Information Exchange and Contact
To contact
the 'webmaster' Martin Ellen: Click Email in the menu above.
| This page is intended to help people who are seeking or offering assistance with matters relating to BBC engineering. | To contact the originator of an item below, click the link in the relevant section. I will forward your email to the intended recipient. | Let me know if you would like an entry on the page. Please return from time to time. |
| Date inserted | Title |
14 Current items Click for: 52 Resolved items and 93 Expired items |
| 6 May 2024 | Dual Channel SiS | Matthew Millman is looking for documentation for the PYE/Varian LDM1903/1904 Stereo Sound-in-Syncs system, which emanated from a BBC design. He has made this video on the subject. |
| 26 Nov 2023 | LS3/5A loudspeaker | Paul Whatton's late father, Maurice Whatton, was a member of Design Department staff in the 1970s. Among other projects, he worked on the LS3/5A. Paul would very much like to obtain a copy of DDMI No.3.570(74), Outside Broadcast Loudspeaker Assembly LS3/5A. Partly for sentimental reasons, but also as a reference because he voluntarily supports LS3/5A owners who are repairing or restoring them. He runs the Unofficial LS3/5A Web Site at www.ls35a.com. Any help would be very much appreciated. |
| 29 Oct 2023 | RP2/10 turntable | Ahmed Latif (Al) is restoring a BBC RP2/10 turntable. It is the full model with RSA and fader using the Technics SP10 motor unit etc. He would appreciate information about it such as the schematics. He believes that the double turntable RP2/9 has similar boards so a manual for that would also be helpful. |
| 1 Sep 2023 | BBC Far Eastern Relay Station | Hugh Mason writes "I am a ham radio operator living in Singapore. While I was saddened to hear that the BBC Far Eastern Relay Station has closed, I am looking forward to a tour of the facilities in a week or so thanks to a contact made by our local ham radio club, https://www.sarts.org.sg/ . I plan to take pictures to illustrate the Wikipedia article I have started about BBC Far Eastern Relay Station (BBC Far Eastern Relay Station - Wikipedia) and I would like to invite anyone with knowledge of the station to correct the current draft on Wikipedia, or to send me information and photographs that I might use to illustrate it. So many hundreds of millions of people benefited from the work done at this and other BBC sites that it seems important to commemorate the work done by generations of engineers here!" |
| 10 Jul 2023 | Breakdown tape |
Norman
Marsden writes "I came across a YouTube page by ‘Techmoan’ who
does some very interesting technical articles – here is the link to
this one:
https://youtu.be/3ENRbOWDXmI Entitled “1960s BBC TV Transmitter Breakdown tape” he reviews a reel of tape labelled ‘Standard breakdown sequence’ which contains a verbal announcement of a loss of programme followed by music selections. The donor of the tape suggest it might have come from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. I was at Sutton Coldfield in the early 1960s and there was no breakdown tape or any means to play tape, there was a 35mm slide scanner which could used to display a fault caption or test card on vision but no audio. I wonder if anyone can throw some light on this as I have never come across this tape in transmitters." |
| 21 Oct 2022 | Items for MCR21 restoration |
Brian Summers and his colleagues have made good progress with
the MCR21 restoration project and
they are starting to think about the building equipment. The
following contributions would be appreciated:- A template/drilling jig (or scanned copy) for index pins on the back of white unit modules of the type that came from Designs Department in the 1960s. Physical units: Five AM4/507 3 O/P DAs. GE4/508 Pluge, GE1/508 sawtooth. |
| 5 Mar 2022 | Type D studio mixing desk | Mark Knight writes: I am looking for any details or close up pictures of the Type D studio mixing desks as used at Radio 1 and 2 during the 1970's, as featured on the Orbem site. They were a monster of a unit and were made up of (I think) an 11 channel quadrant fader unit with other various modules at either side, apparently made in mono and stereo. Any info or pictures would be appreciated. |
