In article <tbbv6a$2fq7s$1@dont-email.me>,
Lew says...

> There's Radio
> Paradise, which is free and supported by donations:
>
>

As is MysteryTrain Radio.

https://www.mysterytrainradio.com/

192 kbps AAC stream according to my Roberts 94i

--
Ken

On Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:26:40 +0100, Mark Carver
<mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>Thank goodness for streaming music services, and playlists, and being
>able to have a random selection of music from hundreds of thousands of
>choices

Ond day we'll look back on traditional broadcasting services and
wonder how we endured all the restrictions. In fact, young people
probably already do.

Much the same as those of us of a certain age might look back now and
remember TRF valve radios powered by high tension batteries and acid
filled accumulators for the heaters, and using longwire arials and
earth spikes. The very idea that you could have such a system in a
moving vehicle was absurd.

During my time working in television, we would be told regularly at
exhibitions or in training courses that "One day, television displays
will be flat panels that you can hang on a wall like a picture",
clearly the stuff of science fiction.

Rod.

On Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:30:44 +0100, JNugent <jennings&co@fastmail.fm>
wrote:

>On 21/07/2022 03:15 pm, Scott wrote:
>
>> Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>>> MB wrote:
>>
>>>> That was the great thing about John Peel
>>
>>> [...]
>>
>>>> Reductio ad absurdum would mean that a station would only play one track
>>
>>> John Peel was booked for one of our freshers' week discos, for openers he played
>>> "Blue Monday" six times in a row as a protest at how much he'd been asked for it!
>>
>> He opened our new Union. When I spoke to him, he remarked that he did
>> not think much of David Hamilton as a new signing to Radio 1.
>
>I wonder what he had against diversity?
>
>When R1 was in its heyday, David Hamilton was probably a better fit for
>it than John Peel could ever have been.
>
>Can you imagine John Peel playing "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" or other
>tracks off the R1 daytime playlist of the day? That was what the
>audience wanted.
>
>DH was R1 mainstream while JP, for all his merits, was non-peak hours
>niche programming.

I remember once listening to a talk by John Peel about the Sgt Pepper
LP - on Radio 3! (or maybe it was still called the Third Programme
then, I'm not sure). It was a novelty to hear anything other than
classical music (and occasionally jazz) on this channel. In fact
hearing pop music on FM was quite a novelty too.

Rod.

On 22/07/2022 09:44, Roderick Stewart wrote:
> Much the same as those of us of a certain age might look back now and
> remember TRF valve radios powered by high tension batteries and acid
> filled accumulators for the heaters, and using longwire arials and
> earth spikes. The very idea that you could have such a system in a
> moving vehicle was absurd.

I had a car, built in 1977 which had a valve radio. It was powered by an
inverter which was effectively took the 12V battery voltage and by means
of a vibrator connected to the primary of a dual winding step-up and
step down transformer gave the HT for the anodes and also halved the
voltage for the heaters. It worked very well. The only real snag was
that it was powered via the battery and not via the ignition, which was
OK for listening to the radio while parked, but the once I forgot to
turn the radio off I had a completely flat battery the next morning!

Jim

On Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:30:44 +0100, JNugent <jennings&co@fastmail.fm>
wrote:

>On 21/07/2022 03:15 pm, Scott wrote:
>
>> Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>>> MB wrote:
>>
>>>> That was the great thing about John Peel
>>
>>> [...]
>>
>>>> Reductio ad absurdum would mean that a station would only play one track
>>
>>> John Peel was booked for one of our freshers' week discos, for openers he played
>>> "Blue Monday" six times in a row as a protest at how much he'd been asked for it!
>>
>> He opened our new Union. When I spoke to him, he remarked that he did
>> not think much of David Hamilton as a new signing to Radio 1.
>
>I wonder what he had against diversity?
>
>When R1 was in its heyday, David Hamilton was probably a better fit for
>it than John Peel could ever have been.
>
>Can you imagine John Peel playing "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" or other
>tracks off the R1 daytime playlist of the day? That was what the
>audience wanted.
>
>DH was R1 mainstream while JP, for all his merits, was non-peak hours
>niche programming.

I don't disagree. Actually, I liked DH - especially because the show
was on FM. At the time, I lived on the east coast and 247m reception
was pretty bad from dusk onwards.

