Visiting the Post Office Tower

[Terry]

Two memories of the control room at CP ...

£3,000 Marconi scope to the left of the panel with a vague milky screen. When we asked what was wrong with it, we were told "Oh, it goes like that sometimes!" followed by a sharp blow to the right hand side, whereupon the ITS popped up on the screen ...

New Ekco console colour set at the end of the room - apparently only delivered that morning (Serial No. IIRC 000005) - displaying colour bars. Could we see something else, we asked? Quick phone call to Lime Grove and we started seeing colour slides.

Not content with this we asked if we could see some telecine. Another call to Lime Grove - and bad news. The UHF transmitters on Channels 34 & 44 had been switched off the previous Saturday (this was Monday)  so that both could be retuned to Channel 33 ready for the new BBC2 channel that was due to start the following April. So it was an excellent opportunity to overhaul the BBC's one and only colour telecine machine and it was already in pieces!

[ppppenguin]

That must have been in the very early days of ITS (aka VITS). AFAIK it was never used on 405.

[Terry]

[pantomime mode] Oh yes it was! [/pantomime mode]

It caused more than a few problems for sets which took advantage of the long blanking period for field flyback. I believe modifications were released for some sets.

Others responded to slight readjustment of the vertical hold control.

Later sets with top linearity controls could also display the ITS lines. If the height was set for a slight overscan, the linearity control could be mis-set without the small amount of foldover being visible. Correct adjustment was all that was required.

[Geoffrey]

Hi,

I took a girlfriend for lunch in the Post Office Tower restaurant many years ago, the security staff used sniffer devices to check us for explosives before we entered.  I think that it is still in use but only for very senior staff etc.  A couple of years ago I entered a competition for tickets to the restaurant but did not receive an acknowledgement.

A very good view of the London skyline can be obtained from the Roof Top Bar of the Park Lane Hilton, nowadays it is crowded, even in the afternoons.  I went there earlier this year for the first time in more than 35 years.

Best wishes, Geoffrey.

[ed731pdh]

From the blunt, receiving end of the works.

Lived opposite Brockwell Park up until 99, used to have the old H section aerial on the roof for 405 and latterly a bog standard UHF that fed a dual standards 19" B/W Stella in the front room. All was ok until they built the two tower blocks in Railton Road that caused severe ghosting so the UHF got moved to the back side of the house to cure that problem.

However, lasting memories of a monster 28f aerial plus rotor on a dual pole lashed to the chimney stack (London roofs, V shaped with centre gully) plus guy lines, and being able to pull in transmissions from Emley Moor. Now that was something to behold.