ABOUT A TV (TELEVISION)

Braun HF 1, 1958

Television (TV) is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic ("black and white") or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is derived from mixed Latin and Greek roots, meaning "far sight": Greek tele, far, and Latin visio, sight (from video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).

Commercially available since the late 1930s, the television set has become a common communications receiver in homes, businesses and institutions, particularly as a source of entertainment and news. Since the 1970s the availability of video cassettes, laserdiscs, DVDs and now Blu-ray Discs, have resulted in the television set frequently being used for viewing recorded as well as broadcast material.

Although other forms such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) are in use, the most common usage of the medium is for broadcast television, which was modeled on the existing radio broadcasting systems developed in the 1920s, and uses high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the television signal to individual TV receivers.

Broadcast TV is typically disseminated via radio transmissions on designated channels in the 54–890 megahertz frequency band. Signals are now often transmitted with stereo and/or surround sound in many countries. Until the 2000s broadcast TV programs were generally recorded and transmitted as an analog signal, but in recent years public and commercial broadcasters have been progressively introducing digital television broadcasting technology.

A standard television set comprises multiple internal electronic circuits, including those for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is properly called a monitor, rather than a television. A television system may use different technical standards such as digital television (DTV) and high-definition television (HDTV). Television systems are also used for surveillance, industrial process control, and guiding of weapons, in places where direct observation is difficult or dangerous.

Amateur television (ham TV or ATV) is also used for experimentation, pleasure and public service events by amateur radio operators. Ham TV stations were on the air in many cities before commercial TV stations came on the air.

History

In its early stages of development, television employed a combination of optical, mechanical and electronic technologies to capture, transmit and display a visual image. By the late 1920s, however, those employing only optical and electronic technologies were being explored. All modern television systems rely on the latter, although the knowledge gained from the work on mechanical-dependent systems was crucial in the development of fully electronic television.

American family watching TV, 1958

The first time images were transmitted electrically were via early mechanical fax machines, including the pantelegraph, developed in the late 1800s. The concept of electrically-powered transmission of television images in motion, was first sketched in 1878 as the telephonoscope, shortly after the invention of the telephone. At the time, it was imagined by early science fiction authors, that someday that light could be transmitted over wires, as sounds were.

The idea of using scanning to transmit images was put to actual practical use in 1881 in the pantelegraph, through the use of a pendulum-based scanning mechanism. From this period forward, scanning in one form or another, has been used in nearly every image transmission technology to date, including television. This is the concept of "rasterization", the process of converting a visual image into a stream of electrical pulses.

In 1884 Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, a 20-year old university student in Germany, patented the first electromechanical television system which employed a scanning disk, a spinning disk with a series of holes spiraling toward the center, for rasterization. The holes were spaced at equal angular intervals such that in a single rotation the disk would allow light to pass through each hole and onto a light-sensitive selenium sensor which produced the electrical pulses. As an image was focused on the rotating disk, each hole captured a horizontal "slice" of the whole image.

Nipkow's design would not be practical until advances in amplifier tube technology became available. The device was only useful for transmitting still "halftone" images — represented by equally spaced dots of varying size — over telegraph or telephone lines.^{[citation needed]} Later designs would use a rotating mirror-drum scanner to capture the image and a cathode ray tube (CRT) as a display device, but moving images were still not possible, due to the poor sensitivity of the selenium sensors. In 1907 Russian scientist Boris Rosing became the first inventor to use a CRT in the receiver of an experimental television system. He used mirror-drum scanning to transmit simple geometric shapes to the CRT.

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette images in London in 1925, and of moving, monochromatic images in 1926. Baird's scanning disk produced an image of 30 lines resolution, just enough to discern a human face, from a double spiral of lenses.^{[citation needed]}. Remarkably, in 1927 Baird also invented the world's first video recording system, "Phonovision" — by modulating the output signal of his TV camera down to the audio range he was able to capture the signal on a 10-inch wax audio disc using conventional audio recording technology. A handful of Baird's 'Phonovision' recordings survive and these were finally decoded and rendered into viewable images in the 1990s using modern digital signal-processing technology.

In 1926, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Tihanyi designed a television system utilizing fully electronic scanning and display elements, and employing the principle of "charge storage" within the scanning (or "camera") tube.

By 1927, Russian inventor Léon Theremin developed a mirror drum-based television system which used interlacing to achieve an image resolution of 100 lines.

Also in 1927, Herbert E. Ives of Bell Labs transmitted moving images from a 50-aperture disk producing 16 frames per minute over a cable from Washington, DC to New York City, and via radio from Whippany, New Jersey. Ives used viewing screens as large as 24 by 30 inches (60 by 75 centimeters). His subjects included Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover.

In 1927, Philo Farnsworth made the world's first working television system with electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices, which he first demonstrated to the press on 1 September 1928.

The first practical use of television was in Germany. Regular television broadcasts began in Germany in 1929 and in 1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin were broadcast to television stations in Berlin and Leipzig where the public could view the games live.

In 1936, Kálmán Tihanyi described the principle of plasma television, the first flat panel system.

Geographical usage

Television introduction by country      1930 to 1939      1940 to 1949      1950 to 1959      1960 to 1969      1970 to 1979      1980 to 1989      1990 to 1999      No data

• Timeline of the introduction of television in countries

Content

Programming

Getting TV programming shown to the public can happen in many different ways. After production the next step is to market and deliver the product to whatever markets are open to using it. This typically happens on two levels:

1. Original Run or First Run: a producer creates a program of one or multiple episodes and shows it on a station or network which has either paid for the production itself or to which a license has been granted by the producers to do the same.
2. Broadcast syndication: this is the terminology rather broadly used to describe secondary programming usages (beyond original run). It includes secondary runs in the country of first issue, but also international usage which may or may not be managed by the originating producer. In many cases other companies, TV stations or individuals are engaged to do the syndication work, in other words to sell the product into the markets they are allowed to sell into by contract from the copyright holders, in most cases the producers.

First run programming is increasing on subscription services outside the U.S., but few domestically produced programs are syndicated on domestic free-to-air (FTA) elsewhere. This practice is increasing however, generally on digital-only FTA channels, or with subscriber-only first-run material appearing on FTA.

Unlike the U.S., repeat FTA screenings of a FTA network program almost only occur on that network. Also, affiliates rarely buy or produce non-network programming that is not centred around local events.

Funding

Television sets per 1000 people of the world      1000+      500–1000      300–500      200–300      100–200      50–100      0–50      No data

Around the globe, broadcast television is financed by either government, advertising, licensing (a form of tax), subscription or any combination of these. To protect revenues, subscription TV channels are usually encrypted to ensure that only subscription payers receive the decryption codes to see the signal. Non-encrypted channels are known as free to air or FTA.

Advertising

Television's broad reach makes it a powerful and attractive medium for advertisers. Many television networks and stations sell blocks of broadcast time to advertisers ("sponsors") in order to fund their programming.

United States

Since inception in the U.S. in 1940, TV commercials have become one of the most effective, persuasive, and popular method of selling products of many sorts, especially consumer goods. U.S. advertising rates are determined primarily by Nielsen Ratings. The time of the day and popularity of the channel determine how much a television commercial can cost. For example, the highly popular American Idol can cost approximately $750,000 for a thirty second block of commercial time; while the same amount of time for the World Cup and the Super Bowl can cost several million dollars.

In recent years, the paid program or infomercial has become common, usually in lengths of 30 minutes or one hour. Some drug companies and other businesses have even created "news" items for broadcast, known in the industry as video news releases, paying program directors to use them.

Some TV programs also weave advertisements into their shows, a practice begun in film and known as product placement. For example, a character could be drinking a certain kind of soda, going to a particular chain restaurant, or driving a certain make of car. (This is sometimes very subtle, where shows have vehicles provided by manufacturers for low cost, rather than wrangling them.) Sometimes a specific brand or trade mark, or music from a certain artist or group, is used. (This excludes guest appearances by artists, who perform on the show.)

United Kingdom

The TV regulator oversees TV advertising in the United Kingdom. Its restrictions have applied since the early days of commercially funded TV. Despite this, an early TV mogul, Lew Grade, likened the broadcasting licence as being a "licence to print money". Restrictions mean that the big three national commercial TV channels: ITV, Channel 4, and Five can show an average of only seven minutes of advertising per hour (eight minutes in the peak period). Other broadcasters must average no more than nine minutes (twelve in the peak). This means that many imported TV shows from the US have unnatural breaks where the UK company has edited out the breaks intended for US advertising. Advertisements must not be inserted in the course of certain specific proscribed types of programs which last less than half an hour in scheduled duration, this list includes any news or current affairs program, documentaries, and programs for children. Nor may advertisements be carried in a program designed and broadcast for reception in schools or in any religious service or other devotional program, or during a formal Royal ceremony or occasion. There also must be clear demarcations in time between the programs and the advertisements.

The BBC, being strictly non-commercial is not allowed to show advertisements on television in the UK, although it has many advertising-funded channels abroad. The majority of its budget comes from TV licencing (see below) and the sale of content to other broadcasters.

Republic of Ireland

The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) (Irish: Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann) oversees advertising on television and radio within the Republic of Ireland on both private and state owned broadcasters. Similar to other European countries, advertising is found on both private and state owned broadcasters. There are some restrictions based on advertising, especially in relation to the advertising of alcohol. Such advertisements are prohibited until after 7pm. Broadcasters in the Republic of Ireland adhere to broadcasting legislation implemented by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and the European Union. Sponsorship of current affairs programming is prohibited at all times.

As of October 1, 2009 the responsibilities held by the BCI are gradually being transferred to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Taxation or license

Television services in some countries may be funded by a television licence, a form of taxation which means advertising plays a lesser role or no role at all. For example, some channels may carry no advertising at all and some very little, including:

• Australia (ABC)
• Norway (NRK)
• Sweden (SVT)
• United Kingdom (BBC)

The BBC carries no advertising on its UK channels and is funded by an annual licence paid by all households owning a television. This licence fee is set by government, but the BBC is not answerable to or controlled by government and is therefore genuinely independent.

The two main BBC TV channels are watched by almost 90 percent of the population each week and overall have 27 per cent share of total viewing. This in spite of the fact that 85% of homes are multichannel, with 42% of these having access to 200 free to air channels via satellite and another 43% having access to 30 or more channels via Freeview. The licence that funds the seven advertising-free BBC TV channels currently costs £139.50 a year (about US$215) irrespective of the number of TV sets owned. When the same sporting event has been presented on both BBC and commercial channels, the BBC always attracts the lion's share of the audience, indicating viewers prefer to watch TV uninterrupted by advertising.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) carries no advertising (except for internal promotional material) as it is banned under the ABC Act 1983. The ABC receives its funding from the Australian Government every three years. In the 2008/09 Federal Budget the ABC received A$1.13 Billion . The funds assist in providing the ABC's Television, Radio, Online and International outputs. The ABC also receives funds from its many ABC Shops across Australia. However funded by the Australian Government the editorial independence of the ABC is ensured through law.

In France and the Republic of Ireland government-funded channels carry advertisements yet those who own television sets have to pay an annual tax ("la redevance audiovisuelle").

Subscription

Some TV channels are partly funded from subscriptions and therefore the signals are encrypted during broadcast to ensure that only paying subscribers have access to the decryption codes. Most subscription services are also funded by advertising.

Genres

Television genres include a broad range of programming types that entertain, inform, and educate viewers. The most expensive entertainment genres to produce are usually drama and dramatic miniseries. However, other genres, such as historical Western genres, may also have high production costs.

Popular entertainment genres include action-oriented shows such as police, crime, detective dramas, horror, or thriller shows. As well, there are also other variants of the drama genre, such as medical dramas and daytime soap operas. Science fiction shows can fall into either the drama or action category, depending on whether they emphasize philosophical questions or high adventure. Comedy is a popular genre which includes situation comedy (sitcom) and animated shows for the adult demographic such as Family Guy.

The least expensive forms of entertainment programming are game shows, talk shows, variety shows, and reality TV. Game shows show contestants answering questions and solving puzzles to win prizes. Talk shows feature interviews with film, television and music celebrities and public figures. Variety shows feature a range of musical performers and other entertainers such as comedians and magicians introduced by a host or Master of Ceremonies. There is some crossover between some talk shows and variety shows, because leading talk shows often feature performances by bands, singers, comedians, and other performers in between the interview segments. Reality TV shows "regular" people (i.e., not actors) who are facing unusual challenges or experiences, ranging from arrest by police officers (COPS) to weight loss (The Biggest Loser). A variant version of reality shows depicts celebrities doing mundane activities such as going about their everyday life (Snoop Dogg's Father Hood) or doing manual labour (Simple Life).

Social aspects

Television has played a pivotal role in the socialization of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are many aspects of television that can be addressed, including media violence research.

Environmental aspects

The 50 years of Television commemorative coin

With high lead content in CRTs, and the rapid diffusion of new, flat-panel display technologies, some of which (LCDs) use lamps containing mercury, there is growing concern about electronic waste from discarded televisions. Related occupational health concerns exist, as well, for disassemblers removing copper wiring and other materials from CRTs. Further environmental concerns related to television design and use relate to the devices' increasing electrical energy requirements.

In numismatics

Television has had such an impact in today's life, that it has been the main motif for numerous collectors' coins and medals. One of the most recent ones is the Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Austria) minted in March 9, 2005. The obverse of the coin shows a "test pattern", while the reverse shows several milestones in the history of television.

ABOUT ELECTRONICS

Surface mount electronic components

Electronics is that branch of science and technology which makes use of the controlled motion of electrons through different media and vacuum. The ability to control electron flow is usually applied to information handling or device control. Electronics is distinct from electrical science and technology, which deals with the generation, distribution, control and application of electrical power. This distinction started around 1906 with the invention by Lee De Forest of the triode, which made electrical amplification possible with a non-mechanical device. Until 1950 this field was called "radio technology" because its principal application was the design and theory of radio transmitters, receivers and vacuum tubes.

Most electronic devices today use semiconductor components to perform electron control. The study of semiconductor devices and related technology is considered a branch of physics, whereas the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve practical problems come under electronics engineering. This article focuses on engineering aspects of electronics.

Electronic devices and components

An electronic component is any physical entity in an electronic system used to affect the electrons or their associated fields in a desired manner consistent with the intended function of the electronic system. Components are generally intended to be connected together, usually by being soldered to a printed circuit board (PCB), to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (for example an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly or in more complex groups as integrated circuits. Some common electronic components are capacitors, resistors, diodes, transistors, etc. Components are often categorized as active (e.g. transistors and thyristors) or passive (e.g. resistors and capacitors).

Types of circuits

Circuits and components can be divided into two groups: analog and digital. A particular device may consist of circuitry that has one or the other or a mix of the two types

Analog circuits

Hitachi J100 adjustable frequency drive chassis.

Most analog electronic appliances, such as radio receivers, are constructed from combinations of a few types of basic circuits. Analog circuits use a continuous range of voltage as opposed to discrete levels as in digital circuits.

The number of different analog circuits so far devised is huge, especially because a 'circuit' can be defined as anything from a single component, to systems containing thousands of components.

Analog circuits are sometimes called linear circuits although many non-linear effects are used in analog circuits such as mixers, modulators, etc. Good examples of analog circuits include vacuum tube and transistor amplifiers, operational amplifiers and oscillators.

One rarely finds modern circuits that are entirely analog. These days analog circuitry may use digital or even microprocessor techniques to improve performance. This type of circuit is usually called "mixed signal" rather than analog or digital.

Sometimes it may be difficult to differentiate between analog and digital circuits as they have elements of both linear and non-linear operation. An example is the comparator which takes in a continuous range of voltage but only outputs one of two levels as in a digital circuit. Similarly, an overdriven transistor amplifier can take on the characteristics of a controlled switch having essentially two levels of output.

Digital circuits

Digital circuits are electric circuits based on a number of discrete voltage levels. Digital circuits are the most common physical representation of Boolean algebra and are the basis of all digital computers. To most engineers, the terms "digital circuit", "digital system" and "logic" are interchangeable in the context of digital circuits. Most digital circuits use two voltage levels labeled "Low"(0) and "High"(1). Often "Low" will be near zero volts and "High" will be at a higher level depending on the supply voltage in use. Ternary (with three states) logic has been studied, and some prototype computers made.

