| By the end of the 1960s, when I started to get interested in how the TV set at home really worked, color television and the second national TV channel was introduced in Sweden. The old medium-wave radio, with glowing electron tubes underneath its cover, made it possible to listen to voices from distant countries, but the TV programming choices were quite small at this time. I only had Swedish TV 1 and TV 2 and the one national Danish channel to watch during my childhood. But I was lucky to live on the south coast of Sweden, which gave me some special opportunities.
During the summer, and sometimes during winter high pressure weather conditions, we could receive TV channels from other countries. The proximity to the European continent meant we received two East German channels in black and white and three West German channels in color. In those days, Germany was divided, and these two parts used different color TV systems.
To my parents’ consternation, I put large antenna constructions on the roof of our house. And after a while, I succeeded in bringing even more exotic channels in our house. In addition to more East European TV signals, we could also watch TV from Spain and Italy. A very special event occurred in June, 1978, when I succeeded in receiving an Icelandic test card.
The most challenging task for a DXer in Europe has always been to be able to receive a trans-Atlantic signal. After reading about this in one of the few books that existed at the time about TV DXing, receiving trans-Atlantic broadcasts became my quest. I believe that I did succeed for a short while, somewhere in the lower VHF bands. Using my (in those days) well-trained eyes, I saw what I think was a North American station identification sign. But to be honest, I’m not 100 percent sure that I really saw that sign deep down in the noise a quarter of a century ago. Sometime you just see what you want to see. |
