Pye Telecom

Radio Links - Low Capacity

Low Capacity

Low capacity links 1-8 audio/data channels

Low capacity radio links can simultaneously carry one to eight audio telephone type conversations (or equivalent data traffic).

Radio links are normally required to operate continuously 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

These are normally based on modified fixed station transmitter-receivers which, by design, are robust and reliable enough for continuous operation, with little maintenance.

Operation is normally duplex mode – which means transmitting and receiving simultaneously (on different frequencies).

Some examples of the many low capacity link types are given on the next page.

Idealised Radio Path

Wireless Set No. 10

1944

Wireless Set No. 10

Pye Ltd had a first involvement with multi-channel radio links during WW2.

British Army Wireless Set No. 10 was the worlds first 8-channel mobile microwave radio relay link.

The system carried both telephone conversations and teleprinter traffic.

A chain of these mobile stations across Europe was used by Field Marshal Montgomery to communicate back to the UK after D-Day and throughout the campaign to liberate Europe.

Pye designed the receiver section of WS10 and worked in partnership with GEC and TMC on the project.

PTC104/PTC105 & PTC703/PTC704

1946

The first Pye Telecom commercial VHF radio link equipment was designed and supplied to the British Home Office for private mobile radio schemes for UK police forces.

These were single channel duplex equipment operating with a transmit power of 7-Watts output.

As with a majority of single channel radio link equipment over the next 70 years, these were based on an existing fixed station design, in this case the PTC104/PTC105.

The next generation of single channel links was based on the PTC703/PTC704, and so on, as the design platforms evolved over the years.

PTC810/PTC820/PTC830.

1956

PTC810/PTC820/PTC830.

In 1956 Pye Telecom installed a 7-channel, low capacity, VHF radio link for the Pakistan Sui Gas Corporation.

This multi-hop radio link ran for a distance of 550 miles and, at the time, was the longest VHF radio link in the world.

The 10-Watt transmitters used were the PTC810.

The receivers used were the PTC820.

The 30-Watt RF amplifiers were the PTC830.

Pye Pioneer

1963

Pye Pioneer

This was a transistorised single channel VHF radio link used to connect an individual telephone subscriber to a telephone exchange.

It was used in areas and applications where it was impractical or too costly to install overhead telephone lines or underground cables.

The transmitter RF output was 0.5-Watt.