.

All this agony could have been avoided had they adopted the American channel scheme in the early 50s like Canada did.

Local politics dictated local outcomes.

I'm glad we didn't adopt Never Twice the Same Colour (NTSC).

Due to its proximity to the US, Canada had no choice .
We did.

QUOTE: Canada had no choice

I'm thinking with the powerful French-speaking lobby in Ottawa, they could have easily swung to the French (819-line) system.
France would have been ecstatic - a real cultural-imperialistic 'coup' (to use a French word.)
That would mean 14MHz-wide channels, but not a problem as they envisaged only single channel service for CBC.
They could then plonk one of these channels on the FM band, further sabotaging American hegemony (would politicians ever do that?)
When colour came along, it would be SECAM: "Something Essentially Contrary to the American Model"
Those along the border would continue to watch US networks with smuggled TVs, like E Germans did using illegal PAL decoders!

Yes, but because of the proximity of the border the channel allocation needs to be co-ordinated or everyone suffers. I bet the Ottowa crowd tried very hard to get SEquential Coulour Avec Memoire adopted!

In my business, before the days of mobile phones, we used to have a VHF 2 way radio service to communicate with the guys in the field. One of the licence conditions always made me laugh:

"The licencee must not transmit a signal more than 20 km" !

How was I ever going to abide by that one!

In practice, it often went much further than that, being on 77.36MHz to be precise. Pick a good hill and you could get over 200 km. And we often did, cheaper than an STD phone call in those days!

Unlike digital (at least, the system we use here), analogue TV cannot tolerate co-channel interference where the interfering signal is any less than about 60dB down. That translates on VHF to a very long distance between transmitters on the same frequency. Typically, 1000 km unless there are favourable topographic conditions (e.g. a mountain range in the way)

QUOTE: Never Twice the Same Colour (NTSC).

This interesting paper points out that there were Seventeen factors ruining accurate colour!
http://www.bretl.com/Viewing%201950s%20Colour/Viewing%201950s%20Colour%20docx.pdf