Analogue TV memories

There was a similar scene in the 'Bedsitter' episode of Hancock. it's at 20:50 here:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5hg53q


While searching for that I found this more surreal take on aerials and bad reception

I'd think as well Tony, the Tay Bridge transmitter would have a pretty decent signal reach, if the conditions were right.

In the days of dial-up internet, teletext would have been far quicker.
But of course today with always on and faster connections, mobile phones and what not...

I always had a love for the old analogue signal, as unlike digital were it is all or nothing, at least you could watch some sort of picture with analogue.

I remember family in County Donegal, who loved British television. They had a strong aerial on their roof to ensure they got the UK channels from Londonderry, Northern Ireland. They lived in Letterkenny, County Donegal, about 30 miles from Londonderry, and picked up a very good signal, stretching back as the late 1950s.

I think at least 40% of the Irish republic would be able to pick up then main UK channels via overspill analogue from either Northern Ireland or Wales. It is not the same now with Freeview.

I love how we started out this thread with some comments on it

Hmmm. I don't think this sounds right. I used to connect max about 49k baud. What's the effective data rate of the teletext carousels rolling by?

I live in Mansfield and can't get either! (Well in the analogue days I could get Belmont but it was fuzzy. Could also get Tyne Tees from Bilsdale. No sign of Waltham though). I get Emley Moor instead.

Funny how I could get news from Leeds and Newcastle, but the actual region that covers my area is impossible to recieve. I remember East Midlands Today recording a report at my school, and barely anyone was able to see it. Unless you had cable or lived in a high up part of town with a high gain aerial and booster, you weren't going to see it.

Strangely though I have no issues getting Smooth Radio on 106.6, also from Waltham. Just no sniff of TV from there.

It's nice to see how this thread's taken off after the unnecessary snark initially.

The point I was getting at, in the dial-up days if you want to go online to look at something you had to fire up the computer, get it to dial, then wait 30 odd seconds for it to connect with the whooshing noises and what not, then go to the website you wanted. For Teletext, press Text and enter 520. Or whatever, then wait for it to come round.

And you're doing well if you managed to get 49k every single connect, I used to max out at 36k. Sometimes 42k if I was lucky.

Picked up Grampian from Angus in Northern Ireland once in the 90s.

Would you believe 6.93 Mb/s ? The problem was it was only during the blanking period, and not continuous.

I guess the cycle of page numbers was the equivalent of buffering.

I do think Teletext itself bailed out too soon as when they went it was still quicker than looking online, and IMO they translated their service better over to digital than Ceefax did. However it can't really compete with what came later where that info is available in the palm of your hand - though I suspect had Teletext launched an app it probably would have done rather well.

Teletext Holidays is still going strong online to this day - so the brand lives on in some form. I saw TV adverts for it earlier this year too.