For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film is about the AT&T's involvement with the Comstar satellite system. At the time that this film was made, the first Comstar had not yet been launched. The first Comstar satellites were launched in 1976, the last in 1981. Comstar was a dedicated communications satellite in a 22300 mile high orbit, relaying long-distance calls—primarily within the USA Comstar relayed calls to one of seven "earth stations", a joint project between GTE and AT&T. There were four owned by the Bell System: in Woodbury, GA; Three Peaks, CA; Hanover, IL; and Hawley, NY. GTE had three, in LA, Tampa, and Honolulu. All of the earth stations, interestingly enough, were situated in bowl-shaped valleys, specifically to minimize interference from earth signals, which tended to spread horizontally. This way the earth stations had a clearer signal to the satellite, and vice versa. Even though AT&T had had satellites in space since the first Telstar was launched, the Comstars were the first really practical, high-call capacity satellites. With 140 million telephones in the system, AT&T was anticipating the limits of its system capacity all the time, developing new technologies to keep up with demand. At this time, compared to today, the phone system was relatively primitive — all calls were still transmitted via coaxial cable, and required large amounts of repeaters. Electronic Switching Stations were still extremely new, and lightwave/laser ...
Thursday, August 23, 2012
AT&T Archives: Voices in Space
AT&T Archives: Voices in Space Tube. Duration : 12.45 Mins.
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film is about the AT&T's involvement with the Comstar satellite system. At the time that this film was made, the first Comstar had not yet been launched. The first Comstar satellites were launched in 1976, the last in 1981. Comstar was a dedicated communications satellite in a 22300 mile high orbit, relaying long-distance calls—primarily within the USA Comstar relayed calls to one of seven "earth stations", a joint project between GTE and AT&T. There were four owned by the Bell System: in Woodbury, GA; Three Peaks, CA; Hanover, IL; and Hawley, NY. GTE had three, in LA, Tampa, and Honolulu. All of the earth stations, interestingly enough, were situated in bowl-shaped valleys, specifically to minimize interference from earth signals, which tended to spread horizontally. This way the earth stations had a clearer signal to the satellite, and vice versa. Even though AT&T had had satellites in space since the first Telstar was launched, the Comstars were the first really practical, high-call capacity satellites. With 140 million telephones in the system, AT&T was anticipating the limits of its system capacity all the time, developing new technologies to keep up with demand. At this time, compared to today, the phone system was relatively primitive — all calls were still transmitted via coaxial cable, and required large amounts of repeaters. Electronic Switching Stations were still extremely new, and lightwave/laser ...
For more from the AT&T Archives, visit techchannel.att.com This film is about the AT&T's involvement with the Comstar satellite system. At the time that this film was made, the first Comstar had not yet been launched. The first Comstar satellites were launched in 1976, the last in 1981. Comstar was a dedicated communications satellite in a 22300 mile high orbit, relaying long-distance calls—primarily within the USA Comstar relayed calls to one of seven "earth stations", a joint project between GTE and AT&T. There were four owned by the Bell System: in Woodbury, GA; Three Peaks, CA; Hanover, IL; and Hawley, NY. GTE had three, in LA, Tampa, and Honolulu. All of the earth stations, interestingly enough, were situated in bowl-shaped valleys, specifically to minimize interference from earth signals, which tended to spread horizontally. This way the earth stations had a clearer signal to the satellite, and vice versa. Even though AT&T had had satellites in space since the first Telstar was launched, the Comstars were the first really practical, high-call capacity satellites. With 140 million telephones in the system, AT&T was anticipating the limits of its system capacity all the time, developing new technologies to keep up with demand. At this time, compared to today, the phone system was relatively primitive — all calls were still transmitted via coaxial cable, and required large amounts of repeaters. Electronic Switching Stations were still extremely new, and lightwave/laser ...
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