|
|
Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 309 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Re: pre-owned books, was Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave...
TV Networks want share of Retransmission Consent Fees
Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Re: Comcast seeks NBC-U (continued)
Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
====== 28 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.
===========================
Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. Geoffrey Welsh
===========================
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:02:53 -0800
From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Message-ID: <siegman-590BEA.07022310112009@news.stanford.edu>
In article <nrugf5dsu07cp53ovvc1loq02uba24mkue@4ax.com>,
Eric Tappert <e.tappert.spamnot@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Dennis,
>
> The book "A History of Science and Technology in the Bell System,
> Volume 1, The Early Years" has several pages of detail surrounding the
> Lawrenceville station (starting on page 410). Apparently the site was
> chosen to minimize interference from other stations and was used for
> US - London ( circuits) and US- Buenos Aires (one circuit). The
> transmitter was at Lawrenceville and the receiver was at Netcong, NJ.
> The book contains block diagrams of the antenna and the transmitter.
>
> Unfortunately, the book is out of print. Check with your local
> libraries or Bell Labs Murray Hill (if it still exists....) to see if
> they have a copy.
>
> Eric T.
1) You might look for this on amazon.com (which also serves as a
"front man" for numerous used books stores), or on various
individual online used book sellers (Abebooks, etc). I have quite
often been able to obtain very obscure published works (conference
proceedings for important early technical conferences from 50 years
ago, etc) in this way -- and often at startling low prices.
2) The desire to access this book seems to me to have some relevance
to the current controversy over Google's active proposal to scan
and capture electronically every book ever published. There's some
substantial opposition to those plans, and at least some of that
opposition seems to me to be well justified. This situation gives
a bit of insight into other reasons why it might be a great idea.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:33:44 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: pre-owned books, was Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave...
Message-ID: <hdc14o$je5$1@reader1.panix.com>
In <siegman-590BEA.07022310112009@news.stanford.edu> AES <siegman@stanford.edu> writes:
[regarding finding a copy of the long out-of-print "History
of Engineering and Sciene in the Bell System]
>1) You might look for this on amazon.com (which also serves as a
> "front man" for numerous used books stores), or on various
> individual online used book sellers (Abebooks, etc). I have quite
> often been able to obtain very obscure published works (conference
> proceedings for important early technical conferences from 50 years
> ago, etc) in this way -- and often at startling low prices.
Just as a bit of info, Amazon recently bought up Abebooks.com. At
this time the searchable databases are still unique, at some point or
another they'll probably get merged together.
(And at this point... it's worth taking the effort to go to both
sites. You'll often find the same book, from the same end supplier, at
different prices).
--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:59:22 -0600
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: TV Networks want share of Retransmission Consent Fees
Message-ID: <4AF963AA.6080004@annsgarden.com>
I subscribe to Broadcasting and Cable magazine's online news forum
"B&C Today" for news of the latest shenanigans in the broadcast TV,
cable TV, and satellite TV industries.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/newsletter/B_C_Today/
Several recent articles have discussed attempts by broadcast TV
networks to "share" retransmission consent fees that affiliate
stations have extracted from cable TV and satellite TV
retailers. Here's a link to a recent article that summarizes the
situation:
| Networks Seek Dual Revenue Stream
| Media chiefs want retrans cash for O&Os--and affiliates
| By Claire Atkinson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/6/2009
http://tinyurl.com/yerry86
At the moment, this is a private squabble between the broadcast TV
networks and their affiliate stations. But if the networks are
successful in this effort, it will impact stations' bottom lines. The
stations, of course, will then attempt to extract even more money from
cable TV and satellite TV retailers.
This is the latest round of a battle that's been going on for years.
Traditionally, networks have paid their affiliate stations
"compensation" for carrying their programming. Prior to the Cable Act
of 1992, the stations got a free ride on cable TV and satellite TV
retailers, but stations couldn't charge retailers for retransmission
rights. But it was still a sweet deal for the stations: they got paid
for carrying network programming and got a free ride on retail
distribution networks.
When Larry Tisch was running CBS, he attempted to cut compensation,
with disastrous results. Coupled with his decision to drop NFL,
affiliates revolted, and many of them switched to Fox after Fox picked
up NFL. CBS lost many of their major market VHF stations, and Fox
managed to turn the Big 3 into the Big 4. (See Ken Auletta's "Three
Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way" for a fascinating
account.)
The 1992 Cable Act allowed stations to impose "retransmission consent"
fees on cable TV and satellite TV retailers. For several years after
1992, retailers were successful in refusing to pay these fees. But in
the past few years, the stations have been increasingly successful.
The ultimate sweet deal: they get paid compensation by the network for
carrying network programs, and they get paid retrans fees by the
retailers that distribute the programming to their customers.
Understandably, the networks want a piece of the retransmission
consent pie. You can guess who will end up paying for it.