Computers, electronic clocks, and programmable logic controllers (used to control industrial processes) are constructed of digital circuits. Digital Signal Processors are another example.

Building-blocks:

• Logic gates
• Adders
• Binary Multipliers
• Flip-Flops
• Counters
• Registers
• Multiplexers
• Schmitt triggers

Highly integrated devices:

• Microprocessors
• Microcontrollers
• Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)
• Digital signal processor (DSP)
• Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)

Heat dissipation and thermal management

Heat generated by electronic circuitry must be dissipated to prevent immediate failure and improve long term reliability. Techniques for heat dissipation can include heat sinks and fans for air cooling, and other forms of computer cooling such as water cooling. These techniques use convection, conduction, & radiation of heat energy.

Noise

Noise is associated with all electronic circuits. Noise is defined as unwanted disturbances superposed on a useful signal that tend to obscure its information content. Noise is not the same as signal distortion caused by a circuit. Noise may be electromagnetically or thermally generated, which can be decreased by lowering the operating temperature of the circuit. Other types of noise, such as shot noise cannot be removed as they are due to limitations in physical properties.

Electronics theory

Mathematical methods are integral to the study of electronics. To become proficient in electronics it is also necessary to become proficient in the mathematics of circuit analysis.

Circuit analysis is the study of methods of solving generally linear systems for unknown variables such as the voltage at a certain node or the current through a certain branch of a network. A common analytical tool for this is the SPICE circuit simulator.

Also important to electronics is the study and understanding of electromagnetic field theory.

Computer aided design (CAD)

Today's electronics engineers have the ability to design circuits using premanufactured building blocks such as power supplies, semiconductors (such as transistors), and integrated circuits. Electronic design automation software programs include schematic capture programs and printed circuit board design programs. Popular names in the EDA software world are NI Multisim, Cadence (ORCAD), Eagle PCB and Schematic, Mentor (PADS PCB and LOGIC Schematic), Altium (Protel), LabCentre Electronics (Proteus) and many others.

Construction methods

Many different methods of connecting components have been used over the years. For instance, early electronics often used point to point wiring with components attached to wooden breadboards to construct circuits. Cordwood construction and wire wraps were other methods used. Most modern day electronics now use printed circuit boards made of materials such as FR4, or the cheaper (and less hard-wearing) Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper (SRBP, also known as Paxoline/Paxolin (trade marks) and FR2) - characterised by its light yellow-to-brown colour. Health and environmental concerns associated with electronics assembly have gained increased attention in recent years, especially for products destined to the European Union, with its Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), which went into force in July 2006.

ABOUT A CAMCORDER

A camcorder (video camera recorder) is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit. Equipment manufacturers do not seem to have strict guidelines for the term usage. Marketing materials may present a video recording device as a camcorder, but the delivery package would identify content as video camera recorder.

In order to differentiate a camcorder from other devices that are capable of recording video, like cell phones and compact digital cameras, a camcorder is generally identified as a portable device having video capture and recording as its primary function.

The earliest camcorders employed analog recording onto videotape. Since the 1990s digital recording has become the norm, but tape remained the primary recording media. Starting from early 2000s tape as storage media is being gradually replaced with tapeless solutions like optical disks, hard disk drives and flash memory.

All tape-based camcorders use removable media in form of video cassettes. Camcorders that do not use magnetic tape are often called tapeless camcorders and may use optical discs (removable), solid-state flash memory (removable or built-in) or a hard disk drive (removable or built-in).

Camcorders that permit using more than one type of media, like built-in hard disk drive and memory card, are often called hybrid camcorders.

History

An arrangement of a separate portable recorder like a Betamax unit shown here and a video camera is still considered a camcorder by some sources.

This is a picture of an older style of JVC Camcorder

Video cameras originally designed for television broadcast were large and heavy, mounted on special pedestals, and wired to remote recorders located in separate rooms.

As technology advanced, out-of-studio video recording was made possible by means of compact video cameras and portable video recorders. The recording unit could be detached from the camera and carried to a shooting location. While the camera itself could be quite compact, the fact that a separate recorder had to be carried along made on-location shooting a two-man job. Specialized video cassette recorders were introduced by both JVC (VHS) and Sony (Umatic & Betamax) to be used for mobile work. The advent of the portable recorders helped to eliminate the phrase "film at eleven" — rather than wait for the lengthy process of film developing, recorded video could be shown during the 6 o'clock news.

In 1982 Sony released the Betacam system. A part of this system was a single camera-recorder unit, which eliminated the cable between camera and recorder and dramatically improved the freedom of a cameraman. Betacam quickly became the standard for both news-gathering and in-studio video editing.

In 1983 Sony released the first consumer camcorder - the Betamovie BMC-100P. It used a Betamax cassette and could not be held with one hand, so it was typically resting on a shoulder. In the same year JVC released the first camcorder based on VHS-C format. In 1985 Sony came up with its own compact video cassette format — Video8. Both formats had their benefits and drawbacks, and neither won the format war.

In 1985, Panasonic, RCA, and Hitachi began producing camcorders that recorded to full-sized VHS cassette and offered up to 3 hours of record time. These shoulder mount camcorders found a niche with videophiles, industrial videographers, and college TV studios. Super VHS full-sized camcorders were released in 1987 which exceeded broadcast quality and provided an inexpensive way to collect news segments or videographies.

In 1986 Sony introduced the first digital video format, D1. Video was recorded in uncompressed form and required enormous bandwidth for its time. In 1992 Ampex used D1 form-factor to create DCT, the first digital video format that utilized data compression. The compression utilized discrete cosine transform algorithm, which is used in most modern commercial digital video formats.

In 1995 Sony, JVC, Panasonic and other video camera manufacturers launched DV. Its variant using a smaller MiniDV cassette quickly became a de-facto standard for home and semi-professional video production, for independent filmmaking and for citizen journalism.

In 2000 Panasonic launched DVCPRO HD, expanding DV codec to support high definition. The format was intended for use in professional camcorders and used full-size DVCPRO cassettes. In 2003 Sony, JVC, Canon and Sharp introduced HDV, the first truly affordable high definition video format, which used inexpensive MiniDV cassettes.

In 2003 Sony pioneered XDCAM, the first tapeless video format, which uses Professional Disc as recording media. Panasonic followed next year, offering P2 solid state memory cards as recording medium for DVCPRO HD video.

In 2006 Panasonic and Sony introduced AVCHD as an inexpensive consumer-grade tapeless high definition video format. Presently AVCHD camcorders are manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, Canon, JVC and Hitachi.

In 2007 Sony introduced XDCAM EX, which offers similar recording modes to XDCAM HD, but records on SxS memory cards.

With proliferation of file-based digital formats the relationship between recording media and recording format became weaker than ever: the same video can be recorded onto different media. With tapeless formats, recording media has become a storage device for digital files, signifying convergence of video and computer industries.

Overview

Camcorders contain 3 major components: lens, imager, and recorder. The lens gathers and focuses light on the imager. The imager (usually a CCD or CMOS sensor on modern camcorders; earlier examples often used vidicon tubes) converts incident light into an electrical signal. Finally, the recorder converts the electric signal into digital video and encodes it into a storable form. More commonly, the optics and imager are referred to as the camera section.

Lens

The lens is the first component in the light path. The camcorder's optics generally have one or more of the following adjustments:

• aperture or iris to regulate the exposure and to control depth of field;
• zoom to control the focal length and angle of view;
• shutter speed to regulate the exposure and to maintain desired motion portrayal;
• gain to amplify signal strength in low-light conditions;
• neutral density filter to regulate the exposure.

In consumer units, the above adjustments are often automatically controlled by the camcorder's electronics, but can be adjusted manually if desired. Professional units offer direct user control of all major optical functions.

Imager

The imager converts light into electric signal. The camera lens projects an image onto the imager surface, exposing the photosensitive array to light. The light exposure is converted into electrical charge. At the end of the timed exposure, the imager converts the accumulated charge into a continuous analog voltage at the imager's output terminals. After scan-out is complete, the photosites are reset to start the exposure-process for the next video frame.

CCD chips will generally see better in low light conditions because of the CCD's nature of capturing more light in the infrared range, but will severely lack in the human visibility spectrum, thus sacrificing color, on the other hand CMOS imagers do not have great low light capability but will capture the visible spectrum better and thus displaying color properly.

Recorder

The third section, the recorder, is responsible for writing the video-signal onto a recording medium (such as magnetic videotape.) The record function involves many signal-processing steps, and historically, the recording-process introduced some distortion and noise into the stored video, such that playback of the stored-signal may not retain the same characteristics/detail as the live video feed.

All but the most primitive camcorders imaginable also need to have a recorder-controlling section which allows the user to control the camcorder, switch the recorder into playback mode for reviewing the recorded footage and an image control section which controls exposure, focus and white-balance.

The image recorded need not be limited to what appeared in the viewfinder. For documentation of events, such as used by police, the field of view overlays such things as the time and date of the recording along the top and bottom of the image. Such things as the police car or constable to which the recorder has been allotted may also appear; also the speed of the car at the time of recording. Compass direction at time of recording and geographical coordinates may also be possible. These are not kept to world-standard fields; "month/day/year" may be seen, as well as "day/month/year", besides the ISO standard "year-month-day". And the Danish police have the speed of the police car in the units "km/t" sic (time being Danish for "hour").

Consumer camcorders

Analog vs. digital

Camcorders are often classified by their storage device: VHS, VHS-C, Betamax, Video8 are examples of older, videotape-based camcorders which record video in analog form. Newer camcorders include Digital8, MiniDV, DVD, Hard Disk and solid-state (flash) semiconductor memory, which all record video in digital form. (Please see the digital video page for details.) In older digital camcorders, the imager-chip, the CCD was considered an analog component, so the digital namesake is in reference to the camcorder's processing and recording of the video. Many next generation camcorders use a CMOS imager, which register photons as binary data as soon as the photons hit the imager and thus tightly marrying part 2 and 3.

It should be noted that the take up of digital video storage in camcorders was an enormous milestone. MiniDV storage allows full resolution video (720x576 for PAL,720x480 for NTSC), unlike previous analogue video standards. Digital video doesn't experience colour bleeding, jitter, or fade, although some users still prefer the analog nature of Hi8 and Super VHS-C, since neither of these produce the "background blur" or "mosquito noise" of Digital compression. In many cases, a high-quality analog recording shows more detail (such as rough textures on a wall) than a compressed digital recording (which would show the same wall as flat and featureless). Although, the low resolution of analogue camcorders may negate any such benefits.

The highest-quality digital formats, such as Digital Betacam and DVCPRO HD, have the advantage over analog of suffering little generation loss in recording, dubbing, and editing (MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 do suffer from generation loss in the editing process only). Whereas noise and bandwidth problems relating to cables, amplifiers, and mixers can greatly affect analog recordings, such problems are minimal in digital formats using digital connections (generally IEEE 1394, SDI/SDTI, or HDMI).

Although both analog and digital can suffer from archival problems, digital is more prone to complete loss. Theoretically digital information can be stored indefinitely with zero deterioration on a digital storage device (such as a hard drive), however since some digital formats (like MiniDV) often squeeze tracks only ~10 micrometers apart (versus ~500 ?m for VHS), a digital recording is more vulnerable to wrinkles or stretches in the tape that could permanently erase several scenes worth of digital data, but the additions tracking and error correction code on the tape will generally compensate for most defects. On analog media similar damage barely registers as "noise" in the video, still leaving a deteriorated but watchable video. The only limitation is that this video has to be played on a completely analogue viewing system, otherwise the tape will not display any video due to the damage and sync problems. Even digital recordings on DVD are known to suffer from DVD rot that permanently erase huge chunks of data. Thus the one advantage analog seems to have in this respect is that an analog recording may be "usable" even after the media it is stored on has suffered severe deterioration whereas it has been noticed that even slight media degradation in digital recordings may cause them to suffer from an "all or nothing" failure, i.e. the digital recording will end up being totally un-playable without very expensive restoration work.

Modern recording media

For more information, see tapeless camcorder.

Some recent camcorders record video on flash memory devices, Microdrives, small hard disks, and size-reduced DVD-RAM or DVD-Rs using MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 formats. However because these codecs use inter-frame compression, frame-specific-editing requires frame regeneration, which incurs additional processing and can cause loss of picture information. (In professional usage, it is common to use a codec that will store every frame inidividually. This provides easier and faster frame-specific editing of scenes.)

Most other digital consumer camcorders record in DV or HDV format on tape and transfer content over FireWire (some also use USB 2.0) to a computer, where the huge files (for DV, 1GB for 4 to 4.6 minutes in PAL/NTSC resolutions) can be edited, converted, and (with many camcorders) also recorded back to tape. The transfer is done in real time, so the complete transfer of a 60 minute tape needs one hour to transfer and about 13GB disk space for the raw footage only - excluding any space needed for render files, and other media. Time spent in post-production (editing) to select and cut the best shots varies from instantaneous "magic" movies to hours of tedious selection, arrangement and rendering.

Consumer market

As the mass consumer market favors ease of use, portability, and price, most of the consumer-grade camcorders sold today emphasize handling and automation features over raw audio/video performance. This segment has followed an evolutionary path driven by relentless miniaturization and cost-reduction, made possible by progress in design and manufacturing. Miniaturization conflicts with the imager's ability to gather-light, and designers have delicately balanced improvements in sensor-sensitivity with sensor-size reduction, shrinking the overall camera imager & optics, while maintaining reasonablely noise-free video in broad daylight. Indoor or dim light shooting is generally unacceptably noisy, and in such conditions, artificial lighting is highly recommended. Mechanical controls do not scale below a certain-size, and manual camera-operation has given way to camera-controlled automation for every shooting parameter (focus, aperature, shutter-speed, white balance, etc.) The few models that do retain manual-override frequently require the user to navigate a cumbersome menu-interface. Outputs include USB 2.0, Composite and S-Video, and IEEE 1394/Firewire (for MiniDV models). On the plus-side, today's camcorders are affordable to a wider-segment of the consumer market, and available in a wider variety of formfactors and functionality, from the classic camcorder-shape, to small flip-cameras, to video-capable camera-phones and digicams.

At the high-end of the consumer-market, there is a greater emphasis on user-control and advanced shooting modes. Feature-wise, there is some overlap between the high-end consumer and prosumer markets. More expensive consumer camcorders generally offer manual exposure control, HDMI-output and external audio-input, progressive-scan frame-rates (24fps, 25fps, 30fps), and better lenses than basic models. In order to maximize low-light capability, color-reproduction, and frame-resolution, a few manufacturers offer multi-CCD/CMOS camcorders, which mimic the 3-element imager design used in professional equipment. Field tests have demonstrated most consumer camcorders (regardless of price), to produce noisy video in low light.

Before the 21st century, video editing was a difficult task requiring a minimum of two recorders. Now, the typical home Personal Computer can hold several hours of standard-definition video, and is fast enough to edit footage without additional upgrades. Most consumer camcorders are sold with a basic video editing program, so users can easily create their own DVD-videos, or share their edited-footage online.

JVC GZ-MG555 hybrid camcorder (MPEG-2 SD Video)

In the first world market, nearly all camcorders sold today are digital. Tape-based (MiniDV/HDV) camcorders are declining in popularity, as tapeless models (miniDVD, SD-card, hard-drive) cost almost the same, but offer greater convenience. For example, video captured on SD-card can be transferred to PC much faster than digital-tape. Hard-disk camcorders feature the longest continuous recording-time, though the durability of the Hard Drive is a concern for harsh and high-altitude environments. Footage from miniDVD camcorders can be dropped into and player on a DVD-player.

As of 2007, analog camcorders are still available but not widely marketed anymore. Even with a street price below US$200, both digital-tape and basic-tapeless technology have reached price parity with the older analog-tape, which suffers many disadvantages compared to the newer units, and all low-end camcorders face market pressure from the rising popularity of multi-function devices (cameraphones, digicams) with basic video-recording capability.

Other devices with video-capture capability

Video-capture capability is not confined to camcorders. Cellphones, digital single lens reflex and compact digicams, laptops, and personal media players frequently offer some form of video-capture capability. In general, these multipurpose-devices offer less functionality for video-capture, than a traditional camcorder. The absence of manual adjustments, external-audio input, and even basic usability functions (such as autofocus and lens-zoom) are common limitations. More importantly, few can capture to standard TV-video formats (480p60, 720p60, 1080i30), and instead record in either non-TV resolutions (320x240, 640x480, etc.) or slower frame-rates (15fps, 30fps.)

