NAEB Engineering Newsletter (Mar 1958)

WTTW, Chicago; and WBIQ, Birmingham, Ala. ***** Did you know . . . . . . that the Lincoln Division of the Ford Motor Co. has made a FM tuner available as optional equipment in its 1958 Lincoln and Continental automobiles? The tuner is manufactured by Bendix Radio and feeds audio through the AM set since volume and tone controls operate either receiver. . . . that as of Jan. 1 there were 537 commercial and 140 non-commercial FM stations operating? This is a gain of 7 commercial and 15 non-commercial stations over the past year. . . . that both radio and television signals have been transmitted over long distances by bouncing them off meteor trails? * * * * * Three meetings of interest to engineers in the radio and television broadcasting industry which will be held during March and April are listed below for your information: March 24-27 Institute of Radio Engineers, Na¬ tional Convention and Radio Engineering Show, New York City, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and New York Coliseum. April 21-26 Society of Motion Picture and Tele¬ vision Engineers, 83rd Semi-Annual Convention, Los Angeles, Calif., Ambassador Hotel. April 28 -May 1 NAB 12th Annual Broadcasting Engineering Conference, Los Angeles, Calif. Statler Hotel, concurrent with 36th Annual NAB Convention at the Ambassador Hotel. ***** Planning a radio station? RCA has available a brochure, including floor plans, equipment require¬ ments and current trends. The material contained in this brochure has been appearing serially in RCA Broadcast News beginning with the October, 1957 issue. The brochure contains the complete series and may be obtained by writing RCA, Broadcast and Television Equipment Departments, Camden 2, N. J. TV TECHNICAL TIPS (March) —Cecil S. Bidlack In early February, one of the most recent technical developments was demonstrated to newsmen by the Blonder-Tongue Labs, of Newark, N. J. It was Bi- Tran, a system of TV broadcasting which allows two programs to be broadcast over the same television channel. This is a “compatible” system which may be applied to double the number of programs received on a single channel. As the system would work, each channel would be divided into an “A” and a “B” portion. The “A” portion would contain present commercial or educa¬ tional programming as now provided. The “B” por¬ tion would be used for special services not now ac¬ corded television time and would be received only if the viewer elected to decode the signal at his receiver. At the demonstration, the regular broadcast pro¬ gram (program “A”) was seen on the receiver screen. When the decoder was switched on, program “B”, a closed circuit picture, appeared on the screen. Those present at the demonstration commented that the multiplexed program was inferior in resolution and contrast to the regular program. However Blonder- Tongue officials stated that the demonstration was primarily to show the feasibility of the system and that the system required refinement to improve pic¬ ture quality on the the multiplexed channel. It was stated that it would cost approximately $5,000 to modify transmitting equipment for Bi- Tran and about $60 for a decoder for the home re¬ ceiver. Further demonstrations will be held for radio and television broadcasters as well as industry and military leaders, educators, medical and governmental specialists. ***** Two papers of interest to technical personnel at NAEB stations and production centers will be in the mail soon. The first, “Film in Television” by Rodger J. Ross of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is a discussion of the technical quality of television film from the standpoint of the television broadcaster. The second is a “how-to-do-it” paper by Mel’ Haas of the WOI staff. It details their method of balancing crowd noise at sports broadcasts automatically when the announcer uses his mike cut-off or “cough” but¬ ton. It’s called “Automatic Crowd vs. Announcer Balance.” These papers will be mailed to chief radio and tele¬ vision engineers on our Technical Directory list. We have extra copies available to send upon request to others wishing them. ***** WTTW has expanded its kinescope recording serv¬ ice for outside agencies by the installation of a sec¬ ond kinescope recorder, according to Duane Weise, chief engineer of the Channel 11 Chicago ETV sta¬ tion. They are equipped to record either off-the-air from Chicago stations or by direct line from their own 4 ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER