Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

RCA Extends Communications Fifty-Seven Countries Now Sewed by Direct Radiotelegraph Circuits from the United States-. Fifteen Services Were Inaugurated During the War WHEN German forces in 1940 swept into Czechoslovakia, first of the little nations to be in- vaded, the radiotelegraph link main- tained by RCA Communications, Inc., between the United States and Czechoslovakia was broken. Other interruptions of direct service fol- lowed as the enemies, first in Eu- rope and later in the Pacific extend- ed their control. But the possibility of such catastrophies had been fore- seen at RCA. Where the loss of one terminal serving as a relay point, affected others, arrangements were made either to detour messages around enemy-held territories or to establish new services. As the war turned in favor of the United Na- tions, RCA was prepared with new equipment and operating crews to move into reconquered capitals and reestablish regular radiotelegraph, radiotelephone and radiophoto serv- ices. The story of the total destruction of RCA facilities at Manila on De- cember 31, 1941, has been fre- quently told. Although this demo- lition, which was carried out under orders of the U. S. Signal Corps to prevent high-powered stations in the Philippines capital from falling intact into enemy hands, stopped all service to and from the Islands, the original interruption lasted for only nine days. On January 9, 1942, RCA Communications reopened its offices at Cebu on the island of the same name, and communications were re- established immediately. However, after a few weeks Cebu was occu- pied by the Japanese and service to the Philippines ceased for the time being. A month later, on February 10, a new direct radiotelegraph circuit between New York and Teheran, Iran, was opened by RCA. Previ- ously, all radiotelegraphic traffic from the United States to Teheran had been routed by way of London. The new circuit of 6,000 miles pro- vided faster service at a critical time. The next expansion in 1942 took place on February 21 when RCA further strengthened the radio life- line of communication between the U. S. and Australia with a new direct radiotelegraph circuit link- ing San Francisco and Wellington, New Zealand. Here again the new circuit eliminated a relay point at Australia with a consequent saving in message-delivery time. This ac- complishment by RCA Communica- tions was signalized by an exchange of congratulatory messages be- tween President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Eraser. New Circuit Outwits Enemy Working in collaboration with the Dutch Government, RCA suc- ceeded on March 11 in transmitting the first messages to the East Indies through Sumatra thereby circumventing the enemy which four days earlier had occupied Ba- tavia, a former point of relay to the East Indies. An interesting side- light in connection with the reopen- ing of these facilities was the long course taken by one of the first mes- sages. This dispatch was filed by a bank in Madras, India, for its branch in Medan, only 700 miles away across the Bay of Bengal. To reach its destination, the message went to Bombay by wire, then by radio to London where RCA picked it up and transmitted it to Medan via New York and San Francisco. Over 27,000 miles of the globe's sur- face was traversed by the message in order to span a distance of 700 miles. March, 1942, continued to be an active period for the restoration of old services and the creation of new ones. On the 13th, a station on the vital island of Noumea, New Cale- donia, handled its first traffic direct with San Francisco. On the 17th, RCA put into operation its new error-proof radiotelegraph printer on the New York-Buenos Aires cir- cuit, and on the 21st, pictures flashed through the air 7,420 miles between Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco over the first direct radiophoto circuit ever operated be- tween the two continents. Before the month ended, RCA Communi- cations was able to announce a new radiotelegraph circuit connecting San Francisco direct with Kunming on the Burma Road in China. Facilities Increase Rapidly Through the remaining months of the year, RCA continued to make new facilities available to the rap- idly increasing United Nations mil- itary forces. New York and Cairo were linked on June 23 by a two- way radiophoto circuit, the first such service between the two points. Bermuda commenced to benefit from direct radiotelegraph service with New York on August 10th, and on November 16th, the New York office of RCA Communications re- ceived by radiophoto from Sweden a picture of King Gustaf and guests to inaugurate a new service between the two countries. The year 1943 saw the establish- ment of three new and important circuits. The west African port of Dakar was linked with New York on March 9; the first direct radio- telegraph service between Ecuador and New York went into regular operation on May 1, and a new ra- diophoto service to Berne, Switzer- land was announced on September 21. Following closely on the heels of the Allied occupation forces in Italy, RCA engineers opened a di- rect link between Naples and New York on February 1, 1944 and du- plicated the feat on June 13 at Rome, using replacement equipment which was shipped from the United States in anticipation of the libera- tion of the Italian capital. With the Indian Radio and Cable Company as operators of the Bombay termi- nus, RCA inaugurated direct serv- ice to India on August 15. Continuing the energetic follow- up of the victorious armies of the United Nations during the final days of the war, RCA facilities were established in Germany and Austria on August 3, 1945; with Tokyo on August 30 and livith Shanghai on October 22. The Vienna station was a mobile RCA unit, formerly located in Northern Italy and then flown, at the request of the U. S. Army, sev- [RADIO AGE 30]