CEC HISTORY

CEC’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. During its 70+ years, CEC has achieved an important place in history.

Dating back to 1938, the founder of the company, Mr. J. O. Weldon, built the very first 500kW transmitter using the revolutionary, high-powered Doherty Amplifier, which established him and Continental as a pioneer in the RF industry. The Doherty Amplifier technique made these transmitters more powerful and affordable. Today, Doherty Amplifiers are still used for many applications, including 4G and 5G.
CEC’s technology played a key role in safeguarding the Western World during the Cold War with communications systems it developed for the U.S. government. 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.
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CEC’s 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.
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CEC 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.
Most know that CEC is a manufacturer of 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 greater than 2 MW for commercial and communication applications. For example, CEC’s high power VLF and LF systems are used for military voice and data communications, navigation and time/frequency standards broadcasts.
CEC high power transmitters are used by the Navy forces around the globe to communicate with submarine fleets and by NASA to communicate with space craft. In addition, CEC has manufactured transmitters for terrestrial radar and space radar applications.
Another program was HAARP, a radio science experiment using over 180 HF transmitters.
Today, CEC’s products also are used in such diverse applications as particle accelerators, plasma physics research, oil recovery, medical research and fusion, rounding out the company’s leadership position in broadcast and radio technology.