Mandela Effect: UHF TV Band History Has Changed For Me

[Rrrrzzzz419]

So I was recently looking at a couple articles on the digital transition back from 2009 to see how it relates to the current repack going on and I read that the UHF band used to be channels 14 to 83 at maximum and this is not what I remember at all. I am not disputing the UHF band then became 14 to 69 and then 14 to 51 and soon will be 14 to 36, I am disputing the original length of it.

I remember even I was younger I was really interested in TV Antennas, like I am now. I remember my family had a retro TV with a VHF circle and a few UHF circles, I remember watching this TV and going through all the channels several times, and I am 100% sure the top UHF channel on the TV was 88 not 83, 100% sure of it. Now I find out in this reality it was never that way. I am 100% certain my family's TV had a VHF Band of 2 to 13 and a UHF band of 14 to 88, 100% sure of it. I remember it was 88 because I thought it was cool how the top channel was 2 of the same number.

Here is the TV history in the reality I came from but am no longer in.

VHF 2-13, UHF 14-88

FCC Shrinks UHF Band to 14-69,
FCC Shrinks UHF Band to 14-51,
FCC in the process of shrinking UHF to 14-36.

I am 100% sure of all these things. I could list off all the channels I remember picking up I do believe if you wanted me to, just like I am so sure of them I am 100% sure the original top UHF channel was 88.

[Crazy Monkey]

The highest channel was 83, not 88. I remember an episode of King of the Hill, a cartoon show from the '90's, where the local news channel was 84... obviously used because there was never anything above channel 83.

[spunker88]

Could it be that the TV in question was manufactured when the highest UHF channel hadn't been finalized yet so they added extra channels to their receiver which didn't end up making it into the final UHF channel plan.

[cd637299]

give it another 10-20 years, and either UHF might be whittled down to top of Ch 20 or so, OR, OTA will be history altogether. Switzerland will do away with all OTA TV shortly.

Credit, or blame, cellphones. All bittersweet for John Q. DXer.

cd

[Rrrrzzzz419]

Could it be that the TV in question was manufactured when the highest UHF channel hadn't been finalized yet so they added extra channels to their receiver which didn't end up making it into the final UHF channel plan.

I suppose that is possible but I really doubt it. Was the rush for making UHF TVs so fast this could have happened? I don't know if anyone else here believes in the Mandela Effect like I do but I believe there is a different reality where there are a lot of small differences (that i used to be in), This reality would have had the Shazam genie movie, JCPenny (which in this reality is JCPenney, I remember going to JCPenny several years ago), and Chik-Fil-A (which I remember this as the spelling in 2011, now it is Chick-Fil-A) just to name a few. And no I am not crazy. I believe there are at least 2 realities and at some point things switched between them. This other reality likely had the top UHF channel as 88. Now if I dug up that TV (I believe we still have it in storage) I believe the top channel would now be 83, because when the Mandela Effect changes something it makes it so the history changes that goes along with it. And regarding the King Of The Hill episode I do not watch that show but if I had to guess I can safely say neither reality had a channel 89 over the air, so in the other reality that might have been the channel name.

I remember even when I was really young I notice how cell phone towers would have a white light on top in the daytime and a red light on top at night whereas my family members hadn't. I am just 100% sure the reality I used to live in had 88 as the top UHF channel as weird as it may sound to everyone else here. Now if the UHF TV rush was so quick I suppose that could be correct that they didn't know the top channel at the time but why would they have chosen 88 even in the event that was the case?

[w1bsm]

Here is a quick history lesson, Rrrrzzzz419. The original UHF TV band was implemented in 1953 with channels 14-83. Very few TV sets had UHF tuning until 1964 when the FCC forced TV makers to include it. Channels 70-83 were lopped off in 1983. Channels 52-69 followed in 2009. Your old TV might have been a foreign made set, a cheaply made set, or maybe your memory is playing tricks on you.

[Rrrrzzzz419]

Here is a quick history lesson, Rrrrzzzz419. The original UHF TV band was implemented in 1953 with channels 14-83. Very few TV sets had UHF tuning until 1964 when the FCC forced TV makers to include it. Channels 70-83 were lopped off in 1983. Channels 52-69 followed in 2009. Your old TV might have been a foreign made set, a cheaply made set, or maybe your memory is playing tricks on you.

