AWTV Magazine – Retro Tech, TV Repair, Photography & Cultural History

  Early 80s – Started working for  Colorvision on Smithdown Road  (Remember them?) There were three television shops  near the corner of Nicander Road –  Colorvision, Kolortron and Crazy Eddy’s  (no-one by the name of Eddy there,but a few crazies.)  It looked like they were in competition with each other,but all owned by Colorvision. 1984 – Went freelance, looking after service for some Colorvision franchises as well as building my own customer base  repairing televisions and Video Recorders. 1984 – Formed Carefree TV along with  another exe employee of Colorvision. This was mainly a slot TV rental business. 1986 – Moved into premises in Eaton Road ,  West Derby, adding TV sales to the business. 1987 – Carefree TV moves to County Road,  Walton (opposite Walton church) benefiting from a busy shopping area. 1994 – Started Anfield and Walton TV   to re-establish my own customers and concentrate on the local area. (It...

 Portable consumer video cameras had been around since the early 1980s. These had to be paired with portable video recorders that were carried over the shoulder. A thick lead would tether the video and audio from the camera to the recorder, which would have had a full size VHS cassette, mostly made by JVC or Ferguson. The sensor in the camera was a vidicron tube, a bit like a CRT in reverse. Effectively, it was a 'picture valve', just like the CRT was a valve. Camcorders This arrangement was cumbersome and inconvenient. The answer was to combine the camera with the recorder which had already been achieved on a professional level with Sony's Betacam and the like in the late seventies. There was actually industrial action that took the ITV network off air for many weeks in 1979 because of these 'electronic news gathering' cameras. Unions were worried that the transition from 16mm film to the new electronic format would cost jobs. That's another story and we digr...

 Retro Tech explores the technology, gadgets, broadcast equipment and cultural moments that shaped the past. From vintage cameras and VHS to classic TV production and early computers, this section dives into the tech that defined generations. Why This Section Exists With decades of hands‑on experience in electronics and media technology, I break down how older tech worked, why it mattered, and how it shaped today’s digital world. TV Repair Section  Home

 What Is PAL TV ? DVD Video Symbol With PAL Format VHS PAL DVD PAL Most of us are used to seeing VHS PAL and DVD PAL labels on VHS cassettes or DVDs, but what does PAL  mean? It stands for Phase Alternating Line and is a technical term indicating the colour system that is used which applies to analogue Television signals. Back in the 1950s when black and white TV was king, RCA of America developed a colour Cathode Ray Tube which meant colour TV was on it's way! Colour TVs would be very expensive to begin with and so millions would still be watching black and white for a while until mass production brought prices down. So how do you send the colour signal to the privileged few who could afford colour without effecting those who had black and white? Luminance and Chroma The black and white TV signal is also called the Luminance signal and is used to drive the CRT in varying intensity depending on the picture. You would need to keep this signal so that those with black and wh...

  Match of the Day Behind the Scenes In 1974 Click Image to view https://fb.watch/kdbJOc9O_L See how Match of the day was put together in 1974 by the BBC outside broadcast. This vintage gem is now well over 50 years old. Colour TV was just becoming available to the masses, Liverpool FC travel to West Ham for this division one game.  Home

 A Collard Dove found another use for a satellite dish, deciding it would be a great place to build a nest. You can just about see the nest through the mesh          Makes a good place to build a nest. This Dove  has been sitting on this 'satellite nest' for over a week now . There are two eggs so I will be keeping an eye on these.- And so will someone else..... The 'Monkey' from Toy Story 3 was put out when he lost his satellite signal. Follow along as he investigates what is causing it.