Really interesting nations opts and network chatter.

There were times in the pre 1990's when BT/The Post Office would take over BBC and ITV links to provide additional international links for major events to and from Goonhilly ES. A load of rebroadcasts plus temporary facilities replaced them, In addition virtually all the standby 'protection' circuits were used as mains too.

LA, Moscow and Montreal Olympics, The Charles and Diana Royal Wedding, Some Wimbledon, before UK to UK Satellite Links were made available that way.

A video circuit booked in 15 minute segments would have been very expensive too!
My question is a simple one.
If Glasgow could have one, why couldn't Belfast (or Cardiff)?
They are all nations.......

It's amazing how big that test card generator is, when you could likely fit the whole lot on a miniscule chip the size of a pin head these days.

Over the years, I enquired about the presence of a TCG generator in Belfast. As far as I can ascertain, they did not have one. As Tony has said, it was an expensive piece of kit back in the day. Given that this was during 'The Troubles' - and BBC Broadcasting House in Belfast was targeted by the IRA - such investment was potentially considered unwise. On the odd occasion where they had a local closedown during daytime hours, they typically resorted to black + tone. I have vague memories of them using their pulse and bar on at least one occasion. But apart from that, no test card. Colour bars as a test signal was Ulster Television's style.

The quality of the TCG in NI during this programme transfer window was perfect. Very sharp. The transition to and from TCG was also pretty tidy, as I mentioned previously. Line switching would've resulted in a much more harsh picture/audio disturbance back in those days I would've thought?

As I mentioned yesterday, BBC NI had form for relaying BBC Scotland transmissions. We got their early morning holiday children's programmes in early July for a number of years until c. 1985. The picture from BBC Scotland seemed ok, if my memory can be trusted. Programme transfer-wise, it could well be that NI opted in on BBC Two and relayed BBC Two Scotland's TCG.

One curious little detail that I recall from 1982/3: network occasionally used TCG rather than TCF. So, on the odd occasion, when we returned to a normal BBC Two network feed, we would switch from one TCG to another. And there were 2 differences - the font of the channel ID - the 'BBC2' text on the network version used a narrower font; the other difference was the positioning of the vertical black reflection line above the black/white rectangles near the top of the circle. For quite some time, I always thought the second version of TCG on this page:

http://thetvroom.com/features/spotlight-bbc-testcards-part-2.html

...was the network version. But, there's a very old VHS clip on YouTube, where BBC Two closes down just before 4pm and shows TCG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46PLx4ZiRCg

...BUT, the black vertical line is in a slightly different position. So, I'm wondering if the second TCG in that article page is actually the BBC Midlands version (I think that short recording of the second TCG in that article came from an off-air recording in Yorkshire by the way). Incidentally, in that YT clip, the music is faded out just before 4pm and switches to tone. In 1983, 4pm was the time of the programme transfer.

Anyway - I'm making some enquiries on the BBC NI side of all of this. It'd be great to know the truth after all these years.

Cardiff did have a TCG generator as far as I know. Doing some digging on that too.

I was In Cardiff’s CAA last year, it’s a fantastic and extensive museum of equipment, some of it dating back almost 40 years. Nothing ever seems to have been removed. I bet you the PM5544 crate (s) are still there !

Ah fantastic. I thought that site had disappeared completely. The differences in the frequency gratings and colour bars stuck in memory. I had forgotten about the other BBC-ified elements.

That site also has some nice history about the early days of teletext too.

So, a contact has come up trumps regarding BBC Wales and TCG. He has a letter from C. L. Hope of the BBC Engineering Information Dept, from January 1980. The letter was prompted by a query about the reasoning behind occasional appearances of Test Card G on BBC Wales.

Mr Hope explained that TCG was shown while programme material was sent from London. TCG: "...originated from our Cardiff studios and fed to both the Wenvoe and Mendip transmitters. Because the programme material from London will include sound, we also have to originate test card music from Cardiff. The pattern is a slight modification of the original Philips design. The modifications make the pattern more suited to the British television system than the Continental system for which it was designed."

And from what I can gather, the TCG generator is no longer at BBC Cardiff. Whereabouts unknown.

C L Hope ? Charles is alive and well, and still contributes to various Usenet groups.

Indeed the MHP mailing list repsonse quoted a page or two back was from Charles

However his 1980 reply muddies the waters somewhat. Isn't Mendip West region, and fed from Bristol rather than from Cardiff?

I've got a feeling Mendip could be 'addressed' by Cardiff comms ?

Yep - and this plays in to the claims by me and some others over the years that certain BBC regions were receiving TCG transmissions from other BBC regions. In any correspondence I've had on this subject over the years, there seemed to be no evidence of a TCG generator in any of the English regions, except Birmingham. The only TCG generators that I'm aware of were: Glasgow, Cardiff, Birmingham and London. Assuming London managed to switch the BBC Two Crystal Palace (and its relays) output to say a feed of TCG from TVC, what happened with all the other English regions? How was the normal BBC Two network feed kept away from viewers there? Recollections from a handful of pres enthusiasts over the years pointed to the potential of BBC Birmingham's TCG going out in English regions other than BBC Midlands. I must dig out that BBC Yorkshire snippet of TCG in my archive and see what music is playing - that might help narrow things down.

It'd be great to make contact with Charles to try and put the mysterious workings of the programme transfer to bed.