| 21 Jan 2022 | Calrec console |
Brian Moran
writes: "I would like to expand a BBC Calrec J-series console I have
in my possession. I would be interested in any complete consoles or
any parts (PQ10,/PQ14/PQ15S, RL23'S or any console frame/sidecars
etc), in any condition. Thanks." (Reposted from 2013) He is now also looking for Schematics/User Manuals/Service Notes for the same console. The BBC model numbers for the Calrec Mk.2
console are in brackets below. |
| 22 Dec 2021 | BBC Roving Eye Citroen CX | Paul Elkington is recreating the BBC Roving Eye Citroen CX from the early 1980s and would appreciate help with any info regarding the layout of the inside of the vehicle, as he wants to faithfully reproduce it as close to the original as possible. He has a CX and work has started. He has the TBC, LDK, waveform, vector and monochrome monitor, the BBC coms rack and the Cox equipment, but needs to find a Barco colour monitor. He has a couple of pictures that help a lot, but it is the equipment that's out of site that he needs info on, especially the tx and rx kit. |
| 14 Jul 2020 | BBC Select |
The HackTV
developers would like to speak to anyone who was involved in BBC
Select. We're looking for Selector receivers, Viewing or Installer
smart cards, and any information we can find on the system --
especially the encoder.
The team is hoping to extend our work in generating VideoCrypt signals to also generate VideoCrypt-S (Select) signals. Please see https://github.com/fsphil/hacktv for more information on the project Our aim is to preserve the technical means of generating these signals for future generations. |
| 17 May 2021 | AM4/507 | Brian Summers from the MCR21 project would appreciate donations of AM4/507 distribution amplifiers. |
| 5 Jan 2021 | Bournemouth 6BM |
Fraser
Donachie is researching the early BBC station 6BM located in
Bournemouth (1923-1939) and is very interested in the following
aspects:
|
| 5 Jul 2020 | ED Specs |
Peter O'Shea
would appreciate copies of the following Equipment Department
specifications:- ED112 Cables & Wires, General Specification ED120 Technical Equipment, General Specification ED121 General Conditions of Contract ED138 Anodised Finish (i.e. for metallic materials treatments on alu. housings- I’m sure like most companies this is going to closely resemble DEF STAN 03-24/25 and the BS of the time) ED139 Requirements for the Manufacture of Printed Wiring Boards (includes the PCB Photostat process) ED141 Requirements for the Gold Plating of Edge Contacts on Printed Wiring Boards ED143 Wiring Techniques Utilising Solderless Wrapped Joints ED155 Requirements for solder Resist and Component Placement Legends on Printed Wiring Boards ED2200 Equipment Department Finishes, General Specification Series (I believe this doc has the BBC 'Grey' electronic equpt. spec in it) ED3002 Insulating Tubing and Sleeving |
| 15 Jun 2020 | Uher Report Monitor - speed mods |
David McMahon writes: "Does anybody have the detailed
information on how to convert a BBC modified single speed (7.5 ips)
Uher Report Monitor portable tape recorder back to a standard 4 speed
machine.
I know roughly the main areas:- 1. Speed change control shaft (cut off) to be re-instated, how (just new shaft or new speed control), where can shaft/control/control knob be obtained ? 2. Speed control micro switches rewiring (K5/K6/K8). 3. Double Start micro switch (K4) back to single switch. 4. Double Rewind micro switch (K7) back to single switch. 5. Cut track on main circuit board to be re-instated. Note - the document on various web sites detailing the BBC modifications to the Uher Report IC & L models does not appear to touch upon the fixed speed modifications." |
| 30 Mar 2020 | DD Report from 1949 - Swarf removal |
John Lancaster is desperately trying to find a BBC Designs Report.
Number I.5 (49). It is in relation to swarf removal on disc recording
systems and is referenced in
Technical Instruction R4, page 22.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. |
| See the top of this page for links to items that have expired (after one year) or been resolved | ||