Aerial photography - Ancient Gallery

In the early days of UHF TV in the UK the TV rental companies needed a quick, easy, and cheap way of getting UHF signals into customers’ tellys. In those days the aerial was often free for new rental customers, and some firms also offered a free UHF aerial as an inducement to upgrade to a BBC2 set. These little ‘figure of eight’ aerials were branded as ‘Telefusion’ and were used by the Radio Rentals and DER chains. They were intended for good reception areas but were often used elsewhere. The whole thing was built onto a length of half inch aluminium tube, with a cast aluminium swivel clamp which would only fit another half inch tube. The figure of eight had to be vertical for horizontal polarisation and on its side for vertical polarisation. The downlead was invariably 5mm coax (the type used at the time for VHF). These little aerials were wideband and were surprisingly effective, often performing adequately in places where reception was quite poor. They remained waterproof and were quite robust, and many were in use for twenty years or more.

The other item visible is a three element Band III Belling & Lee aerial, dating from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

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