Electronics from hobby to CATV: Looking for information in the '80th

Beginning with the '80 s Ceausescu cut the expenses.
The '82 world football championship was not transmitted by the Romanian television.
The same happened in '86 when I was in army @ UM01866 Ploiesti.

My first steps were in '83, age 16, when I installed my first YAGI antennas.
The signal was distributed to my neighbors who helped me to put a mast of 8 meters, a long YAGI antenna with amplifier on channel 11 OIRT, Bulgarian television, Botev relay, at very high altitude.
It was after all Romanians didn't watch the championship from Spain.

Channel 11 antenna. The price in 1983 was 210 lei. The grey paint is from some elements. These were mass manufactured and the paint hadn't enough time to dry...

Here is a statement:

'Eu imi amintesc foarte clar ca am vazut 82 si 86 numai la bulgari, iar TVR in mod sigur n-a difuzat nimic. Stiu asta cu certitudine pentru ca vedeam meciurile in gasca la un vecin, deoarece nici eu si nici alti citiva vecini nu aveam antena de bulgari acasa. In 84 a fost un campionat european in Franta la care ne-am calificat si noi, iar TVR a transmis doar meciurile nationalei noastre, in rest nimic. Stiu la fel de sigur ca 78 s-a transmis la TVR, dar eram inca mic si ma cam plictiseau meciurile, uneori eram chiar suparat ca se da prea mult fotbal la tv in perioada aia'...

Suddenly, the state companies started to manufacture antennas and amplifiers. It was a grey market, tolerated by the communists, in order to calm the people.
Many people learned Bulgarian, including me. I preferred the subtitled movies because I understood more than hearing voices.
A very interesting program was Studio X, Saturday night, with thrillers.

I bought the first amplifier from the Bucharest 'Silicon Valley', Academiei street, close to the University. You found components for TV antennas in many places, like stores for technical products.
But for electronics were Academiei, Dioda and later 'Silicon Valley' moved to Maica Domnului (Saint Mary, mother of God).

In Ploiesti the strongest Bulgarian TV signal was on channel 5 OIRT.
I assembled an amplifier for this channel and I built an antenna using scrap metal and half of a ladder.
Our colleague Eugen Leahu (ZAUR) climbed on the lightning conductor on the roof of the buiding where we had the bedrooms and installed the antenna on a wooden support.
A denouncer informed the officers that we have a TV in our bedroom and we watch the football championship ! Some days ago Mugur Mihaescu known as Garcea was accused that he denounced his colleagues in the army. He was our colleague in '85-'86 and there were many more like him...
Our lieutenant Negutz confiscated the amplifier and never bring it back. Probably he used it.

After the army Bulgarian TV started emission on channel 9 OIRT.
I built an amplifier with coupled coils, no variable capacitor (trimmer).
My neighbor across the street, colonel Gancevici, sent me to the manager of Electronica Industriala from Baicului street. He sent me to the guy who operated a Rhode & Schwarz spectrum analyzer with generator. He tuned my amplifier and he was wondering about the perfect shape of the gain curve, like in the book, with 2 humps, on video and audio carriers.
In fact the schematic diagram was good and, of course, I respected the indications and I used quality components.

I experimented many types of amplifiers in the '80s.
Rag fairs were the places were you found components at lower prices than the official market.
I remember I saw the rag fair from Dudesti, 2 weeks before it was closed.
Other places were 'The valley of cascades', 'Gherghitza', "Vitan', 'Ghencea', 'Barbu Vacarescu'.
Usually amateurs bought semiconductors from this grey market and resistors and capacitors from the official market.

In 1987 I made a trip by train to Timisoara to buy BFR90 and BFR91 transistors from the rag fair (talcioc). These were sold by Yugoslavians to locals and these sold them again to the amateurs like me.

A very interesting book for me was ANTENNAS, written by Eberhard Spindler.
I got the 6th edition from 1983, a bible for YAGI antennas amateurs.
I built one YAGI antenna for Bulgarian TV second program on channel 39.

