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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:38 am
Post subject: [OT] rediffusion set |
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From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one? |
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Frances Kemmish
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:43 am
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
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Jim Ward wrote:
| Quote: | From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
|
My friend's grandmother had a Rediffusion radio. That was in Derbyshire
in the early sixties. I thought it was something like cable. |
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Don Aitken
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:10 am
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
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On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:43:35 -0500, Frances Kemmish
<fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
| Quote: | Jim Ward wrote:
From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
My friend's grandmother had a Rediffusion radio. That was in Derbyshire
in the early sixties. I thought it was something like cable.
|
Rediffusion (later Broadcast Relay Services) was a company which
provided "piped radio" services by cable in pre-television days in the
UK. I think they also made ordinary radio sets, and, later,
televisions. It subsequently begat (together with Associated
Newspapers) Associated-Rediffusion, one of the ITV programme companies
from 1955 to 1964. See
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/first.htm
--
Don Aitken
Mail to the addresses given in the headers is no longer being
read. To mail me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com". |
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:10 am
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
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"Jim Ward" <tomcatpolka@NyOaShPoAoM.com> wrote in message
news:lt4ht05tad5psihgokliuba5tpsflmsklm@4ax.com...
| Quote: | From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
|
1. Rediffusion was the brand name of a British-
manufactured radio in the postwar years, perhaps
earlier.
2. Small r rediffusion may have been used as the name
of centralized local news and entertainment channels
hard-wired in British military camps of the postwar
years, because it was diffused but not broadcast to radio
receivers. The signal went directly by wire to loudspeakers
in each building (usually Tannoy brand, the ones I saw.)
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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Jim Ward
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 8:11 am
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
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On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 21:43:28 -0500, "Don Phillipson"
<d.phillipson@ttrryytteell.com> wrote:
| Quote: | 2. Small r rediffusion may have been used as the name
of centralized local news and entertainment channels
hard-wired in British military camps of the postwar
years, because it was diffused but not broadcast to radio
receivers. The signal went directly by wire to loudspeakers
in each building (usually Tannoy brand, the ones I saw.)
|
That makes sense from what I read, because the set was located on an
island (Trinidad) near a military base. |
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Robin Bignall
Guest
|
| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 6:41 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 02:56:19 +0000, Don Aitken <don-aitken@freeuk.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:43:35 -0500, Frances Kemmish
fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
Jim Ward wrote:
From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
My friend's grandmother had a Rediffusion radio. That was in Derbyshire
in the early sixties. I thought it was something like cable.
Rediffusion (later Broadcast Relay Services) was a company which
provided "piped radio" services by cable in pre-television days in the
UK. I think they also made ordinary radio sets, and, later,
televisions. It subsequently begat (together with Associated
Newspapers) Associated-Rediffusion, one of the ITV programme companies
from 1955 to 1964. See
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/first.htm
|
In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England |
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the Omrud
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 11:14 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
docrobin@ntlworld.com typed thusly:
| Quote: | On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 02:56:19 +0000, Don Aitken <don-aitken@freeuk.com
wrote:
On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:43:35 -0500, Frances Kemmish
fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
Jim Ward wrote:
From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
My friend's grandmother had a Rediffusion radio. That was in Derbyshire
in the early sixties. I thought it was something like cable.
Rediffusion (later Broadcast Relay Services) was a company which
provided "piped radio" services by cable in pre-television days in the
UK. I think they also made ordinary radio sets, and, later,
televisions. It subsequently begat (together with Associated
Newspapers) Associated-Rediffusion, one of the ITV programme companies
from 1955 to 1964. See
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/first.htm
In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
|
Surely not. Wasn't it a cable system, like they had (have?) in York?
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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raymond o'hara
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:14 am
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
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"Robin Bignall" <> In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting
radio and TV
| Quote: | hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
|
In the 1970s some Brit came to New England with the concept of renting out
TVs.
He called the company Rediffusion and said the idea was big in old England,
Soon the company changed its name to Ready Vision but it failed as a
buisness. Americans can afford to buy TVs and trying to sell anything in
America saying it's big in Europe is a sure recipe for disaster . |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 2:15 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 06:22:20 GMT, "raymond o'hara" <reoh@comcast.net>
wrote:
| Quote: |
"Robin Bignall" <> In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting
radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
In the 1970s some Brit came to New England with the concept of renting out
TVs.
He called the company Rediffusion and said the idea was big in old England,
Soon the company changed its name to Ready Vision but it failed as a
buisness. Americans can afford to buy TVs and trying to sell anything in
America saying it's big in Europe is a sure recipe for disaster .
