BBC Regional logos from the early 70s

[quote="Matt_1979" pid="668012"]

It was really down to when the IBA patched the company's output to the transmitters. The Test Card D/E/F broadcasts were from slide scanners at the IBA transmitters and/or control rooms. In the late 70s, these sites had most of their permanent staffing removed, and automation was introduced. In those days, slide scanners required almost continual adjustment to keep them up to spec, particularly if they were used for test cards.
In the late 70s, the IBA devised a box of tricks for each regional Tx. That had the ETP1 electronic test card, as well as the blue apology captions in case of loss of feed from the local ITV station. However, during late 70s between the slide scanners being removed, and ETP1, some ITV companies were cut to Tx by the IBA at around 08:30hrs. HTV would show colour bars with their logo, Thames would show their station clock, Southern just standard bars.#

Edit: 13:10hrs. Actually I suspect the reason the ITV companies were connected to their transmitters an hour before the 09:30 start ups, was because of Oracle Teletext. Test cards from the Tx site, did not carry any Oracle data, this was carried in the video signals leaving the ITV companies, so in order for Oracle to be available from 08:30, obviously the ITV companies had to be connected to their transmitters.

The IBA seemed to drop EPT1 for ITV around 1981, the same time that C4 and S4C test transmissions started to pop up using it too. I suspect it was to avoid viewer confusion !

I was only around four at the time I first saw the C4 test card and it just seemed really creepy and sinister to me at that age When I was older, I used to stare at Test Card F for ages (I was around nine) wondering what it was and why the girl never moved! It used to fascinate me.

It is interesting to read about the changes to the ITV stations once automation was brought in. However, I didn't know that the IBA had a brief period between Test Card F and ETP1. I am surprised that they didn't seem to use the test card much on ITV once Channel 4 and S4C started their test transmissions.

True, but then you see this http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/dsplus/m.php?p=bbc1midlands_closedown_1979.rm and it seems like it was worth every penny.

IBA use of Test Card F fizzled out about 73/74, (at least on the four regions I used monitor, Sou, Lon, HTV West, ATV )

As I pointed out, in the 70s TCF was originated from a 35mm slide, and that required a slide scanner, which in turn required 'staffing' to keep it in tip top condition. No problem for the Beeb, because their TCF was from slide scanners within TVC in London, (or possibly at times one of the nations). Fully staffed of course. The IBA during the 70s could not afford to have 15 manned control rooms, and the enormous expansion of UHF transmitters at that time, meant that more 'automation' and unattended operation was essential. Also, by 1974 ITV was on the air from 09:30 until at least midnight, so there was little airtime for a test card anyway.
The BBC had huge stretches of nothing daytime on BBC 1 and 2, so they simply carried on with TCF. Remember, the primary purpose of the card was to give the TV repair trade a test signal to adjust domestic receivers to, so there was no need for it to be available on all three channels.

ETP-1 started up on Rowridge (the IBA's 'local' Tx to Crawley Court) in 1978. By the time C4 and S4C test transmissions started in 1981, TCF was firmly a 'BBC Thing' in the public's perception. The IBA invited people to tune in C4 on their spare push buttons from April 82, and they needed a unique and identifiable image for them to look for. TCF would have been no good, because (despite the ID block) people would have been confused, so I suspect that's why the use of EPT1 on ITV was removed. Academic anyway, because of course in Feb 83 along came TV-am.

http://www.pembers.freeserve.co.uk/Test-Cards/Test-Card-Technical.html#ETP1

Thanks for the info. I am surprised the four ITV regions you mentioned stopped using Test Card F as early as 73-74 - I was always under the impression that they more or less switched from TCF to ETP1.

I didn't know the IBA couldn't afford to have 15 control rooms. It must have also been tricky to maintain the slide scanner the images I've seen of the ITV Test Card F don't look as clear as the BBC versions as if the slide wasn't as good quality.

I assume that part of that move was because the more modern, UHF colour transmitters needed less supervision.... but how did they manage to work it so they could leave the ageing VHF ones unattended?

There were stories of engineers going to turn off a 405 line tx and finding it had failed weeks before and nobody had noticed.

I suspect that the 405 line service became more and more neglected as time progressed.

There's some mention of that in the IBA Tech Reviews from the 1970s. Apparently the first 405 VHF station built that required no supervision was Selkirk, in 1961. So, many of the subsequent VHF sites that opened after that date, were probably the same.
I suppose it was only the major sites, that dated back to the 1950s that required supervision. I think most of the major VHF sites were co sited with the IBA maintenance bases anyway ? By the late 70s, the number of people still using 405/VHF had dwindled away, so any failures were not top priority, as Steve's post alludes to ?

Well, 1974 was the year Oracle teletext was launched, so as I said previously, the ITV companies had to be connected to their transmitters in order for the data to be broadcast, so that probably contributed to the demise of Test F too. ETP-1 didn't appear until 1978, I can't remember when I saw it from Rowridge/Hannington, the IBA usually warmed up the Tx network from about 07:30ish, but I'm sure from 08:30 it was colour bars from Southern TV's MCR until the start up at 09:30.




It was a question of economics, the expansion of the UHF/625/colour network was expensive, and required leading edge technology. Also by the late 60s, it became apparent that far more UHF stations would be required to achieve national coverage.
The IBA/BBC had originally estimated 300 or so, in fact the final figure was 1154. During the mid to late 70s, one new UHF Tx a week would open, and the process finally stopped in 1998 a few weeks before DTT roll out commenced.

STV continued to follow the IBA startup rules right up to the beginning of TV-am, so that meant the station output going to line at P-15 (ie 15 mins before start of programmes which equated to 10 minutes before the start of the IBA tuning caption). During this time we fed bars (see later) and tone to the transmitters.

I do recall seeing Test Card F radiated by Black Hill one morning around 1979 when we had a bizarre morning schedule that included closedown between 11 and 12. (Goodness knows why!) So I closed down at 10:59 and Black Hill went back to TCF for 45 minutes.

There was a slow switchover to electronic test card generation. As others have rightly identified, having to keep a poxy slide scanner working properly was a pain in the butt for TX engineers who had klystrons to worry about. Which is why many ITA versions of TCF had insect droppings all over the slides. And hamfisted attempts at using Letraset on the slide as seen from Crystal Palace with its crude "NO TRADE ON CH 23" slapped over the top of the card. After some experimentation at Crystal Palace, the first station to switch permanently to PM5544 (the 'missing link' between TCF and ETP-1) was Fremont Point in the Channel Islands, and in fact PM5544 came from Rouge Bouillon rather than the grand two-storey transmitter building (the one one of its kind).

I know for a fact that ETP-1 (which to be absolutely pedantic was ETP-2 because the first trial version was slightly different) was used on both ITV and C4 at times. Some time around 1986 it was agreed that TX engineers no longer needed to stay on duty until closedown, and Black Hill was put on a timeswitch, arranged to shut the TXs off approx 15 minutes after closedown. From that point onwards, after a decent gap, we'd put up the magnificent STV Bars, which like HTV had the proper STV logo burnt into them.

If my memory's correct, "BBC East Anglia" changed to "BBC 1 East" around the same time that BBC 1's futura globe was introduced (around 1974/75).