Transmitting on the banned UHF TV channels 70-83

on the workbench tonight I have a piece of  equipment that was banned by the Federal   Communications Commission in 1987. can you guess  which one it is no it's not this Panasonic TV   it's not these two Sony VHS VCRs nor  is it this Sony Digital8 Handycam instead it is this Archer multiple video  distribution system its purpose is to take   video from three different sources and rebroadcast  it onto three UHF TV channels so that you can   watch all three sources on one TV without needing  to swap any cables around for example I have one   VCR playing on Channel 74. another VCR playing on  Channel 78 and the Handycam playing on Channel 82. if you've never heard of channels that high  ever being used you're not alone because they   were actually reallocated by the FCC  to what they called Land Mobile Radio   Service all the way back in 1970 however  it was allowed to coexist with low power   UHF TV translators which are transmitters  which take the signal of one station on   one channel and rebroadcast it on another  channel in order to add to its coverage those low power UHF TV translators were  allowed to occupy the channels between   70 and 83 however those were shared with  cell phone service but beginning in 1987   the FCC decided to also allocate part of those  frequencies for use by what they called Public   Safety in other words police departments  fire departments rescue squads and the like so in the late 1980s you saw TVs going from being  able to tune all the way up to channel 83 on UHF   to now no longer being able to tune any higher  than Channel 69 on UHF due to the FCC decision as a result Radio Shack was forced to  take this product which they had only   just introduced in 1985 off the market  until they were able to redesign it to   only use channels 69 and below and that's  exactly what they did they introduced a new   version and on the box they advertised  works with all 69 channel TV tuners nonetheless despite the FCC banning it  35 years ago I still have one of these   older versions that uses those upper UHF  channels above 69 and it still works fine here's a closer look at the now forbidden  Archer multiple video distribution system   it says nice metal silver box on the back  you can see all the inputs and outputs   the first input is just a passthrough  from your antenna or cable system so   whatever is coming into this will be passed  through to the outputs but then it has three   auxiliary inputs which accept any video  source broadcasting on Channel 3 so for   example the output of a VCR or a satellite  TV tuner or a video game you can connect   those to these three inputs it needs to be  channel 3 it doesn't work with channel 4 but instead of just being passed through  to the output which wouldn't make any   sense because they're all on channel 3 and if  you try to combine them together they would   interfere with each other instead the aux  1 input is rebroadcast on UHF Channel 74.   the aux 2 input is rebroadcast on channel 78  and the aux 3 input is rebroadcast on channel   82 and you have three outputs so you can  actually connect three different TVs to this so that was part of its purpose you could  have multiple TVs in the house all sharing   one VCR one cable TV box and one satellite  TV tuner or anything else you want to have   connected just the downside is that all three  users would need to agree on which channel   to leave the cable box set to because they  wouldn't be able to independently control it and that redesigned version which used channels 69  and below due to the FCC no longer allowing these   high UHF channels from being used only had two aux  inputs besides the passthrough had one RF input   for channel 3 and one composite video input with  audio jacks so during the redesign it lost one of   the inputs I guess because it was more likely that  the Channel 69 and below would be actually used by   local TV stations in your area whereas these upper  UHF channels were very unlikely to be used for   anything in your area so it was almost guaranteed  you wouldn't have any problems with interference here's the sticker on the bottom indicating  it was made in Taiwan and this is the Radio   Shack date code indicating it was  made in October 1985. also on the   bottom it has three thumbwheels  for fine-tuning those three inputs here's a look inside and it's probably not as  exciting as you'd had hoped because besides the   power supply most of what you can see  are these shielded metal boxes because   these are all on Channel 3 and if they're  allowed to radiate out any of the signal   it would interfere with the neighboring  one so that's why they're all in these   shielded metal boxes to keep that  cross interference from happening and then on the circuit board on the  bottom is where all the magic happens   where it takes those inputs and rebroadcasts  them on the upper UHF channels and those are   very sensitive coils there if I touch them  it would upset the tuning calibration of   this so I'm not even going to try to  take these out to get a better look   at that it's working fine so I'm just going  to leave it alone and put the cover back on and because as this name suggests this was  designed to be a video distribution system I   think its output power is quite a bit higher than  the RF modulators built into most VCRs and other   devices like that I'm getting a very strong and  clear image with almost no noticeable interference now like I mentioned any TV made since the late  1980s can no longer tune these upper UHF channels   but I do have one VCR from 1985 which does tune  up to channel 83 on UHF and I'm feeding its video   and audio output into my modern LCD TV so now I  have it tuned to one of these VCRs on channel 74. then the channel 78 is the other VCR now on 82 is the Handycam and I guess that was the  end of the tape we just saw now I'm going to give you some direct  hookup video samples of the radar tape   on channel 74. the VW Jetta tape on channel 78  and the Digital8 Handycam tape on Channel 82. "more than anything it depends  on how well you prepare yourself   if you've done your homework and make a neat and  respectful appearance most judges are willing to   listen to your case some will go out of their  way to make allowances for your inexperience   judges aren't ogres but their time is  valuable don't waste it by coming unprepared   you don't have to be a Clarence Darrow or even  Perry Mason to present an effective defense" "now central locking system also has a selective  lock unlock feature to unlock a single front door   just turn the key to the left once two turns  of the key in rapid succession unlocks all of   the doors now turn it to the left and hold  it until all of the windows are lowered to   the desired position by the way this works for  all windows this convenience open feature will   help cool off the inside of your Jetta when  it's been sitting in the hot sun for a while" by the way if you're wondering how I'm  able to get an RF output from a camcorder   that's because one of these things a  Sony RFU adapter which plugs into the   audio and video outputs and there's an extra  connector there which provides power to the   RF modulator through this center pin here  so you plug it in to the camcorder you get   a switch between channel 3 and channel 4.  and then you plug this into your TV or VCR so that's been a look at the Archer  multiple video distribution system   which was banned by the FCC because it used  upper UHF channels which were reallocated for   mobile phones and Public Safety service in the  late 1980s but if you have one of these it's an   interesting way to make use of these otherwise  unused upper UHF channels which you'll need   something from the 1980s or older to actually  be able to tune and no it's not compatible   with cable tv tuners which go above Channel  69 because those use different frequencies so if I had one of these at the time  I would have been very happy with it   despite the FCC banning it because it allowed  me to connect three different video sources   plus the passthrough from the antenna and view  them on three upper UHF TV channels on my TV

Channel: VWestlife

Views: 930,974

Keywords: uhf, tv, television, channel, channels, 70, 83, antenna, translator, forbidden, banned, fcc, cell, mobile, phone, phones, public safety, 1980s, 80s, vcr, vhs, rf, modulator, video, distribution, archer, radio shack, teardown, test, analog, vhf, broadcast, broadcasting, transmitter, transmitting, receiver, tuner, blonder tongue

Id: ahtRI-_A1j8

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 10 2022