Everything about Chapter 124 is summed up in the monthly
April 2008 Newsletter
(below the list of advertisers)
| Representative | Web site |
Business
card |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Abbott | Belden Electronics Division |  |
| Robert Rogers | Broadcast Tower Services |  |
| Michael Bach WB6FFC |
Kathrein-Scala Division |
|
| Wheatstone | ||
| Larry Bloomfield KA6UTC |
Larcan |
|
| Al Jason | Harris Broadcast (Radio) | Al
Jason 530-676-0766 Phone 321-726-3296 Fax 530-363-0475 Cell  |
| Tom Franklin | Norcom |  |
| Edward Forke | Shively Labs |  |
| Matt Granard | Westlake Electronic Supply |  |
| Joe Harrington | Harrington Tower Services |  |
| Gray Haertig | Gray Frierson Haertig & Associates |  |
| Michael Johnson | Dielectric |  |
| John Pierce | Tektronix |  |
| Larry Sayer | Rohde & Schwarz |  |
| Lyle Garrison | Broadcast Electronics |  |
| Bob Trimble N7IYI |
RF Specialties |  |
| Brian Walker | Professional Video & Tape, Inc. |  |
| Michael Troje | Continental Electronics |  |
| Debbie Storz | Econco |  |
Snail mail:
SBE Chapter 124
PO Box 1727
Portland, OR 97207-1727
You may use excerpts if attributed to the original
source and
"Water Cooled Newsletter" SBE Chapter 124, Portland, OR
In order to prevent e-mail addresses from being "mined" and then spammed, there are no longer clickable links to e-mail addresses, or intact e-mail addresses. For the addresses shown, substitute "@" for "at" and "." for "dot." Thanks!
| WHEN: | Wednesday April 8th, Noon |
| WHERE: | Buffalo Gap Saloon &
Eatery 6835 SW Macadam (at California) Portland 503-244-7111 |
| WHAT: |
Tyree Wilde, Warning Control Meteorologist with The National Weather Service (NWS which is part of NOAA) Portland office, will discuss working with broadcasters. Tyree is in charge of NOAA Weather radio and therefore the EAS alerts from the Portland office. (No host lunch - bring your lunch money)
|
| Map and directions to meeting location |
The Medford meeting is usually two days after the Portland meeting.
The Portland meetings are on the second Tuesday of every month. Everyone is welcome to attend the meetings. When you get to the Buffalo Gap, go in the SW California St. side door, turn left, and go upstairs. We have the whole upper floor, which has its own bathrooms. For more information on Chapter 124 in Portland/Vancouver/Salem, contact Chapter Chair Ev Helm, e-mail chairman at sbe124 dot org, or call him at 503-977-7752. For a map and directions see http://www.sbe124.org/SBE124_maps.html .
LAST MONTH'S MEETING |
|
Binh Nguyen, who is now the only FCC Resident Portland/Vancouver Field Agent, presented an overview of what's important to the FCC. Be sure and download the latest self-inspection forms and EAS handbooks.
2008 Taste of NAB Roadshow, location TBD. See http://www.tech-notes.tv/2008/01-Portland.htm .
by Kent Randles K7YXZ CBRE
Senior Engineer, Entercom-Portland
Co-Chair, Portland/Vancouver LAECC
Chapter Secretary/Newsletter Editor
secretary at sbe124 dot org
Holding at 12 FM HD signals (nine with HD2, and one with HD3) and three AM HD signals on the air in the Portland market. Go here for a complete list.
Here's the latest official iBiquity blurb:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
HD Radio™ technology’s success at the Consumer Electronics Show in January has been reflected throughout the first quarter of 2008.
Here’s the HD Radio buzz. Click on the links to get the full stories:
Today, 1,651 HD Radio stations are on the air in the US, offering more than 800 new HD2 or HD3 multicast channels. Over 60 unique SKUs are available in more than 10,000 stores and online, including Apple Stores, Best Buy, Circuit City, Crutchfield, RadioShack, Target and Wal-Mart.
Factory-installed HD Radio receivers are available in BMWs and MINIs. Hyundai’s Genesis, which will be at dealerships this summer, will include HD Radio technology as a factory-installed standard feature. Ford, Jaguar and Volvo have announced that HD Radio technology will be a factory-installed standard feature in their 2009 models.
