Evening star., 1934-01-07
TELEV|S|ON STILL
HELD EXPERIMENT
Radio Commission Sentences
Visual Broadcasting to
Further Improvement.

Destined to be radios next great con-
tribution, television is nevertheless sem
fenced to further confinement in the
experimental laboratories by the Fed
eral Radio Commission in its annual
report made public this week Once
more the commission repeats its Oft
stated dictum that "television is still
IN the experimental stage" To the pub
lie this means simply that visual broad
casting is not regarded by the official
rulers OF radio as ready for introduction
to the masses.
Televtsion, declares the commission
will ultimately be assigned to the very
high frequencieS or ultra-short waves
where ample space in the ether" is
available for wider paths of transmits
sion and accordingly more clearly de-
lineated reproductions. 1t is such wider
paths in the ether that the Radio Man.
ufacturers' Associations television COM
mittee recently asked the commission
to make available.
Quality Has Increased.
1.-THE quality of pictures which ha;
been demonstrated as possible to trans
nit on the very high frequencies," the
commission report states, has steadily
increased, and some laboratory produc-
tionS are capable Of holding sustained
interest Pictures need no longer bt
confined to 'close-ups but larger
scenes may be transmitted. The art
however, has not yet progressed to ,ht
stage which would justify the adoption
Of standards by the visual broadcastinl
industry"
BY standards" is meant fixed anc
recognized type of transmiSSions which
al television receiving sets on the mar
ket could pick up without danger tina
their apparatus. necessarily costly a
the start, would be rendered obsolete
overnight As for visual broadcast.n
industry. there really is none as yet
most work on televiSion today beinl
confined to the experimental side o
big radio companies which derive thei
revenues from other sources, chiefly th'
manufacture of ordinary radios. Th'
label of experimental definitely e
cludes the introduction of the sponsored
or advertising type of visual program
on the air as yet.
The organized radio manufacturer
recently asked the commission to re
serve the wide band of channels betweeI
40 900 and 10000 kilocycles for tele
vision as the first step toward stand
ardizing at least the wave lengths u
This would entail considerable shaking
up of present assignments, particular.
to amateurs, and it is not likely tn
commission will agree to the propose
for the present On the other hand
the commissions engineers are quit
favorable to the set makers idea tina
visual channels should be at least 40
kilocycles wide, or 40 times as wide a
the normal sound broadcasting chan
nels, because television images must b
transmitted through such a considerable
| wider path in the ether" than sount
impulses.
Want Hams" Removed.
Having cut down from five to tw
the number of 100-kilocycle paths 70
teleVision in the so-called intermediat
band of wave lengths, closely bordering
on brOadcaSting, the commission ha
reserved the 42,00O-a6 900 kilocycle ban'
for televiSion, except for the block o
channels between 56000-60,000 kilo
cycles which are reserved TO the anna
teurs. What the radio makers wan
is the removal of the hams" from thl
band, and a considerable widening o
it to embrace all the frequencieS be
tween &C, 600 and 10000 kilocycles. 1
is not likely they will succeed IN thel
demand-at least, not until televlsiol
is recognized as being ready to emerg
from its scientific cloisters and go be
fore the public.
The commissions report discloseS tha
some two dozen experimental tele
vision transmitting stations are nov
i licensed, but few of them are regularl
"on the air" Their schedules are fol
lowed primarily by the relatively smal
group of research men and amateu
tinkerers who own visual receivers
which are not generally marketed ant
which are usually of their own manu-
facture. 1t has been estimated tha
there are not more than 10000 lockers
in" in the whole United States.