Re: ive always wondered

[Sven Franklyn Weil <sven@gordsven.com>]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2001, Garrett Wollman wrote:

> <<On Tue, 16 Oct 2001 12:58:04 -0400 (EDT), Sven Franklyn Weil <sven@gordsven.com> said:
> 
> > TV Channels 1 - 13 are still used in Europe (Germany, Netherlands, etc.).
> > The UK abandoned it in the 1980s, I think, opting for UHF.  I think the
> > reason was because of interference with continental transmitters.
> 
> That's not my understanding.  Look at what transmitter manufacturers
> are advertising to European customers: lots of high-power UHF kit,
> little or no VHF.  In most European countries that I am aware of,

There still are a few VHF stations in Europe. They are primarily the
principal stations in the major cities.  The UHF are for repeaters and
stations in smaller cities or surrounding towns.  Usually, the VHF
stations are also the national TV stations, while commercial and regional
stations are relegated to UHF (much like MW and LW are primarily used by
government stations -- DW, BBC, etc. with FM being used by the commercial
stations and regional networks).  The Netherlands has a few TV stations on
VHF.


> > Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Central America and the Caribbean all use
> > both the NTSC VHF and UHF bands (the same system as in the USA).
> 
> Not entirely true.  (This is Scott's cue to talk about watching TV on
> St. Maarten/St. Martin, assuming he's still awake after reporting on
> the Trial at the Edge of Forever.)

That's why I only cited the countries I know for certain. Colombia,
Venezuela and Ecuador DO use the American system.  I'm sure about Colombia
100 percent (having lived there and used my relatives' TV sets down there
-- even one that my cousin had that was a locally-made 20 year old black 
& white SHARP relic!!  It died recently.).

 I know Brazil uses a variant of Pal for 60 hertz.  I don't know what the
southern part of South America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, etc.) use.  
The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Panama, and other
Spanish-speaking countries in C.A. use NTSC.  I'm also fully sure that
Dominican Republic uses NTSC, because  I live in a largely Dominican
community here in NYC and people always take their TV sets and video
decks when they're moving back to D.R.

What's even funnier is that Santo Domingo's VHF TV lineup is exactly the
same as NYC's (in terms of what channels are used, not what stations are
receivable there).  The lineup in S.D. is: 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.
There is one UHF station, I think on channel 33.

A good place to find out what country uses what video standard is 
Steve Kropla's "Help for World Travelers" homepage:

http://www.kropla.com

Click on the World Television Standards link.

-- 
Sven Franklyn Weil            "The needs of the many outweigh 
<sven@gordsven.com>                      the needs of the few
<http://www.gordsven.com/sven>                   or the one." 
                                                     -- Surak