Channel One

Just a quick comment about TV channel one. When the frequencies were opened up for television, there was a channel one. However, it caused considerable
interference to the adjacent frequency band (or was it the reverse?), so North America dropped the channel one. Broadcasters never worried about it at that time, they were too busy fighting to get channel 3-6 slots in their areas.
At that time, I was in communications. The original band pass filters for
microwave communications had about an extra 20 db loss on channels one and
13 compared to the rest of the TV band. The extra loss could be corrected
but the noise ratio was worse. No broadcaster wanted them. Usually Public TV
wound up with 13, while one went unassigned. (Jack Sager)

The frequency allocation chart
shows that the frequency right below TV channels 2-4 is allocated to
Amateur Radio. It is, in fact, the 6 meter band. But TV channels were
not always allocated the frequencies they are now allocated. There's a
good description of the history – “good” meaning that it rings true – here. It seems that the FM radio band moved about in the early 40s too, and that affected TV channel allocation. (Art Yaffe)

While I can't say with any certainty what the original purpose of reserving
channel one was, I can give you some information regarding channel usage you
may or may not know. For instance… do you know that the ENTIRE FM radio
band sites between channel 6 and 7 on your TV dial? That is one reason TV's
with FM tuners were popular for a time in the 60's and 70's.
So, it's not uncommon for the FCC to drop unrelated services into the middle
of already used band. It's also not uncommon for the FCC to reserve
bandwidth for future uses without knowing what they will be. For instance,
when the 2.4 GHZ range was being bandied about there was NO idea that you'd
be able to plug a card into your notebook and roam around a building while
connected to the internet. (Steve Hoult)

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