Broadcasting (Apr - June 1960)

Tall tall story ■ Said to be the tallest man-made structure in the world, the new tv tower being built for KFVS-TV Cape Girardeau, Mo., will rise 1,676 feet above the ground. Now under construction by DresserIdeco Co., Columbus, Ohio, the tower will stand 204 feet taller than the Empire State Building. A television tower to be constructed in Moscow, which the Russians claim will be the world’s tallest, will be a mere 1,667 feet tall. The KFVSTV tower will beam a signal to a market area of some 31,800 square miles. It is triangular, standing on a concrete base and supported by 18 guy cables. The weight of the tower and its guy cables will exert over 2 million pounds of pressure on the base. A small service elevator to be enclosed within the tower will take 25 minutes to reach the observation platform on top — over a quarter of a mile into the sky. Ten firms to join U.S. space tests Nine American and one foreign communications firms have notified the National Aeronautics & Space Administration that they will participate in the communications experiments using a passive satellite balloon in orbit 1,000 miles above the earth. The project, called “Echo” by NASA scientists, is scheduled for sometime near the end of April. The plan calls for an orbiting 100-ft. diameter balloon to bounce radio signals across oceans and continents. Organizations which have submitted informal plans for voluntary participation are: U.S. Army Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, N.J.; Collins Radio Inc., Dallas, Tex.; Crosley Division, Avco Corp., Evendale, Ohio; General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y.; Haverford College, Haverford, Pa.; I.T.T., Nutley, N.J.: Philco Corp., Rome, N.Y.; Developmental Engineering Corp., Annapolis, Md., and Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, Calif. Also participating will be Jodrell Banks, Manchester, England. Under contract with NASA is the Bell Telephone Labs., Holmdel, N.J. Actually the soaring balloon will be available to anyone who wants to beam a signal to its aluminized surface and arrange to receive the reflected signal. The first shot will be used to test out the sky jump for continuous wave and narrow band communications operations, it was understood. A second shot to be undertaken later will probably go a step further, using teletype signals and perhaps, voice. At a more In two years Workable system of relaying tv from Europe via passive satellites orbiting 1,000 miles above earth in about two years was foreseen by C. Chapin Cutler, Bell Telephone Labs, scientist, in talk to Washington IRE members last Monday night. Mr. Cutler described Holmdel, N.J., Bell Labs, space communications installation, including horn antenna with parabolic antennas, master amplifier and fm feedback receiver. He said noise figure in receiver had been lowered to good 17 degrees kelvin in 900 me region. Receiver performance will have to be improved even more, he said, in order to capture commercial definition tv. Meeting was held under auspices of Professional Groups on Broadcasting and Communications Systems. distant date, it was speculated, a tv signal might be used. Money Sought ■ Space agency is asking $5.6 million for communications satellite experiments in the new fiscal year. This was disclosed in testimony by NASA executives before the House Appropriations Subcommittee last month, released last week. The $5.6 million compares with $3.1 million in fiscal 1960. The testimony also revealed that NASA was planning a multisphere payload for launch by a single vehicle. One of these will be launched in 1962. Also to be studied in fiscal 1961 are data transmission requirements, with emphasis on such use in meteorological satellites. Also under research are prototype models of high-gain antenna and mount, and the initiation of suitable modulations systems. Ampex ‘idea’ winner Winners of the Ampex “Videotape idea station of the year” contest at the NAB convention were Larry Carino, general manager, WWL-TV New Orleans, who received a $2,000 Ampex home stereo system; J.W. Wright, manager, KSL-TV Salt Lake City, who won an Ampex 601 tape recorder, and Roger Pratt, chief engineer, WHO-TV Des Moines, who won 50 four-track stereo tapes from the United Stereo Tape Library. ■ Technical topics Long-neck mikes ■ Electro-Voice Inc., Buchanan, Mich., has introduced two models of long-neck microphones, which it describes as thin, trim and inconspicuous. The models E-V652 and 65 2 A allow the user and audience an unobstructed view; they can be tilted through a 120-degree arc with respect to the stand coupler. Complete specifications can be had from Electro-Voice. Versatile lens ■ The new Traid Twenty Eight lens for 16mm cameras with a range of focal lengths from 20mm to 80mm provides the versatility of telephoto, wide angle or normal shots. It has a control lever for zooming focusing scale with settings from 48 inches to infinity and will fit any 16mm camera with “C” mount. Voltage regulator ■ Tel-Instrument Electronics Corp., Carlstadt, N.J., is offering an automatic voltage regulator which may also be used to obtain a continuously variable voltage up to 130 volts AC. The company claims an extremely high degree of reliability from the instrument over the frequency range of 50 to 70 cps. New for RCA ■ RCA last week announced the formation of a department for the production of magnetic tape recording devices needed in telecasting, business data processing, remote control telemetering and the U.S. space program. Called the RCA Electronic Recording Products Dept., it will be headed by M.A. Trainer, who has been serving as manager, market development for RCA broadcast and television equipment div. Other executives in the new unit include: Jerome L. Grever, marketing manager; Henry H. Klerx merchandising manager; G.F. Rester, sales manager, and A.H. Lind, head of the department’s engineering activity. 96 (EQUIPMENT & ENGINEERING) BROADCASTING, April 18, 1960