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

Signals from Outer Space! SP IRST radio signals from the Russian earth satellite to be heard in the United States were picked up by RCA less than two hours after announcement of the launch- ing in Moscow at 6:30 p.m. (EDT), Friday, October 4. These first signals — faint cricket-like "beeps" ■— were plucked from outer space at the 2,000-acre receiv- ing station of RCA Communications, Inc., Riverhead, L. I. They were recorded on tape at 8:07, 8:15 and 8:22 p.m., as the Soviet-built "moon" spun in a south- easterly direction some 500 miles overhead. At 8:30 p.m., the signals faded. Earlier on that memorable Friday night, newsmen at the National Broadcasting Company headquarters in Radio City, New York, had alerted the RCA personnel at Riverhead to attempt a pickup of the satellite's trans- missions. Thus at 9:00 p.m., with the monitored tape recording of the radio signals on hand, NBC broke into its radio and television networks across the Nation to bring the American people the first sounds from the startling Russian globe. NBC affiliated stations called for a rebroadcast. The TV network was broken again at 10:47 p.m., and at 11 p.m. the radio network put the weird "beeps" once more on the air. During the next forty-eight hours NBC was to cover the satellite's repeated passages over this country, with its "Monitor" broadcasts and special radio and TV programs transmitting the recorded signals. NBC's "Youth Wants to Know" program on Sunday, October 6, featured Soviet scientist A. A. Blagonravov, head of that country's delegation to the IGY conference in the United States. Meanwhile, RCA's staff of engineers and its inter- national communications network were mobilized to follow as closely as possible the progress of the swift earth-girdling "moon," and to supply the information it gathered to news outlets and others interested in the dramatic event. One of the first moves at Riverhead was to measure the varying shifts in frequency of radio signals from the satellite. This information provided an estimated speed for the orbiting sphere of 17,712 miles an hour, slightly below the estimate of the Russians. According to RCA data, the satellite seemed to be crossing the United States about every other trip around the earth, and passing over the vicinity of New York about once every 12 hours. Signals from the satellite were found to be audible for twenty-five to thirty-five minutes when the "moon" passed over the New York area. The whizzing globe broadcasts signals that last three- tenths of a second, with a pause of equal length. This was the pulse rate, recorded by the RCA engineers at Riverhead. On the eventful Friday night, October 4, it was an RCA receiving technician, at Riverhead, Milton Tyte, who tuned in the satellite's transmitting frequencies. He heard the first tiny "beep" at 8:07 p.m. This was about an hour and forty minutes after Moscow Radio's English-language broadcast announcing the launching, and the start of bell-ringing bulletins of news agencies telling America of the event. After the signals from the satellite faded out at 8:30 p.m., RCA monitors were kept tuned to the satel- lite's frequency, and the signals were heard again at 9:36 p.m., for another thirty minutes. The signals con- tinued to reappear thereafter about every ninety minutes, until daybreak, when they were heard about every hour, according to the operator's log. At RCA Communications offices at 66 Broad Street, New York, signals of the satellite were monitored on various graphs and oscilloscopes, which showed the pulses as a wiggly line of green light. RCA oscilloscope shows varying patterns of radio signals received from satellite. 14 ELECTRONIC AGE