Caroline TV Stratovision 2

Caroline TV (3)

Stratovision

On January 3, 1966, Broadcasting magazine reported:

Television broadcasting in South Vietnam ... begins January 21 and it's going to be done from the air. Two airplanes, circling 10,000 to 20,000 feet [3 to 6 km] above the ground, will broadcast on two TV channels—one transmitting Saigon government programmes; the other U.S. programmes. The project is being handled by the U.S. Navy. Also involved are the U.S. Information Agency and the Agency for International Development. Work on modifying two Lockheed Super Constellations has been underway by Navy electronics experts at Andrews Air Force Base ... The project is an outgrowth of a broadcasting plane used by the Navy during the Cuban and Dominican Republic crises when both radio and television were beamed to home in those countries.

The same article went on to report that during the Baseball World Series of October 1965 Stratovision had also been used to bring the games to the troops. The aircraft had picked up Voice of America radio broadcasts from California and relayed the signal to a ground broadcasting station. The Agency for International Development (AID) had purchased through the military Post Exchange Service, 1,000 monochrome, 23-inch television sets modified to operate on a variety of domestic power sources, and which had been airlifted to South Vietnam on December 28, 1965. They were to be put into community facilities around Saigon. AID was also spending $2.4 million to supply a total of 2,500 TV sets to South Vietnam.

The entire project was under the control of Captain George C. Dixon, USN. He claimed to be installing AM, FM, shortwave and TV transmitters on the aircraft which would get their power from an onboard 100 kW diesel-fuelled generator. The planes would not only relay programs from film chain kinescopes and video recorders, but they would also have live cameras to create their own live programmes.

Ground transmissions would be received from the aircraft on TV sets tuned to channel 11 for Armed Forces Television, and channel 9 for programs in Vietnamese. On radio the broadcasts would be tuned to 1000 kHz for AM and 99.9 MHz for FM.

On 7 February 1966, Broadcasting magazine reported that after working out a number of technical problems that the first show on channel 9 would begin at 7:30 p.m. and feature South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky and U.S. Ambassador Cabot Lodge in a videotaped production, followed by channel 11 at 8 p.m. with General Westmoreland introducing a two-hour programme which incorporated one hour of the Grand Ole Opry filmed in Nashville, Tennessee. After that the Vietnamese channel would be seen for one and half hours a day and the American channel for three hours daily.

On 8 February 1966 the New York Times reported that the Vietnamese had to strain their ears because the speakers on the TV sets would need to be amplified if they were going to be heard by a room full of people watching THVN-TV channel 9. The American programming on NWB-TV channel 11 was Bob Hope in a two-hour special called Hollywood Salute to Vietnam, followed by half-an-hour of the Grand Ole Opry and another half-hour of the quiz show I've Got a Secret. The regular line-up of shows included Bonanza; Perry Mason; The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

Other airborne TV transmissions

EC-130 Commando Solo was used in propaganda warfare during the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with questionable success. Production was very cheap, below local TV standards in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with slide show and narration based news. Quality of reception was very poor and area of coverage was rather small.

EC-130 Commando Solo has been used to broadcast information and propaganda for the United States over a variety of television and radio frequencies. It has been used in several areas of operation, including Bosnia and Iraq.

Today the Stratovision concept is used as a stop-gap measure where land based transmitters are not possible and where large areas of territory need to be served with a television programme.

Due to the advent of fibre optic cable television systems and direct broadcast satellite services, Stratovision has become unnecessary as a permanent means of television delivery.

(Information courtesy The Early Television Museum and Wikipedia)