Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal Vol41 Pt 4 January 1949
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THE Posr OFFICE ELEC I RICAL ENGINEERS' JOURNAL JANUARY 1949 CONTENTS THE LONDON-BIRMINGHAM TELEVISION CABLE-Part 1- Geoeral System and Electrical Requirements-ff. Stanesby, M.l.E.E. (Post Onice), and W. K. Weston, B.SC.(Eng.), M.l.E.E. (Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd.) A SPEECH SPECI'RUM ANALYSER nm POST OFFICE PHOTOTELEGRAPH SERVICE TO EUROPE -A. Wlkock,A.M.LE.E. 189 THE BRITISH TELEPHONE TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENr COM· L. Brimmer MITTEE-R. W. Palmer, M.l.E.E., and W. • . 193 VACUUM TECHNIQUE-SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND POST OFFlCE APPUCATIONS-J. E. Thwaites, A.M.1.E.E., and H. E. Pearson, B.Sc.(Eog.)., A.M.l.Mech.E. 199 POISONING EFFECTS IN OXIDE-CATHODE VALVES--G. H. Metson, M.C., Ph.D., M.Sc.(Eng.), A.M.I.E.E. 204 PNEUMATIC TUBES-C. A. R. Pearce, M.Sc.(F.iig.), A.C.G.I., A.M.l.E.E. 206 TUNGSTEN CARBIDE TIPPED TOOLS--F. S. Lewis .. 213 MECHANICAL TRUNK FEE ACCOlJNTING-Part 1-Prioclples of Punched Card Accountlng-K. M. Heron, A.M.I.E.E,. and D. L. Boos.on, Grad.l.E.E. 216 AN ELECTRONJC REGENERATIVE REPEATER FOR 7i-UNIT START-STOP TELEGRAPH SIGNALS-R. 0. Carter, M.Sc., A.C.G.I., D.l.C., A.M.I.E.E., L. K. Wheeler, B.Sc.(Eng.),A.M.I.E.E., and A. C. Frost . 222 A MINIATIJRE AUDIO-FREQUENCY AMPLIFIER-W. T. Duerdoth, B.Sc., A.M.l.E.E., and J. Garlick, B.Sc., A.M.LE.E. 228 NOTF..'S AND COMMENTS . • 234 INSTITimON OF POST OFFICE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS • . 234 REGIONAL NOTES . 23S STAFF CHANGES .. 240 INDEX TO VOL. 41 .. w BOOK REVIEWS . 192, 211, 111, 227, 233 Price 1/6 net ITHE IMITITUnoH OF POST OFFIC� ELECTRICAi. EMGIHIEIU I �.� ii TELEPHONE TRANSMISSION EQUIPMENT SUBSCRIBERS' TELEPHONES • LOADING COILS AUTOMATIC AND MANUAL EXCHANGES TRUNK AND LOCAL CABLES • OVERHEAD LINES TEST EQUIPMENT OF ALL KINDS - - - .. _ THE GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. LTD. OF ENGLAND HEAD OFFICE: MAGNET HOUSE, KINGSWAY, LONDON THE Post OFFICE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS' JOURNAL Vol. 41 January, 1949 Part 4 The London-Birmingham H. STANESBY, M.l.E.E. (Post Office) and W. K. WESTON, B.Sc.(Eng.), M.1.E.E. Television Cable (Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd.) Part I .-General System and Electrical Requirements U.D.C. 621.315.212: 621.397.5 A cable is being laid between London and Birmingham incorporating two 0·975 inch and four 0·375 inch coaxial tubes. The cable is designed to transmit very-high-definition or colour television, 405-line television b.Dd broad-band telephony simultaneously. The large tubes may ultimately transmit_ frequencies up to 30 Mc/s or more with repeaters at 3-mile intervals. Details are given of the performance requirements, the cable design, and the results obtained on repeater sections. Part 1 discusses the general requirements of the system and details the electrical performance necessary. Part 2 will give details of the cable design, construction and test results. Introduction. General Arrangement of Cable Connection. OUND broadcasting depends largely on items The link between the existing B.B.C. television Sthat are relayed from one part of the country to transmitter and studios at Alexandra Palace, London, another over landlines, and there is little donbt and the new transmitter being installed near Sutton that television broadcasting will evolve in the same Coldfield, Birmingham, will consist of three parts : way. Moreover, the cost of providing a full and the main cable between London and Birmingham and satisfying television programme is so high that as a short tail cable at each end. Because it would be television extends to other parts of the country it will uneconomic to provide long-distance wide-band cables be necessary to transmit major items to as many exclnsively for television, the main cable will form centres as possible. part of the Post Office trunk network and terminate All development of the transmission of television at Museum exchange, London, and Telephone House, signals over long distances stopped in Great Britain Binningham. Referring to Fig.J, the end connections between 1939 and 1945 because of the war, and most to the transmitters will be provided by tail cables of the equipment and cables that had previously been between Museum exchange and Alexandra Palace and used for development work were absorbed in pro between Telephone House and Sutton Coldfield. viding additional trunk telephone circuits. Mean At present all studio items originate at Alexandra while, however, ideas were maturing and work was Palace ; but the B.B.C.include in their programmes proceeding in the United States, and in 1943, H.M. a considerable number ol outside broadcasts, i.e. Government appointed a committee under the " O.B.s," which are transmitted to B.B.C. premises Chairmanship of Lord Hankey, "To prepare plans by the Post Office over its television O.B. network or for the reinstatement and development of the tele over specially equalised telephone pairs, or by the vision service after the war ..." In its report1, B.B.C. over their O.B. radio link. The B.B.C. there published in 1945, this Committee recommended that fore propose to set up a position at BroadcastiP/i'. after the war, the 405-line system be reinstated in House, London, a few hundred yards from Mus'l'Jm London and extended first to Birmingham and then exchange, where they can control the routing of to other provincial centres, and that the new stations programme material, and a similar B.B.C. switching relay the studio programme from London. It also position is being provided at Broad Street, Birming recommended, among other things, that developments ham, near Telephone House. The Post Office termi beplanned on the assumption that a higher definition nals will therefore be connected to the B.B.C. system, perhaps incorporating colour, would for some switching positions by short cables which can be time be operated side by side with the present system. regarded as providing extensions of the main and tail These recommendations form the framework within cables ; in other words, there will be three cable links which the Post Office has planned the transmission by in tandem between the London and Birmingham cable of television signals to Birmingham.• transmitters : Alexandra Palace-Museum ; Museum -Telephone House ; Telephone House-Sutton Cold 1" Report of the Television Committee 1943." Published by H:.M. Stationery Office, 1945. field ; and for engineering purposes the Post Office • The Postmaster-General has more recently proposed that will control them from Museum and Telephone House the present number of lines, 405, should not be altered for a while the B.B.C. will have acce5s to them at their number of years ; and has indicated that the development near-by switching positions and, of course, at the a of substantially improved system, which might include television transmitters. Museum and Telephone colour, would take several years, and would be prejudiced if the very slight improvement that would result from in House will also be the terminals of a radio circuit that creasing the number of lines by 100 or 200 were introduced. is being provided as an alternative, 405-line television, 183 link between London and Birrningham2 ; and the culty would be increased if attempts were made to tail cables, including the short extensions to Broad transmit low- and high-definition signals alongside casting House and Broad Street, will be used with the each other over the same conductors. Separate pairs radio link or the main cable as required. are, therefore, being provided for the two sets of Initially, the cable system will transmit vision signals. Coaxial tubes, i.e. coaxial pairs, are used for signals of 405-line definition only and the video band the same reason that led to their adoption for wide width will be approximately 3 Mc/s, nearly 50 per band carrier telephony: because the frequency at cent. greater than is necessary for equal horizontal which the loss rises to a given value per unit length and vertical definition on the picture, t but in is roughly twice as high on a coaxial tube as it is on a accordance with the 1943 Television Committee's balanced pair of the same cross-section, and because recommendation the whole system is being planned the design of the line equipment is much simpler if so that it can ultimately be equipped to hand!� unbalanced circuits are used with terminal equipment ALF.X.ANDRA PALACE i � CONTROL TERMINALS •I ::; , 0 B.B.C. ENOS �, "' ' I I I ,. I / SUTTON TELEPHONE 1�- -- CO O� ( ��:.. L --"'-<L </,_ ��rn-'""'-----"�'."iI _ BROADCASTING '-, BROAD HOUSE -..., . S1REET BIRMINGHAM LONDON FIG. 1.-GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF LONDON-BIRM:NGHJ\M TELEVISION CABLE AND TAIL CABLES. very-high-definition monochrome or colour television of a type that makes it unnecessary to transmit very at the same time as 405-Jine signals. low frequencies along the cable. It seems likely that for some time most programn1e Except for the tail cable to the Birmingham trans material will pass from Alexandra Palace or the mitter the system will provide for simultaneous trans London O.B. cable network to Birmingham ; but mission in both directions. There are objections to items will no doubt be transmitted in the other using the same tube for both directions, either (a) direction to an increasing extent as television simultaneously, by using half the frequency band for becomes more firmly established in other parts of the each direction, or (b) on a reversible basis by switching country ; the cables from Telephone House to Museum line and terminal equipment.