Aerial photography - Ancient Gallery

The MBM88 was the largest UHF TV aerial made by J Beam. It had 21 four-element director bays and of course the ‘Parabeam’ slot dipole and reflector. Two quarter-wave matching stubs, just in front of the driven element, make the total element count eighty-eight. The slot dipole had a balun in the junction box. The photograph shows a stacked pair of MBM88 Group C/D aerials. The MBM series evolved considerably during its lifetime, and this is a later example, identifiable by the two-piece reflector. These were well made aerials, and apart from a corroded boom connector and perished insulating tape this example has survived quite well at a very windy location for 30 years. The ‘T’ piece of the stacking harness can be seen just above the top of the mast. This installation was used by a cable TV company (yes, there was cable TV all those years ago!) to receive an out-of-area ITV channel. The signal was converted to baseband and went across town to the head-end on a twisted pair.

Jaybeam Domestic stopped production in the early 1980s, with Blake Aerials taking over some of the designs.

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