Oddity Archive: Episode 236.5 - Ben’s Junk: Blonder-Tongue BTX-111 “Ultraverter” (& ONTV Box Update)

[@VickyGeagan]

Ben the white knob thing on the back is your channel selection you can use that to change the out put from channel 5 or 6. On the ON box paid OTA TV the audio portion was sent on 700 MHZ the higher portion. Which is now being used by win link. Careful it you try it during fire season. When the Dr. Kaku repeater network is active.

[@k8zhd]

"Blonder-Tongue" was founded by Isaac Blonder and Ben Tongue, hence the name. It's still in business. The BTX-111 is likely from the late 1960s or early '70s -- pretty late in the history of UHF converters. The AC outlet on the back was a convenience outlet for the TV set (or any other accessory you might have on the TV). Usually no antenna came with these converters, or if it did, it was only a wire loop, either round or rectangular (regular rabbit ears are actually not very good for UHF). The output of the converter is either or both channel 5 or 6, since the output filter is wide enough for two channels. Most people didn't have cable then, and home video devices like VCRs or video games didn't exist yet. The idea was to just select the channel on your TV that was unused by any broadcast stations in the area. The dial calibration on the BTX-111 is coarse enough to make little difference in practice. Interestingly, most old UHF converters can be used as UHF modulators with just a little modification, or sometimes none at all. UHF converters are just frequency shifters and it is quite straightforward to use them backwards -- VHF in and UHF out. This was actually done by a few UHF converter makers as a separate product for use by TV service shops and dealers. An article on a DIY version was in Radio-Television News magazine for May of 1955. The ON-TV decoder was made by Oak Industries, one of Blonder-Tongue's competitors. I haven't researched pay TV decoders, so can't comment on where the sound went. I'd like to know too!

[@OddityArchive]

Another viewer narrowed the BTX-111 down to 1971 (or no earlier than 1970).

[@robmclean4352]

I prefer redhead tongues, myself.

[@vickiegrant3325]

The sound was fed to a balanced modulator, at twice the horizontal line rate (just below 33kHz - too high to be heard with a homosapien's ear), thus the audio is "hidden" from nonsubscribers. In most cases, the descrambler did not use the TV's audio chain. The descrambler, atop the TV, had a loudspeaker.

[@kennixox262]

My childhood home was built in 1960 and it was prewired with 300 ohm TV antenna outlets in the bedrooms, family room and kitchen. Funny two pin plug-in for the antenna lead from the television.

[@JetScreamer_YT]

I have Hypertrichosis, and I dyed the hair in my mouth. Hence my Blonder-Tounge!

[@olddisneylandtickets]

We had On TV in Los Angeles around 1980/81, the guide they would mail was the "SeasON Ticket", haven't seen that box in 40 years!! Love your videos man, I catch them all, thank you!

[@radiorob7543]

The Dodger games were the main reason my family had ON TV.

[@vickiegrant3325]

11:40 I suspect that the audio is on a double-sideband suppressed subcarrier. At about 31,468 Hz. Detroit had ON-TV in the 1979-1982 Era, Blonder-Tongue system.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

I am not totally sure about that particular model of UHF converter, but some like it cleverly used a tunnel diode as the only semiconductor component. The tunnel diode, which has a dynamic operating region of negative resistance and could thus drive an oscillator having suitable tuned circuits, would generate a local oscillator signal. This local oscillator signal was then passively mixed with the incoming UHF signal resulting in a VHF signal that a standard television set could tune in. The only power needed for some models was, if I recall correctly, a replaceable battery. Older models had AC cords as yours. Sufficiently older models used a vacuum tube for the oscillator. Will solid state components hold up? Odds are, yes. Many vacuum tubes will, too. Other components can fail, especially in equipment that generates significant heat or works at significant voltages. Blonder and Tongue were the names of the engineers who created the Blonder-Tongue business. Weird sounding combination or not, and definitely not in the vein of modern snappy sounding company names, it was a well respected brand.

