ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades TV Connectors?

I recall that we had a sony portable tv in Ireland with the clamp on spade type connections. I think it was to hook up to its own antenna though. I remember connecting it to a cable system in cork in the mid-1980s was an absolute nightmare as there was nothing except the standard co-ax PAL type connector. we managed to clamp the middle of the coax to one of the clamps and the sheilding to the other and it worked!

Ireland normally uses B-L plug for antennas UHF/VHF

Cable and satellite mostly use crimp-on F-Connectors to the back of the decoders/set top boxes.
almost always SCART to the TV/VCR
most higher spec tvs use RGB rather than PAL (composite) signals from the set top decoder.

Paul:

What about BNC connectors (that's redundant). What are they used for?

I always thought that the BNC plug would have been a more logical device for interconnecting TV aerials and equipment instead of the push-on Belling-Lee plug since it's much more secure.

P.S.: Why is the PAL plug called Belling-Lee? Was it invented by two guys named Belling & Lee?

I wonder if Bell wire is so called because it was first used by A.G. Bell or is it Bell wire because it's used for wiring electric doorbells (and sometimes single-pair phone line if you wanna be cheep and you're only getting one line service)

BNC is used for professional video. My guess
is it is too expensive for consumer level video and RF, where RCA (AKA Cinch), BL and F connectors do.

I'd say bell wire is called so becuase of
doorbells.

Older video equipment made by "international" manufacturers like Panasonic (early 80ies) used to have BNC plugs for NF signals. My 1983 Panasonic VHS for example had them. European equipment used to have a round 6pin DIN plug, combined Video/Audio/In/Out (I know it from the Siemens/Grundig Video 2000 line). Mid- to late 80ies equipment already changed to Scart. My international (NTSC/PAL) 70ies Toshiba (?) TV has RCA jacks.

The loop antennas popular on some 1970s portables is about the only place you'll find spade antenna connections on British TV sets (or perhaps I should say sets made for the British market, as the majority were of Japanese origin). They were often arranged on a small paxolin board next to the B-L coaxial socket with a small balun.

Yes, bell-wire is so named for its most common application -- Doorbells.

BNC connectors were found on domestic VCRs here in the 1970s/early 1980s, but these days they're limited more to professional equipment. They've become the defacto standard connectors on a lot of test equipment, e.g. oscilloscopes, signal generators, frequency counters.

Sven,
Yes, the British coaxial socket took its name from the Belling-Lee company, which was formed as a partnership between a Mr. Belling and a Mr. Lee. Belling-Lee is based near to where I'm from originally, in north London.

Almost everyone in Britain will recognize the name Belling as being a big manufacturer of electric stoves, heaters, etc.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 02-07-2003).]

Paul,
Don't all RF connectors have a certain frequency bandwidth, where above this, the insertion loss becomes too high, especially with UHF signals?.
Mind you, there are N-Connectors, F-connectors, PL-259/SO-239 Connectors, Mini-UHF, BNC, TNC, etc, all have their own uses.
The BNC connector is also used these days in
Ethernet applications and LAN systems.

Ethernet? Coax EThernet with BNC plugs died some 8 years ago here in Austria and was completely replaced by RJ45. Some ethernet hubs still come with 1 BNC connector for hooking up old machines though. The only such computer in our small macintosh network is a 1989 Mac IIci. All others have RJ45.

Yes, the construction of the various types of connector can limit the useful upper frequency limit.

You mentioned PL259/SO239 (for those not familiar with these designations, they're the type commonly used for antenna connections on CB and amateur radio equipment). These were also used as video connectors on some 1960s/early 1970s gear.