[BC] When did GE die? /was/ Pre TK 44A allowed GE PE 250 and 350 a nitch market

[Phil Alexander]

On 30 May 2006 at 11:10, Stanley Adams wrote:


> You really do not see much web information given to the GE line of equipment
> as compared to RCA.  GE is just about a zero.  Chuck P's web site gives a
> little but nothing detailed.  In addition, there is almost no information
> out about their transmitter line-ups from the late 40's until the late
> 1960's when they finally bailed out.  

Stan,

I'm not sure about TV although I think the same may apply, but GE had
bailed out of radio some time around 1960. The Syracuse broadcast
operation that made the FM's of the late '40's and early '50's was
no more, and parts supply was turned over to GE's Defense Electronics
Div. that was the principal GE operation at Syracuse. I think that is
why you find very little info about their transmitters on the internet.
RCA lasted another 10 or 15 years after GE quit the business, and had
a much larger Tx population.

I learned they had quit the business the hard way when I put a used, 
damaged 3 kW GE FM back into service for a new FM CP at WTTN in 
Watertown, WI, in 1961 when I replaced the late Richard Haskey after
he took Horace Greely's advice (go West..). Richard had tried to tune
the exciter but that wasn't going to happen because it had physically 
broken transformers in the critical Phasitron RF drive. It took about 
four or five months to get new ones from GE even though I called 
Syracuse every two weeks to bug them about it. I have to say this for 
GE though, when at last the transformers arrived I put that box on the
air, passing an FM audio proof in the process.

IMHO GE was light years ahead of the pack with the FM boxes they made
in the late '40's and early '50's, but priced themselves out of the
market trying to get "military" prices for broadcast equipment and
spare parts.


---------------------------------------------
Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD
Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology 
(a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) 
Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037





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