Continental Electronics Corporation's
reputation as the world's most experienced designer, developer
and manufacturer of high power broadcast equipment came from
its many "firsts" in the industry. Dating back to
1936, the founder of the company, Mr. J. O. Weldon, built the
first 500kW transmitter. In the early 1950s, the company built
the first 1MW transmitter for the Voice of America. And in the
early 1970s it also developed the first 2MW transmitter
for Radio Belgrade.
During its 60+ years, Continental Electronics has achieved an
important place in history. Its technology played a key role
in safeguarding the Western World during the Cold War with communications
systems it developed for the U.S. government. Today, its high
power communications systems are used for military voice and
data communications, navigation and time/frequency standards
broadcasts.
CEC's top selling product line in units, the 816R series FM
transmitters, have proved their reliability and performance
since their introduction over 25 years ago.
Most know that CEC is a manufacturer of AM and FM broadcast
transmitters for commercial broadcasting. However, it may not
be known to many that CEC throughout the years has designed,
developed and built many high power products up to 2 MW for
both commercial as well as government use. Most of the high
power transmitters that the U.S. Navy uses to communicate with
their fleet are made by CEC. Additionally, CEC has made most
of the transmitters for the Over-The-Horizon (OTH) radar HF
transmitters for the U.S. Air Force, the high power S-Band transmitters
for the U.S. Army Nuclear Effects Laboratory as well as other
communications, radar and jammer transmitters on classified
contracts. Our largest active program is HAARP, a radio science
experiment using over 180 HF transmitters.
Continental Electronics' early work in radar led to the development
of the AN/FPT-5, a UHF 2.5 MW Transmitter for MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Millstone Hill Radar Site near Boston. Among its many notable
achievements, this transmitter bounced signals off Venus in
1958. A round trip of 56,000,000 miles, it was man's first contact
with another planet.
Continental Electronics has earned recognition in scientific
circles with its 1MW planetary radio transmitter, a key component
behind the Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope. The Arecibo
radio telescope is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope.
With the support of CEC's engineering expertise, NASA scientists
were able to map the moon in preparation for the historic lunar
landings. Now CEC's products also are used in such diverse applications
as particle accelerators, plasma physics research, oil recovery,
medical research and ceramic sintering, rounding out the company's
leadership position in broadcast and radio technology.
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