Portal:Telecommunication

The Telecommunication Portal

Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electrical or electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing, allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions. Long-distance technologies invented during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the electrical telegraph, telephone, television, and radio.

Early telecommunication networks used metal wires as the medium for transmitting signals. These networks were used for telegraphy and telephony for many decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, a revolution in wireless communication began with breakthroughs including those made in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi, who won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Other early pioneers in electrical and electronic telecommunications include co-inventors of the telegraph Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse, numerous inventors and developers of the telephone including Antonio Meucci, Philipp Reis, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell, inventors of radio Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest, as well as inventors of television like Vladimir K. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth.

Since the 1960s, the proliferation of digital technologies has meant that voice communications have gradually been supplemented by data. The physical limitations of metallic media prompted the development of optical fibre. The Internet, a technology independent of any given medium, has provided global access to services for individual users and further reduced location and time limitations on communications. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the north coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska (see Project Stretchout and Project Bluegrass), in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland (DYE Stations). It was set up to detect incoming bombers of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and provide early warning of any sea-and-land invasion.

The DEW Line was the northernmost and most capable of three radar lines in Canada and Alaska. The first of these was the joint Canadian-United States Pinetree Line, which ran from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island just north of the Canada–United States border, but even while it was being built there were concerns that it would not provide enough warning time to launch an effective counterattack. The Mid-Canada Line (MCL) was proposed as an inexpensive solution using bistatic radar. This provided a "trip wire" warning located roughly at the 55th parallel, giving commanders ample warning time, but little information on the targets or their exact location. The MCL proved largely useless in practice, as the radar return of flocks of birds overwhelmed signals from aircraft. (Full article...)

More information List of selected articles ...

