NAB reports (Jan-Dec 1945)

THE VICTORY CLOTHING COLLECTION (January 7-31) Clothing1 collected will be distributed by UNRRA. The campaign’s Radio Fact Sheet, Radio Kit, and tran¬ scription have been forwarded to all stations. The Kit contains 15 & 30-second spot announcements, human in¬ terest stories, and appeals written by celebrities. The transcription contains six 4 V2 -minute capsule dramas with original music, and starring Walter Huston. Katherine Cornell, Bert Lahr, Helen Hayes, Fredric March, and Josephine Hull. The strategy of the campaign’s radio department in developing the local station campaign is expressed in this quote from page one of the Radio Kit: “Good news. Your local Victoi’y Clothing Collection committee has been urged to discuss in advance their programming needs with you and your station staff . . . to rely on your experience and judgment, and to follow your suggestions.” Network radio, national magazines, and the press are supporting the drive. But most of the available spare clothing, shoes, and bedding is in the American clothes closet, and the medium closest to that source is your sta¬ tion signal. We are confident that you will give this drive your co¬ operation, in the name of humanity. Henry J. Kaiser is National Chairman, appointed by the President. PEABODY AWARDS CLOSE JANUARY 7 Dean John E. Drewry of the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, University of Georgia reports a steady stream of entries for the 1946 George Foster Peabody Radio Awards. The deadline for entries is January 7. Entries may be submitted by individual stations, net¬ works, radio editors of newspapers and magazines, lis¬ tener groups, or any person or organization wishing to direct the attention of the Peabody Board to a special program or programs. The Board in its selections will not necessarily be restricted to entries, but will consider the reports of its own listening-post committees, and may on its own initiative select a program or a station for an award. The Board also reserves the right to make more or less than seven awards, depending upon the entries and the circumstances at the time of the awards. This year’s Peabody selections will coincide with the 25th anniversary of broadcasting and therefore will, on this account, have added significance to the radio industry of this country and the world. Dean Drewry of the Grady School pointed out. Miscellany REQUESTS FOR JUDGE MILLER'S PICTURE The NAB has received a number of requests from mem¬ bers asking for an autographed photograph of Justin Miller, NAB President. These requests will be filled as rapidly as possible. COMMUNICATIONS: AN IMPLEMENT TO THE PEACE By Ray C. Wakefield Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission (Before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, San Francisco and Fresno Sections, Engineers Club, San Francisco, California, December 28, 1945.) In modern times the structure of any industry rests firmly upon its technical development. During the war, the technology of communications, as you know, has undergone revolutionary changes. I should like first to describe briefly a few of these changes and then to discuss their effects on our systems of communication, especially upon international communication. The first of these developments is the opening up for practical utilization of the higher regions of the spectrum. Before the war, recognized communication services were for most practical purposes limited to frequencies under 300,000 kilocycles, although far higher frequencies were known, at least in theory, to be usable. As FCC Chairman Paul A. Porter expressed it in his recent testimony endors¬ ing the proposed Federal agency for scientific research: “For many years, the human race has been like a fortunate young wastrel who inherits a vast estate, and then fails to use or even explore more than a por¬ tion of it.” That is no longer the case. As a result of wartime re¬ search, the upper limit of the usable radio spectrum has been raised from 300,000 kilocycles to 30 million kilocycles, or from 300 megacycles to 30,000 megacycles. This expan¬ sion of available radio channels in turn makes possible a tremendous expansion of radio services generally. The so-called “beamed radio relay” is an example of the new services which can be established through the use of these ultra-high frequency “microwaves.” Five companies have already received experimental authorizations from the Federal Communications Commission to construct ex¬ perimental radio relay beams. In general, their plans involve the erection of a series of low-powered radio sta¬ tions at intervals of 20 or 30 miles along such routes as New York-Boston, New YorkWashington, or even New York-San Francisco. Each of these stations is equipped with highly directional antennas, of a type growing out of wartime radar research, so that it can beam a bundle of radio circuits from point to point without wasting the power of the transmitter in directions other than the direc¬ tion toward which the circuits are beamed. At the next station, a similar directional receiving antenna picks up the beamed signal. It is then amplified and beamed on to the next relay point. In this way, a large number of telephone, telegraph, teletypewriter, facsimile, and tele¬ vision circuits can be handled simultaneously. The newly opened regions of the spectrum have shortrange characteristics; and while it is possible to overcome this short-range limitation in domestic communications by erecting chains of such stations at intervals across the country, it is not possible to utilize microwaves in this way for transoceanic communication. The region of the spectrum usable for international communications, accord¬ ingly, remains limited for the present to the lower fre¬ quencies, those below 30 megacycles. But while the band of frequencies available for international communications has not greatly increased, wartime research has brought a number of developments which make possible a much more intensive use of these bands. One such development is “frequency shift keying” in radiotelegraphy, in which the carrier amplitude remains constant while the frequency is shifted from one value for the “mark” signal to another value for the “space” signal. The two frequencies employed may differ by only a few hundred cycles. This system tends to overcome selective fading as well as certain amounts of interference. Should the signal on either frequency fade or be interfered with, the signal on the remaining frequency can be utilized. Extensive use of this system has been made by the armed forces and several commercial companies. A means of making many signals travel over a chan¬ nel which formerly carried only one is the awkwardlynamed “single sideband multitone multiplex transmission,” which permits the simultaneous transmission of numerous messages on each side of the carrier, or the transmission of a telephone conversation on one side and several tele¬ graph messages simultaneously on the other. This tech¬ nique has contributed substantially toward the saving of valuable radio spectrum space. Still another development is the adaptation of “time division multiplex telegraphy” to radio circuits. Time division multiplex has been in use on wire circuits for a number of years and with modern improvements it has ( Continued on next page ) DECEMBER 31, 1945-647