When used in the role of a camcorder, a multipurpose-device tends to offer inferior handling and audio/video performance, which limits its usability for extended and/or adverse shooting situations. However, much as camera-equipped cellphones are now ubiquitous, video-equipped electronic devices will likely become commonplace, replacing the market for low-end camcorders.

The past few years have seen the introduction of a slew of DSLR cameras with high-definition video. Although the current crop still suffer from the typical handling and usability deficiencies of other multipurpose-devices, DSLR video offers two videographic features unavailable on consumer camcorders, shallow depth-of-field and interchangeable lenses. Professional video-cameras possessing these capabilities are currently more expensive than even the most expensive video-capable DSLR. In video applications where the DSLR's operational deficiencies can be mitigated by meticulous planning of the each shooting location, a growing number of video productions are employing DSLRs, such as the Canon 5D Mark II, to fulfill the desire for depth-of-field and optical-perspective control. Whether in a studio or on-location setup, the scene's environmental factors and camera placement are known beforehand, allowing the directory of photography to determine the proper camera/lens setup and apply any necessary environmental adjustments, such as lighting.

A recent development to combine the feature-sets of full-feature still-camera and camcorder in a single unit, is the combo-camera. The Sanyo Xacti HD1 was the first such combo unit, combining the features of a 5.1 megapixel still-camera with a 720p video recorder. Overall, the product was a step forward in terms of a single-device's combined level of handling and usability . The combo camera's concept has caught on with competing manufacturers; Canon and Sony have introduced camcorders with still-photo performance approaching a traditional digicam, while Panasonic has introduced a DSLR-body with video features approaching a traditional camcorder.

Uses

Media

Operating a camcorder

Camcorders have found use in nearly all corners of electronic media, from electronic news organizations to TV/current-affairs productions. In locations away from a distribution infrastructure, camcorders are invaluable for initial video acquisition. Subsequently, the video is transmitted electronically to a studio/production center for broadcast. Scheduled events such as official press conferences, where a video infrastructure is readily available or can be feasibly deployed in advance, are still covered by studio-type video cameras (tethered to "production trucks.")

Home video

For casual use, camcorders often cover weddings, birthdays, graduation ceremonies, kids growing up, and other personal events. The rise of the consumer camcorder in the mid to late '80s led to the creation of shows such as the long-running America's Funniest Home Videos, where people could showcase homemade video footage.

Politics

Political protestors who have capitalized on the value of media coverage use camcorders to film things they believe to be unjust. Animal rights protesters who break into factory farms and animal testing labs use camcorders to film the conditions the animals are living in. Anti-hunting protesters film fox hunts. Tax protesters provide live coverage of anti-tax demonstrations and protests. Anti-globalization protesters film the police to deter police brutality. If the police do use violence there will be evidence on video. Activist videos often appear on Indymedia.

The police use camcorders to film riots, protests and the crowds at sporting events. The film can be used to spot and pick out troublemakers, who can then be prosecuted in court.

Entertainment and movies

Camcorders are often used in the production of low-budget TV shows where the production crew does not have access to more expensive equipment. There are even examples of movies shot entirely on consumer camcorder equipment (such as The Blair Witch Project and 28 Days Later). In addition, many academic filmmaking programs have switched from 16mm film to digital video, due to the vastly reduced expense and ease of editing of the digital medium as well as the increasing scarcity of film stock and equipment. Some camcorder manufacturers cater to this market, particularly Canon and Panasonic, who both support "24p" (24 frame/s, progressive scan; same frame rate as standard cinema film) video in some of their high-end models for easy film conversion.

Even high-budget cinema is done using camcorders in some cases; George Lucas used Sony CineAlta camcorders in two of his three Star Wars prequel movies. This process is referred to as digital cinematography.

Formats

The following list covers consumer equipment only. (For other formats see Videotape)

Analog

8 mm Camcorder

Lo-Band: Approximately 3 megahertz bandwidth (250 lines EIA resolution or ~333x480 edge-to-edge)

• BCE (1954): First tape storage for video, manufactured by Bing Crosby Entertainment from Ampex equipment.
• BCE Coloer (1955): First color tape storage for video, manufactured by Bing Crosby Entertainment from Ampex equipment.
• Simplex (1955): Developed commercially by RCA and used to record several live broadcasts by NBC.
• Quadruplex (1955): Developed formally by Ampex, and this became the recording standard for the next 20 years.
• Vera (1955): An experimental recording standard developed by the BBC, but was never used or sold commercially.
• Umatic (1971): The initial tape used by Sony to record video.
• Umatics (1974): A small sized version of Umatic used for portable recorders.
• Betamax (1975): Only used on very old Sony and Sanyo camcorders and portables; obsolete by the mid/late-80s in the consumer market.
• Type B (1976): Co-developed by Sony and Ampex and this became the broadcast standard in europe for most of the 1980s.
• Type C (1976): Co-developed by Sony and Ampex.
• VHS (1976): Compatible with VHS standard VCRs, though VHS camcorders are no longer made.
• VHS-C (1982): Originally designed for portable VCRs, this standard was later adapted for use in compact consumer camcorders; identical in quality to VHS; cassettes play in standard VHS VCRs using an adapter. Still available in the low-end consumer market (JVC model GR-AXM18 is VHS-C; see page 19 of the owner's manual). Relatively short running time compared to other formats.
• Betacam (1982): Introduced by Sony as a 1/2 inch tape for professional video recorders.
• Video8 (1985): Small-format tape developed by Sony to combat VHS-C's compact palm-sized design; equivalent to VHS or Betamax in picture quality, but not compatible. High quality audio as standard.

Hi-Band: Approximately 5 megahertz bandwidth (420 lines EIA resolution or ~550x480 edge-to-edge)

• Umatic BVU (1982): Largely used in high-end consumer and professional equipment. The introduction of Umatic BVU spelled the end of 16mm film recordings.
• Umatic BVU-SP (1985): Largely used in high-end consumer and professional equipment. The introduction of Umatic BVU spelled the end of 16mm film recordings.
• Betacam-SP (1986): An minor upgrade to the Betacam format, but because of the upgrade, it became a broadcast standard.
• MII (1986): Panasonic's answer to Betacam-SP
• S-VHS (1987): Largely used in medium-end consumer and prosumer equipment; rare among mainstream consumer equipment, and rendered obsolete by digital gear like DigiBetacam and DV.
• S-VHS-C (1987): An upgrade to provide near-laserdisc quality. Now limited to the low-end consumer market (example: JVC SXM38). As per VHS-C, relatively short running time compared to other formats.
• Hi8 (1988): Enhanced-quality Video8; roughly equivalent to Super VHS in picture quality, but not compatible. High quality audio as standard. Now limited to low-end consumer market (example: Sony TRV138)

Digital

MICROMV camcorder and tape (top) compared to MiniDV and Hi8 tapes

• Umatic (1982): An experiments overhaul was made to umatic to record digital video, but this was impractical and the tapes were used as a transport for digital audio only. This led to the D series of tapes about 4 years later.
• D1 (Sony) (1986): The first digital video recorder. It used digitized component video, encoded at Y'CbCr 4:2:2 using the CCIR 601 raster form and experimentally supported full HD broadcasts.
• D2 (video format) (1988): This was a cheap alternative the D1 tape created by Ampex and this actually encoded video digitally instead of sampling composite video and experimentally supported full HD broadcasts.
• D3 (1991): Created by Panasonic to compete with the Ampex D2 and experimentally supported full HD broadcasts.
• DCT (videocassette format) (1992): This was the first compressed video tape format created by Ampex based on the D1 format. It used discrete cosine transform as its codec of choice. DST was a data-only standard introduced to the rapidly growing IT industry.
• D5 HD (1994): 1080i digital standard introduced by Sony based on the D1 tape.
• Editcam (1995): First drive recording standard introduced by Ikegami. FieldPak used a IDE hard and RAMPak used a set of flash ram modules. It can record in DV25, Avid JFIF, DV, MPEG IMX, DVCPRO50, and Avid DNxHD format, depending on generation.
• Digital-s (1995): JVC debuted a digital tape similar to VHS but had a different tape inside and supported digital HD broadcasts. Widely used by FOX broadcasting. Also called D-9.
• MiniDV (1995): Smaller version of the DV standard released by Sony. Became the most widespread standard-definition digital camcorder technology for several years.
• DVD (1995): Uses either Mini DVD-R or DVD-RAM. This is a multi-manufacturer standard that uses 8 cm DVD discs for 30 minutes of video. DVD-R can be played on consumer DVD players but cannot be added to or recorded over once finalized for viewing. DVD-RAM can be added to and/or recorded over, but cannot be played on many consumer DVD players, and costs a lot more than other types of DVD recordable media. The DVD-RW is another option allowing the user to re-record, but only records sequentially and must be finalized for viewing. The discs do cost more than the DVD-R format, which only records once. DVD discs are also very vulnerable to scratches. DVD camcorders are generally not designed to connect to computers for editing purposes, though some high-end DVD units do record surround sound, a feature not standard with DV equipment.
• DV (1996): Sony debuted the DV format tape with DVCAM being professional and DVCPRO being a Panasonic variant.
• D-VHS (1998): JVC debuted the digital standard of VHS tape and which supported 1080p HD. Many units also supported IEEE1394 recording.
• Digital8 (1999): Uses Hi8 tapes (Sony is the only company currently producing D8 camcorders, though Hitachi once also did). Most, but not all models of Digital 8 cameras have the ability to read older Video8 and Hi8 analog format tapes. The format's technical specifications are of the same quality as MiniDV (both use the same DV codec), and although no professional-level Digital8 equipment exists, D8 has been used to make TV and movie productions (example: Hall of Mirrors).
• MICROMV (2001): Uses a matchbox-sized cassette. Sony was the only electronics manufacturer for this format, and editing software was proprietary to Sony and only available on Microsoft Windows; however, open source programmers did manage to create capture software for Linux. The hardware is no longer in production, though tapes are still available through Sony.
• XDCAM (2003): A professional blu-ray standard introduced by Sony. This is similar to that of regular BRD but used different codecs, namely MPEG IMX, DV25 (DVCAM), MPEG-4, MPEG-2, and HD422.
• Blu-ray Disc (2003): Presently, Hitachi is the only manufacturer of Blu-ray Disc camcorders.
• P2 (2004): First solid state recording medium of professional quality, introduced by Panasonic. Recorded DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, DVCPRO-HD, or AVC-Intra stream onto the card.
• HDV (2004): Records up to an hour of HDTV MPEG-2 signal roughly equal to broadcast quality HD on a standard MiniDV cassette.
• SxS (2007): Jointly developed by Sony and Sandisk. This is a solid state format of XDCAM and is known as XDCAM EX.
• MPEG-2 codec based format, which records MPEG-2 program stream or MPEG-2 transport stream to various kinds of tapeless media (hard disks, solid-state memory, etc). Used both for standard definition (JVC, Panasonic) and high definition (JVC) recording.
• H.264, shorthand term for compressed video using the H.264 codec that is part of the MPEG-4 standard in an MPEG-4 file most often stored to tapeless media.
• AVCHD, a format that puts H.264 video into a transport stream file format. The video is compressed according to the MPEG-4 AVC (aka H.264) format, but the file format is not MPEG-4.

Digital camcorders and operating systems

Since most manufacturers focus their support on Windows and Mac users, users of other operating systems often are unable to receive support for these devices. However, open source products such as Cinelerra and Kino (written for the Linux operating system) do allow full editing of some digital formats on alternative operating systems, and software to edit DV streams in particular is available on most platforms.

ABOUT A RADIO

Classic radio receiver dial

Radio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space. Information is carried by systematically changing (modulating) some property of the radiated waves, such as amplitude, frequency, phase, or pulse width. When radio waves pass an electrical conductor, the oscillating fields induce an alternating current in the conductor. This can be detected and transformed into sound or other signals that carry information.

Etymology

Originally, radio or radiotelegraphy was called "wireless telegraphy", which was shortened to "wireless" by the British. The prefix radio- in the sense of wireless transmission, was first recorded in the word radioconductor, coined by the French physicist Édouard Branly in 1897 and based on the verb to radiate (in Latin "radius" means "spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray"). "Radio" as a noun is said to have been coined by the advertising expert Waldo Warren (White 1944). This word also appears in a 1907 article by Lee De Forest, was adopted by the United States Navy in 1912 and became common by the time of the first commercial broadcasts in the United States in the 1920s. (The noun "broadcasting" itself came from an agricultural term, meaning "scattering seeds widely".) The term was then adopted by other languages in Europe and Asia. British Commonwealth countries continued to mainly use the term "wireless" until the mid-20th century, though the magazine of the BBC in the UK has been called Radio Times ever since it was first published in the early 1920s.

In recent years the term "wireless" has gained renewed popularity through the rapid growth of short-range computer networking, e.g., Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), WiFi, and Bluetooth, as well as mobile telephony, e.g., GSM and UMTS. Today, the term "radio" often refers to the actual transceiver device or chip, whereas "wireless" refers to the system and/or method used for radio communication, hence one talks about radio transceivers and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), but about wireless devices and wireless sensor networks.

Processes

Radio systems used for communications will have the following elements. With more than 100 years of development, each process is implemented by a wide range of methods, specialized for different communications purposes.

Each system contains a transmitter. This consists of a source of electrical energy, producing alternating current of a desired frequency of oscillation. The transmitter contains a system to modulate (change) some property of the energy produced to impress a signal on it. This modulation might be as simple as turning the energy on and off, or altering more subtle properties such as amplitude, frequency, phase, or combinations of these properties. The transmitter sends the modulated electrical energy to a tuned resonant antenna; this structure converts the rapidly-changing alternating current into an electromagnetic wave that can move through free space (sometimes with a particular polarization (waves)).

Electromagnetic waves travel through space either directly, or have their path altered by reflection, refraction or diffraction. The intensity of the waves diminishes due to geometric dispersion (the inverse-square law); some energy may also be absorbed by the intervening medium in some cases. Noise will generally alter the desired signal; this electromagnetic interference comes from natural sources, as well as from artificial sources such as other transmitters and accidental radiators. Noise is also produced at every step due to the inherent properties of the devices used. If the magnitude of the noise is large enough, the desired signal will no longer be discernible; this is the fundamental limit to the range of radio communications.

The electromagnetic wave is intercepted by a tuned receiving antenna; this structure captures some of the energy of the wave and returns it to the form of oscillating electrical currents. At the receiver, these currents are demodulated, which is conversion to a usable signal form by a detector sub-system. The receiver is "tuned" to respond preferentially to the desired signals, and reject undesired signals.

Early radio systems relied entirely on the energy collected by an antenna to produce signals for the operator. Radio became more useful after the invention of electronic devices such as the vacuum tube and later the transistor, which made it possible to amplify weak signals. Today radio systems are used for applications from walkie-talkie children's toys to the control of space vehicles, as well as for broadcasting, and many other applications.

Electromagnetic spectrum

Radio frequencies occupy the range from a few tens of hertz to three hundred gigahertz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum. Other types of electromagnetic radiation, with frequencies above the RF range, are microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. Since the energy of an individual photon of radio frequency is too low to remove an electron from an atom, radio waves are classified as non-ionizing radiation.

History

Invention

The meaning and usage of the word "radio" has developed in parallel with developments within the field and can be seen to have three distinct phases: electromagnetic waves and experimentation; wireless communication and technical development; and radio broadcasting and commercialization. Many individuals -- inventors, engineers, developers, businessmen - contributed to produce the modern idea of radio and thus the origins and 'invention' are multiple and controversial. Early radio could not transmit sound or speech and was called the "wireless telegraph".

Development from a laboratory demonstration to a commercial entity spanned several decades and required the efforts of many practitioners. Experiments, later patented, were undertaken by Thomas Edison and his employees of Menlo Park. Edison applied in 1885 to the U.S. Patent Office for his patent on an electrostatic coupling system between elevated terminals. The patent was granted as U.S. Patent 465,971 on December 29, 1891. The Marconi Company would later purchase rights to the Edison patent to protect them legally from lawsuits.

