[Boatanchors] "Kinescope ", thanks all.

Wed Aug 10 10:15:17 EDT 2011

I used this equipment when I started in TV on December 7th, 1956.
Dumont, GE, RCA and Dage equipment I used and maintained.

We had Iconoscope film chains with JAN Bell & Howell projectors as well 
as GE projectors.  The GE275 and 285 projectors come to mind. RCA TP6's 
and later 66's...slide projectors, TP7's....   I maintained all this 
equipment.
Yes, the gun portion of this tube was at an obtuse angle to the large 
cylinder that housed the mosaic portion of the tube.  I remember the 
edge light, producing the black level. Archaic to say the least.  We had 
both GE and RCA film chains.  Then the vidicon came along replacing them.

The RCA TK11's were studio cameras, Image Orthicons.  (Field cams were 
the same, but with side handles, and they were TK31's)  The monitors you 
mentioned were TM-6's.
These monitors were used several places.  Master monitor, film chains 
and cameras as well as microwave monitors and such.
We also had GE studio cameras.   I remember my first videotape machine 
in 1959.  RCA TRT 1A.  Five racks of tubes.

Thanks for the walk through time.  And thanks to the moderator for 
allowing it.  I love it.
Having been in broadcasting, mainly TV, for 53 years before retiring, 
and it was my love,  I really loved it, I have lots of memories.  I also 
did consulting for AM, FM, TV, microwave and satellite.

Thanks again.
Bob

and the beat goes onnnnnnnnn!!!!
With or without us too..........

The Shadow could cloud men's minds.
Old age, some spouses and most politicians can have the same effect.
And a lot of times without our being aware of it.

"Faith is not about everything turning out OK;
Faith is about being OK no matter how things turn out."

See W5UQ.com
&  QRZ.com is accurate for W5UQ
Also see QRZ.com for A25UQ,V31UQ&  VP2EEU.
And will be ZF2UQ in July 2011.

On 8/8/2011 5:13 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sheldon Daitch"<sdaitch at kuw.ibb.gov>
> To:<W4AWM at aol.com>
> Cc:<boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>;<KO6BB at sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 12:42 AM
> Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] "Kinescope ", thanks all.
>
>
>> GE made the color film chain that was at WRDW-TV,
>> Augusta, GA, late 1960s timeframe.  The B&W film chain
>> was an RCA unit.
>       There were a lot of companies who made parts of film
> chains. At KTTV we had General Electric cameras, RCA 35mm
> projectors and Eastman Kodak 16mm projectors plus automatic
> slide projectors, no longer remeber who made those but I
> think it was RCA. I think the "multiplexer" which is the
> moving mirror thing for switching from one projector to
> another, was also made by GE but am not sure. We had seven
> film islands some 35mm only, some 16mm only and some with
> one of each.
>       Dage was a major maker of TV equipment as was
> Westinghouse and others. The early film chains used
> Ikonoscope tubes. They were also used in experimental TV
> cameras but were very insensitive requiring set lighting on
> the order of 1000 foot candles. Enough to melt your skin.
> RCA came up with the Image-Orthocon tube about the late
> 1940's. This tube had a photo multiplier in it that very
> substantially increased sensitivity. These were used in
> nearly all studio and location cameras. The studio version
> required about 200 ft/c and the location version would make
> good pictures with below 50ft/c. These were delicate tubes,
> temperature sensitive, and you coundn't point a camera
> straight up or down or stuff would fall on the image forming
> matrix. The secondary emission characteristic of the earlier
> IO tubes led to the familiar black halo around bright
> objects in the image. This was actually exagerated by CBS on
> theory that it improved image sharpness. CBS had the worst
> looking pictures on network air. A later version of the IO,
> called the "separate mesh" tube eliminated the secondary
> emission and halo effect. These tubes were used in later B&W
> cameras in the the early color cameras. AFAIK IO tubes were
> never used in film chain cameras. The Ikonoscope had the
> electron gun at an angle to the image plate so required a
> rather complex sweep circuit to correct for the key-stone
> effect and also correct for the shading brought on by the
> varying distance of the gun. These cameras were capable of
> very good quality but were a PITA to get aligned and
> adjusted right. They also used a "bias light" actually four
> No.47 dial lights to overcome a non-linearity in the curve
> to get better reproduction of blacks.
>       When you know what was in that stuff its amazing any of
> it worked at all let alone producing pretty good video. NBC
> had the best pictures, CBS the worst. ABC pretty much
> followed NBC and RCA recommended operation so also had good
> images. DuMont, while they existed, of course used DuMont
> equipment. Capable of pretty good pictures. WWJ, in Detroit,
> where I grew up, used all DuMont equipment (and Western
> Electric at the radio station) because the CE hated RCA. I
> remember seeing a live audience show there with the DuMont
> cameras that looked like travel cases. The got dis-assembled
> immediately the program left the air. FWIW, DuMont used
> composite synch to the cameras rather than separated drive
> and synch as RCA did.
>       BTW all this equipment was very much boatanchor. An RCA
> TK-11 with monitor weighed about 100 lbs.
>       I am amazed that anyone is still interested in this
> stuff.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>
>
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