Albert's Attic Gallery

1970s distribution amplifier

This equipment provided TV reception for forty flats until it was finally pensioned off in 2004. By then reception was really terrible, although the amplifiers were working as well as they ever had. The deterioration had been caused by bad connections and increased cable losses due to damp. Of course, systems of that era were not designed to handle five analogue and six digital UHF channels.

This board fed four lines of ‘padded outlets’. These were outlet plates that had the tap-off units built in. This design was not suitable for UHF, but it persisted well into the UHF era.

There were four aerial inputs. These were for Band I (BBC1 on channel 2), Band II (FM radio), Band III (ITV on channel 10) and Bands IV and V (BBC-2 on channel 51). The signals were combined using diplexers. The UHF gets no extra amplification; nor are there any attenuators on the VHF inputs. There really should have been one or the other, but in those days such refinements were not always provided.

The pre-amplifier and the two main amplifiers are all identical modules. The two amplifier outputs are each split to give the four feeds required. Belling and Lee sold the same module (with slight modifications) for use as a line-powered repeater.

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