Tesla demonstrating wireless transmissions during his high frequency and potential lecture of 1891. After continued research, Tesla presented the fundamentals of radio in 1893.

In 1893, in St. Louis, Missouri, Nikola Tesla made devices for his experiments with electricity. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the National Electric Light Association, he described and demonstrated the principles of his wireless work. The descriptions contained all the elements that were later incorporated into radio systems before the development of the vacuum tube. He initially experimented with magnetic receivers, unlike the coherers (detecting devices consisting of tubes filled with iron filings which had been invented by Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti at Fermo in Italy in 1884) used by Guglielmo Marconi and other early experimenters.

A demonstration of wireless telegraphy took place in the lecture theater of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on August 14, 1894, carried out by Professor Oliver Lodge and Alexander Muirhead. During the demonstration a radio signal was sent from the neighboring Clarendon laboratory building, and received by apparatus in the lecture theater.

In 1895 Alexander Stepanovich Popov built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer. Further refined as a lightning detector, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895. A depiction of Popov's lightning detector was printed in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society the same year. Popov's receiver was created on the improved basis of Lodge's receiver, and originally intended for reproduction of its experiments.

Commercialization

Telephone Herald in Budapest, Hungary (1901).

In 1896, Marconi was awarded the British patent 12039, Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for, for radio. In 1897 he established a radio station on the Isle of Wight, England. Marconi opened his "wireless" factory in Hall Street, Chelmsford, England in 1898, employing around 50 people.

The next advancement was the vacuum tube detector, invented by Westinghouse engineers. On Christmas Eve, 1906, Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible. This was, for all intents and purposes, the first transmission of what is now known as amplitude modulation or AM radio. The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan, which survives today as all-news format station WWJ under ownership of the CBS network. The first college radio station began broadcasting on October 14, 1920, from Union College, Schenectady, New York under the personal call letters of Wendell King, an African-American student at the school. That month 2ADD, later renamed WRUC in 1940, aired what is believed to be the first public entertainment broadcast in the United States, a series of Thursday night concerts initially heard within a 100-mile (160 km) radius and later for a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) radius. In November 1920, it aired the first broadcast of a sporting event. At 9 pm on August 27, 1920, Sociedad Radio Argentina aired a live performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal opera from the Coliseo Theater in downtown Buenos Aires. Only about twenty homes in the city had receivers to tune in this radio program. Meanwhile, regular entertainment broadcasts commenced in 1922 from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle, England.

American girl listens to radio during the Great Depression.

One of the first developments in the early 20th century (1900-1959) was that aircraft used commercial AM radio stations for navigation. This continued until the early 1960s when VOR systems finally became widespread (though AM stations are still marked on U.S. aviation charts). In the early 1930s, single sideband and frequency modulation were invented by amateur radio operators. By the end of the decade, they were established commercial modes. Radio was used to transmit pictures visible as television as early as the 1920s. Commercial television transmissions started in North America and Europe in the 1940s. In 1954, the Regency company introduced a pocket transistor radio, the TR-1, powered by a "standard 22.5 V Battery".

In 1960, the Sony company introduced its first transistorized radio. It was small enough to fit in a vest pocket, and able to be powered by a small battery. It was durable, because it had no vacuum tubes to burn out. Over the next 20 years, transistors replaced tubes almost completely except for very high-power transmitter uses. By 1963, color television was being regularly broadcast commercially (though not all broadcasts or programs were in color), and the first (radio) communication satellite, Telstar, was launched. In the late 1960s, the U.S. long-distance telephone network began to convert to a digital network, employing digital radios for many of its links. In the 1970s, LORAN became the premier radio navigation system. Soon, the U.S. Navy experimented with satellite navigation, culminating in the invention and launch of the GPS constellation in 1987. In the early 1990s, amateur radio experimenters began to use personal computers with audio cards to process radio signals. In 1994, the U.S. Army and DARPA launched an aggressive, successful project to construct a software-defined radio that can be programmed to be virtually any radio by changing its software program. Digital transmissions began to be applied to broadcasting in the late 1990s.

Uses of radio

Early uses were maritime, for sending telegraphic messages using Morse code between ships and land. The earliest users included the Japanese Navy scouting the Russian fleet during the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. One of the most memorable uses of marine telegraphy was during the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, including communications between operators on the sinking ship and nearby vessels, and communications to shore stations listing the survivors.

Radio was used to pass on orders and communications between armies and navies on both sides in World War I; Germany used radio communications for diplomatic messages once it discovered that its submarine cables had been tapped by the British. The United States passed on President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points to Germany via radio during the war. Broadcasting began from San Jose, California in 1909, and became feasible in the 1920s, with the widespread introduction of radio receivers, particularly in Europe and the United States. Besides broadcasting, point-to-point broadcasting, including telephone messages and relays of radio programs, became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s. Another use of radio in the pre-war years was the development of detection and locating of aircraft and ships by the use of radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging).

Today, radio takes many forms, including wireless networks and mobile communications of all types, as well as radio broadcasting. Before the advent of television, commercial radio broadcasts included not only news and music, but dramas, comedies, variety shows, and many other forms of entertainment. Radio was unique among methods of dramatic presentation in that it used only sound. For more, see radio programming.

Audio

A Fisher 500 AM/FM hi-fi receiver from 1959.

AM radio uses amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the transmitted signal is made proportional to the sound amplitude captured (transduced) by the microphone, while the transmitted frequency remains unchanged. Transmissions are affected by static and interference because lightning and other sources of radio emissions on the same frequency add their amplitudes to the original transmitted amplitude. In the early part of the 20th century, American AM radio stations broadcast with powers as high as 500 kW, and some could be heard worldwide; these stations' transmitters were commandeered for military use by the US Government during World War II. Currently, the maximum broadcast power for a civilian AM radio station in the United States and Canada is 50 kW, and the majority of stations that emit signals this powerful were grandfathered in (see List of 50kw AM radio stations in the USA). In 1986 KTNN received the last granted 50,000 watt license. These 50 kW stations are generally called "clear channel" stations (not to be confused with Clear Channel Communications), because within North America each of these stations has exclusive use of its broadcast frequency throughout part or all of the broadcast day.

Bush House, home of the BBC World Service.

FM broadcast radio sends music and voice with higher fidelity than AM radio. In frequency modulation, amplitude variation at the microphone causes the transmitter frequency to fluctuate. Because the audio signal modulates the frequency and not the amplitude, an FM signal is not subject to static and interference in the same way as AM signals. Due to its need for a wider bandwidth, FM is transmitted in the Very High Frequency (VHF, 30 MHz to 300 MHz) radio spectrum. VHF radio waves act more like light, traveling in straight lines; hence the reception range is generally limited to about 50-100 miles. During unusual upper atmospheric conditions, FM signals are occasionally reflected back towards the Earth by the ionosphere, resulting in long distance FM reception. FM receivers are subject to the capture effect, which causes the radio to only receive the strongest signal when multiple signals appear on the same frequency. FM receivers are relatively immune to lightning and spark interference.

High power is useful in penetrating buildings, diffracting around hills, and refracting in the dense atmosphere near the horizon for some distance beyond the horizon. Consequently, 100,000 watt FM stations can regularly be heard up to 100 miles (160 km) away, and farther (e.g., 150 miles, 240 km) if there are no competing signals. A few old, "grandfathered" stations do not conform to these power rules. WBCT-FM (93.7) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, runs 320,000 watts ERP, and can increase to 500,000 watts ERP by the terms of its original license. Such a huge power level does not usually help to increase range as much as one might expect, because VHF frequencies travel in nearly straight lines over the horizon and off into space. Nevertheless, when there were fewer FM stations competing, this station could be heard near Bloomington, Illinois, USA, almost 300 miles (500 km) away.^{[citation needed]}

FM subcarrier services are secondary signals transmitted in a "piggyback" fashion along with the main program. Special receivers are required to utilize these services. Analog channels may contain alternative programming, such as reading services for the blind, background music or stereo sound signals. In some extremely crowded metropolitan areas, the sub-channel program might be an alternate foreign language radio program for various ethnic groups. Sub-carriers can also transmit digital data, such as station identification, the current song's name, web addresses, or stock quotes. In some countries, FM radios automatically re-tune themselves to the same channel in a different district by using sub-bands.

Aviation voice radios use VHF AM. AM is used so that multiple stations on the same channel can be received. (Use of FM would result in stronger stations blocking out reception of weaker stations due to FM's capture effect). Aircraft fly high enough that their transmitters can be received hundreds of miles (or kilometres) away, even though they are using VHF.

Marine voice radios can use single sideband voice (SSB) in the shortwave High Frequency (HF—3 MHz to 30 MHz) radio spectrum for very long ranges or narrowband FM in the VHF spectrum for much shorter ranges. Narrowband FM sacrifices fidelity to make more channels available within the radio spectrum, by using a smaller range of radio frequencies, usually with five kHz of deviation, versus the 75 kHz used by commercial FM broadcasts, and 25 kHz used for TV sound.

Government, police, fire and commercial voice services also use narrowband FM on special frequencies. Early police radios used AM receivers to receive one-way dispatches.

Civil and military HF (high frequency) voice services use shortwave radio to contact ships at sea, aircraft and isolated settlements. Most use single sideband voice (SSB), which uses less bandwidth than AM. On an AM radio SSB sounds like ducks quacking, or the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Viewed as a graph of frequency versus power, an AM signal shows power where the frequencies of the voice add and subtract with the main radio frequency. SSB cuts the bandwidth in half by suppressing the carrier and (usually) lower sideband. This also makes the transmitter about three times more powerful, because it doesn't need to transmit the unused carrier and sideband.

TETRA, Terrestrial Trunked Radio is a digital cell phone system for military, police and ambulances. Commercial services such as XM, WorldSpace and Sirius offer encrypted digital Satellite radio.

Telephony

Mobile phones transmit to a local cell site (transmitter/receiver) that ultimately connects to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) through an optic fiber or microwave radio and other network elements. When the mobile phone nears the edge of the cell site's radio coverage area, the central computer switches the phone to a new cell. Cell phones originally used FM, but now most use various digital modulation schemes. Recent developments in Sweden (such as DROPme) allow for the instant downloading of digital material from a radio broadcast (such as a song) to a mobile phone.

Satellite phones use satellites rather than cell towers to communicate.

Video

Television sends the picture as AM and the sound as AM or FM, with the sound carrier a fixed frequency (4.5 MHz in the NTSC system) away from the video carrier. Analog television also uses a vestigial sideband on the video carrier to reduce the bandwidth required.

Digital television uses 8VSB modulation in North America (under the ATSC digital television standard), and COFDM modulation elsewhere in the world (using the DVB-T standard). A Reed–Solomon error correction code adds redundant correction codes and allows reliable reception during moderate data loss. Although many current and future codecs can be sent in the MPEG transport stream container format, as of 2006 most systems use a standard-definition format almost identical to DVD: MPEG-2 video in Anamorphic widescreen and MPEG layer 2 (MP2) audio. High-definition television is possible simply by using a higher-resolution picture, but H.264/AVC is being considered as a replacement video codec in some regions for its improved compression. With the compression and improved modulation involved, a single "channel" can contain a high-definition program and several standard-definition programs.

Navigation

All satellite navigation systems use satellites with precision clocks. The satellite transmits its position, and the time of the transmission. The receiver listens to four satellites, and can figure its position as being on a line that is tangent to a spherical shell around each satellite, determined by the time-of-flight of the radio signals from the satellite. A computer in the receiver does the math.

Radio direction-finding is the oldest form of radio navigation. Before 1960 navigators used movable loop antennas to locate commercial AM stations near cities. In some cases they used marine radiolocation beacons, which share a range of frequencies just above AM radio with amateur radio operators. LORAN systems also used time-of-flight radio signals, but from radio stations on the ground. VOR (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range), systems (used by aircraft), have an antenna array that transmits two signals simultaneously. A directional signal rotates like a lighthouse at a fixed rate. When the directional signal is facing north, an omnidirectional signal pulses. By measuring the difference in phase of these two signals, an aircraft can determine its bearing or radial from the station, thus establishing a line of position. An aircraft can get readings from two VORs and locate its position at the intersection of the two radials, known as a "fix." When the VOR station is collocated with DME (Distance Measuring Equipment), the aircraft can determine its bearing and range from the station, thus providing a fix from only one ground station. Such stations are called VOR/DMEs. The military operates a similar system of navaids, called TACANs, which are often built into VOR stations. Such stations are called VORTACs. Because TACANs include distance measuring equipment, VOR/DME and VORTAC stations are identical in navigation potential to civil aircraft.

Radar

Radar (Radio Detection And Ranging) detects objects at a distance by bouncing radio waves off them. The delay caused by the echo measures the distance. The direction of the beam determines the direction of the reflection. The polarization and frequency of the return can sense the type of surface. Navigational radars scan a wide area two to four times per minute. They use very short waves that reflect from earth and stone. They are common on commercial ships and long-distance commercial aircraft.

General purpose radars generally use navigational radar frequencies, but modulate and polarize the pulse so the receiver can determine the type of surface of the reflector. The best general-purpose radars distinguish the rain of heavy storms, as well as land and vehicles. Some can superimpose sonar data and map data from GPS position.

Search radars scan a wide area with pulses of short radio waves. They usually scan the area two to four times a minute. Sometimes search radars use the Doppler effect to separate moving vehicles from clutter. Targeting radars use the same principle as search radar but scan a much smaller area far more often, usually several times a second or more. Weather radars resemble search radars, but use radio waves with circular polarization and a wavelength to reflect from water droplets. Some weather radar use the Doppler effect to measure wind speeds.

Data (digital radio)

2008 Pure One Classic digital radio

Most new radio systems are digital, see also: Digital TV, Satellite Radio, Digital Audio Broadcasting. The oldest form of digital broadcast was spark gap telegraphy, used by pioneers such as Marconi. By pressing the key, the operator could send messages in Morse code by energizing a rotating commutating spark gap. The rotating commutator produced a tone in the receiver, where a simple spark gap would produce a hiss, indistinguishable from static. Spark gap transmitters are now illegal, because their transmissions span several hundred megahertz. This is very wasteful of both radio frequencies and power.

The next advance was continuous wave telegraphy, or CW (Continuous Wave), in which a pure radio frequency, produced by a vacuum tube electronic oscillator was switched on and off by a key. A receiver with a local oscillator would "heterodyne" with the pure radio frequency, creating a whistle-like audio tone. CW uses less than 100 Hz of bandwidth. CW is still used, these days primarily by amateur radio operators (hams). Strictly, on-off keying of a carrier should be known as "Interrupted Continuous Wave" or ICW or on-off keying (OOK).

Radio teletypes usually operate on short-wave (HF) and are much loved by the military because they create written information without a skilled operator. They send a bit as one of two tones. Groups of five or seven bits become a character printed by a teletype. From about 1925 to 1975, radio teletype was how most commercial messages were sent to less developed countries. These are still used by the military and weather services.

Aircraft use a 1200 Baud radioteletype service over VHF to send their ID, altitude and position, and get gate and connecting-flight data. Microwave dishes on satellites, telephone exchanges and TV stations usually use quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). QAM sends data by changing both the phase and the amplitude of the radio signal. Engineers like QAM because it packs the most bits into a radio signal when given an exclusive (non-shared) fixed narrowband frequency range. Usually the bits are sent in "frames" that repeat. A special bit pattern is used to locate the beginning of a frame.

Modern GPS receivers.

Communication systems that limit themselves to a fixed narrowband frequency range are vulnerable to jamming. A variety of jamming-resistant spread spectrum techniques were initially developed for military use, most famously for Global Positioning System satellite transmissions. Commercial use of spread spectrum began in the 1980s. Bluetooth, most cell phones, and the 802.11b version of Wi-Fi each use various forms of spread spectrum.

Systems that need reliability, or that share their frequency with other services, may use "coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing" or COFDM. COFDM breaks a digital signal into as many as several hundred slower subchannels. The digital signal is often sent as QAM on the subchannels. Modern COFDM systems use a small computer to make and decode the signal with digital signal processing, which is more flexible and far less expensive than older systems that implemented separate electronic channels. COFDM resists fading and ghosting because the narrow-channel QAM signals can be sent slowly. An adaptive system, or one that sends error-correction codes can also resist interference, because most interference can affect only a few of the QAM channels. COFDM is used for Wi-Fi, some cell phones, Digital Radio Mondiale, Eureka 147, and many other local area network, digital TV and radio standards.

