KC2XAK
KC2XAK was the world's first UHF television station. It was simply a rebroadcast/broadcast translator transmitter of New York City's WNBT (NBC 4), and broadcast on UHF Channel 24 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It went on the air on December 29, 1949.
The station's launch was code-named "Operation Bridgeport", as a test by RCA and NBC, to determine if the UHF spectrum was feasible to use for communications and broadcasting.
The station used a 1 kW transmitter with a 20-dB gain antenna on a 210-foot (64 m) tower elevated 450 feet (140 m) above average terrain. This resulted in an Effective Radiated Power of 10 kW.
Operation Bridgeport was apparently a success, but was shut down by RCA and NBC on August 23, 1952, after two and a half years of operation. Empire Coil purchased the KC2XAK transmitter, and the transmitter and support equipment was dismantled in Bridgeport under supervision of RCA. Dismantling began on August 25, and was shipped via truck and fast freight train to Portland, Oregon. It was re-assembled as a 250-foot (76 m) tower on Council Crest, more than 1,000 feet (300 m) above Portland on September 9, 1952. This became the very transmitter for Portland's KPTV as well being the first commercial UHF television station in the country.
Although KC2XAK was the first UHF station on the air, it was an experimental station. The first full-fledged UHF commercial television station honor goes to KPTV in Portland, Oregon, which broadcast on UHF Channel 27 in 1952, although it has operated on VHF Channel 12 since 1957.
Bridgeport is now covered over-the-air by WNBC 4, and the other New York City broadcast stations.
See also
- Early television stations
- History of television
- List of experimental television stations
- Narrow-bandwidth television
- Oldest television station
- Television systems before 1940