List of selected articles

Close

General images

The following are images from various telecommunication-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 2Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 3Antonio Meucci, 1849, developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 4Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. The Brox Sisters, a popular singing group, gathered around the radio at the time. (from History of radio)
Image 5Top of cellular telephone tower (from History of the telephone)
Image 6Early pioneers of radio science and technology in the United States, including Charles Steinmetz, David Sarnoff, Irving Langmuir, and Alfred Goldsmith in 1921, photographed next to the antenna feed wires of the New Brunswick Marconi Station, one of the first transatlantic radio links. The photo includes Albert Einstein as a visiting guest. (from History of radio)
Image 7Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 8A German rotary dial telephone, the W48 (from History of the telephone)
Image 9An exposed view of the Picturephone's rear circuit board (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 10The Marconi Company was formed in England in 1910. The photo shows a typical early scene, from 1906, with Marconi employee Donald Manson at right. (from History of broadcasting)
Image 11Charles Logwood broadcasting at New York station 2XG, 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 121896 telephone (Sweden) (from History of the telephone)
Image 13The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. Size: 3×5×1.25 inch (7.6×12.7×3.2 cm) (from History of radio)
Image 14Australian radio sets usually had the positions of radio stations marked on their dials. The illustration is a dial from a transistorised, mains-operated Calstan radio, c. 1960s. (Click image for a high resolution view, with readable callsigns.) (from History of broadcasting)
Image 15Broadcasting pioneer Frank Conrad in a 1921 portrait (from History of broadcasting)
Image 16RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 17A French Gower telephone of 1912 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris (from History of the telephone)
Image 18Elisha Gray, 1876, designed a telephone using a water microphone in Highland Park, Illinois. (from History of the telephone)
Image 19An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 20
Bell prototype telephone stamp
Centennial Issue of 1976
(from History of the telephone)
Image 21The Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone was the first commercial mobile videophone. The Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) phone was introduced in Japan (1999). (from History of videotelephony)
Image 22The first commercial AM Audion vacuum tube radio transmitter, built in 1914 by Lee De Forest who invented the Audion (triode) in 1906 (from History of radio)
$Image 23An early experiment demonstrating the refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio)$
Image 23An early experiment demonstrating the refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 (from History of radio)
Image 24The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone, the result of decades long R&D at a cost of over $500M. (from History of telecommunication)
Image 25Reconstruction of Aeneas Tacticus' hydraulic telegraph (4th c. B.C.) in Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, Athens, Greece. (from History of telecommunication)
Image 26Guglielmo Marconi (from History of broadcasting)
Image 27Receiver schematic, c.1906 (from History of the telephone)
Image 28Reginald Fessenden, the "father" of radio broadcasting in the U.S. (from History of broadcasting)
Image 29A replica of one of Claude Chappe's semaphore towers (optical telegraph) in Nalbach, Germany (from History of telecommunication)
Image 30In the 1920s, the United States government publication, "Construction and Operation of a Simple Homemade Radio Receiving Outfit", showed how almost any person handy with simple tools could build an effective crystal radio receiver. (from History of radio)
Image 31A 19th century acoustic tin can or "lovers' telephone" (from History of the telephone)
Image 32The French Matra videophone (1970) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 33AT&T Picturephone (Mod II) fully enclosed in its housing, control pad at bottom (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 34Historical marker commemorating the first telephone central office in New York State (1878) (from History of the telephone)
Image 35Typical low-cost webcam used with many personal computers (from History of videotelephony)
Image 36Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation. (from History of radio)
Image 37Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
Image 38Private conversation, 1910 (from History of the telephone)
Image 39The Australian Broadcasting Corporation logo, first introduced in 1975 and based on the Lissajous curve (from History of broadcasting)
Image 40Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 41The master telephone patent, 174465, granted to Bell, March 7, 1876 (from History of telecommunication)
Image 42Replica of the telettrofono at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy, invented by Antonio Meucci and credited by several sources as the first telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 43Philipp Reis, 1861, constructed the first telephone, today called the Reis telephone. (from History of the telephone)
Image 44Tihanyi' Radioskop patent (1926) was recognized as Document of Universal Significance by the UNESCO (from History of television)
Image 45DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 46Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander using an Ericsson videophone to speak with Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host (1969) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 47Naomi ("Joan") Melwit and Norman Banks at the 3KZ microphone, in the late 1930s (from History of broadcasting)
Image 48Lee DeForest broadcasting Columbia phonograph records on New York station 2XG, 1916 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 49"Fiction becomes fact": Imaginary "Edison" combination videophone-television, conceptualized by George du Maurier and published in Punch magazine. The drawing also depicts then-contemporary speaking tubes, used by the parents in the foreground and their daughter on the viewing display (1878). (from History of videotelephony)
Image 50Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 51Stock telegraph ticker machine by Thomas Edison (from History of telecommunication)
Image 52The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 53Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first U.S. patent for the invention of the telephone in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 54Artist's conception: 21st-century videotelephony imagined in the early 20th century (1910) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 55Screen idol Rudolph Valentino at the microphone of WSB in Atlanta, 1923 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 56Right side view, housing removed, one of its printed circuit boards exposed (courtesy: Richard Diehl) (from History of videotelephony)
Image 57The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 58Actor portraying Alexander Graham Bell in a 1932 silent film. Shows Bell's second telephone transmitter (microphone), invented 1876 and first displayed at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. (from History of the telephone)
Image 59Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) (from History of radio)
Image 60Portrait of John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, in 1925, founding director general of the BBC from 1922 to 1938 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 61Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph (Rees's Cyclopaedia) (from History of telecommunication)
Image 62First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 63Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 64"Doc" Herrold is shown at the microphone of KQW, c. 1925 (from History of broadcasting)
Image 65Reis's telephone around 1861, first device called telephone (from History of the telephone)
Image 66AT&T magazine advertisement announcing commercial launch of Picturephone service. (from History of videotelephony)
Image 67Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves. (from History of radio)
Image 68Innocenzo Manzetti considered the idea of a telephone in 1844 (from History of the telephone)
Image 69Thomas Edison invented the carbon microphone which produced a strong telephone signal. (from History of the telephone)
Image 70John Logie Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 71Tivadar Puskás proposed the telephone switchboard exchange in 1876. (from History of the telephone)
Image 72The earliest photograph of a television picture, showing the face of Oliver Hutchinson in June 1926. The television picture was projected using Baird's television camera. (from History of television)
Image 73Apple iPhone smartphone (from History of the telephone)
Image 74The "Kerbango Internet Radio" was the first stand-alone product that let users listen to Internet radio without a computer. (from History of broadcasting)
Image 75British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. (from History of radio)
Image 76The master telephone patent granted to Bell, 174465, March 7, 1876 (from History of the telephone)
Image 771917 wall telephone, open to show magneto and local battery (from History of the telephone)
Image 78Fessenden operating an underwater oscillator in 1915. (from History of radio)
Image 79Ferdinand Braun (from History of broadcasting)

Things to do

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Start a new article, WikiProject Telecommunications
Other : Expand this portal

Selected biography - show another

Tesla, c. 1890

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884, he migrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system, which Westinghouse marketed. (Full article...)

More information List of selected biographies ...

List of selected biographies

Close

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that after the release of High and Low, director Akira Kurosawa received telephone calls imitating his film that threatened to kidnap his daughter?
... that ten dancers dressed as furry monkeys featured in the television premiere of Through the Crystal Ball?
... that Japanese actor Kouhei Higuchi prepared for his role on the television drama adaptation of My Personal Weatherman by learning from a weather forecaster?
... that the radio program Radio City Music Hall of the Air employed approximately 10,000 musicians during the first eight years of its broadcast history?
... that Michael Gove, now a member of the House of Lords, appeared on the television quiz show Top Club?
... that on every Christmas Eve since 1994, Willem Lange's story about the fruitcake-delivering farmer Favor Johnson is broadcast on public radio stations in Vermont?