Heating

Radio-frequency energy generated for heating of objects is generally not intended to radiate outside of the generating equipment, to prevent interference with other radio signals. Microwave ovens use intense radio waves to heat food. Diathermy equipment is used in surgery for sealing of blood vessels. Induction furnaces are used for melting metal for casting, and induction hobs for cooking.

Amateur radio service

Amateur radio station with multiple receivers and transceivers

Amateur radio, also known as "ham radio", is a hobby in which enthusiasts are licensed to communicate on a number of bands in the radio frequency spectrum non-commercially and for their own enjoyment. They may also provide emergency and public service assistance. This has been very beneficial in emergencies, saving lives in many instances. Radio amateurs use a variety of modes, including nostalgic ones like Morse code and experimental ones like Low-Frequency Experimental Radio. Several forms of radio were pioneered by radio amateurs and later became commercially important including FM, single-sideband (SSB), AM, digital packet radio and satellite repeaters. Some amateur frequencies may be disrupted by power-line internet service.

Unlicensed radio services

Unlicensed, government-authorized personal radio services such as Citizens' band radio in Australia, the USA, and Europe, and Family Radio Service and Multi-Use Radio Service in North America exist to provide simple, (usually) short range communication for individuals and small groups, without the overhead of licensing. Similar services exist in other parts of the world. These radio services involve the use of handheld units.

Free radio stations, sometimes called pirate radio or "clandestine" stations, are unauthorized, unlicensed, illegal broadcasting stations. These are often low power transmitters operated on sporadic schedules by hobbyists, community activists, or political and cultural dissidents. Some pirate stations operating offshore in parts of Europe and the United Kingdom more closely resembled legal stations, maintaining regular schedules, using high power, and selling commercial advertising time.

Radio control (R C)

Radio remote controls use radio waves to transmit control data to a remote object as in some early forms of guided missile, some early TV remotes and a range of model boats, cars and airplanes. Large industrial remote-controlled equipment such as cranes and switching locomotives now usually use digital radio techniques to ensure safety and reliability.

In Madison Square Garden, at the Electrical Exhibition of 1898, Nikola Tesla successfully demonstrated a radio-controlled boat. He was awarded U.S. patent No. 613,809 for a "Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles."

ABOUT HUNTINGTON BEACH

City of Huntington Beach
—  City  —
Huntington Beach Pier
Nickname(s): Surf City USA
Location of Huntington Beach within Orange County, California.
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Incorporated	February 17, 1909
Government
- Type	Council-Manager
- City Council	Cathy Green, Mayor Keith Bohr Joe Carchio Gil Coerper Don Hansen Jill Hardy Devin Dwyer
- City Treasurer	Shari L. Freidenrich, CCMT, CPFA, CPFIM
- City Clerk	Joan L. Flynn
Area
- Total	81.7 km2 (31.6 sq mi)
- Land	68.3 km2 (26.4 sq mi)
- Water	13.4 km2 (5.2 sq mi)
Elevation	12 m (39 ft)
Population (2000)
- Total	189,594
- Density	2,773.9/km2 (7,184.4/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	92605, 92615, 92646-92649
Area code(s)	714
FIPS code	06-36000
GNIS feature ID	1652724
Website	surfcity-hb.org

Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County in southern California, United States. According to the 2000 census, the city population was 189,594. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the southwest, by Seal Beach on the northwest, by Costa Mesa on the east, by Newport Beach on the southeast, by Westminster on the north, and by Fountain Valley on the northeast.

It is known for its long 8.5-mile (13.7 km) beach, mild climate, and excellent surfing. The waves are a unique natural effect caused by edge-diffraction of ocean swells by the island of Catalina, and waves from distant hurricanes.

History

Huntington Beach, pre-incorporation, 1904.

The area was originally occupied by the Tongva people. European settlement can be traced to a Spanish soldier, Manuel Nieto, who in 1784 received a Spanish land grant of 300,000 acres (1,200 km²), Rancho Los Nietos, as a reward for his military service and to encourage settlement in Alta California. Nieto's western area was reduced in 1790 because of a dispute with the Mission San Gabriel, but he retained thousands of acres stretching from the hills north of Whittier, Fullerton and Brea, south to the Pacific Ocean, and from today's Los Angeles River on the west, to the Santa Ana River on the east.

The main thoroughfare of Huntington Beach, Beach Boulevard, was originally a cattle route for the main industry of the Rancho. Since its time as a parcel of the enormous Spanish land grant, Huntington Beach has undergone many incarnations. One time it was known Shell Beach, the town of Smeltzer, and then Gospel Swamp for the revival meetings that were held in the marshland where the community college Golden West College can currently be found. Later it became known as Fairview and then Pacific City as it developed into a tourist destination. In order to secure access to the Red Car lines that used to criss-cross Los Angeles and ended in Long Beach, Pacific City ceded enormous power to railroad magnate Henry Huntington, and thus became a city whose name has been written into corporate sponsorship, and like much of the history of Southern California, boosterism.

Huntington Beach incorporated on February 17, 1909 under its first mayor, Ed Manning. Its original developer was the Huntington Beach Company (formerly the West Coast Land and Water Company), a real-estate development firm owned by Henry Huntington. The Huntington Beach Company is still a major land-owner in the city, and still owns most of the local mineral rights.

An interesting hiccup in the settlement of the district occurred when an encyclopedia company gave away free parcels of land, with the purchase of a whole set for $126, in the Huntington Beach area that it had acquired cheaply. The lucky buyers got more than they had bargained for when oil was discovered in the area, and enormous development of the oil reserves followed. Though many of the old wells are empty, and the price of land for housing has pushed many of the rigs off the landscape, oil pumps can still be found to dot the city.

Huntington Beach was primarily agricultural in its early years with crops such as celery and sugar beets. Holly Sugar was a major employer with a large processing plant in the city that was later converted to an oil refinery.

The city's first high school, Huntington Beach High School was built in 1906. The school's team, the Oilers, is named after the city's original natural resource.

Meadowlark Airport, a small general aviation airport, existed in Huntington Beach from the 1950s until 1989.

Geography

Huntington Beach at Sunset

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 81.7 square kilometres (31.5 sq mi). 68.3 km² (26.4 sq mi) of it is land and 13.4 km² (5.2 sq mi) of it (16.38%) is water.

The entire city of Huntington Beach lies in area codes 657 and 714, except for small parts of Huntington Harbour (along with Sunset Beach, the unincorporated community adjacent to Huntington Harbour), which is in the 562 Area Code.

Climate

Huntington Beach has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb). The climate is generally sunny, dry and cool, although evenings can be excessively damp. In the morning and evening, there are often strong breezes, 15 mph (24 km/h). Ocean water temperatures average 55 °F (13 °C) to 65 °F (18 °C). In the summer, temperatures rarely exceed 85 °F (29 °C). In the winter, temperatures rarely fall below 40 °F (4 °C), even on clear nights. There are about 14 inches (360 mm) of rain, almost all in mid-winter. Frost occurs only rarely on the coldest winter nights. The area is annually affected by a marine layer caused by the cool air of the Pacific Ocean meeting the warm air over the land. This results in overcast and foggy conditions in May and June.

Natural resources

Bolsa Chica Wildlife Refuge

Construction of any kind on the beach is prohibited without a vote of the people, allowing Huntington Beach to retain its natural tie to the ocean rather than having the view obscured by residential and commercial developments.

Between Downtown Huntington Beach and Huntington Harbour lies a large marshy wetland, much of which is protected within the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. A $110 million restoration of the wetlands was completed in 2006. The Reserve is popular with bird watchers and photographers.

South of Downtown, the Talbert and Magnolia Marshes lie on a strip of undeveloped land parallel to Huntington State Beach and are in the process of restoration, as well.

The northern and southern beaches (Bolsa Chica State Beach and Huntington State Beach, respectively) are state parks. Only the central beach (Huntington City Beach) is maintained by the city. Camping and RVs are permitted here, and popular campsites for the Fourth of July and the Surfing Championships must be reserved many months in advance. Bolsa Chica State Beach is actually a sand bar fronting the Bolsa Bay and Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve.

Huntington Harbour from the air

The Orange County run Sunset Marina Park next to Huntington Harbour is part of Anaheim Bay. It is suitable for light craft, and includes a marina, launching ramp, basic services, a picnic area and a few restaurants. The park is in Seal Beach, but is only reachable from Huntington Harbour. The Sunset/Huntington Harbour area is patrolled by the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol.

The harbor entrance for Anaheim Bay is sometimes restricted by the United States Navy, which loads ships with munitions at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station to the north of the main channel.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 189,594 people, 73,657 households, and 47,729 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,773.9/km² (7,183.6/mi²). There were 75,662 housing units at an average density of 1,107.0/km² (2,866.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 79.22% White, 0.81% Black or African American, 0.65% Native American, 9.34% Asian, 0.24% Pacific Islander, 5.81% from other races, and 3.94% from two or more races. 14.66% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 73,657 households out of which 29.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.7% were married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.2% were non-families. 24.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.08.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.2% under the age of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 34.9% from 25 to 44, 24.0% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 100.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.6 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $81,112, and the median income for a family was $101,023. Adult males had a median income of $52,018 versus $38,046 for adult females. The per capita income for the city was $36,964. About 4.3% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.2% of those under age 18 and 4.4% of those age 65 or over.

The 2009 population estimated by the California Department of Finance was 202,480.

The unemployment rate in Huntington Beach is one of the lowest among large (over 100,000) cities in the United States at 1.9%.

Economy

According to Huntington Beach's 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Huntington Beach sits above a large natural fault structure containing oil. Although the oil is mostly depleted, extraction continues at a slow rate, and still provides significant local income. There are only two off-shore extraction facilities left, however, and the day is not far off when oil production in the city will cease and tourism will replace it as the primary revenue source for resident industry.

The city is discussing closing off Main Street to cars from PCH through the retail shopping and restaurant areas, making it a pedestrian zone only. Other shopping centers include Bella Terra, built on the former Huntington Center site, and Old World Village, a German-themed center.

Huntington Beach has an off-shore oil terminus for the tankers that support the Alaska Pipeline. The terminus pipes run inland to a refinery in Santa Fe Springs. Huntington Beach also has the Gothard-Talbert terminus for the Orange County portion of the pipeline running from the Chevron El Segundo refinery.

Several hotels have been constructed on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1) within view of the beach, just southeast of the pier.

Huntington Beach contains a major installation of Boeing, formerly McDonnell-Douglas. A number of installations on the Boeing campus were originally constructed to service the Apollo Program, most notably the production of the S-IVB upper stage for the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets, and some nearby telephone poles are still marked "Apollo Dedicated Mission Control Line."

Huntington Beach contains the administrative headquarters of Sea Launch, a commercial space vehicle launch enterprise whose largest stockholder is Boeing.

Huntington Beach contains a small industrial district in its northwest corner, near the borders with Westminster and Seal Beach.

Surf City USA trademarks

While Huntington Beach retains its 15-year trademark of Surf City Huntington Beach, the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau filed four applications to register the Surf City USA trademark in November 2004. The idea was to market the city by creating an authentic brand based on Southern California's beach culture and active outdoor lifestyle while at the same time creating a family of product licensees who operate like a franchise family producing a revenue stream that could also be dedicated to promoting the brand and city. A ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released on May 12, 2006 awarded three trademark registrations to the Bureau; nine additional trademark registrations have been granted since this time and ten other Surf City USA trademarks are now under consideration. One of the first products the Bureau developed to promote its brand was the Surf City USA Beach Cruiser by Felt Bicycles in 2006. The product has sold out every year in markets worldwide and created demand for a second rental bicycle model that will be marketed to resort locations across the globe starting in 2009. The Bureau now has dozens of other licensed products on the market from Surf City USA soft drinks to clothing to glassware. As of April 2008, the Bureau had more than 20 licensing partners with over 50 different products being prepared to enter the market over the next 18 months. Four of the Bureau's registrations of the trademark are now on the principal register and the remaining ten trademark applications are expected to follow. The Bureau is actively considering registration of the Surf City USA trademark in several different countries and anticipates a growing market for its branded products overseas in coming years.

An ongoing dispute between Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz, California over the trademark garnered negative national publicity in 2007 when a law firm representing Huntington Beach sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Santa Cruz t-shirt vendor. A settlement was reached in January, 2008, which allows the Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau to retain the trademark.

Tourism

The downtown district includes an active art center, a colorful shopping district, and the International Surfing Museum. This district was also once the home of the famous restaurant and music club "The Golden Bear." In the late 1960s and 1970s it hosted many famous bands and acts. The Huntington Beach Pier stretches from Main Street into the Pacific Ocean. At the end of the pier is a Ruby's Diner. The Surf Theatre, which was located one block north of the pier, gained fame in the 1960s and 1970s for showing independent surf films such as The Endless Summer and Five Summer Stories. The Surf Theatre was owned and operated by Hugh Larry Thomas from 1961 until it was demolished in 1989. A newer version of The Surf Theatre is now closed, but the International Surf Museum has preserved its memory with a permanent exhibit featuring vintage seats and screening of surfing movies once shown at a Huntington Beach theater.

Arts and culture

Special events

Many of the events at Huntington Beach are focused around the beach during the summer. The U.S. Open of Surfing and Beach Games are featured on the south side of the pier. Huntington Beach is a stop on the AVP beach volleyball tour. A biathlon (swim/run) hosted by the Bolsa Chica & Huntington State Beach Lifeguards takes place in July, early at dawn. The race begins at the Santa Ana River Jetties and ends at Warner Avenue, Bolsa Chica State Beach. Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguard day camps are held which teaches preadolescents and adolescents ocean swimming, running, and first-aid medical knowledge.

In addition to the beach-focused events, the Fourth of July parade has been held since 1904. The SoCal Independent Film Festival takes place every September.

During the winter the annual Cruise of Lights Boat Tour is held in the Huntington Harbour neighborhood. This is a parade of colorful lighted boats as well as boat tours to view the decorated homes. The annual Kite Festival is held just north of the pier in late February.

Huntington Beach hosts car shows such as the Beachcruiser Meet and a Concours d'Elegance. The Beachcruiser Meet is held in March, attracting over 250 classic cars displayed along Main Street and the Pier parking lot. A Concours d'Elegance is held at Central Park in June and benefits the public library.

Surf City Nights is held during the entire year. The community-spirited event features a farmer's market, unique entertainment, food, kiddie rides and a carnival atmosphere, each Tuesday evening. Surf City Nights is presented by the Huntington Beach Downtown Business Improvement District (HBDBID) and the City of Huntington Beach. The event takes place in the first three blocks of Main Street from Pacific Coast Highway to Orange Avenue.

Sports

Surfers abound near Huntington City Pier

Huntington Beach during the day.

Bolsa Chica Surf

Huntington Beach is the site of the world surfing championships, held in the summer every year. The city is often referred to as "Surf City" because of this high profile event, its history and culture of surfing. It is often called the "Surfing Capital of the World", not for the height of the waves, but rather for the consistent quality of surf. Gordon Duane established the city's first surf shop, Gordie's Surfboards, in 1955.

Surf and beaches

Apart from sponsored surf events, Huntington Beach has some of the best surf breaks in the State of California and that of the United States. Huntington Beach has four different facing beaches: Northwest, West, Southwest, and South. Northwest consists of Bolsa Chica State Beach with a length of 3.3 miles (5.3 km), the West consist of "The Cliffs" or "Dog Beach", Southwest is considered everything north of the pier which is operated by the City of Huntington Beach. South consists in everything south of the pier which primarily focuses on Huntington State Beach (2.2 Miles), which almost faces true South.

Bolsa Chica State Beach is operated by the State of California, Dept. Parks & Recreation, and the Bolsa Chica State Beach Lifeguards. The beach is very narrow and the sand is very coarse. Bolsa Chica tends to have better surf with NW/W swells during the winter season. During the summer months the beach picks up south/southwest swells at a very steep angle. Due to the bottom of the beach, surf at Bolsa Chica tends to be slowed down and refined to soft shoulders. Longboards are the best option for surfing in the Bolsa Chica area.

