Albert's Attic Gallery

This is a Belling & Lee loft aerial from the 1950s. It received Band I only, and probably predates the use of Band III. The elements don’t appear to be telescopic, so different models were probably supplied for each of the five channels in Band I. The coaxial inner was connected to the middle rod, with the other two connected to the screen and acting as a ground plane when laid flat, or possibly as reflectors when positioned as shown.

In practice the procedure was to just fiddle about with the element positions until best results were obtained. Mother would be at the foot of the stairs squinting at the 12” screen in the front room, with Little Jimmy at the top of the stairs acting as a rather unreliable relay station and Father in the loft with a candle moving the aerial rods about. “Jimmy, will you please just shout exactly what your mother shouts and shut up otherwise?” Father’s own body would greatly affect the standing wave pattern present in the loft, so having achieved a good picture he would move away to cries from below of “No, it’s gone funny again! You had it right but it’s gone all wobbly!” Happy days!

Thanks to Adrian Ladd for this picture.

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