[@Josh-vp4jo]

Love when you have shows talking about Over the Air subscription services (STV) back in the 70's/80's- Had WHT The movie Network (Wometco Home Theatre) in Long Island NY metro area, on WSNL ch 67 Smithtown, Loved the service with the Blonder Tongue decorder, and getting the monthly guide in the mail each month, and that great image of the analog scramble. Wish we would go back to those days and have few channels with better programming and UHF stations that had there own identities. Now WHT's sound came out of the box, when the station was broadcasting in the scrambled mode, the TV's audio was a barker announcing and promoting the service, so as a subscriber you had to turn the TV audio down and the decoder audio up- was this the same functionality for ONTV?

[@OddityArchive]

There is no speaker in the ONTV box.

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

We actually had an above-70 UHF station in the Detroit market up until 1982. CBEFT Windsor (Radio-Canada) was on channel 78 until 9/29/82, when it moved down to channel 54.

[@vickiegrant3325]

And to Channel 35 around the time of the first digital transition. I think it was very foolish for them to shut down 35 after being on that channel less than a year.

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

@@vickiegrant3325 I think it was foolish of them to shut down the station, period. The Windsor-Essex area definitely has, in my opinion, a large enough French-speaking population to justify an over-the-air Radio-Canada affiliate. Even as a subchannel of CBET would be great.

[@vickiegrant3325]

@@CrowTRobot-ni7zu Yeah, they could have put CBEFT on a 9.2 subchannel - but the government doesn't like subchannels. Then again, why did they permit that little station in Leamington to provide 5 channels? The CRTC is an enigma, wrapped in mystery, around an illusion (Apologies to Lenin).

[@Jared_Wignall]

This is pretty cool to see. I always enjoy these type of videos Ben. Keep up the great work!

[@vwestlife]

If you have a blonder tongue, you should see a doctor about that.

[@snowpeck]

Nice! Your sideband audio theory for the OnTV box makes a lot of sense. It would have kept people from tuning in the channel and just listening to the scrambled movies.

[@PeterBellefleur]

Yep, ive seen footage too of the scrambled video and the audio would be an advertising barker audio track for the service and not the audio from the channel. They also messed with the audio on pirate decoders as a countermeasure at one point.

[@snowpeck]

I think one of my comments got flagged as spam... it has a link to what appears to be the patent for the ONTV box. Since the patent uses channel 52 in all of its examples, it looks like the actual program audio was on a subcarrier at 621/2 KHz.

[@OddityArchive]

@snowpeck YT must've swallowed it completely. My Held For Review folder was empty.

[@snowpeck]

@@OddityArchive No worries. it's patent "US-4112464-A - Subscription Tv Decoder Logic System" so that should help you find the patent.

[@Tornado1994]

@@snowpeck The ONTV Receiver and Decoder patent expired in 1998. It should be Public Domain. Also, in 1991, its Copyrights leased.

[@cutsupremenumba1]

Out in new York we had why in the 70s the audio went throught the box spwaker only on the tv because of fcc not wanting curse words transmitted over the tv band. Wht was on uhf channel 68 i am guessong the box u have there is similar. The audio is transmitted seperatly

[@aaronblair9583]

I have two blonder tung modulators I'm kinda afraid to use full time. Must have come from a hotel or something...but if I hook up a small antenna I could broadcast a few analog tv channels throughout my house...well city block Still very handy but seem very powerful

[@wattehel]

In the '80s lived across the street from somebody who got ONTV only way I could tell is that the installer came and put a small UHF only antenna pointing at Mount Wilson. Funny fact in the late '80s all the way up till 2000 I worked at channel 52 when it was Spanish (KVEA) all the equipment asset tags still had "Property of ONTV" on them.

[@radiorob7543]

True. That little UHF antenna pointed at Mt. Wilson, was part of the standard installation package. Great story about the old ONTV property tags. Reminds me when I worked at Loral Space Systems. Some of the older equipment had "Property of Ford/Philco" Great to see for me being a Philco fan.

[@larrylaffer3246]

Now you can have it all, on UHF!

[@michaelcarpenter2498]

Eegah! or Manos: the musical. Watch out for snakes! To think the tuner still works. The ONtv is just crazy goofy.

[@Art7220]

I thought it was Eegah! too.

[@luisreyes1963]

Yep, that was EEGAH! 😆

[@astrosci8864]

Actually, with a HAM radio license, you might be able to broadcast on Ch 52, just as long as you keep it very local and use non-copyrighted material to do it.....

