5 ms·
> Built in the early 1950s... It conveyed phone conversations and television signals from the era of the Kennedy assassination through the resignation of Nixon
by aasasd 5y ago
> Built in the early 1950s... It conveyed phone conversations and television signals from the era of the Kennedy assassination through the resignation of Nixon
Even from the other side of the globe I can tell that it seems strangely short-lived. Built for a decade, then used for a decade?
Wikipedia notes tersely:
> The launch of communication satellites in the 1970s provided a cheaper alternative.
- magila 5y agoTechnology advanced extremely quickly from the 40s to the 70s. Much of what was built in that time became obsolete soon after it was completed.
- weird-eye-issue 5y agoJust wait until you hear about smartphones
- nine_k 5y agoLess of a joke than one might think. The GSM / 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G transition took less than 30 years, each step involved scrapping some of the old incapable hardware.
- allturtles 5y agoI think this is wrong. AFAIK satellites have never been a significant channel for domestic phone calls. Microwave relays were obsoleted by fiber optics.
- alrs 5y ago> Like their predecessor satellites, the Telstar 3 satellites operate at 6/4 GHz (C band). Simultaneous long distance telephone call capacity is 21,600. The satellites furnish voice, video, and high speed data services. https://www.telcomhistory.org/resources/online-exhibits/science-of-phones/calling-a-country-far-away/ https://www.telcomhistory.org/resources/online-exhibits/scie...
- allturtles 5y agoPerhaps I was overly categorical. Certainly satellites could be used for telephone calls, but my impression is that this was never a dominant use, except maybe for overseas calling (given the expense of undersea telephone cables). e.g. I found this government report report from 1983 stating that "microwave is the chief means of transmitting long-distance telephone calls..." in the U.S., this is well after the advent of satellites: https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Five_year_plan/NbGS1AoVfr8C https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Five_year_plan/NbGS1A...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- retrac 5y agoIn the 1920s, 3 and 12 channel frequency multiplexing on twisted pair was introduced. It made most single-channel long links obsolete within about a decade. In the early 1930s, both time and frequency multiplexing were introduced on coaxial cable, carrying up to 600 channels per conductor, it rendered the above twisted pair multiplexed lines obsolete within about a decade. c. 1950 microwave relay is introduced (the AT&T long lines in question here) and undergoes explosive growth, with the cross-continental system linking most major cities built by 1960, and reaching essentially every part of the country by 1970. Such links could carry hundreds of megabit/s worth of data (or multiple 6 MHz TV analogue channels). Much cheaper than coaxial, it largely halted new coax installations. It would remain dominant into the 1980s, so more like 20 years. Fibre optic communication was introduced in the mid-1970s. Immune to atmospheric problems, less path loss, potentially capable of carrying far more data than microwave. It made most of the microwave systems obsolete by the 1990s.
- Aloha 5y agoThey were used up until the mid-90's really. They effectively had a commercial life of 35-40 years, and went thru 2-3 generations of technology, some of them were even upgraded to digital.