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

flKftJUSut Earthbound . . . RCA's "weather eye" airborne weather radar system, which enables pilots to spot storms and cloud forma- tions up to 150 miles ahead, was anchored to the ground last month to serve a highly appropriate function —as an exhibit at the U. S. Weather Bureau Show in Washington. The show, featuring the latest weather de- tection equipment and techniques of the weather bureau and industry, at- tracted some 100,000 visitors at its location in the Chamber of Commerce Building. The RCA equipment was mounted for the purpose in the nose and cockpit of a simulated plane, showing how the antenna picks ud storm formations and displays them on the radarscope in the cockpit. The "weather eye" system has been pur- chased on a fleet basis by five Ameri- can and four foreign commercial air- lines, and has been installed in many types of private aircraft. be made outside the Soviet Union were released in May by RCA Victor rec- ords following the artist's American debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. Recorded on tape in London for RCA Victor by Gramaphone, the New Or- thophonic High Fidelity disk includes the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 in A Minor and the Miaskovsky Concerto in C, played by Rostropovich with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. Unlike the case with his compatriots, violinist David Oistrakh and pianist Emil Gilels, the 29-year-old cellist's appearance in this country was not preceded by a large importation of his recordings. Recording First . , . The first recordings of Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich ever to Shakespeare for Schools . . . NBC Television Films passes on the word that nearly 2,000,000 high school and college students have been able to see "Macbeth" and "King Rich- ard II" on kinescope recordings (film made directly from TV pickup) in their classrooms during the last two years, thanks to television. The two plays were presented "live" over NBC television during 1954 with actor-pro- ducer Maurice Evans in the title roles. Subsequently, the performances were made available free of charge to the nation's schools on 16-mm kinescope recordings by Hallmark Cards, sponsor of Mr. Evans' television series. "King Richard II" has been in circulation exactly two years, and "Macbeth" slightly less than one year, according to Hallmark, and during that time they have been shown a total of 6,535 times in 3,561 high schools and colleges. Keystone . . . An RCA color TV studio camera has been added by station WJAC-TV, Johnstown, Pa., which thereby be- comes the first station in Pennsylvania equipped to originate its own "live" color programs, according to a joint announcement by RCA and Alvin D. Schrotr, General Manager, WJAC, Inc. The independent Johnstown station, on channel 6, already has initiated local colorcasting with its new facili- ties, and Mr Schrott says that present plans will call for about three hours of original color programs each week, with an increase by next winter to about 100 hours per month of network and local colorcasting. How to Service Color TV . . . The RCA Service Company has come up with a new handy reference book for the serviceman working with color TV. The 92-page illustrated book, bearing the logical title "Servic- ing Color Television Receivers," is designed principally for reference use by dealer and independent servicemen who have attended the many color TV clinics and workshops sponsored throughout the country by the RCA Victor Television Division and its au- thorized distributors. Copies are given free to each serviceman attending a workshop or clinic, and additional copies may be purchased at $1 per copy from the Commercial Service Sec- tion, RCA Service Company, Inc., Camden, N. J. 32 RADIO AGE