Building a 1950s TV Transmitter!

In this video, I built and tested a 1950s analog TV transmitter. In the 50s, color TV was standardized and hasn't changed much since then. Sadly, the FCC required all high power TV stations (at least in the US) to shut down their analog broadcasts. I kind of felt sad that such a cool technology had to go away, so that's why I built this! In this video, I show how I built it and also show some cool tests.
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This video contains no paid promotion or paid product placement.
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LINKS
Antennas - (For mine, the shipping was terrible. Any TV antenna will work fine.)
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CREDITS
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TIMESTAMPS
[0:00] - Intro
[0:51] - How the Transmitter Works
[1:06] - Parts Needed
[1:19] - Building the Transmitter
[2:48] - Moment of Truth
[3:05] - More Info
[3:57] - Test Clips
[4:09] - Dynamic Range
[4:26] - Final Thoughts
[5:43] - Thanks for Watching!
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MUSIC
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HASHTAGS
#analog #transmitter #1950s
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[SimonVideo]

Playlist with cool analog videos coming soon, feel free to bug me about it.

[kennethsvintagejunk]

I actually use multiple of those connected with dtv boxes, hooked them up to old fashioned TV sets, to still pretend that I’m still watching analog NTSC

[eDoc]

As another note, your chosen modulator is transmitting on UHF stations. Most American TVs before 1962 were VHF-only (UHF cost extra) so they couldn't actually receive your signal. More importantly for you, rabbit ears are designed for VHF. If you get some UHF (or combo VHF/UHF) antennas you might get a stronger signal and a cleaner image. The most common old-school design you'll find is the loop antenna. That's why most tabletop antennas have a metal hoop on the base, it's not a handle.

[mrnmrn]

What I liked about analog TV the most is that it was practically lag-free, what you saw was eseentially real-time if it came from the TV studio (a news report coming though a satelite link to the studio had a few seconds lag even in the analog days).
As digital took over, true live TV was gone. Digital terrestrial TV signals need processing before broadcast, the lag can be more than 30s, digital cable TV does additinal processing of the already processed signal which can almost double this lag.

[Jordansklar]

i love the older 4:3 aspect ration on your video

[eDoc]

As somebody else here said the dark picture is most likely from the cheap HDMI->composite adapter. To get into the details a bit, American broadcasts have a 7.5 IRE "setup" (black level) while other regions (including Europe and Asia) don't. So a signal level which a Chinese TV sees as dark gray is seen by an American receiver as black and what the Chinese TV sees as black is seen as darker than black by the American receiver. An easy work-around is to increase the "brightness" in your receiver. This will work on almost any analog receiver but might not on all digital-based receivers.

[senruss]

That's exactly what I needed, some actual explanation on how to do it. I saw the antenna's man video, but I didn't quite understand the process to build the transmitter, but now this video is helpful. I very recently got a Radio Station/Cassette Player and Recorder/Television station (yep, all in one) with VHF channels pick-up. I really want to make some actual videos with that technique, so this is very, very helpful. Thanks man, I really needed that.

[YellowMediaProductions]

This is actually super cool! I too watched a whole bunch of ATV shutdown videos. It’s crazy that analog tech was shutdown after so long and the snow is indeed a vibe.

[aweawd]

When I was in kindergarten, i found an old crt at my grandparents house, and tried to build an analog transmitter, and almost instantly gave up, so thank you for making this! I'm gonna try it!

[Sb]

Analog sure was fun, I was one of the rare kids who had a portable TV in grade school. On the bus ride home I was able to watch TV channels over the air and at home I had a setup that let me watch cable by hooking it up to the antenna input (back when basic cable was also analog).
When I was super little we used to have this boombox with a mini BW TV in it! it was amazing!
For an analog signal, I'd use a VCR, you'd even have a convenient way of recording analog at the source so should you choose.

Also, for still images, two great ways to make a picture look old with getting a digital camera with a CCD sensor (modern use CMOS) and using the built in Xenon flash.

[BALtimore]

Using this tutorial as a guide, I shall make my own TV station that broadcasts on UHF analog channel 58.

[chetpomeroy]

That fuzzy analog TV signal sure brings back some memories. I actually watched the analog-to-digital changeover as it was happening on that special June day back in 2009. It was weird for me to see all those TV channels in use for many decades suddenly turn to snow.

[stopthebus]

Good on you for getting all this together and making it work. Just a point - if it was a 1950s tv transmitter it would be full of vacuum tubes. Solid state transmitters didn't really become a thing until the late 1960s / early 1970s. Keep up the interesting projects.

[imrustyokay]

I have a great respect for people who goes above and beyond to make things actually look like they're broadcasting on Analog. This is great! Kind of reminds me of the Oddity Archive!

[Impossible_Fishy]

I think my interest in this came from ham radio, for me it all started with an fm transmitter where I ran a 15 watt pirate radio station, and now I’m here, thanks for making this video

[ShaggyMummy]

Ive thought of doing this too, got myself a bunch of Vintage cameras, even one with a CRT sensor. There is a lot of fun to be had with analog tech

[_j.s_prd]

I was surprised to know that people stopped using analog, in certain countries there's local cable providers who takes digital tv and push it through analog while simultaneously transmitting the same signal for digital too, you can watch international channels like 4k on your old tv, I feel it's a blessing to still be able to see such antique tech being used till now and they still do the trick

[georgeadrianstefan]

Glad my country still broadcast in analog format. This is a saver for many poor families that can't afford a modern TV.

[RGC]

Well done making an analogue transmitter. We lost the last of our analogue TV here in Australia in December 2013. It was sad to see it all go. Incidentally, if a low VHF channel is used for analogue TV, the coverage distance can increase quite dramatically, especially during the summer months.

[leonardotakanashi]

Extremely educational video is cool! I live in Brazil, and I remember exactly the day they turned off the analog TV signal in my city (it was in July 2018) and that's why this video brought me a certain nostalgia for when I watched everything with those drizzles. As for the dark image, this is a problem with the receiver (that is, the TV), as modern TVs have a tendency to distort the analog signal a lot, That's why the analog image comes out better on the CRT, as it comes out purer, unlike modern TVs, which try to improve the image, but in the end, they only make it worse.
Random curiosity: Unlike the USA, which turned off the analog signal across the entire country in 2009, here in Brazil, the states were gradually making the transition. The first city to turn off the analog signal was São Paulo, in 2016, and then came some capitals, such as Belo Horizonte, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, etc. However, even today, in 2023, some more isolated cities still use the analogue signal, as not everyone in that place can afford to buy a digital TV. Some Brazilian states also campaigned for the transition from digital TV, and donated free converters from the national brand "Multilaser", and these converters came with a fixed modulator on channel 3 or 4, so these converters could be adapted even in TVs that do not have the RCA composite output. Sorry for my English, I used Google Translate in this comment