Britain's Oldest Working Television Set?

http://www.tech-retro.com/Aurora_Design/Single_Converter.html

I'm amazed there is a market for such technology, there must be a fair number of enthusiasts to make this economically viable.

The curious thing is that, because the Freeview box received colour transmissions, although the set itself is monochrome the user still needs a colour television broadcast receiving licence.

You need a license to receive TV!?

Is that in GB, Europe, or ...?

As far as the UK goes, yep.

"You must be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV. It makes no difference what equipment you use - whether it's a laptop, PC, mobile phone, digital box, DVD recorder or a TV set - you still need a licence.

You do not need a TV Licence to view video clips on the internet, as long as what you are viewing is not being shown on TV at the same time as you are viewing it.

If you use a digital box with a hi-fi system, or another device that can only be used to produce sounds and can't display TV programmes, and you don't install or use any other TV receiving equipment, you don't need a TV Licence. "

and the BBC spend it thus;

Saying "I don't watch the BBC channels" is not an option.

Here is the rest of Europe ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

Thanks for your reply. In the USA we only pay if we have cable; broadcast TV is paid for by advertising. I have never paid anything except for the TV device itself. This remains true after the conversion to digital.

So if an American tourist or business person brings a pocket TV (capable of receiving the signals there), are they breaking the law to watch it?

Hmm.... I'm not quite sure. As far as I can figure, you probably would need a license . There's some conflicting information out there

In Europe we have channels paid for by the licensing fees, but no advertising on those channels.

Commercial TV is paid for by the ads.

We also have PayTV, where you rent specific channels, these are also ad free.....

Visitors do not need to buy a license, but more of a problem will be that many portable US TVs cannot receive European channels, at least in the days before digital terrestial TV..... (DVB(T) for example

Gosh! I hadn't even thought about that - NTSC is now gone here in the US. Is PAL gone and the conversion to digital done in the UK and Europe? Is your digital the same as ours? Ours is referred to as HDTV or (I think) 1090P.

I've never had cable nor satellite, and have never paid to watch TV, other than the cost of the receiver. The cable runs along the main road only a couple hundred meters from here, but there aren't enough houses in our little neighborhood to make it worthwhile to bring the cable that distance. I think everyone else in the area has satellite TV. I guess I'll have to break down and start paying too, to keep the wife happy. I watch the computer screen instead...

When I'm in San Diego, the friends I stay with do have cable, and they were complaining just recently that even though they pay cable, they still have lots of advertisements. I don't know if that's true on all channels, or just on the ones we watch (mostly History and Science).

Any idea how he get's new valves and whatever ?

So, does that mean really that the oldest working television is 76 years old? What museum is vying to buy this old TV?

As a Blog Thread List, I am tempted to post the wonder of what have been the greatest televisions?

What have been the most important Television Cameras?

It sounds like an interesting topic for a blog. Go for it!

Yes, valves can still be had, though one needs to search a bit for them.

He could probably get a new cabinet, wiring, tansformer, tube, plug and fuse, but that not excatly what I meant !

As Trigger said, "Ive had this broom 25 years. Over that time it's had 15 new heads, and 7 new handles". Something like that.