Americans rent TVs and other items. Buddy's Home Furnishings |
http://careerseeker.tbo.com/careerseeker/MGBQILXN13E.html has 62
stores in Florida. They'll rent you a TV, computer, or couch on a
weekly basis. All of their stores are in, or near, low income areas
if that gives you a clue to the market. |
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raymond o'hara
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 2:37 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
"Tony Cooper" <tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:eagkt01t7eod9ggo1r3n976g5ddqbokngi@4ax.com...
| Quote: | On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 06:22:20 GMT, "raymond o'hara" <reoh@comcast.net
wrote:
"Robin Bignall" <> In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting
radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
In the 1970s some Brit came to New England with the concept of renting
out
TVs.
He called the company Rediffusion and said the idea was big in old
England,
Soon the company changed its name to Ready Vision but it failed as a
buisness. Americans can afford to buy TVs and trying to sell anything in
America saying it's big in Europe is a sure recipe for disaster .
Americans rent TVs and other items. Buddy's Home Furnishings
http://careerseeker.tbo.com/careerseeker/MGBQILXN13E.html has 62
stores in Florida. They'll rent you a TV, computer, or couch on a
weekly basis. All of their stores are in, or near, low income areas
if that gives you a clue to the market.
|
Right, Fla and the South in general ,trailer trash central. |
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Geoff Butler
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 3:25 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
raymond o'hara <reoh@comcast.net> wrote
| Quote: |
"Robin Bignall" <> In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting
radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
In the 1970s some Brit came to New England with the concept of renting out
TVs.
He called the company Rediffusion and said the idea was big in old England,
Soon the company changed its name to Ready Vision but it failed as a
buisness. Americans can afford to buy TVs and trying to sell anything in
America saying it's big in Europe is a sure recipe for disaster .
|
Sorry, that should be "olde England". It's a trade mark and we insist on
it being spelt correctly.
--
-ler |
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Matti Lamprhey
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 5:10 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
"raymond o'hara" <reoh@comcast.net> wrote...
| Quote: |
"Robin Bignall"
In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV
sets were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the
electricity mains.
In the 1970s some Brit came to New England with the concept of renting
out TVs. He called the company Rediffusion and said the idea was big
in old England, Soon the company changed its name to Ready Vision but
it failed as a buisness. Americans can afford to buy TVs and trying to
sell anything in America saying it's big in Europe is a sure recipe
for disaster .
|
As someone who rented his first TV back in the mid-70s (not from
Redifussion), I can tell you that the reason for renting was not so much
the purchase price as the reputed unreliability of the things at the
time -- the rental firms promised a replacement in double-quick time
should your set pack up. I only rented for a year before re-evaluating
the decision, though -- the new Jap kit lasted forever.
Matti |
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Robin Bignall
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:12 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 16:14:08 -0000, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | docrobin@ntlworld.com typed thusly:
On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 02:56:19 +0000, Don Aitken <don-aitken@freeuk.com
wrote:
On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:43:35 -0500, Frances Kemmish
fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
Jim Ward wrote:
From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
My friend's grandmother had a Rediffusion radio. That was in Derbyshire
in the early sixties. I thought it was something like cable.
Rediffusion (later Broadcast Relay Services) was a company which
provided "piped radio" services by cable in pre-television days in the
UK. I think they also made ordinary radio sets, and, later,
televisions. It subsequently begat (together with Associated
Newspapers) Associated-Rediffusion, one of the ITV programme companies
from 1955 to 1964. See
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/first.htm
In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
Surely not. Wasn't it a cable system, like they had (have?) in York?
|
I'm thinking about Rediffusion radio, back in the late 1940s and early
1950s, David, long before televisions became popular and affordable in
working class areas. On another section of that site:
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/history.htm
"Rediffusion’s history begins in the 19th century, with a company of
quite a different name – and quite a different business. ‘British
Electric Traction’ (BET) provided the cables over which power ran to
the trams that had become common in the major conurbations of the UK
at the end of the Victorian era. They also manufactured tram motors,
thus ‘Traction’. From this base, BET expanded into making, and even
operating, tram systems in the UK and ‘the Dominions’ as were.
"When broadcasting first began in earnest in the UK in 1922, BET soon
realised that they had a complete wired network of cables that passed
a significant number of homes in the larger industrial towns. Those
home that they didn't pass by were very close and easy to reach. And
radio reception – thanks to very low-power broadcasts and
crystal-based, home-made ‘cat’s whisker’ radio sets – was a touch and
go business.
"If a company were to pick up, off-air but with large, well-tuned and
expertly directed aerials, the signals from the then British
Broadcasting Company, and provide them directly to a loudspeaker in
the front room of a well-off household, they could easily replace the
headphones-and-drifting-tuning that bedevilled early radio."
It goes on to say that they eventually used the tram conductors to
carry the signals.
As far as I remember, we had no cables in our street other than
electricity cables in the early 1950s. The trolleybus lines were at
least a mile away, and overhead cables, such as those for private
phones, were almost non-existent. Maybe Rediffusion did dig up the
streets for their own cables, but I don't recall it. I do remember a
Rediffusion radio that a neighbour had: just a box with a speaker in
it and a couple of knobs, one a volume control and the other selecting
between a station or two with no tuning dial. Certainly not a
fully-fledged radio receiver. I can't remember how or to what it was
connected.
