Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction
Encyclopedia
The Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI) was a special broadcasting initiative designed to broadcast educational television
programming to schools, especially in areas where local educational television stations are either hard to receive or unavailable.
From 1961 through 1968, MPATI's programming broadcast from two DC-6AB aircraft based at the Purdue University
Airport in West Lafayette, Indiana
, using a broadcasting technique known as Stratovision
.
The undertaking began as a three-year experiment in 1960, with MPATI organizing, producing, and broadcasting instructional television with seed-money from the Ford Foundation
. This was a nonprofit organization of educators and television producers that pioneered instructional television for enriching education in public schools throughout the midwest. This was in times prior to the advent of satellite television transmission. By 1963, MPATI moved into its second phase where it relied totally on membership fees but it was never financially stable. MPATI found it difficult to get enough member schools to finance the organization. In its third reorganization, MPATI, unable to meet its expenses through membership fees, ceased producing and broadcasting courses in 1968 and became a tape library.
One of the two aircraft would go aloft for six to eight hours at a time; take up a twenty minute figure-eight station centered over Montpelier, Indiana
(35 miles north of Muncie, Indiana
) at an altitude of 23,000 feet. From this position the range of transmission was approximately 200 miles in diameter; stations transmission included both Chicago and Detroit metropolitan areas. When on station the plane would reduce speed, and then lower a forty-foot antenna mast which was gyroscopically stabilized so that the antenna always aligned from the aircraft to the center of the earth. This stabilization feature helped to maintain polarization of the signals from these planes. Beam characteristics of the antenna were sharp and reception was optimized by placing the reception antenna as near as practical to the ground and pointing it toward the Montpelier location to minimize multipath canceling and interference.
Programming from the planes was always pre-recorded; program slates, taped classroom instruction and test patterns with canned music were all that was aired from the MPATI planes. Frequently snowy pictures were what students saw from the low power transmitters of KS2XGA or KS2XGD channels 72 and 76 UHF respectively.
The television equipment and transmitters were powered by a gas-turbine electrical power plant in the aft end of the DC-6 fuselage; equipment similar in design to auxiliary power units later jet transport aircraft use for engine starting.
Educational television
Educational television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable television in the United States as Public, educational, and government access ...
programming to schools, especially in areas where local educational television stations are either hard to receive or unavailable.
From 1961 through 1968, MPATI's programming broadcast from two DC-6AB aircraft based at the Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
Airport in West Lafayette, Indiana
West Lafayette, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 29,596 people, 12,591 households, and 3,588 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,381.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 74.3% White, 17.3% Asian, 2.7% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.03% Pacific...
, using a broadcasting technique known as Stratovision
Stratovision
Stratovision was an airborne television transmission relay system from aircraft flying at high altitudes. In 1945 the Glenn L. Martin Co. and Westinghouse Electric Corporation advocated television coverage of small towns and rural areas as well as the large metropolitan centers by fourteen aircraft...
.
The undertaking began as a three-year experiment in 1960, with MPATI organizing, producing, and broadcasting instructional television with seed-money from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
. This was a nonprofit organization of educators and television producers that pioneered instructional television for enriching education in public schools throughout the midwest. This was in times prior to the advent of satellite television transmission. By 1963, MPATI moved into its second phase where it relied totally on membership fees but it was never financially stable. MPATI found it difficult to get enough member schools to finance the organization. In its third reorganization, MPATI, unable to meet its expenses through membership fees, ceased producing and broadcasting courses in 1968 and became a tape library.
One of the two aircraft would go aloft for six to eight hours at a time; take up a twenty minute figure-eight station centered over Montpelier, Indiana
Montpelier, Indiana
Montpelier is an American city in Blackford County, Indiana. This small rural community, the county’s first to be platted, was established by settlers from Vermont, and is named after Vermont’s capital city – Montpelier....
(35 miles north of Muncie, Indiana
Muncie, Indiana
Muncie is a city in Center Township, Delaware County in east central Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University and the birthplace of the Ball Corporation. It is the principal city of the Muncie, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 118,769...
) at an altitude of 23,000 feet. From this position the range of transmission was approximately 200 miles in diameter; stations transmission included both Chicago and Detroit metropolitan areas. When on station the plane would reduce speed, and then lower a forty-foot antenna mast which was gyroscopically stabilized so that the antenna always aligned from the aircraft to the center of the earth. This stabilization feature helped to maintain polarization of the signals from these planes. Beam characteristics of the antenna were sharp and reception was optimized by placing the reception antenna as near as practical to the ground and pointing it toward the Montpelier location to minimize multipath canceling and interference.
Programming from the planes was always pre-recorded; program slates, taped classroom instruction and test patterns with canned music were all that was aired from the MPATI planes. Frequently snowy pictures were what students saw from the low power transmitters of KS2XGA or KS2XGD channels 72 and 76 UHF respectively.
The television equipment and transmitters were powered by a gas-turbine electrical power plant in the aft end of the DC-6 fuselage; equipment similar in design to auxiliary power units later jet transport aircraft use for engine starting.
External links
- Broadcasting 101: "TV from the Sky (in the 1960s)"
- University of Maryland Libraries: "Archives of The Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI)"
- Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association: MPATI
- Chicagotelevision.com: "MPATI: The Flying Classroom"
- radiodxer.bravehost.com/MPATI.html - The UHF Morgue: MPATI