Channel 1?
 

SO- I know why there is technically no channel 1 on our TVs. BUT, I have a Panasonic-built Quasar set with a digital tuner our family bought in 1983. Not only does it have a channel 1, it also still has #70-83. What could the TV's channel 1 be programmed to? 50-54 Mhz (which was Ch. 1 until 1948)? How could I broadcast something on Channel 1, just to see what happens (low power, obviously, so as not to bother my neighbors or the FCC)?

TV channel 1 was actually 44-50 MHz in 1946-48, not 50-54 MHz (which was a ham-radio band starting in March 1946, and still is). Cable channel 1 is either ~72-78 MHz (IRC) or ~71-77 MHz (HRC) on some cable-ready TV sets.

If you want to create a signal on either one of the "cable" Channel 1's or the broadcast Channel 1 receivable on postwar TV sets, the best way would be to use an "agile" modulator as used in cable-TV or hotel/hospital-type local TV distribution systems. You would need a truly programmable one such as some made by Olson Technology, that allow selection of frequencies in 1-MHz or smaller steps as opposed to the ones that just let you pick TV channels directly, since most of those will not include cable Channel 1, much less the old broadcast one.

One day, I want to try this as well.

From 1989 to around 1997, I had a Sharp VCR that had a selector switch for at least three different cable channel allocation systems and their corresponding channel numbers.. and IIRC, one of them had a channel 1.

In CATV we call it "A-8" on HRC systems, most high end agile modulators will in the HRC mode have a setting for it.

I modified a modulator from a Texas-Instrument TI-99 computer by adding a larger capacitor to the video carrier Osc. tank circuit and lowered it's frequency to 45.25 megacycles (!!) so I could watch the WNBT test pattern on Channel One of my 630. Worked great, and was an easy mod. Sound came along for the ride and was good too.

These modulators sold for $5 at Radio Shark and included a full schematic
which made it easy to modify. I saw one at the York hamfest two months
ago.