"The Cliffs" or "Dog Beach" is also another popular surf spot. This segment of Huntington Beach obtains these names because dogs are allowed around the cliff area. Beach is very restricted and often is submerged with high tides. Surf at this location tends to be even bigger than Bolsa Chica during the winter and often better. During the summer most of the South/Southwest swells slide right by and often break poorly. The best option is to take out a longboard, but shortboards will do at times. Dolphins have also been sighted in this area.

Just north and south of the Huntington Beach Pier are some well defined sandbars that shift throughout the year with the different swells. Southside of the Pier is often a popular destination during the summer for good surf, but the Northside can be just as well during the winter. Around the Pier it all depends on the swell and the sandbars. Shortboard is your best option for surfing around the Pier.

South Huntington Beach, also known as Huntington State Beach, is where all the south swells impact the coastline. Huntington State Beach is operated by the State of California, Department of Parks & Recreation, and Huntington State Beach Lifeguards. This beach is very wide with plenty of sand. Sandbars dramatically shift during the spring, summer and fall seasons, thus creating excellent surf conditions with a combination South/West/Northwest swell. Due to the Santa Ana River jetties located at the southern most end of the beach, large sandbars extend across and upcoast, forcing swells to break extremely fast and hollow. Best seasons for surfing at this beach is the summer and fall. The best option for surfing in this area is a shortboard.

Huntington Beach is also a popular destination for kite surfing, and this sport can be viewed on the beach northwest of the pier.

Huntington Beach is the host city of the National Professional Paintball League Super 7 Paintball Championships. The NPPL holds its first event of the year traditionally between the dates of March 23 through March 26.

Huntington Beach also hosts the annual Surf City USA Marathon and Half-Marathon, which is usually held on the first Sunday of February.

Parks and recreation

Huntington Beach has a very large Central Park, located between Gothard and Edwards Streets to the east and west, and Slater and Ellis Avenues to the north and south. The park is vegetated with xeric (low water use) plants, and inhabited by native wildlife. Thick forests encircling the park are supplemented with Australian trees, particularly eucalyptus, a high water use plant.

Huntington Central Park

The Huntington Beach Public Library is located in Central Park in a notable building designed by Richard Neutra and Dion Neutra. It houses almost a half-million volumes, as well as a theater, gift shop and fountains. The library was founded as a Carnegie library in 1914, and has been continuously supported by the city and local activists, with new buildings and active branches at Banning, Oak View, Main Street, and Graham. The library has significant local historical materials and has a special genealogical reference collection. It is independent of the state and county library systems.

The park is also home of Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center, a top class boarding facility that also offers horse rentals to the public, with guided trail rides through the park. There is also a "mud park" available for kids. The world's second oldest disc golf course is available in the park, as are two small dining areas, a sports complex for adult use, and the Shipley Nature Center.

The Bolsa Chica Wetlands, which are diminishing rapidly due to development, contains numerous trails and scenic routes. The wetlands themselves have recently been connected with the ocean again, in effort to maintain its previous, unaltered conditions.

Government

Local Government

According to the city’s most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the city’s various funds had $295.6 million in Revenues, $287.7 million in expenditures, $1,046.6 million in total assets, $202.8 million in total liabilities, and $87.1 million in cash and investments.

The structure of the management and coordination of city services is:

Politics

In the state legislature Huntington Beach is located in the 35th Senate District, represented by Republican Tom Harman, and in the 67th Assembly District, represented by Republican Jim Silva. Federally, Huntington Beach is located in California's 46th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +6 and is represented by Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

Education

Huntington Beach is the home of Golden West College, which offers two-year associates of arts degrees and transfer programs to four year universities.

Huntington Beach is in the Huntington Beach Union High School District, which includes Edison High School, Huntington Beach High School, Marina High School, and Ocean View High School in the city of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley High School in the city of Fountain Valley, and Westminster High School in the city of Westminster.

The district also has an alternative school, Valley Vista High School, and an independent study school, Coast High School.

Huntington Beach High School, which is the district's flagship school, celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2006.

The city has two elementary school districts: Huntington Beach City with 9 schools and Ocean View with 15. A small part of the city is served by the Fountain Valley School District.

Media

Huntington Beach was selected for the 24th season of MTV's Real World Series.

The city was featured in the TruTV series Ocean Force: Huntington Beach. Also, the city is mentioned in the Beach Boys song Surfin' Safari and in Surfer Joe by The Surfaris.

A live camera is set up at the Huntington Beach Pier and shown on screens at the California-themed Hollister apparel stores.

The public television station KOCE-TV operates from the Golden West College campus, in conjunction with the Golden West College Media Arts program.

Two weekly newspapers cover Huntington Beach: The Huntington Beach Independent and The Wave Section of The Orange County Register.

Ashlee Simpson's music video for La La was filmed in Huntington Beach.

Notable natives and residents

Musicians

• The metal band Avenged Sevenfold grew up and currently reside here. Lead guitarist Synyster Gates has said he enjoys nothing more than cruising Huntington Beach on his chopper.
• The punk rock band The Offspring was formed here in 1984.
• Dean Torrence, from the 1960s Pop group, Jan and Dean, who co-authored the famous song "Surf City" (#1 in 1963) said that Huntington Beach embodies the song's spirit of freedom and California fun.
• Christian Jacobs, The MC Bat Commander of The Aquabats, resides in Huntington Beach.
• Matt Costa, the folk pop singer, was born in Huntington Beach.
• The Vandals, a punk rock band formed in Huntington Beach
• David Silveria from the rock band Korn resides in Huntington Beach and owns two restaurants in downtown Huntington Beach (Silvera's Steakhouse and Tuna Town)
• Scott Weiland, of the Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, attended Edison High School.

Sandy West, the drummer for the 70s band The Runaways, grew up and went to school in Huntington Beach. She attended Edison High School.

• (hed) p.e., a hip hop/punk rock band

Athletes

• Huntington Beach is the home to pro skateboarders like: Geoff Rowley, Arto Saari, Tosh Townend, Mark Appleyard, Brian Sumner, Greg Lutzka and Ed Templeton.
• Former NHL hockey player John Blue is from Huntington Beach, as is professional soccer player Sasha Kljestan.
• It is also home of MMA fighters Tito "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Ortiz, Kimo Leopoldo, and David "Tank" Abbott.
• New York Yankees pitcher Ian Kennedy was born in Huntington Beach.
• Former Seattle Mariners pitcher Bob Wolcott was born in Huntington Beach.
• Roller Derby Blonde Amazon Joan Weston.
• Tony Gonzalez of the Atlanta Falcons grew up in Huntington Beach and attended Huntington Beach High School.
• Jeff Kent, retired baseball player and recipient of the 2000 MVP Baseball award was raised in Huntington Beach and attended Edison High School.
• Jessie Godderz - A professional bodybuilder with the World Natural Body Building Federation that was also a contestant on Big Brother 10 and Big Brother 11
• Hank Conger - a professional baseball player for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and attended Huntington Beach High School
• Collin Balester - a professional baseball player for the Washington Nationals, attended Huntington Beach High School
• Juergen Klinsmann - a former international professional soccer player, former soccer team coach and a former coach of the German national soccer team. Has left Huntington Beach with his family in 2008 to Munich, Germany to become the coach of FC Bayern Munich.
• Wayne Carlander - a former basketball player at Southern California (USC)

Actors

• Willie Aames attended Edison High School.
• Amy Grabow grew up in Huntington Beach and attended the Academy for the Performing Arts.
• Jason Lee, who plays the lead character Earl in the television show My Name is Earl, grew up in Huntington Beach and graduated from Ocean View High School.
• Britt Lomond passed away here on March 22, 2006. He was known for starring on Zorro as Captain Monastario.^{[citation needed]}
• Jenna Jameson, famed pornographic actress, resides in Huntington Harbour

Safety

Huntington Beach Police Department MD520N helicopter

Fire protection in Huntington Beach is provided by the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Law enforcement is provided by the Huntington Beach Police Department. Huntington Beach Marine Safety Officers and its seasonal lifeguards are recognized as some of the best in the world with a top notch safety record. It has an active Community Emergency Response Team training program, that trains citizens as Disaster Service Workers certified by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a part of a free program run by the fire department's Office of Emergency Services.

Emergency services are also provided at State Beach locations. Peace Officers and lifeguards can be found at Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach. Such services consist of: aquatic rescues, boat rescues, first aid and law enforcement. All services are provided by the State of California, Dept. Parks & Recreation.

In 1926, the Santa Ana River dam failed, and flash-flooded its entire delta. The southern oceanic terminus of this delta is now a settled area of Huntington Beach. The distant dam is still functional, but silting up, which is expected to reduce its storage volume, and therefore its effectiveness at flood-prevention. The flood and dam-endangered areas are protected by a levee, but lenders require expensive flood insurance in the delta. There have been serious discussions to eliminate the need for flood insurance and this requirement has already been waived in some areas and may one day no longer be considered a credible threat.

Since it is a seaside city, Huntington Beach has had tsunami warnings, storm surge (its pier has been rebuilt three times), sewage spills, tornadoes and waterspouts. The cold offshore current prevents hurricanes. The Pier that was rebuilt in the 1990s was engineered to withstand severe storms or earthquakes.

Large fractions of the settled delta are in earthquake liquefaction zones above known active faults. Most of the local faults are named after city streets.

Many residents (and even city hall) live within sight and sound of active oil extraction and drilling operations. These occasionally spew oil, causing expensive clean-ups. Large parts of the developed land have been contaminated by heavy metals from the water separated from oil.

The local oil has such extreme mercury contamination that metallic mercury is regularly drained from oil pipelines and equipment. Oil operations increase when the price of oil rises. Some oil fields have been approved for development. The worst-polluted areas have been reclaimed as parks. At least one Superfund site, too contaminated to be a park, is at the junction of Magnolia and Hamilton streets, near Edison High School.

Sister cities

Huntington Beach has the following sister city relationships, according to the Huntington Beach Sister City Association:

• Anjo, Aichi, Japan
• Waitakere, New Zealand

Huntington Beach also has youth exchange programs with both cities, sending four teenagers on an exchange student basis for two weeks in order to gather different cultural experiences.

ABOUT FOUNTAIN VALLEY

City of Fountain Valley, California
—  City  —
Seal
Motto: "A Nice Place to Live"
Location of Fountain Valley within Orange County, California.
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Government
- Mayor	John Edward Collins
Area
- Total	8.9 sq mi (23.1 km2)
- Land	8.9 sq mi (23.1 km2)
- Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	33 ft (10 m)
Population (2009)
- Total	58,309
- Density	7,406.1/sq mi (2,859.5/km2)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	92708, 92728
Area code(s)	714
FIPS code	06-25380
GNIS feature ID	1652712
Website	fountainvalley.org

Fountain Valley is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 58,309 according to the 2009 estimate by the California Department of Finance. A classic bedroom community, Fountain Valley is a middle-class residential area.

History

The area encompassing Fountain Valley was originally inhabited by the Tongva people. European settlement of the area began when Manuel Nieto was granted the land for Rancho Los Nietos, which encompassed over 300,000 acres (1,200 km²), including present-day Fountain Valley. Control of the land was subsequently transferred to Mexico upon independence from Spain, and then to the United States as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The city was incorporated in 1957, before which it was known as Talbert (also as Gospel Swamps by residents). The name of Fountain Valley refers to the very high water table in the area at the time the name was chosen, and the many corresponding artesian wells in the area. Early settlers constructed drainage canals to make the land usable for agriculture, which remained the dominant use of land until the 1960s, when construction of large housing tracts accelerated.

Geography

Fountain Valley is located at (33.708618, -117.956295). The elevation of the city is approximately twenty feet above sea level, slightly lower than surrounding areas. This is especially noticeable in the southwest area of the city, where several streets have a steep grade as they cross into Huntington Beach.

The city is located southwest and northeast of the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405), which diagonally bisects the city, and is surrounded by Huntington Beach on the south and west, Westminster and Garden Grove on the north, Santa Ana on the northeast, and Costa Mesa on the southeast. Its eastern border is the Santa Ana River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 23.1 km² (8.9 sq mi) 0.11% of which is water.

Demographics

According to the census of 2009, there were 58,309 people, 18,162 households, and 14,220 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,382.4/km² (6,167.8/mi²). There were 18,473 housing units at an average density of 800.5/km² (2,072.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 64.02% White, 1.11% Black or African American, 0.46% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 25.76% Asian, 0.40% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 3.95% from other races, and 4.30% from two or more races. 10.68% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 18,162 households out of which 34.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.4% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 21.7% were non-families. 16.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.00 and the average family size was 3.35. More than 1/3 of all the housing units in the city are those other than single-family homes, such as condominiums or apartments.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.5% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $78,729, and the median income for a family was $90,335. Males had a median income of $60,399 versus $43,089 for females. The per capita income for the city was $48,521. About 1.6% of families and 2.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.2% of those under age 18 and 3.0% of those age 65 or over.

Politics

In the state legislature Fountain Valley is located in the 35th Senate District, represented by Republican Tom Harman, and in the 68th Assembly District, represented by Republican Van Tran. Federally, Fountain Valley is located in California's 46th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +6 and is represented by Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

Community amenities

Fountain Valley is home to Mile Square Regional Park, a 640 acres (2.6 km²) park containing two lakes, three 18-hole golf courses, playing fields, picnic shelters, and a 20-acre (81,000 m²) urban nature area planted with California native plants, a 55-acre (220,000 m²) recreation center with tennis courts, basketball courts, racquetball courts, a gymnasium, and the Kingston Boys & Girls Club; also a community center and a new senior center that opened in June, 2005. A major redevelopment of the recreation center and city-administered sports fields was completed in early 2009.

Fire protection and emergency medical services are provided by two stations of the Fountain Valley Fire Department. Law enforcement is provided by the Fountain Valley Police Department. Ambulance service is provided by Care Ambulance Service.

The Orange County Sanitation District's primary plant is located in Fountain Valley next to the Santa Ana River. The agency is the third-largest sanitation district in the western United States. This location is also home to the agency's administrative offices, as well as the offices of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, a member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Fountain Valley has two fully accredited major medical centers: the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital with 400 beds available, and Orange Coast Memorial Hospital with 230 beds and a medical clinic. Orange Coast Memorial recently announced plans for a six-story outpatient center to be added. The project was initially met by some opposition due to its height and location next to residences, but was eventually approved unanimously by the city council.

The city also has 18 churches, one Reform synagogue, a mosque and a public library.

Fountain Valley has its own newspaper, the Fountain Valley View, operated by the Orange County Register.

Education

There are three high schools, three middle schools, nine elementary schools, one K-12 school, and two K-8 schools. However, some students who live in the city of Fountain Valley actually attend schools in other cities.

Fountain Valley is also home to Coastline Community College and a campus of the University of Phoenix. Community colleges in the area include Orange Coast College or Golden West College, located nearby in the cities of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, respectively.

High schools in Huntington Beach Union High School District

• Fountain Valley High School
• Valley Vista High School, California

High schools in Garden Grove Unified School District

• Los Amigos High School

Middle schools in Fountain Valley School District

• Harry C. Fulton Middle School
• Kazuo Masuda Middle School: This was named by Kazuo Masuda who fought in World War II.
• Talbert Middle School

Middle schools in Ocean View Middle School District

• Vista View Middle School

Elementary schools in Garden Grove Unified School District

• Allen Elementary School
• Monroe Elementary School
• Northcutt Elementary School

Elementary schools in Fountain Valley School District

Private schools

• Carden School of Fountain Valley (K-8)
• First Southern Baptist Christian School (K-12)

Business

As a suburban city, most of Fountain Valley's residents commute to work in other urban centers. However in recent years, the city has seen an increase in commercial jobs in the city, with the growth of a commercial center near the Santa Ana River known as the "Southpark" district.

Although the economy of the area was once based mainly on agriculture, the remaining production consists of several fields of strawberries or other small crops, which are gradually being replaced by new office development.

Fountain Valley is home to the national headquarters of Hyundai Motor Company and D-Link Corporation, the global headquarters of memory chip manufacturer Kingston Technologies, and the corporate headquarters of Surefire, LLC, maker of military and commercial flashlights. The Southpark commercial area is also home to offices for companies such as D-Link, Starbucks, Satura and the Orange County Register. There are also a limited number of light industrial companies in this area. In addition, Fountain Valley is the location for Noritz, a tankless water heater manufacturer.

