Eagle Grove Eagle Newspaper!
Yes! Television has come to Eagle Grove. That funny looking pole with all the points sticking out on top of Anderson's Radio Shop is a television receiving antenna.
Floyd Anderson, the proprietor of the radio shop is setup to receive television broadcasts and at certain hours of the day he is getting reception of sorts from four stations. Two stations in Minneapolis and two in Omaha come in equally well.
He has only had the setup working for five days so he does not know the hours at which these stations are broadcasting. he said that he has had a football game and a Prize fight program that were very satisfactory to watch. At other times he is able to bring in the audio part of the broadcast fairly well but the picture is so blurred with interference that it is impossible to recognize what it is.
Outside Fringe Territory, Eagle Grove is many miles outside of the fringe territory for good television reception and if Floyd didn't all kinds of boosters and extra accessories to aid the reception he probably wouldn't be able to get anything. As Gerhard "Gizy" Hanson puts it, the television was coming 50 miles on it's own power and Floyd was dragging it in the other 100 miles!
Television's extreme range is supposed to be in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 miles. Minneapolis and Omaha are both over 150 miles from Eagle Grove. There are no stations in Iowa as yet. Iowa State college at Ames is scheduled to have the first television broadcasting in the state and the go on air, Floyd will he able to get much better reception.
Floyd said he started to collect the necessary equipment to set up a television receiving set in order to understand more about the new type of broadcasting when and if it becomes popular here in this part of the state.
Television is new and someone is going to have to have the knowledge about it when and if it becomes popular.
Floyd said the big trouble now is that he enjoys working with his television so much and he has had so many people coming in to see if anything is on that he has had a hard time keeping up with his regular radio work.
Floyd's receiving set is a Skyrider made by Hallicrafter with a 10 inch picture tube. He has a Workshop antenna 64 feet in the air. He also has an antenna rotator and reception booster. The antenna will rotate in a complete 360 degree turn to face the receiving points broadside to tile direction from which the reception is coming. The antenna rotator will turn this antenna for him.
Did you ask about the cost of the equipment? That's where the rub comes and for that reason, it doesn't appear as if television in Eagle Grove would be popular for some time. The equipment Floyd has would cost about $500 and he wants to add one or two more items, one of which would be a second reception booster. The receiving set itself is not prohibitive in cost as it lists at $195. But the antenna, boosters, and rotator, not to mention the labor of installing, bring the cost up to over $500.
Local radio fans have already started to watch his antenna and when they see it rotating they flock into the shop to see what is on the air. Floyd says that so far evening reception has proved to be the best. So if you see a light on in Anderson's Radio Shop any evening you can be sure that Floyd is experimenting with Eagle Grove's first working television set and if you can crowd in to his shop he will be
glad to let you have a look.
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