TV took off after the Coronation in 1953, and having a large X or H
aerial on the chimney became a status symbol. I remember Rediffusion
becoming a bit of an anti-status thing because everybody assumed you
could not afford to buy a TV set.
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England |
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the Omrud
Guest
|
| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:50 pm
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
docrobin@ntlworld.com typed thusly:
| Quote: | On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 16:14:08 -0000, the Omrud <usenet.omrud@gmail.com
wrote:
docrobin@ntlworld.com typed thusly:
On Mon, 03 Jan 2005 02:56:19 +0000, Don Aitken <don-aitken@freeuk.com
wrote:
On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 19:43:35 -0500, Frances Kemmish
fkemmish@optonline.net> wrote:
Jim Ward wrote:
From what I read, a rediffusion set is some sort of wireless. Has
anyone ever used one?
My friend's grandmother had a Rediffusion radio. That was in Derbyshire
in the early sixties. I thought it was something like cable.
Rediffusion (later Broadcast Relay Services) was a company which
provided "piped radio" services by cable in pre-television days in the
UK. I think they also made ordinary radio sets, and, later,
televisions. It subsequently begat (together with Associated
Newspapers) Associated-Rediffusion, one of the ITV programme companies
from 1955 to 1964. See
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/first.htm
In my home town, Rediffusion was best known for renting radio and TV
hardware, rather than offering it for purchase, for the early TV sets
were very expensive. They distributed the signal via the electricity
mains.
Surely not. Wasn't it a cable system, like they had (have?) in York?
I'm thinking about Rediffusion radio, back in the late 1940s and early
1950s, David, long before televisions became popular and affordable in
working class areas. On another section of that site:
http://www.transdiffusion.org/tvh/history/history.htm
"Rediffusion?s history begins in the 19th century, with a company of
quite a different name ? and quite a different business. ?British
Electric Traction? (BET) provided the cables over which power ran to
the trams that had become common in the major conurbations of the UK
at the end of the Victorian era. They also manufactured tram motors,
thus ?Traction?. From this base, BET expanded into making, and even
operating, tram systems in the UK and ?the Dominions? as were.
|
Amazing. I suppose the an analogue radio signal can be subject to
drop outs and fades without making it unusable, unlike data
transmission. Recent attempts to use the mains to carry broadband
have proved unsatisfactory.
--
David
=====
replace usenet with the |
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John Hatpin
Guest
|
| Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 2:29 am
Post subject: Re: [OT] rediffusion set |
|
|
Robin Bignall wrote:
[...]
| Quote: | As far as I remember, we had no cables in our street other than
electricity cables in the early 1950s. The trolleybus lines were at
least a mile away, and overhead cables, such as those for private
phones, were almost non-existent. Maybe Rediffusion did dig up the
streets for their own cables, but I don't recall it. I do remember a
Rediffusion radio that a neighbour had: just a box with a speaker in
it and a couple of knobs, one a volume control and the other selecting
between a station or two with no tuning dial. Certainly not a
fully-fledged radio receiver. I can't remember how or to what it was
connected.
TV took off after the Coronation in 1953, and having a large X or H
aerial on the chimney became a status symbol. I remember Rediffusion
becoming a bit of an anti-status thing because everybody assumed you
could not afford to buy a TV set.
|
When I was a kid, in the 1960s/70s, we had Rediffusion. A cable ran
from a house about 100 yards away to our chimney stack, and thence
down to the eaves, where a splitter lived (my parents received 6d a
year for having the splitter there). From the splitter, cables ran at
the level of the eaves to other neighbouring houses, and, for each
house, ran down to ground-floor level and entered through the wall.
The nearest trolleybus line was about half a mile away, and was gone
by the time my memory kicks in.
Inside, the user interface (heh!) consisted of a brown bakelite box
mounted on the wall, with, as you said, a volume control knob and a
stepped channel selector. The channel selector's positions were
lettered A, B, C, etc, and exceeded the number of available stations -
perhaps ten in all (a vague memory of J being the last).
Probably, the allocation was something a little like this:
A - Light Programme (later Radio 2)
B - Home Service (later R4)
C - Third Programme (R3)
D - BBC One
E - BBC Two
F-J - Nothing
We had two such units - one fed a loudspeaker in the kitchen, and was
used for radio. The other, in the living room, fed the TV (when we
had one), but could also receive radio and play it through the TV's
speaker.
By the mid-sixties, most people were using aerials, which were still
frequently subject to interference, transmitter outages and so on, so
our home was sometimes visited by friends and neighbours wanting to
watch a programme that their aerial couldn't receive properly That
state carried on into the 1970s, when Rediffusion was dropped and
aerial transmission quality had improved markedly.
While on the subject of TV nostalgia, how about the buttons on the TV
set itself that switched between 405 lines (BBC1) and 625 (BBC2?).
--
John H
Yorkshire, England |
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