Neal McLain
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:05:01 -0800
From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Message-ID: <siegman-F8A55A.07043110112009@news.stanford.edu>
> On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 07:20:50 -0500, Dennis Waters <dpwaters@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I am the Township Historian in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (near Trenton
> > and Princeton).
> >
> > I am in the midst of compiling a history of the former AT&T shortwave
> > transmission facility that operated in our town beginning in 1929. For
> > three decades it was the primary outbound telephone link from the USA
> > to Europe and Latin America. At its peak it could generate one million
> > watts on the 16, 22, and 32 meter bands. The 800-acre site is now a
> > county park.
Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility somewhere
out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area? Any history
on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:36:09 -0800
From: John David Galt <jdg@diogenes.sacramento.ca.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Message-ID: <hdc88l$9sd$1@blue.rahul.net>
AES wrote:
> Didn't there used to be some similar large antenna facility somewhere
> out on the salt flats here in the San Francisco Bay Area? Any history
> on that? Was it also an AT&T facility?
Could you be thinking of the KGO Radio transmitter (near the eastern
approach to the Dumbarton Bridge and surrounded by salt evaporator
ponds)? It's been there since at least the '60s.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:48:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Comcast seeks NBC-U (continued)
Message-ID: <1a05e9e0-9d59-4d79-9511-2bf1c2bd5d3d@d5g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>
On Nov 9, 1:10 pm, John David Galt <j...@diogenes.sacramento.ca.us>
wrote:
> Geoffrey Welsh wrote:
> > Do advertising limits even make sense in the day of 24/7 shopping
> > channels?
>
> That's funny, I was about to ask exactly the opposite question. Now
> that we have the Web on which to look up whatever we want to buy, and
> it has plenty of good comparison sites, all ads in other media (except
> maybe those media that exist only for the purpose of ads, like the
> Penny Saver) have lost their usefulness to the consuming public. In
> effect they are nothing but nagging. Why does the TV watching public
> continue to put up with them, at all, ever? Do we need the
> commercials to tell us it's time to go to the bathroom?
>
> Fortunately, Tivo and its competitors are rapidly making TV ads so
> easy to skip that they're becoming as useless to businesses as they
> are to consumers. Now Hollywood is just left with the problem of
> making TV shows good enough that people will pay for them.
>
> I predict the demise of free (unencrypted) over-the-air TV any day.
Well, maybe. But as I've noted before in this space, one should never
underestimate the power of the National Association of Broadcasters.
http://tinyurl.com/8e84e85fefc9c69c
Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:03:00 +0000 (UTC)
From: Bill Brelsford <wb@k2di.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Inquiry: former AT&T shortwave radiotelephone station in Lawrenceville, NJ
Message-ID: <hdd60k$l1i$1@k2di.motzarella.org>
In article <757e65b90911080420m257e7a6av2054301e16669896@mail.gmail.com>,
Dennis Waters <dpwaters@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am the Township Historian in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (near Trenton
> and Princeton).
>
> I am in the midst of compiling a history of the former AT&T shortwave
> transmission facility that operated in our town beginning in 1929. For
> three decades it was the primary outbound telephone link from the USA
> to Europe and Latin America.
> (1) Does anyone have any personal memories, photographs, or documents
> regarding this station, or know of someone who might?
I'm a retired Bell Labs / AT&T employee and a member of the Antique
Wireless Association (AWA). Sometime between 1978 and 1980 my father,
who was very active in the AWA, called to tell me that they had
received permission to collect some artifacts from the Lawrenceville
site for their museum. But it needed to be done quickly as the
station was being dismantled -- could I help? So I spent a few hours
there, including a fascinating tour of the facility.
At the end they were using a number of 10kw transmitters, but still
had the old 100kw unit -- it had been used by Roosevelt to talk to
Churchill during the war. It used four water-cooled Western Electric
340A tubes (22" long, 4" bulb diameter); the tank coil was made of
copper tubing, also water cooled.
The momentos I "liberated" included not only the tubes and tank coil
but also a large painting (maybe 3.5' x 7') of the site when the
curtain antenna was still in use.
I'll forward this to the AWA in case they have any additional info (I
don't remember if there were any documents). You've received some
good references to AT&T publications here, but I'll also see if I can
discover anything else at AT&T.
--
Bill Brelsford, K2DI
Bend, Oregon
wb@k2di.net
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup
'comp.dcom.telecom'.
TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents
of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in
some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work
and that of the original author.
The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
Contact information: Bill Horne
Telecom Digest
43 Deerfield Road
Sharon MA 02067-2301
781-784-7287
bill at horne dot net
Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom
Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom
This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm-
unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and
published continuously since then. Our archives are available for
your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list
on the internet in any category!
URL information: http://telecom-digest.org
Copyright (C) 2009 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved.
Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list.
All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.
End of The Telecom digest (7 messages)
|
or 