THINGS YOU DON'T SEE ANYMORE (Part 1)

Caron · Post by **Caron** » Thu 17 May, 2012 12:56 am

Johnny39 wrote: Leodian wrote: Caron wrote: The Potter's wheel interlude....lol. I bet many people now would be amazed to hear that there used to be short interludes on television. The Potters Wheel was good. The test card (with and without the girl) and (probably my favourite) the London to Brighton train run in 4 minutes! Great nostalgia. I'm forgetting of course that there are interludes now but they are filled with 'What's coming soon' or even 'What's on next' clips. Who could ever forget the kitten and its ball of wool? I've seen the Potter's Wheel and Train Run but that's it. I remember the Test Card without the girl and blackboard and also with some fondness I remember my dad saying to me, "Have some patience, Caron and just wait for the valves to warm up"

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Thu 17 May, 2012 1:32 am

Caron wrote: "Have some patience, Caron and just wait for the valves to warm up" Aye the good old days when you used to have to get up and bash the telly. Banging the remote control on the sofa doesn't relief the same level of frustration these days!Those aerials on top of the T.V you used to have to bend all sorts of ways to get a picture, those old t.v's liked human company, The picture only worked when you stood near it, as soon as you sat down again it went off

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Thu 17 May, 2012 1:45 am

Phill_dvsn wrote: Caron wrote: "Have some patience, Caron and just wait for the valves to warm up" Aye the good old days when you used to have to get up and bash the telly. Banging the remote control on the sofa doesn't relief the same level of frustration these days!Those aerials on top of the T.V you used to have to bend all sorts of ways to get a picture, those old t.v's liked human company, The picture only worked when you stood near it, as soon as you sat down again it went off Phil do you remember the interference on the TV screen whenever a car passed outside? I seem to remember them fitting vehicles with a thing called a supressor which sorted the problem out.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Thu 17 May, 2012 2:20 am

Johnny39 wrote: Phil do you remember the interference on the TV screen whenever a car passed outside? I seem to remember them fitting vehicles with a thing called a supressor which sorted the problem out. I remember the T.V detector van coming round, you always knew the rogues with no licence, they'd coming running down the street 'quick switch off the telly' I think that detector van was the biggest scare tactic and bluff going, I'm not sure how it could read any t.v signal and know the owner didn't have a license. The aerials on top won't even have had any wires connected, it was just some fella reading the paper and drinking from his flask inside the van, there was just him in it and nothing else It scared a lot of people though o.m.g!But people seemed a lot more naive in those days, we weren't used to gadgets and computers and such like we are today.

Brunel · Post by **Brunel** » Thu 17 May, 2012 8:45 am

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Thu 17 May, 2012 8:51 am

Am I right in thinking that, when there was only BBC, Alexandra Palace was shown with radio waves rippling out from the huge aerials on the roof of that beautiful building. Its still one of my favourite nostalgia sights from the London bound trains to this very day - the Palace is still a fabulous building - and to think that "television" was swiitched off at the start of WW2 in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and resumed after the conflict at the same spot in that film.

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Thu 17 May, 2012 8:56 am

You see look at that, the aerial antenna, it was plastic all along lol They at best had a list of who didn't have a licence, and the scare tactic of having the van around your street.They knocked on the doors they had listed as non licence owners, they didn't have the technology to detect a t.v set being played without a license, they simply knocked on the doors and hoped the defaulter would panic and drop themselves right in it. It's definitely time the B.B.C fended for themselves, all the other channels manage to do it very nicely with huge profits. The licence is old fashioned, out of date, and scandalously high if you don't watch B.B.C much/at all.

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Thu 17 May, 2012 9:12 am

It did work, you can detect wether a cathode ray tube is being used and even the picture. Don't know if you remember on of the first IT security scares when it was known you could sit outside a building with a modified tv van and read what was on an computer monitor inside. Can't see how they work with flat screens though.

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Thu 17 May, 2012 9:14 am

How many vans actually had working kit and an expensive engineer in the back is the real question. Not many is probably the answer.

Jogon · Post by **Jogon** » Thu 17 May, 2012 9:19 am

They used 'Comma', vans, did, nt, they, ?If this thread gets any longer I am going to miss the opening page photo of Doris Day, as will others.