On 22/07/2022 09:54 am, Roderick Stewart wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:30:44 +0100, JNugent <jennings&co@fastmail.fm>
> wrote:
>
>> On 21/07/2022 03:15 pm, Scott wrote:
>>
>>> Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>>>> MB wrote:
>>>
>>>>> That was the great thing about John Peel
>>>
>>>> [...]
>>>
>>>>> Reductio ad absurdum would mean that a station would only play one track
>>>
>>>> John Peel was booked for one of our freshers' week discos, for openers he played
>>>> "Blue Monday" six times in a row as a protest at how much he'd been asked for it!
>>>
>>> He opened our new Union. When I spoke to him, he remarked that he did
>>> not think much of David Hamilton as a new signing to Radio 1.
>>
>> I wonder what he had against diversity?
>>
>> When R1 was in its heyday, David Hamilton was probably a better fit for
>> it than John Peel could ever have been.
>>
>> Can you imagine John Peel playing "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" or other
>> tracks off the R1 daytime playlist of the day? That was what the
>> audience wanted.
>>
>> DH was R1 mainstream while JP, for all his merits, was non-peak hours
>> niche programming.
>
> I remember once listening to a talk by John Peel about the Sgt Pepper
> LP - on Radio 3! (or maybe it was still called the Third Programme
> then, I'm not sure). It was a novelty to hear anything other than
> classical music (and occasionally jazz) on this channel. In fact
> hearing pop music on FM was quite a novelty too.
>
It was still the Third at the precise moment that Sgt pepper was released.

On 22/07/2022 10:39, Indy Jess John wrote:
> On 22/07/2022 09:44, Roderick Stewart wrote:
>> Much the same as those of us of a certain age might look back now and
>> remember TRF valve radios powered by high tension batteries and acid
>> filled accumulators for the heaters, and using longwire arials and
>> earth spikes. The very idea that you could have such a system in a
>> moving vehicle was absurd.
>
> I had a car, built in 1977 which had a valve radio. It was powered by an
> inverter which was effectively took the 12V battery voltage and by means
> of a vibrator connected to the primary of a dual winding step-up and
> step down transformer gave the HT for the anodes and also halved the
> voltage for the heaters. It worked very well. The only real snag was
> that it was powered via the battery and not via the ignition, which was
> OK for listening to the radio while parked, but the once I forgot to
> turn the radio off I had a completely flat battery the next morning!

I'm surprised they still made them in 1977. I thought all car radios by
that time were transistorised or a hybrid design with valves with 12V
HT. I'm also surprised your radio didn't use valves with 12.6V heaters,
which were made for UK car radios as those with 6.3V heaters were made
for US car radios.

--
Max Demian

On 22/07/2022 09:54, Roderick Stewart wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:30:44 +0100, JNugent <jennings&co@fastmail.fm>
> wrote:
>> On 21/07/2022 03:15 pm, Scott wrote:
>>> Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>>>> John Peel was booked for one of our freshers' week discos, for openers he played
>>>> "Blue Monday" six times in a row as a protest at how much he'd been asked for it!
>>>
>>> He opened our new Union. When I spoke to him, he remarked that he did
>>> not think much of David Hamilton as a new signing to Radio 1.
>>
>> I wonder what he had against diversity?
>>
>> When R1 was in its heyday, David Hamilton was probably a better fit for
>> it than John Peel could ever have been.
>>
>> Can you imagine John Peel playing "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" or other
>> tracks off the R1 daytime playlist of the day? That was what the
>> audience wanted.
>>
>> DH was R1 mainstream while JP, for all his merits, was non-peak hours
>> niche programming.
>
> I remember once listening to a talk by John Peel about the Sgt Pepper
> LP - on Radio 3! (or maybe it was still called the Third Programme
> then, I'm not sure). It was a novelty to hear anything other than
> classical music (and occasionally jazz) on this channel. In fact
> hearing pop music on FM was quite a novelty too.

The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
Home) were stereo.

--
Max Demian

On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:46:12 +0100, Max Demian
<max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:

>The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
>play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
>Home) were stereo.

Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
want it.

Rod.

On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 12:41:28 +0100, Roderick Stewart
<rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

>On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:46:12 +0100, Max Demian
><max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>>The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
>>play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
>>Home) were stereo.
>
>Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
>first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
>want it.
>
Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1. R3 has a
higher DAB bitrate than any other station despite its low audience.

On 22/07/2022 12:52 pm, Scott wrote:

> Roderick Stewart <rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>> Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>>> The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
>>> play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
>>> Home) were stereo.
>
>> Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
>> first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
>> want it.
>
> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1. R3 has a
> higher DAB bitrate than any other station despite its low audience.

BBC2 was the only channel capable of being in colour (at the time).

Stereo radio and colour TV was irrelevant to much of the population.
Things were different then. New gadgets were expensive and many, if not
most, simply could not spring for them.

I acquired stereo radio in 1974 and colour TV in 1979.

In article <ep3ldhhsr085nob85018phq7rf20j7a0s9@4ax.com>, Scott
<newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 12:41:28 +0100, Roderick Stewart
> <rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

> >On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:46:12 +0100, Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used
> >>to play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light
> >>and Home) were stereo.
> >
> >Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
> >first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
> >want it.
> >
> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1.

Not sure about that. Thefirst colour programmes were Wimbledon tennis.

