UHF TV and Me Before DTV
========================

1950s
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The first family TV (Apr 1955, GE 21" b&w, SF Bay Area) had a 13th position on the tuner dial
labeled "UHF" (which did nothing).  According to the TV Guide of that era SF had one UHF station (Ch 32)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KMTP-TV.

We got a new set (Feb 1957, RCA 21" b&w 21T7388), which still had the useless UHF spot on the tuning dial.
http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/images/57RCASC.gif

Coming to San Antonio in mid July 1957 there was one UHF station (KCOR-41), which was a pioneer
Spanish-language station that had debuted in 1955 (two years before KONO-12 came on here).

I first saw that UHF station in 1959 when the loaner set from the TV Repair Shop (having our 1957
RCA in it) had UHF on it.  With the UHF TL only 6 miles away downtown at 500-kw ERP our 1955 6-el hi-low
VHF Yagi fix-aimed s.e. was entirely sufficient to see a bullfight on them.
http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/1955Yagi.txt
http://www.qsl.net/wa5iyx/images/279-1958.jpg

1960s
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In 1962 Congress did this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-Channel_Receiver_Act, with the FCC mandating
that all TV sets made in or imported into the US be UHF-capable by April 1964.

When moving to Austin in Aug 1966 there was one very new UHF station (KHFI-42), an independent that
picked up some of the network shows that monopolistic (1953-1965) KTBC-7 "didn't want" (even to air
delayed in the weird/late hours).

In Sept of 1967 CBS aired "The Great Escape" in two parts on consecutive Thursday and Friday evenings
(http://www.tvobscurities.com/2015/11/q-and-a-cbs-film-fillers-hard-days-night/).  This caused KTBC-7
a bit of a dilemma since it was committed to carry another network's program in that Friday time slot.
KHFI-42 carried Part 2, which KTBC-7 had to promo on Thursday after Part 1, and we rented an all-channel
portable TV from the nearby 7-11 store to see it.

In Feb 1968 KHFI signed to be the Austin NBC affiliate, leaving KTBC-7 with a mix of CBS/ABC program carriage.
So now to view things like the Tonight Show we had to get a Blonder Tongue UHF converter box (with the
ubiquitous 6AF4A tube).  With the KHFI TL line-of-sight just a few miles west of town the 2-bay VHF
Conical antenna (fix-aimed s.w. for the San Antonio stations) more than sufficied.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/blonder_to_btu_2btu_converter.html

The UHF converter box was soon retired in Jun 1968 when the first color TV set (RCA GJ721W) was gotten.
The only UHF DX with it was KHTV-39 Houston in Oct 1969 (at another Austin location with that 1955 6-el
VHF Yagi used again, fix-aimed s.w.)

1970s
=====
Soon coming back to San Antonio, that set (with a larger hi-low VHF Yagi, fix-aimed s.e.) was able to get
that KHFI-42 from Austin in Mar 1970.

It wasn't until after I got my own TV set (the 9" b&w Penncrest 1001 in Jul 1971 while in Colorado) that
my UHF DXing "took off" from that location.  I got a used 8-bay bow-tie UHF array ($15) from Glenn Hauser in
mid Oct 1971 (he'd moved out to Von Ormy where he had a 7' dish on a guyed telescoping mast - something of a
sight to behold mounted that way).  My bow-tie array was (along with that aging 1955 Yagi) then fix-aimed
n.e. on a bathroom roof vent pipe.

When moving to this location in mid-Jun 1972 that UHF array (and the old 1955 VHF Yagi) were mounted
on a bathroom roof vent pipe with the rotor (T-45 Alliance) that had been for my 6-m Yagi(s) since 1964.

In Feb 1973 an Archer V-100 was gotten, and it, the UHF array, and T-45 were moved to a higher telescoping
mast at the east end of the house (where that UHF array remained until Aug 2003 and the V-100 still is).
http://www.qsl.net/w/wa5iyx/images/02030602.jpg

The (almost-all-tube) Penncrest 1001 had a non-detent UHF tuning dial, and I had to add some calibration
marks on it with liquid paper to more easily tell where I was with it.  San Antonio still had but that one
UHF station (until Nov 1985, when KRRT-35 debuted) and it was only on air then from 4 pm to midnight.
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Image frequency problems on UHF.
With the UHF tuner oscillator running at 45-MHz high of the channel tuned (to provide the beat i.f.
signal to the rest of the set) that could also bring in a signal that was 90-MHz higher than where it was
tuned.  So, e.g., Ch 20 +90 MHz (15 channels) would also present a weaker version of whatever might be on
Ch 35.  These were the days of tuning with air variable capacitors, with only some preselector effects
on the response of the r.f. amplifier/mixer stages to attenuate the signals from channels far removed
from where it was tuned.

So one had to be VERY careful of not wasting time with a weak signal that may have only been an image
response to a signal that was actually 15 channels higher.

Later, because of the fear of intermod/overload, no UHF preamplifier was ever used for NTSC DXing.

http://www.qsl.net/w/wa5iyx/UHFTVDX.htm

WA5IYX