And most of that history I am not doubting. The only thing I am doubting is what this current reality says happened in 1953 and 1983. And no at least of most of these things (I am confident enough to say 70% of them) I am sure my memory is not tricking me. I have had a good long term memory my entire life. I remember things from when I was 3 years old, and I am confident this is not a memory issue. Like I said if you asked me to I could list every channel I ever picked up on this TV set and just like I could list them, I am confident the highest UHF channel was 88. I also have 2 portable TV's that are analog only and I am also confident the last time I used them which was probably 4 or 5 months ago, that 88 was the highest channel on them too (at least my oldest one) not 83. I believe the Mandela Effect is not a memory issue but a time issue where in the reality I was in earlier this year the highest original UHF channel was 88, and then I moved to this reality where the highest original UHF channel was 83. I remember when I tuned all the way up to 88 I got white and black bars on the screen because in the highest analog channels other signals besides TV were using those frequencies. And this was not a cheaply made TV set, it was set in wood and it along with the antenna we had picked up a few distant channels, so it was a decent setup. Yes my old reality says channels 70 to 88 got looped off, followed by 52 to 69, and soon will be followed by 38 to 51. And 1 more thing, in this reality 83 is the highest UHF channel there ever was, if we still have that TV in storage I am confident 83 would be the highest channel on it because it would be the same TV but it would have been made in this reality where UHF channels 84 to 88 never existed. Weird I know.

[egrabow]

Your own personal Mandela Effect. I can relate to that. In college I once had a final exam jump from Wednesday to Monday, with all my printed schedules saying the now-passed day. I'm sure somewhere in the multiverse I aced that test.

It's always been 70-83 to me. (Some of the numbers were pretty skinny on those UHF knobs, maybe the "3" looked like a second "8" the first time you saw it?) In spite of my efforts in the early 2000s I never managed to see one on the air, so that "translator band" has always had a mythical quality to me.

[cd637299]

FWIW I remember an old local TV ad, and this was around 1968, on the former WAJA-TV 23 (now WLTV), and I remember it was Bill Wyler who did the ad.

Not sure what place he was promoting, but he was advertising a new TV (not sure if color or not), and he assured good reception on "all 82 channels."

It confused me a bit at first, but of course Channel 1 left us in 1947-ish, leaving us 2 thru 83---82 channels. Sure, he shoulda said 81, due to channel 37 not being used, but so as not to confuse the public any more than it was....well....

cd

[w1bsm]

Hi Ryan. I guess you were trying to sniff out the few grandfathered translators above channel 69 (in rural areas) still operating at that time. Too bad you couldn't find any on the air. If I recall correctly, the last translator in that part of the band was in Minnesota, and went off the air in 2009.

[w9wi]

I don't know of any way to know for absolute certain what the last translator was above channel 69, but I think your Minnesota comment is likely to be accurate.

At the time of the DTV transition, the engineers at KTTC in Rochester maintained a blog. After switching off KTTC's analog transmitter, an engineer commented that he was headed to -- I want to say it was Black Earth -- "to switch the input to channel 70 to digital". (and there *was* a channel 70 translator authorized there at the time) Just to be clear, he meant to switch to a digital *receiver* at the translator site -- the translator never *transmitted* a digital signal on channel 70.

The translator later received a permit to move to a lower channel. However, it was apparently never built as the license was since canceled.

[NN2E]

FWIW... I checked the old logbook and found K74CZ Winona, MN (761 watts) logged January 16, 1995. My notes indicate it was a KTTC translator.

73, Ed NN2E
Owner / Operator - Murphy's Law Test Site & Thunderstorm Proving Grounds

[egrabow]

Hi Ryan. I guess you were trying to sniff out the few grandfathered translators above channel 69 (in rural areas) still operating at that time. Too bad you couldn't find any on the air. If I recall correctly, the last translator in that part of the band was in Minnesota, and went off the air in 2009.

There weren't many left on the Eastern Seaboard by then, and none within range of Long Island. During a road trip in August 2001 I detoured through Chase City and South Boston, VA. My pocket TV only went up to ch 69, but my Icom R-2 could tune carriers of higher channels, so I hoped to hear the audio at least. Neither of the licensed translators were still on the air.

[Rrrrzzzz419]

Wow a lot of people have participated in this thread. Thank you other WTFDA members! It is nice to see an active discussion so quickly. That said, I wanted to follow up my original post with this video I made for my Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/343578770 you could say this is all coincidences but with over 250 Mandela Effects how many coincidences is it before it is not likely coincidences. In this video I share evidence supporting my memory of the UHF TV Band originally being Channel 14 to Channel 88 as opposed to Channel 14 to Channel 83.

[Guest]

To include Channels 84 to 88 would mean the addition of 30 more MHz to the allocation (6MHz x 5 channels) rising the upper edge of the band to 920MHz.