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In its first incarnation as a Silicon Valley startup, Microcomm designed, prototyped and tested the hardware for numerous innovative systems, from cellphones to satellites. These archival photos from the 1970s show how we sparked a telecommunications revolution. But we're not resting on our laurels. Ask us about Microcomm's 21st Century Solutions.
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Microcomm's company aircraft, a 1970 Beechcraft A24/R Sierra, sports the company logo on its cowling. The plane not only provides business transportation, but was also used for flight testing of Microcomm's patented BiDCAS airborne anti-collision radar.
Note: this aircraft is now offered For Sale.
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Testing MicroTalkieTM, a very early cellphone prototype. (On the table in front of Prof. Shuch is the first cellsite repeater breadboard.) If you look closely, you may recognize the interior of a 1970s vintage Volkswagen Westphalia campmobile - Microcomm's first mobile laboratory.
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Downconverter for S-band video reception from India's INSAT-1A satellite. This same board was used to support Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) broadcasts in the US.
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Single-balanced mixer for 18 cm hydroxyl line radio astronomy. This mixer was also used in the early (modular) versions of our 1691 MHz WEFAX receivers.
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Downconverter for S-band weather satellite reception. Note the integral balanced mixer (the hexagon structure near the middle of the board), derived from the radio astronomy mixer depicted above. Hexagonal microstrip mixers have become, over the years, a Microcomm signature.
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First receive system for geostationary S-band weather satellites. The system incorporates the downconverter board seen above, along with a Microcomm low noise preamplifier (see below), antenna, VHF receiver, and digital display adapter.
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Microstrip S-band low-noise preamplifier. This bipolar transistor amplifier, achieving a noise figure in the 2 dB range, was made obsolete just two years later by Microcomm's own gallium arsenide (GaAs) LNAs, at half the noise, twice the gain, and half the price.
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Construction of the first home satellite TV dish. This 4.7 meter diameter parabolic reflector had a focal length to diameter ratio of 0.46, and was held together by no fewer than 3700 pop rivets.
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John Kinik puts the finishing touches on the surface of the first TVRO antenna. Huge by today's standards, this 4.7 meter parabolic reflector nevertheless paved the way for modern 18-inch dish direct broadcast TV systems a quarter-century later.
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In the Microcomm laboratory, Prof. Shuch snaps off-the-screen shot of the first successful home satellite TV receiver in action.
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First crude images from the world's first commercial home satellite TV receiver, as seen on the oscilloscope (left) and the video monitor (right).
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Microstrip L-band solid state power amplifier. These two Watt units were used as driver amplifiers in in early amateur radio moonbounce (EME) stations.
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Prof. Shuch at the dedication of the National Air and Space Museum, exhibiting the backup flight hardware for OSCAR 1, the world's first non-Government communications satellite. Paul Shuch served Project OSCAR in a number of capacities, from volunteer technician all the way up to Chairman of the Board, and narrowly skirted conflict-of-interest issues when Microcomm provided free consulting services to this worthy nonprofit venture.
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Prof. Shuch tweaking an X-band receiver on the noise figure bench. The gas discharge noise tube was replaced shortly thereafter by a modern solid-state noise diode. Behind Shuch sits Dr. Dave Clingerman, who now heads up Olde Antenna Labs of Colorado.
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Prof. Shuch comparing X-band antennas on an outdoor antenna range. Our modern calibrated compact antenna range still employs similar techniques. To Shuch's right (in the orange shirt) you can see Dr. James Vogler, who later went on to distinguish himself as a senior physicist and engineer at Hewlett-Packard (now Agilent).
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