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

Sufficiently low power radio frequency transmissions, as for use within a residential property, have generally not needed a license for anybody. If someone knows the exact legalities please by all means tell us. It might or might not entail a question of interfering with (or purposely broadcasting to) neighbors. But the uses of such transmissions that I've seen (such as wireless phonographs which date well back to the early 1900s) have seemed to be treated as private business, and a copyright holder wouldn't care whether micro power transmission or a wire were used to carry the content for otherwise legal private purposes.

[@astrosci8864]

@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648 Even when using a 4W handheld transceiver (low power), you still require an amateur license at least..... Having said that, some wireless devices use UHF frequencies. Radio controlled devices use VHF.....

[@tvguy725]

Channel 52 isn't within one of the amateur radio bands in the US. You would be stepping on one of the LTE mobile bands. If you do it regularly you'd probably eventually get a knock at the door from the FCC.

[@jackmatson962]

Yes, I too remember ON-TV ch52 in mid 70s. The sound was on a subcarrier as mentioned above. One of the hobbyist magazines at the time presented a build it yourself decoder over several issues. I went so far as to build the first part (sound decoder) on a proto-plugboard as a curiosity. On my first power up, my then roommate popped in, "Did I just hear (those words) coming from the TV?" No big deal anymore I guess. Life moved on, changed jobs and left the LA area and never followed up on the rest but it was sort of an interesting concept.

[@syferdet]

«Approved for color» meaning ghostly bluish-green blob transitioning slowly to a blobby light grey.

[@OddityArchive]

Eegah always looks like that.

[@anonUK]

"Color TV Capable".

[@k8zhd]

@@anonUK That was a phrase used by a lot of TV accessory marketing, starting in about 1954 and continuing until a sufficiently large percentage of the US population had color sets. In reality, there weren't many TV devices that were NOT color capable - if it could pass a black and white signal it could pass a color signal.

[@anonUK]

@@k8zhd A forerunner to Microsoft Vista.

[@sethbessinger2025]

That’s cool! I would’ve been cool if you had a circuit to scramble the picture on ch. 52, and used the ONTV box to decode it. I think the concept of ONTV might still work today for areas that can’t get good internet. A movie channel using ATSC 3.0 playing new releases the day they come out in theaters, but for $20-$30. Or just have 10 or so popular cable channels, and have an a-la-carte service.

[@r66fplaysgames]

There is a company, called Evoca TV, that is actually testing out an over-the-air "cable TV" service, that uses ATSC 3.0, in the Boise, ID area.

[@sethbessinger2025]

@@r66fplaysgames I know. I wish they had a deal with Discovery to have HGTV, Food Network, TLC, etc.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@r66fplaysgames Interesting how they would get to use bandwidth normally allocated to television transmissions, but encrypted so that an intervening box is needed to view it correctly. The FCC will sell any access it can to raise dough, it seems. If this becomes a "thing" then ordinary TV broadcasters could launch pay services too.

[@mckeek8115]

Wow,the ONTV box works.Next you have to pick up a Z channel,and select TV box.I was told back in the day,you could tune into ch 22 just right,and watch the scrambled adult movies.

[@weasel2htm]

Well Ben, I've enjoyed the addendum. Really neat to see both those boxes still functional. As for the OnTV box, you said yourself that some providers would shift the audio carrier for good measure (yes, I'm enough of a freaking nerd to go back and check EP 11 to make sure you did say that.) One unrelated question, what is that Sony branded box sitting on top of the SuperBeta deck?

[@und4287]

I think it's a PCM encoder for recording digital audio onto videotape (VHS, Beta, or otherwise.

[@OddityArchive]

@weasel2htm I did an episode on it back in January (PCM Audio).

[@thecooldude9999]

K70FL, a translator of KUSA on channel 70, only went off the air in 2011.

[@OddityArchive]

If that's the case, then they had some deal with the FCC. All channel 70+ broadcasting was supposed to end in 1983.

[@zorak1704]

The tires are filled with water

[@GenoCuddy]

You may have addressed this before and my apologies if you have and I have missed it, but when you are microbroadcasting, is that a broadcast that is reachable to anyone within a certain range in your area? For example, can your neighbors pick up the broadcast from KLAK? Excellent video as always (even if I don't necessarily understand the jargon 100% of the time).

