By William O. Grant, U.s. Department Of Agriculture
Both technically and economically the smaller CATV system bears little resemblance to its' urban counterpart. Yet, it is interesting to note that identical approaches in system designs are generally employed. It is as though this same approach was effective in both cases though they may be substantially different in nature.
One good example of this is in system design philosophy. The familiar trunk plus feeder technique is universally applied for 1,000 or 20,000 subscriber applications and even the amplifier gain and operating transmission levels are widely accepted without question to be optimum for both cases.
Now there's nothing sacred about these levels and gains and only a moment's review of transmission principles suggests same modifications might not only be technically acceptable, but might be significantly cost beneficial.
But for same reason the question has not been raised.
Perhaps, if we could clearly identify same requirements or problems of the small system operator we might more effectively employ today's technology in addressing those requirements and possibly produce more satisfactory solutions.
This paper reviews same smaller operation problems and proposes some alternative approaches. Same of these alternatives may be as yet unproven. Our purpose is simply to question existing methods and perhaps gain something by the discussion.