> R3 has a higher DAB bitrate than any other station despite its low
> audience.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England - sent from my RISC OS 4té
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On 22/07/2022 13:44, charles wrote:
> In article <ep3ldhhsr085nob85018phq7rf20j7a0s9@4ax.com>, Scott
> <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1.
> Not sure about that. Thefirst colour programmes were Wimbledon tennis.
>
Colour came to BBC 2 on July 1st 1967, with as you say Wimbledon Tennis

Colour came to BBC 1 and ITV ( in four regions) on Nov 15th 1969

On 22/07/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:46:12 +0100, Max Demian
> <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>> The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
>> play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
>> Home) were stereo.
> Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
> first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
> want it.
>
Although RDS was first tested on Radio 3 (to see if anyone noticed any
artefacts from its sub-carrier)

Mark Carver <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 22/07/2022 13:44, charles wrote:
>> In article <ep3ldhhsr085nob85018phq7rf20j7a0s9@4ax.com>, Scott
>> <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1.
>> Not sure about that. Thefirst colour programmes were Wimbledon tennis.
>>
> Colour came to BBC 2 on July 1st 1967, with as you say Wimbledon Tennis
>
> Colour came to BBC 1 and ITV ( in four regions) on Nov 15th 1969
>

And I blame the trade test transmissions for propelling me into an
engineering career. We had a colour dual standard TV from the get go. As a
5 year old the explanations to the trade about how colour TV worked were
far more interesting than Play School.

On 22/07/2022 01:44 pm, charles wrote:

> Scott <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>> Roderick Stewart <rjfs@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Max Demian <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>>>> The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used
>>>> to play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light
>>>> and Home) were stereo.
>
>>> Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
>>> first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
>>> want it.
>
>> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1.
>
> Not sure about that. Thefirst colour programmes were Wimbledon tennis.

The first colour regular service transmissions in the UK were definitely
on BBC2 (1967, ISTR).

At the time, BBC1 and ITV were still only transmitted on 405-line
monochrome-only (VHF transmission). They would not expand onto 625-line
PAL colour-compatible (where BBC2 had always been) until 1969.

I will defer on the issue of what the first BBC2 colour programme was,
except to say that I had thought it was snooker.
>
>> R3 has a higher DAB bitrate than any other station despite its low
>> audience.
>

On 22/07/2022 14:08, Tweed wrote:
> Mark Carver <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On 22/07/2022 13:44, charles wrote:
>>> In article <ep3ldhhsr085nob85018phq7rf20j7a0s9@4ax.com>, Scott
>>> <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1.
>>> Not sure about that. Thefirst colour programmes were Wimbledon tennis.
>>>
>> Colour came to BBC 2 on July 1st 1967, with as you say Wimbledon Tennis
>>
>> Colour came to BBC 1 and ITV ( in four regions) on Nov 15th 1969
>>
> And I blame the trade test transmissions for propelling me into an
> engineering career. We had a colour dual standard TV from the get go. As a
> 5 year old the explanations to the trade about how colour TV worked were
> far more interesting than Play School.
>
You and I must be twins separated at birth !

Mark Carver <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 22/07/2022 14:08, Tweed wrote:
>> Mark Carver <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 22/07/2022 13:44, charles wrote:
>>>> In article <ep3ldhhsr085nob85018phq7rf20j7a0s9@4ax.com>, Scott
>>>> <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>> Long history of that. BBC2 was in colour before BBC1.
>>>> Not sure about that. Thefirst colour programmes were Wimbledon tennis.
>>>>
>>> Colour came to BBC 2 on July 1st 1967, with as you say Wimbledon Tennis
>>>
>>> Colour came to BBC 1 and ITV ( in four regions) on Nov 15th 1969
>>>
>> And I blame the trade test transmissions for propelling me into an
>> engineering career. We had a colour dual standard TV from the get go. As a
>> 5 year old the explanations to the trade about how colour TV worked were
>> far more interesting than Play School.
>>
> You and I must be twins separated at birth !
>
I think we are of a similar age. (59)

I still regard the shadow mask as a miracle. Happily I did get to go to
Evoluon in Eindhoven before the bean counters destroyed it.

On 22/07/2022 14:08, Tweed wrote:
> And I blame the trade test transmissions for propelling me into an
> engineering career. We had a colour dual standard TV from the get go. As a
> 5 year old the explanations to the trade about how colour TV worked were
> far more interesting than Play School.

We can't all be brainy.

Bill

On 22/07/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:46:12 +0100, Max Demian
> <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>> The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
>> play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
>> Home) were stereo.
>
> Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
> first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
> want it.

Pop music was mostly bought on 7" singles which (at the time) were
almost entirely mono, as they were played by teenagers on mono record
players that couldn't play stereo records without damaging them.

I don't know about the music played on the Light Programme (Radio 2).

