NBC transmitter (Jan-Dec 1938)

NBC TRANSMITTER VOL. 4 JANUARY, 1938 NO. 1 NEW MOBILE TELEVISION UNIT COMES TO RADIO CITY The first mobile television station in America rolled into Radio City December 12 and, in historic ceremonies heard by listeners to the Magic Key of RCA program, was presented to engineers of the National Broadcasting Company by the RCA Manufacturing Company. The new unit, consisting of two modern motor vans containing television control apparatus and a micro-wave transmitter, will soon be used in experimental television pick-ups of outdoor news events. NBC engineers will operate the unit in connection with the present NBC television transmitter atop the Empire State Tower. Televise News Events Delivery of the RCA Telemobile unit presages the most intensive activity in the history of American television. NBC contemplates the experimental televising of outdoor sports, parades, scheduled news events and other subjects. After being relayed by micro-wave to the Empire State transmitter, the televised events will be broadcast throughout the Metropolitan area to receivers in the hands of NBC engineers and those built by radio amateurs. The new mobile unit consists of two motor vans, each the size of a large bus, to be operated by a crew of ten engineers. One van contains complete pick-up apparatus, including cameras, for both picture and accompanying sound. A picture, or “video,” transmitter to operate on a frequency of 177,000 kilocycles is mounted in the other. A special directional antenna, to be raised on the scene of operations, is used in connection with the mobile unit. In the Metropolitan area, where the steel framework of many skyscrapers impedes ultra-high frequency transmission, the normal working range of the new unit is expected to be about twenty-five miles. Pick-Up Equipment The van containing the pick-up equipment is the mobile equivalent of a complete television studio. Apparatus in the van, all mounted in racks extending down the center of the vehicle, include the synchronizing generators and rectifiers for supplying Iconoscope beam voltages, amplifiers for blanking and deflecting potentials and line amplifiers. The principal ( Continued on Page 8) TOSCANINI “The presentation of Signor Toscanini and a superlative orchestra as its contribution to the world on Christmas night was a high pinnacle for radio, and the National Broadcasting Company is entitled to handsome appreciation for it. “Musically, it was an event of the most obvious importance. The department specialists are appraising its technical merits and magnitudes in extra terms. But it also was a milestone in the radio’s social development, because here a broadcasting network seized upon the thing it could do best and proceeded to do it in the finest and most dignified and most useful way.” — Editorial in the N. Y. W orld-T elegram 400 CHILDREN ATTEND NBC XMAS PARTY So far as scores of children of the NBC family circle are concerned, the biggest show of 1937 in Radio City was the NBC Christmas Party held in Studio 8-H on Friday morning, December 24 last. Assisted by Madge Tucker’s juvenile actors, Santa Claus, in the appropriately large person of “Jolly” Bill Steinke, presented a short Xmas play which delighted about 400 children and almost as many grown-ups. Following the show, Santa Claus descended from the stage and presented each youngster with a present. Many of the little boys and girls could not wait to get home to open their packages; hardly had some of them received their presents when stickers and wrapping paper were torn hastily to see what NBC’s Santa Claus had brought them. As a result, the eighth floor was turned into a pretty sight of litters of brightly Colored wrappings and boxes, and jubilant children playing with their new toys. ill Have you any baby pictures? Send them to the NBC Transmitter before January 22 and you might win an album of Toscanini Victor records. NBC Pholo by Hausslcr America’s first mobile television station, to be used by NBC engineers in experimental pick-ups of outdoor news events, as they appeared December 12 on delivery to the National Broadcasting Company at Radio City. The two large motor vans, latest development in RCA television, are connected by coaxial cable when in operation, and contain complete apparatus for picture pick-up and transmission with accompanying sound. One, mounting the pick-up apparatus, provides operating positions on the roof for Iconoscope cameras and special parabolic microphones. The other, the transmitter, has a special “trolley” antenna which will be used to relay the broadcasts to the experimental television transmitter atop the Empire State tower, New York City.