Friday 1st February 1952

The first TV detector van for tracking down users of unlicensed television sets was demonstrated in front of British Postmaster-General, Lord De La Warr and Assistant Postmaster-General, Mr Gammans. The units consisted of three horizontal loop aerials fixed to the roof of a van which received signals from TV sets and converted them to radio waves to give audio and video information. According to its inventors the system was sensitive enough to pick up the vast majority of television receivers, whether the aerial was external or internal.