The increasing commercial growth can be evidenced by the frequent rush-hour traffic bottlenecks on the San Diego (405) Freeway through Fountain Valley.

Transportation

In addition to the San Diego Freeway, which bisects the city, Fountain Valley is served by several bus lines operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority. Bus routes 33, 35, 37, 70, 72, 74, and 172 cover the city's major streets.

Most of the major roads are equipped with bicycle lanes, especially around Mile Square Park, which offers wide bike paths along the major streets that mark its boundary. Dedicated bike paths along the Santa Ana River run from the city of Corona to the Pacific Ocean.

ABOUT WESTMINSTER

Westminster, California
—  City  —
Motto: "The City of Progress Built on Pride."
Location of Westminster within Orange County, California.
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Government
- City Council	Mayor Margie L. Rice Tri Ta Frank G. Fry Andy Quach Truong Diep
-  City Manager	Donald D. Lamm
-  City Treasurer / Finance Director	Paul Espinoza
Area
- Total	10.1 sq mi (26.2 km2)
- Land	10.1 sq mi (26.2 km2)
- Water	0.0 sq mi (0.0 km2)
Elevation	39 ft (12 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	88,207
- Density	8,724.6/sq mi (3,368.6/km2)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	92683-92685
Area code(s)	714
FIPS code	06-84550
GNIS feature ID	1652811
Website	http://www.ci.westminster.ca.us/

Westminster is a city in Orange County, California, United States. It was founded in 1870 by Rev. Lemuel Webber as a Presbyterian temperance colony. Its name is taken from the Westminster Assembly of 1643, which laid out the basic tenets of the Presbyterian faith. For several years of its early history, its farmers refused to grow grapes because they associated grapes with alcohol.

Westminster was incorporated in 1957, at which time it had 10,755 residents. Originally, the city was named Tri-City because it was the amalgamation of three cities: Westminster, Barber City, and Midway City. Midway City ultimately turned down incorporation, leaving Barber City to be absorbed into the newly incorporated Westminster. The former Barber City was located in the western portion of the current City of Westminster.

Westminster is landlocked and bordered by Seal Beach on the west, by Garden Grove on the north and east, and by Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley on the south.

Westminster surrounds the unincorporated area of Midway City, except for a small portion where Midway City meets Huntington Beach to the south.

A large number of Vietnamese refugees came to the city in the 1970s, settling largely in an area now officially named Little Saigon. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 88,207. Westminster won the All-America City Award in 1996.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 88,207 people, 26,406 households, and 20,411 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,368.6/km² (8,724.2/mi²). There were 26,940 housing units at an average density of 1,028.8/km² (2,664.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 45.79% White, 0.99% African American, 0.61% Native American, 38.13% Asian, 0.46% Pacific Islander, 10.19% from other races, and 3.84% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21.70% of the population.

There were 26,406 households out of which 37.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.4% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.7% were non-families. 16.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.32 and the average family size was 3.71.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.9% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 32.6% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 99.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $49,450, and the median income for a family was $54,399. Males had a median income of $37,157 versus $28,392 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,218. About 10.7% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.0% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.

Geography

Westminster is located at (33.752418, -117.993938). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 26.2 km² (10.1 mi²), all land.

	Garden Grove	Garden Grove	Garden Grove
	Seal Beach		Santa Ana
		Westminster
	Seal Beach	Huntington Beach	Fountain Valley

Government

In the state legislature Westminster is located in the 34th, Senate District, represented by Democrat Lou Correa and Republican Tom Harman respectively, and in the 67th and 68th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Jim Silva and Van Tran respectively. Federally, Westminster is located in California's 40th and 46th congressional districts, which have Cook PVIs of R +8 and R +6 respectively and are represented by Republicans Ed Royce and Dana Rohrabacher respectively.

Education

Four different school districts have boundaries that overlap parts or more of the City of Westminster:

• Westminster School District
• Garden Grove Unified School District
• Huntington Beach Union High School District
• Ocean View School District

Notable natives and residents

• Harrod Blank, documentary filmmaker
• Jeromy Burnitz, MLB player for the New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburgh Pirates
• Mike Burns, MLB player for the Milwaukee Brewers
• Mark Eaton, former Utah Jazz player
• Ken Hoang, professional video gamer and contestant on Survivor Gabon
• Ryan Klesko, former MLB first baseman
• Carlos Palomino, Boxer Former Welterweight Champion
• Vang Pao, Hmong Former Major General of the Royal Lao Army
• Bud Hare,Tuner Bonneville,Drags record holder inventor
• Barry Seevers Engine builder record holder innovator
• Michael "Gill" Orgillon Musician for the Industrial music band S.E.M;I

Landmarks

• A memorial and final resting place for the victims of the Pan Am plane involved in the Tenerife Disaster March 27 1977 is located in Westminster.
• The Vietnam War Memorial is located Sid Goldstein Freedom Park, next to the Westminster Civic Center. The project was initiated by Westminster City Councilman Frank G. Fry in 1997 and completed in 2003.

Shopping

The city's major shopping mall is Westminster Mall, which contains more than 180 stores.

ABOUT NEWPORT BEACH

City of Newport Beach, California
—  City  —
Seal
Location of Newport Beach within Orange County, California.
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Incorporated	September 1, 1906
Government
- Type	Mayor-Council
- Mayor	Edward D. Selich
- Governing body	City of Newport Beach City Council
Area
- Total	39.8 sq mi (103.2 km2)
- Land	14.8 sq mi (38.3 km2)
- Water	25.1 sq mi (64.9 km2)
Elevation	10 ft (3 m)
Population (January 1, 2009)
- Total	86,252
- Density	5,832.7/sq mi (2,252/km2)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	92657-92663
Area code(s)	949
FIPS code	06-51182
GNIS feature ID	1661104
Website	City of Newport Beach
Misc. Information City tree Coral tree City flower Bougainvillea

Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, United States 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown Santa Ana. As of January 1, 2009, the population was 86,252. The current OMB metropolitan designation for Newport Beach lies within the Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine area. The city is currently one of the wealthiest communities in California and consistently places high in United States rankings.

History

Newport Coast arch along the Pacific Coast Highway

In 1870 a steamer named "The Vaquero" made its first trip to a marshy lagoon for trading. Ranch owners in the Lower Bay decided from then on that the area should be called "Newport."

In 1905 city development increased when Pacific Electric Railroad established a southern terminus in Newport connecting the beach with downtown Los Angeles. In 1906 with a population of 206 citizens, the scattered settlements were incorporated as the City of Newport Beach.

Settlements filled in on the Peninsula, West Newport, Balboa Island and Lido Isle. In 1923 Corona del Mar was annexed and in 2002 Newport Coast was annexed.

Annexations

• San Joaquin Hills, California (January 1, 2002)^{[citation needed]}
• Newport Coast, California (2002)

Geography

Newport Beach extends in elevation from sea level to the 1161 ft (354 m.) summit of Signal Peak in the San Joaquin Hills, but the official elevation is 25 feet (8 m) above sea level at a location of (33.616671, -117.897604).

The city is bordered to the west by Huntington Beach at the Santa Ana River, on the north side by Costa Mesa, John Wayne Airport, and Irvine (including UC Irvine), and on the east side by Crystal Cove State Park.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 103.2 km² (39.8 mi²). 38.3 km² (14.8 mi²) of it is land and 64.9 km² (25.1 mi²) of it (62.91%) is water.

Areas of Newport Beach include Corona del Mar, Balboa Island, Newport Coast, San Joaquin Hills, and Balboa Peninsula (also known as Balboa).

Harbor

The Upper Newport Bay was carved out by the prehistoric flow of the Santa Ana River. It feeds the delta that is the Back Bay, and eventually joins Lower Newport Bay, commonly referred to as Newport Harbor. The Lower Bay includes Balboa Island, Bay Island, Harbor Island, Lido Isle and Linda Isle.

Climate

Newport Beach has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb). Like many coastal cities in Orange and Los Angeles Counties, Newport Beach exhibits weak temperature variation, both diurnally and seasonally, compared to inland cities even a few miles from the ocean. The Pacific Ocean greatly moderates Newport Beach's climate by warming winter temperatures and cooling summer temperatures.

Demographics

Balboa Pavilion on Main Street

As of the census of 2000, there were 70,032 people, 33,071 households, and 16,965 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,829.5/km² (4,738.8/mi²). There were 37,288 housing units at an average density of 974.1/km² (2,523.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 92.22% White, 0.53% African American, 0.26% Native American, 4.00% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 1.13% from other races, and 1.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.71% of the population.

There were 33,071 households out of which 18.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.5% were married couples living together, 6.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.7% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09 and the average family size was 2.71.

In the city the population was spread out with 15.7% under the age of 18, 6.5% from 18 to 24, 33.0% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 97.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.6 males.

According to a 2008 US Census estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $110,511, while the median family income was $162,976. Males had a median income of $73,425 versus $45,409 for females. The per capita income for the city was $63,015. About 2.1% of families and 4.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.0% of those under age 18 and 3.5% of those age 65 or over.

Housing prices in Newport Beach ranked eighth highest in the United States in a 2009 survey.

Politics

As of October 2008, there were 35,870 registered Republicans and 13,850 registered Democrats.

In the state legislature Newport Beach is located in the 35th Senate District, represented by Republican Tom Harman, and in the 68th and 70th Assembly District, represented by Republicans Van Tran and Chuck DeVore respectively. Federally, Newport Beach is located in California's 48th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +8 and is represented by Republican John Campbell.

Economy

North Newport Beach from the air

Before its dissolution Air California was headquartered in Newport Beach.

The city is also the home of the Pacific Investment Management Company, which runs the world's largest bond fund.

Several semiconductor companies, including Jazz Semiconductor, have their operations in Newport Beach.

Education

Balboa beach one of the popular beaches of Newport.

• Newport Elementary School
• Corona del Mar High School
• Newport Harbor High School
• Sage Hill School
• Carden Hall
• Eastbluff Elementary School
• Ensign Intermediate School
• Harbor Day School
• Harbor View Elementary School
• Lincoln Elementary School
• Mariners Elementary School
• Newport Heights Elementary School
• Newport Coast Elementary School
• Our Lady Queen of Angels School
• Roy O. Andersen Elementary School

Points of interest

Upper Newport Bay

• Fashion Island
• Newport Harbor and Newport Back Bay
• Balboa Fun Zone and Balboa Island Ferry
• Newport Pier and Balboa Pier
• Orange County Museum of Art
• Newport Sports Museum
• Pacific Coast Highway
• Balboa Bay Club
• Orange County Council BSA Sea Base
• Dory Fish Market
• Newport Aquatic Center
• The Crab Cooker
• Newport Beach Latter-day Saint Temple
• Pelican Hill Golf Club
• Crystal Cove State Beach
• Crystal Cove Promenade

Attractions

Attractions include beaches on the Balboa Peninsula (featuring body-boarding hot-spot The Wedge), Corona del Mar State Beach and Crystal Cove State Park, to the south.

The Catalina Flyer, a giant 500 passenger catamaran, provides daily transportation from the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach to Avalon, California located on Santa Catalina Island. The historic Balboa Pavilion, established in 1906, is Newport Beach's most famous landmark.

The Orange County Museum of Art is a museum that exhibits modern and contemporary art, with emphasis on the work of California artists.^{[citation needed]}.

Balboa Island is an artificial island in Newport Harbor that was dredged and filled right before World War I. The Balboa Fun Zone is home to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.

The Pelican Hill area has two golf courses, both of which were recently reopened after extensive remodeling and the construction of a new hotel and clubhouse.

Popular culture

The city has figured into several television shows and movies.

• The popular TV show The O.C. was based on the fictional lives of people living in Newport Beach.
• MTV replaced its hit teen-reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County with a new show, Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County, on August 15, 2007. Only the cast and location changed in the new series, based on the lives of high school students living in Newport Beach.
• The TV series "Arrested Development" was set in Orange County and would often feature scenes at Newport Beach.
• Several scenes from the Disney Channel movie The Thirteenth Year were filmed at the Balboa Pavilion in 1999.
• The pop rock band Cute Is What We Aim For has a song titled Newport Living.

Notable natives and/or residents

Balboa Pier

Balboa Street

Orange Coast College sailing school

External links

• City of Newport Beach
• Newport Beach Balboa Island Visitor's Guide
• Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce
• Tales of Balboa
• Newport Mooring Association
• Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau
• Newport Beach Centennial
• The Newport Harbor Nautical Museum
• Newport Beach Public Library
• Newport Beach Rotary

ABOUT COSTA MESA

City of Costa Mesa, California
—  City  —
Seal
Location of Costa Mesa within Orange County, California
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Government
- Type	Council-Manager
- City Council	Mayor Allan Mansoor Wendy Leece Eric Bever Katrina Foley Gary Monahan
-  City Manager	Allan Roeder
-  City Treasurer / Finance Director	Marc Puckett, CCMT
Area
- Total	40.6 km2 (15.7 sq mi)
- Land	40.5 km2 (15.61 sq mi)
- Water	0.2 km2 (0.1 sq mi)
Elevation	30 m (98 ft)
Population (January 1, 2009)
- Total	116,479
- Density	2,876/km2 (7,448.8/sq mi)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	92626-92628
Area code(s)	714/949
FIPS code	06-16532
GNIS feature ID	1652692
Website	http://ci.costa-mesa.ca.us

Costa Mesa is a suburban city in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 116,479 as of January 1, 2009 . Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to a suburban city with an economy based on retail, commerce and light manufacturing.

History

Members of the Gabrieleño/Tongva and Juaneño/Luiseño nations long inhabited the area. After the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà, a Spanish expedition led by Father Junípero Serra named the area Vallejo de Santa Ana (Valley of Saint Anne). On November 1, 1776, Mission San Juan Capistrano became the area's first permanent European settlement in Alta California, New Spain.

In 1801, the Spanish Empire granted 62,500 acres (253 km²) to Jose Antonio Yorba, which he named Rancho San Antonio. Yorba's great rancho included the lands where the cities of Olive, Orange, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Tustin, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach stand today.

After the Mexican-American war, California became part of the United States and American settlers arrived in this area and formed the town of Fairview in the 1880s near the modern intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Adams Avenue. An 1889 flood wiped out the railroad serving the community, however, and it shriveled.

To the south, meanwhile, the community of Harper had arisen on a siding of the Santa Ana and Newport Railroad, named after a local rancher. This town prospered on its agricultural goods. On May 11, 1920, Harper changed its name to Costa Mesa, which literally means "coastal table" in Spanish. This is a reference to the city's geography as being a plateau by the coast.

Costa Mesa surged in population during and after World War II, as many thousands trained at Santa Ana Army Air Base and returned after the war with their families. Within three decades of incorporation, the city's population had nearly quintupled.

Commerce and culture

Costa Mesa's local economy relies heavily on retail and services. The single largest center of commercial activity is South Coast Plaza, a shopping center noted for its architecture and size. The volume of sales generated by South Coast Plaza, on the strength of 322 stores, places it among the highest volume regional shopping centers in the nation. It generates more than one billion dollars per year. Some manufacturing activity also takes place in the city, mostly in the industrial, southwestern quarter, which is home to a number of electronics, pharmaceuticals and plastics firms.

The commercial district surrounding South Coast Plaza, which contains parts of northern Costa Mesa and southern Santa Ana, is sometimes called South Coast Metro.

The Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory Theater are based in the city. A local newspaper, the Daily Pilot, is owned, operated, and printed by the Los Angeles Times.

The commercial district within the triangle that is formed by Highways 405, 55 & 73 is sometimes called SoBeCa, which stands for "South On Bristol, Entertainment, Culture & Arts".

Costa Mesa offers 26 parks, a municipal golf course, 26 public schools and 2 libraries. It is also home to the Orange County Fairgrounds, which hosts one of the largest fairs in California, the Orange County Fair, each July. The Fair receives more than one million visitors each year. Adjacent to the Fairgrounds is the Pacific Amphitheater, which has hosted acts such as Madonna, Bill Cosby, Jessica Simpson, Steppenwolf, Kelly Clarkson and many more.

Government

Local

A general law city, Costa Mesa has a council-manager form of government. Voters elect a five-member City Council, all at-large seats, who in turn select a mayor who acts as its chairperson and head of the government. Day to day, the city is run by a professional city manager and staff of approximately 600 full-time employees.

