Page 64 - Communication Commerce and Power The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite

52 Communication, Commerce and Power

3.2 THE OPPORTUNITY AND THREAT OF
TELESATELLITE TECHNOLOGY

In 1965, David Sarnoff, the Chairman of RCA, predicted that by 1975
it would be 'technically feasible to broadcast directly into the home
from synchronous satellites.' Not only would this prospective system
require only one satellite 'to beam [television] programs to the entire
US and north into Canada,' but the scale of savings involved would
make educational programing directly available to most less de-
veloped countries. 47
At the time of Sarnoffs speech, RCA executives were preparing a
proposal to build an experimental DBS system called Vista. RCA
executives argued that by making use of available but under-
applied UHF frequencies, direct broadcast satellites could become
operational with little or no need to pursue the politically and technic-
ally complicated reassignment of existing television frequencies. 48 In
1965, NASA signed separate contracts with RCA and General Elec-
tric to conduct laboratory studies on the feasibility of DBS radio
broadcasting. One year later, favorable results generated general
agreement among aerospace engineers that a DBS television system
was· not only theoretically feasible, but provided with the necessary
resources direct broadcasting could be fully operational as early as
1971. 49
As it was generally conceptualized, a DBS system would involve a
ground station that processes and radiates a signal to a relatively high-
power satellite located in geostationary orbit. The uplink transmission
would then be converted into the frequency needed for the downlink.
This would involve satellite components called transponders. 50 A
significant limitation involving transponders, however, was (and still
is) their mass. As a general rule of thumb, the more powerful the
satellite, the greater its mass, and thus the more costly it is to place
into orbit. Because of this, the only launch system in the late 1960s
capable of placing a DBS into geostationary orbit was the expensive
Saturn 5 rocket, designed primarily for the Apollo moon missions. 51
After the signal's frequency is converted within the transponder, it
would be amplified for the earthbound transmission using a device
called a travelling wave tube amplifier. For this phase, an antenna
capable of focusing the signal in the form of a beam would be needed
to prevent the signal from becoming too dissipated. This is especially
important for a DBS signal that would be received by a relatively
small reception dish. Also, because of their small size, these ground