[fa.telecom] TELECOM Digest V2 #58

telecom (05/11/82)

>From JSOL@USC-ECLB Mon May 10 18:10:44 1982
TELECOM AM Digest      Tuesday, 11 May 1982      Volume 2 : Issue 58

Today's Topics:	   Vintage PBX - Pass Or Pay Little
                    Locality Names On Phone Bills
	 Mobile to Satellite On 20 Watts And 18" Antenna.
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Date: 5 May 1982 2218-PDT (Wednesday)
From: lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: vintage PBX
To: ihnss!ihuxv!lambert at Berkeley

Unless you can get the thing CHEAP (and I mean *CHEAP*!) I'd pass on
it.  Such oldies will of course be totally relay based and have no
touch-tone support.  Probably not of much value except as a historical
piece.

Actually, I might like to have something like that around -- but then
I'm the sort of person who gets jollies watching Strowger switches.

--Lauren--


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Date:     7 May 82 7:52:03-EDT (Fri)
From:     Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL>
Subject:  place names, phone bills, etc.

Has anyone ever dealt with the topic of what place names appear on
phone BILLS alongside each prefix? (Lists are provided for some area
codes in the phone books, but I do see occasional, interesting
discrepancies between those sources and the phone bill.)

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Date: 9 May 1982 2312-PDT
Sender: GEOFF at SRI-CSL
Subject: Mobile to Satellite on 20 watts and 18" antenna.
From: the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow
Reply-To: Geoff at SRI-CSL
	
CELLULAR RADIO NEWS, Page 5-6, May 1982
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   Outside of Denver's Currigan Hall--where Land Mobile Expo '82 was
in progress--General Electric Co. consulting engineer Roy Anderson
placed a magnet-mount 18" ham radio antenna on the top of his car.
The lead-in wire was attached to a small, 20-watt "alphanumeric
communications system," as Anderson termed it.  He typed a message
onto the terminal and pushed a button.  In the wink of an eye, his
message flew 23,000 miles through the ether to National Aeronautics
and Space Administration's ATS-3 satellite, which relayed it to GE in
Schenectady, N.Y.  Within moments, GE relayed back that the message
had been received.

   ATS-3 is a 15-year-old, obsolete satellite, well past its prime.
Transmission was in the 2 meter band--with a 150 MHz uplink and a 135
MHz downlink.  The 15-year-old ATS-3 is a "puny" satellite, Anderson
said.  It's about the size of an oil drum and is equipped with 8 whip
antennas that offer virtually no signal gain.  Most of the signal was
lost somewhere off in space.

  The point of the demonstration was to show that "mobile-to-satellite
communications at low power with a simple antenna are possible even
under the worst of conditions."

   Anderson and Jerry Freibaum, program manager for technical
consultation services with NASA, delivered papers at Land Mobile Expo
in which they explained how "a modern, specially designed satellite
equipped with a large dish antenna--perhaps 150' to 200' across--could
be used to augment terrestrial-based cellular and non-cellular
services" and this extend mobile services to even the remotest
portions of the globe.

   To accommodate the mobile satellite idea, NASA proposed during the
cellular and other docket proceedings that the 20 MHz set-aside by the
FCC as a reserve be slightly rearranged.  The FCC, however, has thus far
rejected the idea.  "The FCC in effect has said there is no need for
the service," Freibaum explained.  "All we're asking the FCC to do is
preserve the option [for a mobile satellite service]" he said.

   NASA studies indicate that annual revenues for the satellite-aided
service 6 years after launch may reach $200 million to $1 billion for
high-capacity systems serving more than 1.5 million users.  The
estimated internal rates of return may exceed 30%, according to an
investment analysis conducted by Citibank, N.A., for NASA.

  "The only way we're going to get the FCC's opinion changed is for
those of you who consider a mobile satellite service in your interest
to "file some sort of letter with the Commission stating that you are
in sympathy with maintaining that option," he told the land mobile
radio audience.  Freibaum indicated that NASA will be filing with the
FCC, by the end of May, a petition for rulemaking to allocate
frequencies for a Land Mobile Satellite Service.  (Jerome Freibaum,
600 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20546, 202/755-8570; Roy E.
Anderson, Consulting Engineer, General Electric Co., Corporate
Research and Development, Schenectady, NY 12345, 518/385-2746.)

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End of TELECOM Digest
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