Additionally, Ford has announced an accessory program with Peripheral and its dealers for a dealer-installed HD Radio/iPod system.
I look forward to seeing many of you in Las Vegas for NAB 2008. Visit us at Booth N6724. Stay tuned for more news as 2008 unfolds.
Regards,
Bob Struble
President & CEO
iBiquity Digital
There is an intense amount of interest in a 10 dB power increase for FM HD. Read more in Mike Brown's column below.
I had lunch with Mike Johnson, Regional Sales Manger for Dielectric, and newsletter advertiser. The new 6-bay HDCBR panel antenna that CBS-Portland will install on the new Sylvan Tower has been shipped, and should arrive in Portland during the week of April 14th. This antenna has been in the works for years, and will raise the Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT) for 98.7 KUPL, 101.1 KUFO, 101.9 KINK, 106.7 KLTH, and 107.5 KVMX from 440 meters to way above the CØ threshold of 450 meters, preventing KUFO, KLTH, and maybe KINK, which still has a backup site at Skyline Tower, from being downgraded to CØ and having their coverage compromised. The effective radiated power (ERP) will drop a bit for KVMX, that upgraded from a C1 to a CØ, and KUPL, a C1.
The deal also includes a new combiner, which will be installed on a mezzanine in the CBS suite of the new transmitter building, and will allow them to add HD easily.
But almost 115 kW will certainly cook a transmission line elbow, even 6 1/8". The reflected power "hits" came closer and closer together until an elbow melted. It was located just after the splitter that feeds the two halves of the Skyline Tower multi-station FM antenna.
Coincidentally, the insides of the 2 kW isolator for the KOPB-FM HD transmitter vaporized. Apparently only lightning can do this:
From http://www.sbe.org/pub_sc.php#NewSpecialist
"This specialist certification will qualify an individual's knowledge of
digital radio broadcasting including audio processing, studio-to-transmitter
links and transmission of multi-channel digital program streams. The specialist
will include knowledge of importers, exporters, the various methods of combining
analog and digital transmitters to antenna systems, delivery of digital audio
signals and data to transmitter sites, transmitter emission mask measurements,
AM and FM FCC rules, monitoring of digital signals and bandwidth requirements
for AM antenna systems."
You have until April 18 (Friday) to apply to take an SBE Certification exam during the June 6-16 local exam window. See http://www.sbe.org/cert_classif.php. For the rest of the 2008 exam application and test dates, see the Calendar section near the end of this newsletter.
by Everett E. Helm W7EEH CPBE
Director of RF Engineering
Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland
>1 GHz Frequency Coordinator, Oregon and SW WA
Chapter Chair
chairman at sbe124 dot org
Here are some real recent pictures from the KTVR site on Mt. Fanny [near La Grande, OR, at just over 7,000 ft elevation]... Good snow pack this year... I also included the "summer" picture of the same sign for a perspective... Also a shot of our transmitter building... Almost totally buried under the snow!
by Michael D. Brown N7AXC CSRE
Brown Broadcast Services, Inc., Portland
mike at brownbroadcast dot com
The FCC is moving fairly quickly with approvals for non-commercial FM singletons that were filed in last October's filing window, and Oregon Public Broadcasting is an early beneficiary. Already, OPB has new Construction Permits in Burns, Hines, and Enterprise, with CPs expected soon in Hood River, The Dalles, and John Day. Religious satcasters have been granted at Madras and Port Orford, with another non-comm also granted at Shaniko (Madras). The Commission will start processing the smaller Mutually Exclusive (MX) groups, this month. But with 3600+ applications to paw through, this process could take a while.
From our neighbors to the south comes word that the new KFI tower (south of Los Angeles) has collapsed, after being stacked to nearly half of its intended height of 675 feet. The original 750 foot tower was toppled by a private plane collision in 2004. Seacomm erectors of Sultan WA ( who built the Stonehenge tower) is the stacking crew. Thankfully, there were no serious injuries. A turnbuckle failed which ran between ground and an elevated guy platform, which caused the elevated anchor to be ripped out of its mount, apparently causing the collapse. See www.k6rix.com
The recent rumblings that HD FM power levels might be raised as much as 10 times (10db), has many observers just shaking their heads. This is not a glitch that could only have been discovered after 1500+ stations had competed their HD installations. On the contrary, it was apparent very early on that 1% digital injection level was not sufficient for good building penetration and relatively dropout-free mobile reception. In most markets, usable coverage area of HD is inferior to analog.
