Probably because it covered DIGITAL TV. They have a few analog channels. The
last time I was there they had BBC1 and BBC2 on VHF. What I found
interesting is that a lot of Europe uses vertical polarization rather than
horizontal like we do. Every time I go over there it takes me a few days to
get use to the 50 Cycle refresh rate which I perceive as flicker. But at
least the "colour" is the same from all cameras.

"Frank" wrote in message
news:YR4gf.120103$S4.98713@edtnps84...
Found the following on the web. Note the channel frequencies are
different
from North America. No mention of VHF for TV broadcasting in the UK.


http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk/...is_Ver_1.0.pdf

Frank

"Fred W4JLE" wrote in message
...
Probably because it covered DIGITAL TV. They have a few analog channels.
The
last time I was there they had BBC1 and BBC2 on VHF. What I found
interesting is that a lot of Europe uses vertical polarization rather than
horizontal like we do. Every time I go over there it takes me a few days
to
get use to the 50 Cycle refresh rate which I perceive as flicker. But at
least the "colour" is the same from all cameras.

Fred, If you notice the document
(http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk/...is_Ver_1.0.pdf)
does refer to analog transmission in the UHF band.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF:
"British television originally used VHF bands I and III. Television on VHF
was in black and white with 405-line display. British colour television was
broadcast on UHF (channels 21-69), beginning in the late 1960s. TV from then
on was broadcast on both VHF and UHF, with the exception of BBC2 (which had
always broadcast solely on UHF). The last British VHF TV transmitters closed
down on January 3, 1985. VHF band III is now used in the UK for digital
audio broadcasting. Unusually, the UK has an amateur radio allocation at 4
metres, 70-70.5 MHz."

Possibly somebody from the UK could verify if all the VHF stations have in
fact closed down. It is true that they use vertical polarization. The
refresh rate is 25 Hz, interlaced, which is why the flicker is so
noticeable. NTSC color drift was cured in the late 70s. PAL was a genuine
attempt to fix the color drift problem -- with some loss of color
resolution. SECAM was invented by the French to be different to everybody
else.

Regards,

Frank