In message ,
Terry Casey writes:
In article ,
says...

In message , David Looser
writes:
[]
Well it might, but in practice there don't seem to have been many problems
caused by not harmonising spectrum use with the the continent. To be honest
I think the government made the right decision, the limited VHF spectrum
available in Bands 1 & 3 would only just have been enough for one extra
625-line TV channel.
[]
? - one on band I and at least one on band III, surely? I lived in
(West) Germany in the 1960s and '70s, and I'm sure we could get at least
two channels on band III (yes, I know B and G channels are narrower, but
not that much).

Were both channels available nationwide or just in densely populated
areas?

I can't remember, I'm afraid. I was only 10 +/- at the time! ISTR
"German one" - ARD - was the one on band I, and was pickable-up where we
were (Dortmund, then Muelheim) on the proverbial wet string, and was a
painfully clear picture. I _think_ we could get more than one on band
III.

Or is German topography more amenable to providing large area coverage
with fewer transmitters?

It has as varied topography as the UK, I would say.

(I'm thinking here of the German plains that we were told for many years
provided ease of access for Soviet tanks ...)

There were indeed such plains east of Dortmund; our lot* went there a
lot for exercises. I think they were (are) fairly sparsely populated,
though, so less germane to these discussions: big agriculture area,
IIRR.

(* My dad was a civilian [language lecturer] attached to the British
army there.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I long for the commercialised Christmas of the 1970s. It's got so religious
now, it's lost its true meaning. - Mike [{at}ostic.demon.co.uk], 2003-12-24