I had an awkward little black and white tv when I was a kid that I think was meant for traveling. 5 inch screen maybe. You had to tune it like a radio to get channels. VHF I think had two actual channels I could watch. Had a UHF band and for some reason I could listen in on phone calls. No idea where that signal was coming from though. Early to mid 90's so maybe cordless phones. I saved up Popsicle sticks for over two years to get it. Each stick was worth points. Some 10, 20, 50 points even. I think I needed 10000 points. It looked way cooler in the catalog.
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Haha love that memory!
Now that’s a heck of a lock of sticks to collect. I’m sensing there was disappointment when it arrived 😂
Not sure what the phone signal thing was. Bet that was a pretty cool thing to discover at that age to be fair!
I was the same and was obsessed the idea of a true portable TV. (Battery powered and in your pocket!)
Now I take it so much for granted.
Thanks for sharing.
Well the picture was black and white but I expected color. So that stung. Especially after doing things like: Digging through the the trash to make sure my brother didn't throw out any Popsicle sticks...
And at first I didn't know what those voices were but at some point I heard that classic phone ringing sound effect and figured it out. It wasn't a crystal clear signal most nights when I sat up listening. You only got half the conversation. Spent a lot of hours listening in though. Any disappointment was gone once I realized I had a box with super powers. I had to keep it a secret. Thought my parents would take it away if they found out. Every night I felt like such a badass.
LOVE that! I know what you mean about it feeling like you have a power that you shouldn’t.
Eeek about the B/W! Haha
I had a TV adapter for my Sega Game Gear. It was actually really really awesome. Colour TV on the screen with a massive aerial that came out.
It was brilliant but it wasn’t like there was anything particularly interesting to watch. There wasn’t ever a dedicated cartoon channel or anything fun during the day or at night - just boring topical shows and news. Staying up late to tune in was pretty dull. So it soon dawned on me that that the best time to watch TV was the morning kids shows - where it was better to watch on an actual proper TV. 🤷🏻♂️
Exciting none the less. I still have the whole set. Pretty cool.
Kids in the Hall was something I'd watch. Red Green Show. David Letterman. It was late night, was supposed to be sleeping, and I was tired, so I'd often doze off. Then it's a couple hours later and all I can hear is that constant high pitch tone that went along with the test pattern. LOL! They'd always sign off with the Canadian national anthem and this corny video with moose and beavers, mountains, rivers, the prairies, fireworks, Mounties...
Memories.
That’s awesome haha!
Classic kids ‘I’m gonna stay up ALL NIGHT and watc...’ crashes out
Or the, 'I'm going to get up early and watch...' Slept until noon
😂
Wow. What a coincidence. I was commenting below to @ashtv about how my father and I used to hunt the UHF bands for that very reason. The conversations always sounded so spooky. We lived in a really old house. Made for some good, creepy times.
So this was common? It confused the crap out of me back then and I kept it to myself. Haven't even thought about that time of my life much until seeing this old tv triggered the memories.
My family had one of those old massive satellite dishes as well so growing up I got to mess around with that. Many of the channels weren't intended to be viewed by the public. So you'd see things like news reporters rehearsing and getting their act together. Another day it's a marathon of Inspector Gadget without commercials. Free PPV and live events. Watch a hockey game, they cut to commercial, but you don't get the commercial, you get the announcer asking for another beer and complaining about his chair...
Yes! My uncle had one of those! I remember he would always have seen all the new shows hours early because of that thing by switching to the East Coast feed. Ahhh the days when communications weren't encrypted.
I remember the uh, dirty movies, as they were known, were 'scrambled' but sometimes you could make out the naughty bits. Things sure have changed...