Not  sure there was a AFRTS connection on this or  not... can anyone tell us? 

 it was built  from funds from ???

Up goes the TV antenna ••• and GI's 
stationed in the Azores are all set to 
watch programs from their own island 
"packaged station". as complete as your 
own local station! 

THOMPSON BRINGS TV TO GI'S IN MID-OCEAN 

First complete "Packaged Station" telecasts big-time programs to servicemen in the Azores! 

Eight Hundred Miles off the coast of Portugal, the Dage Television Division of Thompson Products has 
built a complete local TV station ..supplying everything but the actors and commercials! 

The development of this "packaged unit" by Thompson-Dage electronic engineers has made it 
possible for servicemen stationed in remote places to enjoy popular network programs. Live local programs 
also originate from this unit. It includes TV cameras, projectors, transmitters, antennae, microphones, 
studio monitors, as well as complete lighting, testing and servicing equipment ... the works. 


You eaneouMon 

CJhompson 

Products 

MANUFACTURERS OF AUTOMOTIVE. AIRCRAFT. 

INDUSTRIAL AND ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS. 

FACTORIES IN SIXTEEN CITIES. 

TIME, JULY 4, 1955 

33 
Final training of operating personnel under Thompson supervision is included in this package, 
now being duplicated at other American military outposts. All personnel and equipment used in the 
Azores TV station were flown 3,250 miles to the building site where Thompson-Dage engineers super­
vised the installation. 

The field of television electronics is but one of many where Thompson 

The Heart of the Thompson-Dage Packaged TV Station is this very small Dage TV 
Camera. It weighs about one-third as much as the average commercial TV camera, and 
requires about one-third the space. A convenrional camera is traced behind the Dage unit 
for size comparison. The Dage TV Camera is naturally much easier to handle, allowing 
greater flexibility to get "good shots" without a costly. cumbersome carriage. 

GI's put a local TV show on the air from studios of the Azores station. Cost of 
 station installation was about one-fifth that of the usual broadcasting station 
equipment-so low that the airmen paid for it themselves through their own 
welfare funds. Design and construction were so simple that it was in full oper­
ation less than 2 weeks after arrival in the Azores. 

Products engineering and manufacturing skills and facilities are developing amazing new products 
and improving old ones for such widely- diversified industries as automotive, aviation, light metals, 
metallurgy, home appliances and 
. many others that have learned you can count on Thompson! 

Thompson 

Products, Inc., General Offices, 
Cleveland 17, Ohio. 

Another Thompson. Dage development is this "pint-sized" TV Camera, weighing just 7 % lbs. It is the smallest, self-contained tele­
vision camera and operates on a closed circuit. It has unlimited uses in industry ... to check dangerous operations, guard plant gates and 
instruct trainees. In stores it helps spot shop­lifters, in homes it keeps an eye on nursery Or 
sickroom, in hospitals it shows operation "close-up" to medical students. 

$50,000 Tv Station
Offered by Dage Tv
A COMPLETE low- powered tv station for
$50,000 is being offered by Dage Television
Div., Thompson Products Inc., Michigan City.
Ind.
The equipment has been offered tv stations
pending FCC approval of the proposal to permit
low -powered tv operations in cities of
50,000 population or less [BT, April 41.
Last October, Dage completed installation of
a low power tv installation for the U. S. Air
Force on the Azores Islands. More recently it
has finished a similar station at the Air Force
base on Iceland. There are three others under
construction, the company said.
Using a 200 w transmitter, capable of radiating
up to 600 w with an antenna gain of three,
Dage offers the following:
Plan I -for film and network programs only,
$34,904. Plan II -same as Plan I with single
live vidicon camera, $45,865. Plan III -same
as Plan I with two live vidicon cameras,
$51,382.
Excluded from the above prices are the costs
of installation, tower and transmitter and studio
housing.
BROADCASTING TELECASTING Page 104 April 11, 1955

Dage Says Low Cost Boosters
Can Serve Smaller Cities
SATELLITE or booster tv stations can be produced
at low cost and provide tv service for
the 900 communities under 50,000 population
which are not now using authorized channels,
Dage Television Div. of Thompson Products
declared in a brief filed Thursday at the FCC.
The brief was one of a series filed prior to
Friday, last day for reception of comments on
a proposal to authorize satellite stations. At
the request of Radio -Electronics -Tv Mfrs. Assn.,
the FCC granted an extension of filing time to
April 1. A RETMA committee is conducting a
detailed investigation of satellite operations
based on field experiments.
Dage said local communities could install
low -power stations at low cost and said it could
provide three complete station packages -film network
only, $34,904 for complete station;
film- network- studio (one camera), $45,865;
film- network- studio (two cameras), $51,382.
The firm contended that the FCC should authorize
satellites now and defer policy decisions. It
described operation of its 30 w station in the
Azores, which covers a 31/2-mile area and goes
on out into the ocean. This was said to cormpare
favorably with a 250 w aural station operating
at night.
E. B. Craney, KXLF -TV Butte, Mont., proposed
five classifications of booster -satellite
operations. He said his mountain -area station
breaks even, though he and Mrs. Craney accept
no salary for their work. He added that
KXLF -TV could serve Anaconda, Bozeman and
Helena by use of boosters.
Frank McIntyre, KLIX -AM -TV Twin Falls,
Idaho, said large operators could strangle independent
competition by spotting satellites
in communities, splitting the advertising dollar.
He urged

February 28, 1955 BROADCASTING TELECASTING