441-line Television System - Use in France

Use in France

By 1941 the "Fernsehsender Paris" station transmitted from the Eiffel Tower in Paris using the German 441 lines system and its main technical characteristics. Television programs were mainly for wounded soldiers of the Wehrmacht occupation troops who recovered in the Greater Paris Area hospitals, but they also included French-language shows. Broadcasts were monitored in the United Kingdom during the Second World War to gather intelligence information from occupied France. Because the 819 lines standard had been adopted in 1948 for the national network, it was due to cease on January 1, 1958. However, after a long elections coverage night, most of the equipment was destroyed by fire on January 3, 1956. It was decided to indemnify the 3,000 owners of remaining 441 lines sets and to entitle them to reduced rates for their new 819 lines receivers. Since July 1952 the 441 lines transmitter was no longer broadcasting separate programs, but simply picked up the national network's picture through an 819-441 lines "optical converter" (a 441 lines camera, slightly out of focus, pointed at a 819 lines monitor equipped with an oval spotlight cathode ray tube).

The line frequency was 11025 Hz with vision broadcast at 46.0 MHz and sound at 42.0 MHz. Aerials were independent for audio and vision at the top of the Eiffel tower, both vertically polarized. No gain being obtained from these pre-war basic aerials, the effective radiated power was only the transmitter's peak one, i.e. 30 kW which enabled a good reception in a radius of 100 km around Paris. As displayed in J.M. Frost's WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook) editions at that time, the transmitter's frequencies (42-46 MHz) were listed as channel "S" (or "Special" channel) in the European Broadcasting Union's official documents.