Evening star., 1951-04-19
On the Air
| Dr.. JoIIiffe
Says Tv Fine
IUpstoHs'
By Horry Macarthur


By Harry Macarthur
DR.. c. B. Jolliffe reports thai
television gets along fine up.
stairs" in the UHF (ultra high
frequency channels. where the
FEC recently said there is room
for 1000 new stations in 1,400
communities. DR.. Jolliffe. executive
vice president in charge of RCA
Laboratories. at the time was en-
phaSizing the Importance Of In
dustrial research In the progress
Of industries in a talk at the
Princeton University school of en-
gineering.
"Our engineers have determined
that practical UHF television re-
ceivers can be built and that pres
ent television sets can be readily
adapted for use at, ultra high fire.
quencies." he said.
The RCA field tests were
Launched in December, 1949. over
a transmitter built and installed
in Bridgeport. Conn. Before this
time little information had been
Iobtained about how television sig
] mails act in the ultra high band.
though some propaganda tests had
been made. A propagation test, to
| put it simply, consists of sending
out a radio wave on a given fire.
quency to see how it will act.
The field tests at Bridgeport
took this study out of the labora-
tory and put it into everyday use.
The regular schedule of programs
was sent by microwave from
WNBT. New York. and broadcast
over UHF by KC2XAK. Receivers
were placed in a number of homes
in and near the city by RCA and
others.
Successful invasion of the UHF
band ultimately will mean the
spread Of television to communi-
ties which might never have had
lit, a truly nationwide television.
1t may be longer than DR.. Jolliffe
optimistically thinks. however, be-
fore he sees the number of TV
sets in the country exceed 50
million"
| When the FEC announced on
March % this year an ALLEGATION
plan to make use of new UHF
channels In addition to the pres
ent IL VHF (very high frequency
channels. it proposed that hear
iings start May %. The industry
has since asked and been granted
a postponement to June IL. These
will last four weeks at a minimum,
so it Is hardly likely that the ia
nous freeze" on action on TV
station applications. imposed Oc-
tober /, 1948, will be ended this
summer.
The freeze" and the following
investigation of the UHF band
came about when it early became
obvious that a traffic jam in T'V
was developing in highly popu-
lated areas. Television stations in
cities as close as Washington and
Baltimore, for instance, not only
must be on different channels, but
must be separated by the adjoin-
ing channel, in which either might
interfere with the other.
The attention getting problems
of color television and of TV chan
nelS for educational use grew oNt
of the ALLEGATION hearings after
the freeze" Color, because it re-
quired a much wider band than
the six-megacycle band nov in
use. originally was scheduled for
UHF. Then CHS came along with
successful six-megacycle color and
the commission necessarily was
sidetracked into an examination
Of that. It meant not only that
color could be used in the present
VHF channels, but that there
would be many more channels
available in the UHF band, since
they would need to be only six
megacycles wide.
The next step will be the battle
to see who gets to use the new
channels. first round scheduled
for June IL.
II II II
Reviewed i'm Brief: "Theater,"
on Somerset Vaughan Theater"I
(WNBW-alt. Mondays. $50 p.m.)
this week. was quite an improve
ment over the previous "Of Human
Bondage" 'Theater" compressed
much more satisfactorily into the
allotted time and was effectively
played. especially by Judith An
derson. 1t wasn't easy (im-
possible, in fact) to fairly Judge
Monday nights Studio One"
(WTOP-TV-10) on the basis of |
the last half hour. It was fairly
though, that TV drama
is better of for having Judith
Evelyn in it occasionally. :. That
turns out to be a pleasant musical
hour which Buddy Rogers conducts
in "Cavalcade of Bands" (WTTGl
Tuesday, 8 p.m), now that the
service man has weeded WRC-FMl
out of Channel 5. -. "Once Upon
a Tune" which follows it at 10,
seems to be an interesting try at
a show designed for television and
it will bear further examination.
X \ II \
Radio Notes: "The Verger," one
of the bright segments of Somer-
set Maugham's Trio" film, will
be done in radio version on Satur-
days IS. M. Radio Theater"
(WTOP-11:30 a.m). Guy Kibbee
will star WWDC's Milton al
Ford has signed for a Monday,