Meanwhile, without an analog signal to fold back to, excessive dropouts in the HD2 and HD3 subchannels were annoying, if not intolerable. The emperor had no clothes, but seemingly nobody wanted to tell him - until now. The NAB Board approved a resolution supporting increased HD power ratios, in late January. Disappointing coverage may be forestalling more aggressive promotion and implementation of the subchannels, which is the primary "added value" factor which could save HD Radio from going the way of AM Stereo and the Betamax. In short, disappointing HD coverage threatens to deep-six the entire system.
Those who may have invested as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment based on the 1% injection level, are justified in being peeved. Several transmitter salesmen admitted to this writer that the current uncertainty is hurting sales. Meanwhile, the increased PA linearity required at higher injection levels, with resultant drops in efficiency, may all but make low-level and perhaps even mid-level combining a thing of the past - except for relatively low power stations. According to Radio Magazine Online, a recent study by Hammett and Edison, (yet to be made public), suggests that digital coverage would be "significantly enhanced" with only "tolerable increases" in first-adjacent interference. I'm actually far more concerned about "buzz" that might be audible in some receivers, in the more closely-spaced 2nd- adjacent channels. This might impact rural analog reception and hinder the success of 2nd-adjacent "rimshots". Still, it's clear that something HAD to be done. Why did it take this long?
While casually cruising the net recently, I noticed increasing concern about DHMO, or dihydrogen-monoxide. DHMO is a "...chemical so caustic that it accelerates the corrosion and rusting of many metals, ... is a major component of acid rain, (and)... has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients. Symptoms of ingestion include excessive sweating and urination. For those who have developed a dependency on DHMO, complete withdrawal means certain death. The presence of (this) chemical has been confirmed in every river stream, lake and reservoir in America." See http://www.dmho.org .
From Jack Roland KEØVH
The net meets on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month at 10 AM Pacific Time. Locally in Denver on the WA2YZT repeater, on 146.805 and 447.175 with a pl of 186.2. AND, through the Internet Radio Linking Project on the Denver Reflector Node #9615.
To find a node in your area you can go to the www.irlp.net website, click on the "Node Info" on the left, then click on the "List of nodes and frequencies" in the middle of the page. In a moment a full list of node numbers, cities, countries and the like will appear and do a page search for you city. When the node is highlighted click on the node number and that repeater information will appear, usually with contact information of the trustee/repeater owner. When you have done this and are able to access your node (usually at 4 digit code on the local repeater unless it is a closed club system), you will want to connect to the Denver Reflector Node #9615. . See also www.wa2yzt.com
If you need further help contact me at KEØVH at qsl dot net .
[The participating Portland node is 3420, N7PIR at 440.450 with a PL of 103.5 Hz, located on the Stonehenge Tower. Our own Mike Steiner KD6LVP is the trustee. See http://www.qsl.net/n7pir .]
For southwestern Washington and ALL of Oregon: >1 GHz call Everett "Ed" Helm W7EEH at 503-977-7752, fax 503 293-4877, or e-mail microwave at sbe124.org; <1 GHz call Mike Steiner KD6LVP at 503-235-8517, fax 503-231-4624, or e-mail under1gig at sbe124.org.
You can browse the database at http://www.sbe124.org/part_74/.
If you are not IN the database, you are NOT coordinated.
At noon on the second Tuesday of every month, broadcast engineers in Portland meet at The Buffalo Gap Saloon & Eatery, 6835 SW Macadam (at SW California), 503-244-7111. After their lot fills up, you'll be searching the narrow streets for blocks around for a space, so get there early. For more information see http://www.thebuffalogap.com . For directions, go to http://www.sbe124.org/SBE124_maps.html. For chapter information call Everett "Ed" Helm at 503-977-7752, or e-mail chairman at sbe124 dot org. As usual, everyone, member or not, is welcome to attend.
