Cooby Creek – TV experiments through ATS-1

 

Cooby Creek participated in a number of experiemnts relating to satellite televsion.

While the events below were not seen by the general public, they helped pave the way for reliable global satellite televsion in the decades which followed.

 

In January 1967, Cooby Creek successfully received test transmissions via ATS-1 from the Japanese earth station at Ibaraki.

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A test transmission from Ibaraki (Japan) to Cooby Creek, 11th January 1967.
Polaroid photo: Nevil Eyre.

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A test transmission from Ibaraki (Japan) to Cooby Creek, 11th January 1967.
Polaroid photo: Nevil Eyre. (The Polaroid has degraded somewhat.)


Context:

  • The OTC’s satellite earth station at Carnarvon had sent one-way live TV from Australia to the UK in November 1966, and recorded a return transmission for later playback.
  • The OTC’s satellite earth station at Moree, NSW, would not become operational until 1st April 1968 with the unscheduled telecast of US President Lyndon Johnson declining to seek a second term.
  • The OTC earth station at Ceduna, South Australia would come online in December 1969.



In May 1967, the station sent the first live satellite television from eastern Australia – to an event in Greenbelt, Maryland –

In the early hours of Sunday 14 May 1967, Cooby Creek hosted a local Toowoomba Scout troop.

Via ATS-1 and the Rosman STADAN station in North Carolina, Cooby Creek sent live one-way television of the Toowoomba Scouts to their Baltimore counterparts waiting at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

This is the first public satellite television broadcast to the outside world from eastern Australia. See the Goddard News below for a report:

 

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Here’s the front page of Goddard News, Volume 13, No. 9, 12th June 1967. Click for it as a PDF file, courtesy of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

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Here’s an image from the above Goddard News.

 

Colour television transmissions were also received from Japan in June 1967–

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This newspaper clipping from The Courier Mail for Saturday 3rd June 1967, was preserved by Terry Newman.

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This newspaper clipping, preserved by Terry Newman, speaks of the impressive quality of the received colour television picture.

Click the image for fuller text.



The next week, the station brought the first live satellite television into Australia to be seen by Australian viewers – see the Expo 67 page.