Living History
Television arrives early in Launceston
It was 1960 and television was about to commence in Tasmania. Typically, this wonder was earmarked only for Hobart and its environs, and not in the north of the state where I lived. But was I going to let a small thing like that interfere with my plans? Not on your life! I went to the local library and borrowed all of the books that I could find on the subject of TV antennae and fringe area reception. After all, it was only a hundred and twenty lousy miles away, and the situation of our house in one of the recently opened up areas of Launceston, elevated and free of very much in the way of physical obstructions to an incoming signal, should provide a better than average chance of receiving some kind of reception from the Southern Capital.
In some small pockets of Launceston, test signals had been received when atmospheric conditions were ideal, but the chances of anything like regular reception of a watchable screen were, at best, unlikely. A few bold Launceston souls had in recent weeks, purchased receivers but with the usual "off the shelf" antennae. Their reception ranged from snowy to nil (most common).
A near neighbour had installed a set, and when connected to a standard "phased array" antenna, his reception varied between sporadic and non-existent. Armed with this knowledge, I once again went to the local public library and managed to borrow a book which dealt in the specifications and materials for construction of TV antennae, then went out and purchased a set of my own.
With his phased array antenna, my neighbour had rather snowy reception on channel 6, the commercial station, but virtually no picture or sound from the ABC station, channel 2. For my own installation, I decided to experiment using a multi-purpose antenna on a pole. While he had a snowy but watchable picture from 6, he could get virtually no picture from the ABC. On the other hand, I managed to get poor but passable reception from the ABC but nothing from 6. This remained the situation no matter what we did and we eventually realised that a signal can be reasonably strong on one side of a street and not exist at all on the other.
Determined not to be beaten, and after yet another trip to the library to re-borrow the antenna book (by now I was on first name terms with the librarian), I ordered the material, aluminium rods and various clamps to build two Yagi-type antennae cut to channel 2 specifications. The construction process went surprisingly smoothly, albeit with considerable encouragement from my neighbours, who were all by now both intrigued and excited by my project, and by my apparent unfailing determination (or was it just stupidity?). To increase efficiency, I had made the antennae to the maximum scale. Atop a thirty foot mast mounted on the roof of the house, the structure was quite imposing.
During its installation, while precariously balanced on my roof atop an 8’ step ladder, with the telescopic mast at its lower position, at one stage, the mast turned with a gust of wind along with me hanging on to the beam. Having an in-built aversion to heights, it was with sweaty palms and a pounding heart that I was forced to swing hand over hand to the mast and slither down to the roof.
Once the hand trembling and heavy breathing had eased somewhat, I locked the mast into position and went inside to check reception. I was amazed and gratified to find that it was virtually flawless.
Then came the most remarkable part of the exercise. Friends, when told of the good reception, began coming from all parts of town to give their opinions. People I didn't know were turning up and I suddenly became very popular with the local grocer. Because of the social life which presented itself because of entertaining friends who were spending evenings and weekend afternoons with us, this resulted in increased consumption of biscuits, cakes, coffee and the like.
A truck driver who had delivered the aluminium stock with which the array was constructed, dropped in to see how the exercise was progressing. He was quite impressed and asked if he could bring along his elderly mother one evening because she had never seen a TV set.
With mixed feelings, I agreed to his request and found that the old lady was a charming person who had heard about TV, but who had serious doubts that such things could actually work. He brought her along at our invitation the following night. Her pleasure and wonder at viewing the screen for the first time was enough to bring tears to our eyes. She left with the advice to her son that they should purchase one straight away. When told that in the area where they lived, reception would be impossible, I could see her obvious disappointment. They left before I could hear if a change of abode was being suggested.
Because of the plague of troubles that presented themselves in the early days of viewing, it was necessary to raise and lower the array fairly regularly for cleaning of terminals and minor repairs from bird damage. This was a very tedious and inconvenient physical exercise as the whole structure was very heavy due to the use of available material in its construction. At about this time there had been several hydraulically operated clothes-lines in production. The system was an inner and outer pipe, the centre pipe sliding upwards under water pressure. An effective seal was located on the top of the base pipe and when water from the mains was introduced to the system, the centre pipe was forced upwards carrying, in the case of a clothes line, the hanging area for clothes. This was the inspiration, due to natural laziness, to adapt the hydraulic principle to suit an antenna mast. Using this system took the strain off not only my back, but also from the backs of my neighbours, and consequently local friendships.
A couple of years later, Launceston had the mixed blessing of having its own TV station, to the detriment of the local gardens and paint on houses, which all suffered as the local population wallowed in the luxury of black and white TV. But nothing that you get easily is as good as something you have to battle hard for. The satisfaction we got from viewing 'fringe TV' was far greater than that we ever got from having our own local TV with two local stations to choose from. Within six months of TV coming to Launceston, to us it was decidedly ho-hum.
Looking back today on those old black and white productions, with their unsophisticated situations and humour, brings the realisation that nothing remains the same. The content and technique of our present TV programmes will no doubt be looked on as quaint and basic in just a few short years.
John, Septuagenarian, Launceston Tasmania
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