Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
TV Signal Boosters and UHF Converters played an important part in Television Broadcast History, but they are nearly forgotten today. Mark Nelson has what might be the largest collection of signal boosters and UHF converters anywhere and explains why these devices became necessary, and then disappeared.
Television got its start in the U.S. in the Big Cities. In the late '40s and early '50s, unless you lived in or near New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, or one of the other major population centers, TV reception was likely to be an iffy thing. Until 1952 there were only about 100 TV stations in the entire US. People put up big rotatable antennas to capture the weak signals from 50 or 100 miles away, and augmented the tuners in their TV sets with signal boosters. These were tuneable amplifiers for channels 2 through 13 (channel 1 was dropped in mid-1948) installed between the antenna and the TV set. Almost all had continuous tuning (rather than click-stop channel selectors), so you could peak up the signal just right. After 1952, the number of TV stations rose dramatically, so that by the mid to late 1950s, the vast majority of the US population was within easy reception range of at least one TV station, and boosters fell from popularity.
The first commercial UHF TV station in the US, Portland Oregon's KPTV, received its license and went on the air in late 1952. The FCC had authorized the new TV channels 14 through 83 earlier that year, to relieve the crowding that was occurring as commercial television boomed in the post-war period. To receive the new channels, if any were assigned in your area, you would need a converter for your existing TV set (which of course tuned only 2 through 13). Though the TV set manufacturers were pretty quick to make built-in UHF tuners an (extra-cost) option for their sets, it wasn't until 1964 that the FCC required UHF capability in all new TVs, and 1975 before they had to be as easy to use as the VHF tuners. Add-on converter boxes were therefore the common way to get the additional channels for many years.
If you enjoyed this video, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association at:
antiquewireless.org/homepage/membership
Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum channel and you'll receive news of our latest video uploads.
TV Signal Boosters and UHF Converters played an important part in Television Broadcast History, but they are nearly forgotten today. Mark Nelson has what might be the largest collection of signal boosters and UHF converters anywhere and explains why these devices became necessary, and then disappeared.
Television got its start in the U.S. in the Big Cities. In the late '40s and early '50s, unless you lived in or near New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, or one of the other major population centers, TV reception was likely to be an iffy thing. Until 1952 there were only about 100 TV stations in the entire US. People put up big rotatable antennas to capture the weak signals from 50 or 100 miles away, and augmented the tuners in their TV sets with signal boosters. These were tuneable amplifiers for channels 2 through 13 (channel 1 was dropped in mid-1948) installed between the antenna and the TV set. Almost all had continuous tuning (rather than click-stop channel selectors), so you could peak up the signal just right. After 1952, the number of TV stations rose dramatically, so that by the mid to late 1950s, the vast majority of the US population was within easy reception range of at least one TV station, and boosters fell from popularity.
The first commercial UHF TV station in the US, Portland Oregon's KPTV, received its license and went on the air in late 1952. The FCC had authorized the new TV channels 14 through 83 earlier that year, to relieve the crowding that was occurring as commercial television boomed in the post-war period. To receive the new channels, if any were assigned in your area, you would need a converter for your existing TV set (which of course tuned only 2 through 13). Though the TV set manufacturers were pretty quick to make built-in UHF tuners an (extra-cost) option for their sets, it wasn't until 1964 that the FCC required UHF capability in all new TVs, and 1975 before they had to be as easy to use as the VHF tuners. Add-on converter boxes were therefore the common way to get the additional channels for many years.
If you enjoyed this video, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association at:
antiquewireless.org/homepage/membership
Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum channel and you'll receive news of our latest video uploads.
