This is page 2 of a Mini-Quiz to help you get astonished at the pace of telecommunications development. The question was on the previous page:
In what year did the first transatlantic cable go into operation that was capable of carrying voice communication? Before this, any transatlantic phone call meant utilizing shortwave.
The answer is: 1956, as can be read in these links:
I remember my father, working at Siemens in Munich at that time, telling about 1957 phone calls to America via shortwave. The resulting business trip included an 18 hour ride in a four engined propeller plane (Super Constellation)...
I also remember a late 1970s radio program featuring recordings of live reports of past soccer world championships. In my (admittedly biased) opinion, the virtually noise free 5-kHz-bandwidth shortwave transmission from Brasil 1958 was a lot better than the noisy 3 kHz satellite line from Mexico 1970.
After transatlantic telephone, television was the next challenge. Anything resembling home TV quality needs several MHz of bandwidth, so shortwave was not an option. Just try to guess:
In what year did the first transatlantic TV transmission take place? Before this, the fastest way of getting moving pictures across the Big Pond was to put a roll of film (or video tape) into an airplane.
Try to guess, then view the answer.
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