July 1959 Electronics World
Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Electronics World, published May 1959
- December 1971. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Bell Telephone Laboratories
was largely responsible for designing and building a communications system that
was the envy of the world. Innovation on the part of Bell engineers, manufacturing
staff that produced the equipment, and technicians who serviced the systems deserve
the credit as do management types who made funds and opportunity available to the
aforementioned. As the number of telephone service subscribers grew and reliability
became even more vital to business, law enforcement, and national defense, new methods
had to be devised. In the late 1950s, Bell introduced the concept of wireless microwave
links at 11 GHz (X band), which at the time X band was primarily used (at 10 GHz)
by precision approach aircraft radar. This advertisement in a 1959 issue of Electronics
World magazine promoted Bell's achievement.
Bell Telephone Ad
"Packaging" Microwaves for Higher Mountaintops
In Arizona, the telephone company faced a problem. How could it supply more telephone
service between Phoenix and Flagstaff - through 135 miles of difficult mountain
territory?
Radio offered the economical answer: a new microwave radio-relay system recently
created at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Operating at 11,000 megacycles, it was just
right for the distance, and the number of conversations that had to be carried.
But first other problems had to be solved: How to house the complex electronic
equipment; how to assemble and test it at hard-to-reach relay stations way up in
the mountains; and how to do it economically.
On-the-spot telephone company engineers had some ideas. They worked them out
with engineers at the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and at Bell Telephone
Laboratories. The result: A packaged unit.
The electronic equipment was assembled in trailer-like containers at convenient
locations and thoroughly checked out. The complete units were then trucked up the
mountains and lifted into position.
The system, now operating, keeps a watch on itself. When equipment falters, a
relay station switches in standby equipment, then calls for help over its own beam.
The new Phoenix-Flagstaff link illustrates again how Bell System engineers work
together to improve telephone service. Back of their efforts is the constant development
of new communications systems at Bell Telephone Laboratories.
"TJ" radio-relay station at Black mesa, Arizona
Bell Telephone Laboratories World center of communications research and development
Posted August 28, 2023 (updated from original
post on 6/20/2018)
Bell Telephone
Laboratories Infomercials |
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Bell Telephone Laboratories - Time Domain Reflectometry - December 1948 Popular
Science
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The Future Holds Great Promise - August 1949 Popular Science
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Waveguide: 7/47 Popular Mechanics
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Wire Wrapping - 10/1953 Popular Science
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X-Rays, 4/60 Radio-electronics
- The Battle of
the Atoms, 4/1948 Radio News
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The Transistor, 6/1952 Radio-Electronics
- 90-Mile Laboratory
for Telephone and Television, 6/1945 Radio News
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Wire-Wrap, 10/53 Radio-Electronics
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EDT Crystals, 10/47 Radio-Craft
- Germanium Refining,
5/54 Radio & TV News
- Crystal Timekeeping,
1/46 Radio News
- Transatlantic
Cable, 11/56 Radio & Television News
- Pipe Circuits,
11/48 Radio & Television News
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Coaxial
Electron Tube, 6/54 Radio & Television News
- Thermocompression
Wire Bonding, 3/58 Radio News
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Radio Relay Stations, 8/52 Radio & Television News
- Isolators,
6/56 Radio & Television News
- Punch
Cards, 3/55 Radio & Television News
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Over-the-Horizon
Communications, 10/55 Radio & Television News
- Memory
Devices, 2/58 Radio & TV News
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Adventure in Silicon, 5/55 Radio & Television News
- Pipes of Progress,
6/55 Radio & Television News
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Project Echo, 11/60 Electronics World
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Testing Phones - November 1947 Popular Science
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Jacques Bernoulli, February 1960 Radio-Electronics
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Type-O Carrier System, October 1952 Radio-Electronics
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Electron Microscope, 4/1952 Radio-Electronics
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Thermistor, 11/1946 Radio-Craft
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Germanium Crystal, 1/1954 Radio-Electronics
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Lens
Antenna, 5/46 Radio-Craft
- Quality Control, 6/46
Radio News Article
- Transcontinental
Radio-Relay, 10/51 Radio & TV News
- Solar
Battery, 7/54 Radio & Television News
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Germanium Transistors, 1/54 Radio & Television News
- Cavity
Magnetron, 10/45 Radio News
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The Cableman, 10/49 Radio & Television News
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Coaxial Cable, 12/49 Radio & Television News
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Tin
Whiskers, 12/55 Radio & Television News
- Relay
Contact Inspection, 7/55 Radio & Television News
- Transistor's
10th Anniversary, 6/58 Radio & Television News
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Wire
Wrapping, 10/53 Radio & Television News
- Junction
Diode Amplifier, 11/58 Radio News
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Nobel Prize Winners, 2/57 Radio & Television News
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Diode Speeds Voices, 8/58 Popular Electronics
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Microwave Relays, 7/59 Electronics World
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