Hi from Uruguay
 

Hi, my name is Gustavo, 54. I live in a coast town 40 miles east from Montevideo, Uruguay. Next to the Rio de la Plata. Sorry my english! I understand all, but writing…
For a long time I have enjoyed reading this fórum, so I decided, (overcoming my shyness) introduce myself.
Since me 13 years old I repair electronics. Today working on CATV.
What can I say? Radio comes to Uruguay in 1923, today we have a lot of AM radios and we can listen a lot of radios from Argentina and Brazil too. Here AM radio is totally alive.
Most listened radios for mid age are AM (me haha) Theres a lot of FMs too, many retrasmiting AMs, others all music.
TV begins in 1956, color TV in 1981, DTV (ISDBT) 2015. At present day we still have analog channels!!!
First TVs sold in Uruguay were most from USA, and some european. A total winner was the Wells Gardner chassis 21N95 and 23N100. Tuners, coils, and some tubes were imported from USA, completed with domestic industry, and rebadged.
Most BW TVs during were 23 inch table sets. Zenith, Admiral, RCA, were luxury brands here. Local versions of the Wells Gardner were mid price sets. Color TVs most popular were 20 inch, first european made, due to the Pal N system adopted here, then Japan an Korea till flat panels comes, today all China scrap.
Some photos of my workbench. Not much, a DMM, a series lamp, an old RF generator, CH3 modulator, transcoder for the DVD source. Soon a second hand oscilloscope.
My collection is small and from very varied regions.
I really enjoy reading the topics in the fórum and I am very exited for my first post!!!
Best regards, Gustavo

https://imgur.com/a/SDaURsj

Welcome to the club, Gustavo! Enjoyed hearing about your country's radio and TV timeline. Enjoy yourself here on VK, there's a wealth of good information from good people here!

Brian

Thank you Brian!!! It is a very small summary. I don't want to bore

Welcome! Thanks for showing some of your collection.

Welcome to the forum Gustavo.Cool colection.Lots of helpful members here.RonL

Welcome, Gustavo!
Very good collection!
Great to know more fellows sharing our old electronic's hobby! :banana:

The AM radio question... too bad, in some countries, the AM stations are converting to FM, DAB, streaming or simply vanishing, like one in the city where I was born (I just read about; due to subject coincidence, I'm mentioning this) https://diariodamanhapelotas.com.br/...soes-no-620ma/ (only in Portuguese...)
Too bad, is a historically important station, and very old (for Brazilian radio timeline).

Ah, the Uruguay! Some time ago, I visited Punta del Diablo (Via Chuy/Chuí). Also I visited the Merín lake (the Uruguayan side) near Rio Branco/Jaguarão. Until my ~20 years age, I lived in the city in the aforementioned news (not soooo distant from Uruguay), and my spouse lived until her ~14 years of age in San Isidro, close to Buenos Aires, Argentina, before she moved to Paraguay.

When I lived in Pelotas, I received some AM stations from Uruguay (and Argentina), and FM stations before storms.. one day, I even received TV stations! For some reason, VHF propagates very good when cold fronts are approaching, at least in this region... (but only when storms are coming very strong).

Thanks!

[QUOTE=Alex KL-1;3253488]Welcome, Gustavo!
Very good collection!
Great to know more fellows sharing our old electronic's hobby! :banana:


Hi Alex KL1! Ah, the KL1, unfortunately, we never had tube color TV here. American televisions were so reliable that they worked until they were replaced by solid-state color TVs. I think the new TVs in the 70s were mostly portable models. I will soon ask the forum about that.

In Brazil, only high-power regional AMs could remain, in order to cover the entire state. Low-power AMs should move to FM, and they are doing so, trying to position themselves in the best place on the dial. Brasilian cars are already being sold with the new extended FM band, from 76 to 108 MHz, as those TV frequencies become free and are assigned to FM.
Although I work in Montevideo, I live in a small town called Costa Azul. At night the number of AMs from all over South America that can be heard is impressive. In the past included Radio Transmundial (Bonaire) and 530 FIBS Falklnd Islands Broadcasting Service. I haven't heard them again.

Here in Montevideo, it was not strange in the summer to catch TV broadcasts on channels 2,3 and 4 in Brazil. Be amazed, Chilean channels were also captured, that is, through the Andes mountain range. Many days the Argentine channels were received as local channels, especially channel 2 in La Plata, channel 6, channel 8 in Mar del Plata. Nice moments of fun spinning antennas.

The radio/TV DX is very cool subject and guarantees a topic of this own!

Just this remembered me about a thing... I dunno if is a coincidence, or if last times I had only horrible radios, but I never saw the FM/VHF DX phenomenon in the cities that I lived that are far from the sea or great/large lakes, or the phenomenon is "weak". For the AM, I noticed minimum or no difference. The region I mentioned, have 3 large lakes and ocean. Your region are also full of large water portions nearby. I never researched about, but after this experiences, I'm with the impression that this depends to the geography of the place, to intensify this phenomenon.

Hard core DX'ers will be know about the truth in practice, if this is true or not, or to some point......

A note, where I live now, are almost 50(!!) FM stations, ~45 in the Paraguay. Is more difficult to trace DX (memorize all stations) and notice a new, those days I'm almost not listening. Perhaps time to take notes and play with this a little again.

Also, about extended FM in Brazil... TBH seems to be a excuse to sell radios, for 99,5% of the country. Except for the São Paulo city, the FM is not crowded in any State capital city... but well remebered about the subject, thanks! I live far from Capitals, but even so, I will try this 76MHz+ range with my DIY Pulse Counting FM receiver and see if some station is using it here. Preferably before a cold front arrives...

Oh, never mind, sorry... here where I live, have some band I TV channels form Argentina and Paraguay, so no FM stations will be licensed here at these range here.

Do you guys consider the plots on the Hepburn Tropo Dx map?

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_sam.html. :scratch2:

jr

:thmbsp:Welcome to VK, your pictures are awesome. The building is very well arranged and preserves such good equipment for a future collector. I actually need to implement your chain shelving in my shop, a wood ceiling helps!

Oh if only we could trade with you:sigh:

Oh, very interesting. Many times I look at the FM and TV bands, to see if something appears. Especially on humid and hot days.:thmbsp:

Excellent, added to my favorites :D