[ARC5] FM and TV Frequencies

[Robert Eleazer]

Another factor in the shift was that much development had already been done.

In Great Britain the radar people decided to use the pre-war TV band for the first airborne intercept radars, since it was not being used and there were off the shelf TRF TV receivers available that would do nicely as radar receivers.  

When they soon found out that the 45 MHZ range was too long a wavelength for precision airborne intercept, they just stuck a VHF converter stage on the front of their existing receivers (naturally, this all being done in a terrible hurry to deal with Luftwaffe night attacks).  

Postwar, no doubt the TV people found all the development they needed for the new VHF band had been done by the radar people.

So we ended up with TVs using IF's that were based on the old prewar TV broadcast frequencies. 

Wayne