Information / Radiohistory for Czechoslovakia

The beginning of electric telecommunication we can put to year 1846, when Court Chamber in Vienna decided to establish telegraph line Vienna-Břeclav-Brno, based on Baine`s telegraph. Its operation started at 1st March 1847. In the same year line was extended to Prague and the experimental Morse telegraph line Vienna-Olomouc started operation. In 1850 Morse telegraph was taken as national standard. In 1874 there were in Bohemia and Moravia already 10 main telegraph stations, 200 adjacent ones and 36 telegraph offices.

Telephone lines had started In Monarchy in 1881, on beginning by private companies, but on end of 1892 the telephone lines were nationalized. First telephone line in Bohemia in 1881 was realized between mine in Ledvice and rail station Duchcov, 2,5km long. Number of telephone subscribers was growing up and in 1886 Brno, in 1889 Praha was connected with Vienna by intercity lines. Private telephone lines were nationalized too in 1892.

First Morse code wireless telegraph experiments were realized in 1908 during Trading and Industry Exhibition in Prague.

First radio broadcasting experiments (speech and music) were realized during 1st jubilee of founding of Czechoslovakia at 28th October 1919 by using military station from Petřín view tower. At second anniversary they created broadcasting trace Praha-Karlovy Vary. At 18th May 1923, like 3rd object in Europe, Radiojurnal started regular experimental broadcasting from studio in Praha-Kbely, later from Brno and Bratislava. They put into operation broadcasting 120kW station in Liblice at Český Brod and short wave station at Poděbrady. During 30;s studios moved to Vinohradská 12, where they are until today. During Prague Rising since 5th May 1945 radio had a serious role to set Praha free from Nazis. At 10th June 1946 was found Tesla, based on nationalized electronics companies. After WW2 studios were created in number of regional cities. In 1953 government decided to build wire radio net, in 1959 they started broadcasting in UKV band, during 60`s they started experiments with stereo transmitting.

Regarding TV broadcasting first (secret) experiments were realized during WW2 in Tanvald. Unfortunately after war all equipment was transported like war capture to Soviet Union. Tesla Pardubice started in 1946 TV technics research, but experts from Tanvald had more experience. First experimental TV broadcasting was realized in 1948 during International Broadcasting Exhibition in Prague. In 1949 all research activates were transferred to new organization in Prague, Výzkumný ústav vakuové techniky – Research Institute of Vacuum Technics. On end of 60s they started color transmitting in Secam IIIb standard, but studios could use PAL system for signal processing. Later in 1994 and 1995 color broadcasting was changed to PAL too.

The telecommunication electronic industry in CS was growing up quickly. In 1919 was found Telegrafia, 51% of shares owned government. Except them existed a lot of big companies, like ALWAYS, ELEKTRA, Microphona, Modrý bod, Philips, Radiotechna System Telefunken, Tungsram, Prchal-Ericson, etc. and numberless small private ones. However, the Philips-Telefunken tube cartel caused high tube prices, ergo pressure for radio producers to minimize tubes in their models. During Nazi occupation CS industry worked for German fronts, after WW2 they were nationalized: Telegrafia – Tesla Pardubice, Mikrophona – Tesla Strašnice, Philips – Tesla Hloubětín, Iron, Markofon, REL – Tesla Brno, Ideal radio, Modrý bod - Tesla Kolín, Radiotechna – Tesla Přelouč, Tungsram – Tesla Bratislava etc. In 1990 trust Tesla went into bankruptcy, some parts existed a bit longer, some of them were transformed to private companies and working until today.