(15-03-2018, 01:12 AM)Synchrodyne Wrote: Belgian TV receivers were four-system from the start in 1953, covering Systems B, C, E and F. ... With the advent of UHF, five-system receivers were introduced, covering Systems B/G/H, C, E, F and L.
Belgium discontinued use of System F in February 1968 and France, after attempting an 819-line version of SECAM, dropped it in favour of 625-lines and started switching their TF1 service from System E to System L. System C also fell by the wayside - probably after System F disappeared - and both services were then carried using System B.
However, after the UK started transmitting all three services on UHF in 625-line PAL in late 1969, System I was added to the mix.
Anybody visiting Belgium, particularly Flanders in those days cannot have failed to notice the vast aerial arrays on virtually every roof. These were usually guyed to all four corners of the roof and, I would imagine, cost a fair bit in insurance. On the coast, for example, they would point inland for the local BRT chanels, South for the RTBF channels and TF1, A2 and FR3 from France, North-east for NOS1 and NOS2 from the Nerherlands and slightly south of east to the Dover IBA transmitter for BBC1, BBC2 and ITV! Most, bar the UK channels, needed a mix of VHF and UHF arrays, of course. In the windows of TV dealers there would often be two sets side by side, aparently identical, but with entirely different price tags. The cheap one would be a normal System B, G,H receiver whilst the one with the much higher price would be the multi-standard one!
Then, in the mid 70s, as if by magic, they all disappeared!
Cable TV had arrived! Those magnificent arrays were no longer needed, nor multi-standard sets, as all signals were converted, if necessary, to PAL System B at the headend.
As a senior technical manager at TV-West, the operator on the coast, explained to me a few years later, "For us it was easy. We could say that if you take our service, it will cost you considerably less in a year than you will save when you buy a new TV!"
The take-up was even more surprising because, unlike here, where lots of satellite and other programming have always been part of the cable package, litte more was provided in Belgium than the subscribers could receive themselves without the cable!
The only satelite channel was RAI Uno (there are a lot of Italian migrants in Belgium). Also added to the previous mix were RTLi and WDR and one subscription channel - Filmnet - which was scrambled and required an external decoder plugged into the SCART connector..
UK TV was now available to all subscribers rather than just those living near the coast.
So, that first channel line up was: BRT1, BRT2, RTBF1, Télé 21, NOS1, NOS2, TF1, A2, FR3, RTLi, WDR, BBC1, BBC2, ITV, RAI Uno and Filmnet.
There was also a Mosaic Channel so all of these neatly fitted into a 4 x 4 mosaic!
Intially, subscribers were issued with set-top boxes for channel selection. They received the incoming cable signal - continous coverage from 47-290MHz - and converted the selected programme to a channel in the broadcast bands.
These didn't last long, though. The high takeup was sufficient to ensure that new continous coverage tuners were developed and fitted to all new TV sets sold in Belgium within a couple of years!
In later years, as Amplifiers appeared, capable of wider bandwidths whilst retaining the ability to conform to the strict noise and distortion specifications required, the 290MHz limit was abandoned, the 300 -470MHz band became 8MHz TV channels and some European cable networks are now capable of operation over the entire 47-862MHz bandwidth.