[@OddityArchive]

My setup is designed to only be good for 10-15 feet. I suppose I could broadcast a few hundred feet if I wanted to, but when I do that sort of thing, it's just for internal testing and when I need my own off-air footage--not meant for public consumption (that is, until it appears on OA).

[@ntsecrets]

Do you have a BTSC stereo encoder? I saw that some of the other OTA PPV systems just used early MTS to hide the sound.

[@robfriedrich2822]

I know converters that use VHF band I, in Germany this band wasn't used, VHF TV was in band III only.

[@vickiegrant3325]

I know for a fact that Germany did have Low-VHF transmitters in the past, one of them being Sudwestfunk.

[@r66fplaysgames]

I wonder if the Blonder Tongue UHF "ultraverter" can pass through a digital TV signal?

[@k8zhd]

Almost certainly it can. The digital broadcast signals occupy the same bandwidth as the old analog ones.

[@OddityArchive]

I'd imagine you could run a DTV converter box inline and pick out a digital signal.

[@guyjclark]

If the UHF converter is like the ones I studied back in the day, they consisted of a Tunnel Diode based oscillator, whose signal was mixed with the incoming UHF signal, creating both a SUM frequency and a DIFFERENCE frequency. The SUM would be filtered out, and the difference would be sent to the TV where it could be handled by the VHF TV tuner. These converters were very cheap and easy to make, but not particularly stable, as pointed out in the previous video. There were shortwave radio converters that worked on a similar principle to convert the shortwave band(s) to AM broadcast band.

[@k8zhd]

​@@guyjclark You are mostly correct -- they all use the "heterodyne" principal, which has been the basis for almost all radios since the 1920s. But only two UHF converters that I'm aware of used Tunnel Diodes as oscillators, out of the many dozens of models made: the early ones used tubes (almost always the 6AF4), and later ones used transistors. The construction of some converters was simple and shoddy, so they probably did drift, particularly the very earliest tube ones (1952-4) before they figured out the best circuits, and the amazingly cheaply made transistor ones of the '60s fly-by-night producers. But the majority were well designed and built, stable and good performing.

[@PlatinumRoseLady]

"Watch out for snakes!"

[@kebinjs]

My first thought too! Or the awful song at the pool.

[@GreenDayFan2003LLC.]

speaking of such, i once had a neighborhood tv station in 2019, it was called KSOD-TV it was on analog channel 16 it debuted on january 11 and retired on may 15 the reason it was short-lived is because it was intended to be a placeholder.

[@neilforbes416]

The episode on Prehistoric UHF has been up. I saw it and made a comment about Australia's use of the UHF band.

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

Well done mate

[@kevmichael2064]

ONTV was on KBSC tv 52...in my area... would have to detune to see the picture...sound was silent... used a High Gane Mic to get the Sound.from the TV speaker....the Clear Channel would be on 3 or 4... with the box ....I got a Converter that rechanned the UHF down to 2-13...ONTV came in Clear on Channel 12..but with low sound...so I used a Power Mic. In front of the TV.. with a amp....it worked...😉👍...than Cable Came....than the ON TV service was changed to Spanish..so that was the end of it ,☹️

[@derekjtaylor]

Channel 52…Watch Out For Snakes!

[@BBC600]

Why do I think it would have been funny if the sound had just happened to appear as soon as he turned the volume up.

[@joearnold6881]

I can’t wait for Todd in the Shadows to do a one-hit-wonder episode on Blonder Tongue’s big hit song.

[@luisreyes1963]

Bad jokes about the brand aside, this happens to be a very informative video about antique TV technology. Good Job, Benny. 😁

[@aluminumfence]

"Egah Chacka! Egah Chacka! Egah, egah egah, Chacka! I can't stop this feeling!"

[@edwardportell4955]

Eegah!....oh god

[@johnlupo3919]

stop with the BELL we are not trained monkeys!!!!!!!!!!

[@johnlupo3919]

stop saying so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@TheKnobCalledTone.]

so it looks like your SHIFT+1 keys got stuck