July 1962 Radio-Electronics
[Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Amongst the noteworthy items
announced in the July 1962 "News Briefs" column in Radio-Electronics magazine
was the impending end of the DoD's
CONELRAD
early warning defense system. It was being replaced with the Emergency Broadcast
System in 1963, which was later replaced by the Emergency Alert System in 1997.
Changing names for essentially the same service was - and remains today - a shining
example of government waste. Westinghouse debuted its slow-scan TV system for transmitting
still images via telephone wires - sort of an early Internet means of downloading
pictures that could be stored on magnetic tape. Japan was deploying (with U.S. launching)
a constellation of satellites in geosynchronous orbit with plans to present a live
broadcast of the 1964
Summer Olympic Games being held there. A ground-breaking new type of AC/DC power
supply was announced which chopped up the AC input into high frequency pulses and
recombined them to create a DC output - without the use of a transformer!
News Briefs:
11/57 |
8/58 |
11/59 |
2/60 |
4/60 |
8/60 |
9/60 |
10/60 |
12/60 |
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11/61 |
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3/63 |
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3/64 |
7/64 |
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3/68 |
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1/69 |
11/69
News Briefs
Low-budget TV system that transmits still images demonstrated
recently by Westinghouse Electric.
The Nippon Electric satellite, with its four banks of solar cells.
Slow-Scan Television Works on Phone Lines
A low-budget TV system, designed to transmit still images rather than moving
figures, was demonstrated recently by Westinghouse Electric Corp. The system uses
a new slow-scan vidicon TV camera tube type 7290. The camera produces one frame
every 8 seconds, turning the video information into audio frequencies. This picture
can be recorded with an ordinary tape recorder, sent over standard phone lines,
or transmitted by any radio capable of transmitting voice. With it, televised pictures
for education, business purposes or newspaper work can be transmitted at low cost,
with a minimum of equipment and installation work. The camera's lens focuses the
live image on the vidicon screen. An electronic shutter then freezes the image,
which is scanned at the 8-second rate. At the end of the scan, another frame is
frozen on the screen.
Japanese Satellites to Report 1964 Olympics
The Nippon Electric Co., Ltd., hopes to orbit three or four Japanese-made communications
satellites to relay news of the 1964 Olympic Games at Tokyo, if their research on
a 105-pound satellite, equipped with solar batteries, is successful. The satellite
will be orbited by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
It is expected to minimize the cost to Japan of getting the satellites into outer
space. It is hoped to orbit the satellites at an altitude of 22,380 miles above
the earth, where their velocity.
New Power Supply Regulates with Pulses
A new, heavy-duty regulated power supply converts line ac immediately to dc,
eliminating the usual 60-cycle transformer. A dc chopper then converts the dc to
high-frequency bidirectional pulses, the voltage of which is stepped up or down,
as desired, by a high-frequency transformer. Silicon controlled rectifiers produce
the high-frequency pulses at variable widths, thus regulating the voltage. The wider
the pulses, the higher the output voltage will be. The system is efficient only
for load power ratings above about 2 kw. This new approach to power conversion was
described by Dr. Victor Wouk, chairman of the Subcommittee on Power Supplies of
the IRE. Supplies of this type are being manufactured by Dr. Wouk's company, Electronic
Energy Conversion Corp., Bethpage, N. Y.
Molybdenum a Superconductor
Pure molybdenum has been discovered by Bell Laboratories Researchers to be a
superconducting element (a material that loses all its electrical resistance as
its temperature approaches absolute zero). Molybdenum is the 24th element found
to be superconducting.
The report, which appeared in the April 15 issue of Physical Review Letters,
states that a very pure sample of molybdenum was studied. The study also suggests
that, as extremely pure samples become available, studies should be conducted on
other metals previously thought of as non-superconducting.
Conelrad Abandoned
The Defense Dept. has notified the FCC that restricting broadcasting to 640 and
1240 kc during defense emergencies no longer is necessary and that the system will
be changed to "insure more effective presidential and civil defense communication
with the public in the event of a national emergency." While modernization is in
progress, the old system will, however, continue in effect.
Under the proposed new system, according to FCC Commissioner Bartley, some stations
might still be shut down or required to stand by to reduce interference; stations
may receive fallout protection surveys and emergency power equipment from the Defense
Dept.; state defense-network FM stations will have top priority in getting such
assistance; the FM defense network might be expanded to a national network.
TV's Most Distant "Echo"
The admittedly Class-B picture shown was the first TV image to be transmitted
and received by satellite relay. Sent from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
field station near San Francisco, it was bounced off Echo I and received at the
Millstone Hill Laboratory in Massachusetts. The distance on earth between the two
points is 2,700 miles. The signal's course was considerably longer, Echo I being
1,000 miles above the earth at the time.
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