Other source of inspiration was TEHNIUM magazine.
The best antenna I built was PARABEAM, found in this magazine.
I built 3 antennas, one was for channel 2 of Yugoslavian TV, sporadic received in Bucharest.
In fact you may receive this channel together with all others if the propagation was good, no matter what receiving system you had.
Other was for Bulgarian TV.
The third I built in Timisoara in June 1989, 6 months before the Revolution !
I was at the end of the 3rd year of the faculty of electrical engineering and they sent us to some factories in Timisoara. Our bedrooms were in a high school place in the 'Green Forest' neighborhood.
They had some scrap thick copper conductors.
I went to the house of pioneers and asked them to give me the TEHNIUM magazine with the PARABEAM antenna. I had a soldering iron but I needed more heat to solder the dipole and the reflector, so I burned sanitary alcohol to increase the temperature in order to have good solderings.
I installed the elements on a wooden ornament of a door and I hit a nail behind the reflector to have a variable azimuth, because we watched both Yugoslavian TV second channel and local Vojvodina Vrsac channel.

I even cut material and assembled the reflectors and dipoles for a system of 4 PARABEAM antennas, but I never installed them because times were changing and it was no more interesting.

In the late '80 I had many YAGI antennas on the roof. An interesting device was a combiner for more antennas on one cable:

The drop cables had high losses and at high frequencies it was better to convert the channel into a low frequency one. These converters were used:

The big problem - the attenuation of the solid polyethylene cable - high losses, high gain distribution amplifiers needed...

I built a little analogue capacitor measurement device and I cut samples of cable.
I noticed that foam polyethylene cables have the lowest capacitance

My reception and distribution system at the peak of YAGI antennas era:

The end of the terrestrial individual reception, the rise of satellite

My subscribers were at Spatar Milescu 27, 29, 31 & 26.
All these contributed at our first project from 1983 except the French language professor. In 1998 French language helped me at Schneider @ Paris & Grenoble.
So it was a service - counter-service system ! Neighbors mutual help.

1982 foreign TV programs

In autumn 1987, at the beginning of my second year @ faculty, we were sent to Fratilesti, Farm number 9, to help in the agriculture works.
First day, one stupid communist activist told us we'll go lunch after we finish our day's quota.
It was about 4 P.M. and we all stopped work and walked thru dust up to the ankles till we arrived at the farm's building. This was a real students' riot and a Party secretary from the faculty came and calmed down the spirits. He brought us a TV set for entertainment and he asked the stupid guy nicknamed 'Lips' to forget about the day's quota.
As TV antennas were my hobby, I connected the TV and aligned the antenna.
We watched Moldavian (in Romanian), Russian and Bulgarian TV programs.
Being in open field the signal was strong, no amplifier needed.

I found a note:

Niculaie COMAN, IAS Baraganu, Fratilesti, Ferma 9, Ialomita county, phone number 20
I think he is the guy who was really happy when he listened Moldavian folk music from Moldavia on the left side of Prut river, at that time still in USSR. Almost crying of happiness...
Is he still alive ? Who knows...

In Bucharest, being shielded by tall buildings, the received signals were on channel 11 and later also on channel 9 for Bulgarian first program and 39 for second program.

BOTEV channel 11 - link !

SHUMEN channel 39 - link !

I received also Russian TV broadcast from Bulgaria, channel 32.
For this channel I used a SWAN antenna, special design.

In 1995 I used it to receive PRO TV on channel 31...
Later it worked on digital terrestrial broadcast of PRO TV.

I also received rarely the Serbian television, channels 25 and 10.
Channel 10 (CCIR !) worked only in the morning, until 9.
I've seen first time Beograd 1 on Saturday, April 23, 1988
I had a special antenna with amplifier for it.
The relay was at Tupiniza

On channel 25 they had some broadcasts in Albanian language !

I bought the BFR90A and BFR91A transistors from the rag fair from Timisoara, April-May 1987.
I got sick of mononucleosis and in Timisoara I got fever, I was sweating and coughing.
I lost some exams and in autumn I passed 5 exams.
In the students' hospital I was the only serious case, interesting to study. Dr. Alexandrescu...