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

UHF TclcNisioii Dcinonsrrarcd At NBC Con\ cut lull Radio station representatives wlio were guests of the N.ition.ii Uroadcastint; Company at the network's Fifth Annual convention at Boca Raton, Florida in November, witnessed tfie first demonstration of a new portable ultra-hii;h-frequency television transmitter m actual operation. The purpose of the experiment was to illustrate the simplicity and practicability of ct)nvert- ing present very-high-frequency (VHFi receivers to re- ceive high quality pictures from ultra-higli-frequencv (UHF) transmissions. The simple steps that must be taken to convert from VHF to UHF were illustrated through the use of UHF antennas and converters. For the demonstration a specially built portable transmitter was designed by the David Sirnotf Research Laboratories of RCA in Princeton, N. J. UHF directional antennas, looking like step ladders, also were built for the Boca Raton project. A number of 21-inch RCA Victor television receivers were shipped from Camden. The UHF pictures were transmitted from the Lions' CMub in Boca Raton Hills, one and a half miles from the hotel. The receivers and their converters were placed throughout the hotel. The NBC television camera, placed in the hotel grounds, picked up scenes which were fed by micro- wave radio relay to the transmitter. At the Lions' Club the camera signals were transferred to the UHF trans- mitter which then beamed the signal to a series of UHF .mtenn.is at the hotel. In addition to the live action scenes picked up by the outdoor camera, a complete film chain transmitted newsreels recordings and motion picture film over the system. Each UHF antenna was i8 feet long, suspended 50 feet from the ground. The UHF station used the fre- quency band of 524-530 megacycles, with radiated power of (S kilowatts for the picture and > kilowatts for the sound. Engineers and technicians of RCA and NBC worked more than six weeks to make the experiment possible High Placement Record Of the 794 students graduated from RCA Institutes during the 1950-51 school year, 98.5 per cent have been employed in various branches of the radio-television and electronics industry. The Institutes' Placement Service has reported that graduates were employed as follows: 222 television installation men, 169 laboratory tethni- cians, 11.1 transmitter engineers, 71 radio technicians and 25 junior engineers. Brig. General David SornofF sending the letter "S" in Morse Code around the world, as I. E. Showerman, President of the Radio Executives Club (left) and Harry C. Ingles, President, RCA Communications, Inc., look on. Radio l:.\ccuri\cs Pav Tnburc ro Marconi The vast progress which radio communications has made since Marconi succeeded in transmitting the three dots of the letter "S" in Morse code across the Atlantic in 1901 was demonstrated on December 20. 1951 during .1 luncheon of the Radio Executives Club commemo- rating the 50th anniversary of the Italian inventor's .iLComplishment in communications. At the meeting, which was held at the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel in New York, Brig. General David SarnofT transmitted the same letter around the world over the facilities of RCA Communications, Inc. Members and guests of the Club heard the returning signal as it com- pleted its globe-circling path in one-eighth of a second, .ifter travelling via Tangier, Manila and San Francisco. This distance was approximately ten times that covered by Marconi when he spanned the ocean between Corn- wall, England, and St. John's, Newfoundland. Later, General SarnofT held a two-way radiophone conversation with Marchcsa Marconi and her daughter Elettra, who were in the radio studio of Italcable in Rome. At the conclusion of the demonstration. General Sarnoff related incidents in his long association with Marconi, and described some of the technological ad- vances that might be expected in the communications field in future generations. RADIO AGE 27