The broadcast color stripe signal

[Telecruiser]

I remember some stations broadcast a yellow vertical stripe on the left side of the screen when a black and white program was being aired. This was in the early 1960's. I was told it was so TV service persons could determine that the set was working properly even though no color programming was available. I wonder if this was the same thing?

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Telecruiser

I remember some stations broadcast a yellow vertical stripe on the left side of the screen when a black and white program was being aired. This was in the early 1960's. I was told it was so TV service persons could determine that the set was working properly even though no color programming was available. I wonder if this was the same thing?

Yes, the same thing, but usually it would not appear at the left side, but the right, as the one on the left would act as the color burst when the horizontal phase is slightly delayed. I think it is less likely that the phase could be pulled so far the other way, but maybe. I wish I had a source of this signal so I could try it on the CTC-5.

[Telecruiser]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

Yes, the same thing, but usually it would not appear at the left side, but the right, as the one on the left would act as the color burst when the horizontal phase is slightly delayed. I think it is less likely that the phase could be pulled so far the other way, but maybe. I wish I had a source of this signal so I could try it on the CTC-5.

Maybe it was on the right side. My memory seems to not be quite as good as it used to be. It was over 50 years ago when I last saw this. I worked part time at a TV shop while in high school. We used the test signal quite frequently to see if the set was actually working. Otherwise we had to hang around until Bozo came on, which was in color.