Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
A commemorative postage stamp on the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), an Indian experimental satellite communications project :
Issued by India
Issued on Aug 1, 1975
Issued for : The Posts and Telegraphs Department feels greatly privileged to bring out a special postage stamp to mark this event of great significance to the Nation.
Description of Design : The design of the stamp depicts stylised form of a ground antenna. The different colour stripes represent messages received from the satellite. The four symbols placed on the stripes suggest family planning, agriculture, health and education.
Designed by : Shri Benoy Sarkar
Type : Stamp, Mint Condition
Colour : Multicolour
Denomination : 25 Paise
Overall Size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.
Printing Size : 3.56 X 2.54 cms.
Perforation : 13 x 13
Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper
Number Printed : 30,00,000
Number per issue sheet : 35
Printing Process : Photogravure
Printed at : India Security Press
About :
- The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) began on August 1, 1975. During this year-long Experiment, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), jointly with the All India Radio (AIR), will broadcast instructional television programme through a Satellite. The Satellite-Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-F) – was made available to India by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- The Experiment is designed to expose people of far-flung rural areas, especially those poorly served by other means of communication, to educational TV programme without the medium of ground-based TV relay stations. Up-to-date news and instructional programmes on agriculture, health, hygiene, family planning, nutrition and primary education are transmitted to the satellite from the prime earth station at the Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad. The satellite re-transmits the programmes to ISRO-designed community TV receivers in about 2,400 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan.
- National programme routed via the satellite is re-broadcast to ordinary TV sets in developed areas around Delhi, Amritsar and Ahmedabad. Simultaneously, these programmes are received in 2,400 villages. The Kaira District, neighbouring Ahmedabad, receives programmes specially designed for this densely populated and progressive agricultural region. This provides an opportunity to study how TV can also be used to accelerate growth in areas with relatively well-equipped infrastructure.
- The SITE provides necessary insight and experience of the technical, managerial, financial and programme production requirements of the design of a workable national satellite TV system.