--
Max Demian

williamwright <wrightsaerials@f2s.com> wrote:

> On 22/07/2022 14:08, Tweed wrote:
> > And I blame the trade test transmissions for propelling me into an
> > engineering career. We had a colour dual standard TV from the get go.
> > As a 5 year old the explanations to the trade about how colour TV
> > worked were far more interesting than Play School.
>
> We can't all be brainy.
>
> Bill

I found Play School difficult too. ≈:o(

--
^Ï^ My pet rock Gordon just is.

~ Slava Ukraini ~

williamwright <wrightsaerials@f2s.com> wrote:
> On 22/07/2022 14:08, Tweed wrote:
>> And I blame the trade test transmissions for propelling me into an
>> engineering career. We had a colour dual standard TV from the get go. As a
>> 5 year old the explanations to the trade about how colour TV worked were
>> far more interesting than Play School.
>
> We can't all be brainy.
>
> Bill
>

Not sure I am anymore. The interest may run in the family. My grandfather
owned a radio shop, had shares in the British Broadcasting Company, and he
built his own TV set. By the time colour TV came along he seemed to spend
more time round the back of the set fiddling with all the pots than
watching it round the front.

On 22/07/2022 11:42, Max Demian wrote:
> On 22/07/2022 10:39, Indy Jess John wrote:
>> On 22/07/2022 09:44, Roderick Stewart wrote:
>>> Much the same as those of us of a certain age might look back now and
>>> remember TRF valve radios powered by high tension batteries and acid
>>> filled accumulators for the heaters, and using longwire arials and
>>> earth spikes. The very idea that you could have such a system in a
>>> moving vehicle was absurd.
>>
>> I had a car, built in 1977 which had a valve radio. It was powered by
>> an inverter which was effectively took the 12V battery voltage and by
>> means of a vibrator connected to the primary of a dual winding step-up
>> and step down transformer gave the HT for the anodes and also halved
>> the voltage for the heaters. It worked very well. The only real snag
>> was that it was powered via the battery and not via the ignition,
>> which was OK for listening to the radio while parked, but the once I
>> forgot to turn the radio off I had a completely flat battery the next
>> morning!
>
> I'm surprised they still made them in 1977. I thought all car radios by
> that time were transistorised or a hybrid design with valves with 12V
> HT. I'm also surprised your radio didn't use valves with 12.6V heaters,
> which were made for UK car radios as those with 6.3V heaters were made
> for US car radios.
>
Sorry, there was a typo I didn't spot.
The car was a P4 Rover 105 dating from 1957 (not 1977). I didn't buy it
new - it must have been 1969 or 1970 when I bought it. The radio was a
MW/LW model with 5 preset buttons.
https://www.roverp4dg.org.uk/images/Radios/Eamonn's%20HMV%20radio.jpg
The four on the left tuned to MW stations and the one on the right
switched the set to LW.

Jim

On 22/07/2022 05:22 pm, Max Demian wrote:
> On 22/07/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:
>> On Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:46:12 +0100, Max Demian
>> <max_demian@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The Third Programme was the first to go stereo and was sometimes used to
>>> play "pop" music in stereo before the other stations (i.e. Light and
>>> Home) were stereo.
>>
>> Yes, I remember that, and thinking it wasn't very clever to put stereo
>> first on their least popular channel. It was almost as if they didn't
>> want it.
>
> Pop music was mostly bought on 7" singles which (at the time) were
> almost entirely mono, as they were played by teenagers on mono record
> players that couldn't play stereo records without damaging them.
>
> I don't know about the music played on the Light Programme (Radio 2).

The first stereo single (this was late 1969) I bought bore no marking to
say it was in stereo.

I put it onto the turntable as soon as I got it home and heard the first
notes come out of only one speaker. My first reaction was that a cable
had become disconnected. Then, a few bars later, the opposite channel
was filled with a drum roll. I rang a friend about it - he didn't
believe me.

On 22/07/2022 17:33, Tweed wrote:
>
> Not sure I am anymore. The interest may run in the family. My grandfather
> owned a radio shop, had shares in the British Broadcasting Company, and he
> built his own TV set. By the time colour TV came along he seemed to spend
> more time round the back of the set fiddling with all the pots than
> watching it round the front.
>
Ha, my grandfather would constantly be swapping valves. When I came to
visit, I'd sit with him at the back of his telly. He'd permanently have
a fag hanging from his mouth,and  the whole house (a 1930s 'Jerry
Build') had rising damp. His party trick was to take a wooden handled
screwdriver (from his damp shed) and use it to draw an arc off the line
output valve. My mother walked in on one occasion, and pulled me out of
the danger zone, although to be fair nothing was terrible safe in that
house. Lighting the fireplace involved some non approved methods too.
His day job was a GPO engineer.