Management of the city and coordination of city services are provided by:

The 9.5 acre (38,000 m²) Costa Mesa Civic Center is located at 77 Fair Drive. City Hall is a five-story building where the primary administrative functions of the City are conducted. Also contained in the Civic Center complex are Council Chambers, the Police facility, Communications building and Fire Station No. 5.

Emergency services

Fire protection is provided by the Costa Mesa Fire Department. Law enforcement is the responsibility of the Costa Mesa Police Department. Emergency Medical Services are provided by the Costa Mesa Fire Department and Care Ambulance Service.

State and federal

In the state legislature Costa Mesa is located in the 35th Senate District, represented by Republican Tom Harman, and in the 68th Assembly District, represented by Republican Van Tran. Federally, Costa Mesa is located in California's 46th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +6 and is represented by Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

Transportation

Costa Mesa is served by several bus lines of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), but most transportation is by automobile. Two freeways terminate here, State Route 73 and State Route 55 (also known as the Costa Mesa Freeway). The San Diego Freeway, Interstate 405, also runs through the city.

Geography

Costa Mesa is located at (33.664969, -117.912289). Located 37 miles (60 km) southeast of Los Angeles, 88 miles (142 km) north of San Diego and 425 miles (684 km) south of San Francisco, Costa Mesa encompasses a total of 16 square miles (41 km²) with its southernmost border only 1-mile (1.6 km) from the Pacific Ocean. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 40.6 km² (15.7 mi²). 40.5 km² (15.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.38%) is water.

Climate

Costa Mesa has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb).

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 108,724 people, 39,206 households, and 22,778 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,685.8/km² (6,956.3/mi²). There were 40,406 housing units at an average density of 998.1/km² (2,585.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 69.48% White, 1.40% Black or African American, 0.78% Native American, 6.90% Asian, 0.60% Pacific Islander, 16.57% from other races, and 4.27% from two or more races. 31.75% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 39,206 households out of which 29.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. 28.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.69 and the average family size was 3.34.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.2% under the age of 18, 11.2% from 18 to 24, 39.0% from 25 to 44, 18.1% from 45 to 64, and 8.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 105.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $50,732, and the median income for a family was $55,456. Males had a median income of $38,670 versus $32,365 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,342. About 8.2% of families and 12.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.0% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Institutions of higher learning located in Costa Mesa include Orange Coast College, Vanguard University (affiliated with the Assemblies of God), Whittier Law School (a satellite of Whittier College) and National University (a private university based in La Jolla, California).

Costa Mesa has two high schools, Costa Mesa High School and Estancia High School. Costa Mesa has two public middle schools; Tewinkle Middle School, which was named after Costa Mesa's first mayor, and Costa Mesa Middle School which shares the same campus as Costa Mesa High School. Costa Mesa also has two alternative high schools that share the same campus, Back Bay High School and Monte Vista High School. Costa Mesa High School's sports programs have been very successful, and Costa Mesa graduates include 2008 Olympic high jumper Sharon Day.

Notable natives and residents

• Mike Barrowman, Olympic swimmer
• Jake Gibb, beach volleyball Olympian
• Misty May-Treanor, two-time Olympic gold-medalist in beach volleyball
• Mike Ness, singer and guitarist of the the punk band Social Distortion is a former resident.
• Mitchell Hurwitz^{[citation needed]}
• Kyla Ross, USA Gymnastics Junior National Team Member; 2009 U.S. Junior National Champion and 2009 Junior Pan American Games Champion; trains at Gym-Max

External links

• City of Costa Mesa official website
• City of Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce
• City of Costa Mesa official Conference & Visitor Bureau
• Costa Mesa Library Foundation
• Vanguard University of Southern California
• National University

ABOUT SEAL BEACH

City of Seal Beach, California
—  City  —
Seal
Location of Seal Beach within Orange County, California.
Country	United States
State	California
County	Orange
Government
- Mayor	Gordon Shanks
Area
- Total	13.2 sq mi (34.2 km2)
- Land	11.5 sq mi (29.8 km2)
- Water	1.7 sq mi (4.5 km2)
Elevation	13 ft (4 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	24,157
- Density	2,098.7/sq mi (810.3/km2)
Time zone	PST (UTC-8)
- Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP code	90740
Area code(s)	562
FIPS code	06-70686
GNIS feature ID	1661416
Website	http://ci.seal-beach.ca.us/

Seal Beach is a city in Orange County, California. As of 2000, its population was 24,157. The city was incorporated on October 25, 1915.

Seal Beach is located in the westernmost corner of Orange County. To the northwest, just across the border with Los Angeles County, lies the city of Long Beach and the adjacent San Pedro Bay. To the southeast are Huntington Harbour, a neighborhood of Huntington Beach, and the unincorporated community of Sunset Beach. To the east lie the city of Westminster and the neighborhood of West Garden Grove, part of the city of Garden Grove. To the north lie the unincorporated community of Rossmoor and the city of Los Alamitos.

History

Early on, the area that is now Seal Beach was known as "Anaheim Landing", as the boat landing and seaside recreation area named after the nearby town of Anaheim.

By the 20th century, it was known as Bay City, but there was already a Bay City located in Northern California. When the time came to incorporate on 25 October 1915, the town was named Seal Beach. The town became a popular recreation destination in the area, and featured a beach-side amusement park long before Disneyland was founded inland.

The United States Navy's Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach was originally constructed during World War II for loading, unloading, and storing of ammunition for the Pacific Fleet, and especially those US Navy warships home-ported in Long Beach and San Diego, California. With closure of the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Northern California, it has become the primary source of munitions for a majority of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Geography

Seal Beach is located at (33.759283, -118.082396).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 34.2 km² (13.2 mi²). 29.8 km² (11.5 mi²) of it is land and 4.5 km² (1.7 mi²) of it (13.01%) is water.

Climate

Seal Beach has a Mediterranean climate

Neighborhoods

Seal Beach encompasses the Leisure World retirement gated community with roughly 9,000 residents. This was the first major planned retirement community of its type in the U.S. The small gated community of Surfside Colony southwest of the Weapons Station is also part of Seal Beach.

The main body of Seal Beach consists of many neighborhoods.

-Old Town is the area on the ocean side of California State Route 1(PCH).

-"The Hill" is the neighborhood on the north side of PCH thats borders end at Gum Grove Park.

-College Park West is a small neighborhood bordering Long Beach. Its streets are named after colleges.

-College Park East is another small neighborhood bordering Garden Grove. Its streets are named after plants.

Demographics

Seal Beach amusement park, 1920.

As of the census of 2000, there were 24,157 people, 13,048 households, and 5,884 families residing in the city. The population density was 810.3/km² (2,099.5/mi²). There were 14,267 housing units at an average density of 478.6/km² (1,240.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 88.91% White, 1.44% African American, 0.30% Native American, 5.74% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 1.28% from other races, and 2.16% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.43% of the population.

There were 13,048 households, out of which 13.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.2% were married couples living together, 5.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.9% were non-families. 48.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 34.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.83 and the average family size was 2.65.

In the city the population was spread out with 13.3% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 21.5% from 25 to 44, 23.7% from 45 to 64, and 37.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54 years. For every 100 females there were 78.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $42,079, and the median income for a family was $72,071. Males had a median income of $61,654 versus $41,615 for females. The per capita income for the city was $34,589. About 3.2% of families and 5.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.2% of those under age 18 and 5.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

The major employer in Seal Beach is the Boeing Company, employing roughly 2,000 people. Their facility was originally built to manufacture the second stage of the Saturn V rocket for NASA's Apollo manned space flight missions to the Moon and for the Skylab program. Boeing Homeland Security & Services (airport security, etc.) is based in Seal Beach and Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems (satellite systems and classified programs) is headquartered in Seal Beach. Boeing is the world's largest satellite manufacturer.

Arts and culture

"Anaheim Landing" on an 1875 map.

Anaheim Landing (now Seal Beach), 1891.

Annual cultural events

The Lions Club Pancake Breakfast in April, and their Fish Fry (started in 1943) in July are two of the biggest events in Seal Beach. There has been a Rough Water Swim the same weekend as the Fish Fry since the 1960s. The Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce sponsors many events, including: a Classic Car Show in April, a Summer Concert series in July & August, the Christmas Parade in December along with Santa & the Reindeer. Also in the fall is the Kite Festival in September.

Other points of interest

On Electric Avenue where the railroad tracks used to run, there is the Red Car Museum [1] which features a restored Pacific Electric Railway Red Car. The Red Car trolley tracks once passed through Seal Beach going south to the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. Going north into Long Beach you could then take the Red Cars through much of Los Angeles County.

Seal Beach is also home to the Bay Theatre, a popular venue for independent film and revival screenings.

The Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge is located on part of the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. Much of the refuge's 911 acres (3.69 km²) is the remnant of the saltwater marsh in the Anaheim Bay estuary (the rest of the marsh became the bayside community of Huntington Harbour, which is part of Huntington Beach). Three endangered species, the light-footed Clapper Rail, the California Least Tern, and the Belding's Savannah Sparrow, can be found nesting in the refuge. With the loss and degradation of coastal wetlands in California, the remaining habitat, including the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach and Upper Newport Bay in Newport Beach, has become much more important for migrating and wintering shorebirds, waterfowl, and seabirds. Although the refuge is a great place for birdwatching, because it is part of the weapons station, access is limited and usually restricted to once-a-month tours.

Recreation

Seal Beach on a crowded summer afternoon

The second longest wooden pier in California (the longest is in Oceanside) is located in Seal Beach and is used for fishing and sightseeing. There is also a restaurant (Ruby's) at the end of the pier. The pier has periodically suffered severe damage due to storms and other mishaps, requiring extensive reconstruction. A plaque at the pier's entrance memorializes Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, 1938, Project No. Calif. 1723-F, a rebuilding necessitated by storms in 1935. Another plaque honors the individuals, businesses, and groups who helped rebuild the pier after a storm on March 2, 1983, tore away several sections. Most prominent was a "Save the Pier" group formed in response to an initial vote by the City Council not to repair the pier. The ensuing outcry of dismay among residents caused the City Council to reverse its stance while claiming the city lacked the necessary funds. Residents mobilized and eventually raised $2.3 million from private and public donors to rebuild the pier.

Surfing locations in Seal Beach include the Seal Beach pier and "Stingray Bay" (or Ray Bay—the surfer's nickname for the mouth of the San Gabriel River—the stingrays are attracted by the heated water from several upstream powerplants). Classic longboard builders in the area include Harbour Surfboards established in 1959 in Seal Beach and Bruce Jones Surfboards in Sunset Beach. The classic surf trunks of Kanvas by Katin in nearby Sunset Beach are world famous.

The USA Water Polo National Aquatic Center, where the men's and women's US Olympic water polo teams train, is located on the US Military Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, adjacent to Seal Beach. The facility is also used for major water polo tournaments, swim classes, and swim teams.

A marina for recreational craft operated by the City of Long Beach is adjacent to Seal Beach.

Government

Seal Beach, City Hall.(National Registered Historic Place)

The city is administered under a council-manager form of government, and is governed by a five-member city council serving four-year alternating terms.

In the state legislature Seal Beach is located in the 35th Senate District, represented by Republican Tom Harman, and in the 67th Assembly District, represented by Republican Jim Silva. Federally, Seal Beach is located in California's 46th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +6 and is represented by Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

Education

Seal Beach is currently under the Los Alamitos School District. Younger students (K-5) go to McGaugh Elementary School or Hopkinson Elementary School. Students in grades 6-8 attend either Oak Middle School or McAuliffe Middle School. High school students go to Los Alamitos High School. Until 2000, the Orange County High School of the Arts was part of Los Alamitos High School. In 2000, the school district suffered a major blow when the community lost the Orange County High School of the Arts to Santa Ana, where it is now located.

Media

In the 2001 film American Pie 2, the beach town the gang drives through is Main Street in Seal Beach. The same street was used for the 1967 motorcycle-gang film The Born Losers which introduced the Billy Jack character.

The short-lived afternoon television soap opera, "Sunset Beach", was named after the unincorporated community of Sunset Beach just south of Seal Beach. All the still house shots were of houses in Seal Beach. They also filmed almost all of the beach scenes in Seal Beach.

Moses parted the "Red Sea" for Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 version of The Ten Commandments on the flat seashore of Seal Beach. (Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 epic color version with Charlton Heston as Moses has no connection to Seal Beach.)

The TV show "Greek" filmed its 2nd season finale at this beach, renaming it "Myrtle Beach".

The episode "Summer Song" from the popular television series "The Wonder Years" used Seal Beach and the Seal Beach Pier for the scenes on the sand and under the pier.

Local news and events coverage is provided by the weekly Seal Beach Sun newspaper.

Famous natives and residents

• Robert August, one of the two surfers in Bruce Brown's classic surf flick The Endless Summer grew up in Seal Beach.
• Juliette Brewer actor who played Marianne in the Little Rascals Film and many others.
• Steve Goodman, singer-songwriter and author of "City of New Orleans", "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request" and "You Never Even Call Me By My Name" made Seal Beach his home from 1980 until his death in 1984.
• Jack Haley, former NBA player
• Bill Henderson, film director and MTV video director^{[citation needed]}
• Pat McCormick, a two-time Olympic platform and springboard gold medal diver (1952 & 1956).
• Clayton Snyder actor who played Ethan Craft in the Lizzie McGuire TV show and film.
• Randy Stonehill Grammy nominated singer/songwriter resides in Seal Beach with wife Sandi
• Chad Wackerman, Rock and Jazz drummer who has worked with Frank Zappa, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor and many others
• Bill Ward, drummer and occasional lead vocalist of hard rock/heavy metal band, Black Sabbath. Bill is also a solo artist.
• The ska and alternative rock band RX Bandits were formed in Seal Beach.

External links

• City of Seal Beach Official Website
• Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge
• Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station
• Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station at globalsecurity.org
• Leisure World Seal Beach
• Seal Beach Lions Club

ABOUT ORANGE COUNTY

Orange County is a county in Southern California, United States. Its county seat is Santa Ana. According to the 2000 Census, its population was 2,846,289, making it the second most populous county in the state of California, and the fifth most populous in the United States. The state of California estimates its population as of 2007 to be 3,098,121 people, dropping its rank to third, behind San Diego County. Thirty-four incorporated cities are located in Orange County; the newest is Aliso Viejo.

Unlike many other large centers of population in the United States, Orange County uses its county name as its source of identification whereas other places in the country are identified by the large city that is closest to them. This is because there is no defined center to Orange County like there is in other areas which have one distinct large city. Five Orange County cities have populations exceeding 170,000 while no cities in the county have populations surpassing 360,000. Seven of these cities are among the 200 largest cities in the United States.

Orange County is also famous as a tourist destination, as the county is home to such attractions as Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, as well as sandy beaches for swimming and surfing, yacht harbors for sailing and pleasure boating, and extensive area devoted to parks and open space for golf, tennis, hiking, kayaking, cycling, skateboarding, and other outdoor recreation. It is at the center of Southern California's Tech Coast, with Irvine being the primary business hub.

The average price of a home in Orange County is $541,000. Orange County is the home of a vast number of major industries and service organizations. As an integral part of the second largest market in America, this highly diversified region has become a Mecca for talented individuals in virtually every field imaginable. Indeed the colorful pageant of human history continues to unfold here; for perhaps in no other place on earth is there an environment more conducive to innovative thinking, creativity and growth than this exciting, sun bathed valley stretching between the mountains and the sea in Orange County.

Orange County was Created March 11 1889, from part of Los Angeles County, and, according to tradition, so named because of the flourishing orange culture. Orange, however, was and is a commonplace name in the United States, used originally in honor of the Prince of Orange, son-in-law of King George II of England.

Incorporated: March 11, 1889 Legislative Districts: * Congressional: 38th-40th, 42nd & 43 * California Senate: 31st-33rd, 35th & 37 * California Assembly: 58th, 64th, 67th, 69th, 72nd & 74 County Seat: Santa Ana County Information: Robert E. Thomas Hall of Administration 10 Civic Center Plaza, 3rd Floor, Santa Ana 92701 Telephone: (714)834-2345 Fax: (714)834-3098 County Government Website: http://www.oc.ca.gov