It is with a deeply saddened heart I
announce the peaceful passing of my dearly loved husband, Robert Britt
Cooper at 4:30 pm on May 15, 2023. “Coop”, the one and only. We shared
much love, laughter, pleasure, intellectual debate, and silliness
together. We were best friends. I will miss him. If you would
like to contact me, my name is Phoebe Beach and my email address is:
matahorua@xtra.co.nz.
WELCOME to a much revised (May 2019) version. The original website
went belly-up (quit working) in February-March 2014, We will not go
there for an explanation! This new revised site is the result – with
credit to my wife Phoebe Elizabeth (Cooper) Beach and the talents of
David Johnson (YES -THE David Johnson of C-Band Paraclipse fame).
Other less pleasing updates: USS MASPRO founder Doug Dehnert as
well as former SPACE President Tom Humphries have gone onto the great
orbit in the sky.
As previously the Jim Kennedy (K6MIO) excellent 50 meg propagation materials are directly available (look left, click). All ordering instructions for video tape materials are gone – but at some point might be available through the Ergen/Kohl created Media Center.
Television's evolution has been constant from the first all-electronic images of 1934-1935; RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and the BBC with the help of British EMI (a licensee of RCA technology) are generally given credit for "creating television". In a similar way, Henry Ford is tagged as the creator of mass production automobiles. The RCA version of television, partially adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in May 1941, and put into "commercial service" on July 1 of that year, was Henry Ford's Model 'A'. Today's television, whether you view it through rabbit ear or rooftop antenna, cable, satellite or even Internet is the product of thousands of small improvements in RCA's Model 'A' version.
"Television's Pirates: Hiding behind your picture tube" is the story of individual creators who began with RCA's foundation and turned television into today's globe-circling monster. In many cases, these improvements were labeled as 'piracy' - cable TV for example began as a 'piracy business' and the 1980's development of home satellite TV was built totally upon a 'piracy' foundation.
If there is one thread of continuity running through the 81 years since RCA's 1938 Model 'A' it would be 'amateur' or 'ham radio' operators. Behind virtually every new creation, improvement, challenge there was a ham; a ham built the first cable TV system (Oregon - 1948), the first (NOT FCC licensed!) TV (reception) booster 'stations' (1950) and translators (1948 in Pennsylvania!); others created the first home satellite receiving systems (1976). Now, a ham has perfected the first high-quality live television via Internet technology. From 1938 until 2019, those who would control television's reception and use have deliberately worked to quash the next level of development. New technology, improving old, has routinely been labeled as 'piracy' and those who create it 'pirates'. "Television's Pirates" traces these developments and with great depth the people (hams) behind 'piracy' in 928 pages of fascinating reading.
Welcome to the 'real world' of television's development from Model 'A' to 2019's TV on your cell phone technology, proudly done by pirates one and all!
OH YES! For one of the best-ever "based on ham radio" fictional stories in print, go to www.portobelloonebook.com where Coop tells of the 1970 - 1990 "REdiscovery" of the Turks & Caicos Islands (yes - that is where Coop was VP5D) and the major role played in that British possession's explosive growth built on a ham radio electronics' 'base'. Note: Portobello: One (and Two and Three - a trilogy!) are also available through Amazon.com in Kindle format!
"I liked it very much....All 1800 pages of it. I always liked Clancy, but you have the same ability. Good show for writing a great story!" (David Johnson, Founding President Paraclipse who read the trilogy on his Kindle)
