Water Cooled July 2006

You may use excerpts if attributed to the original source and
"Water Cooled Newsletter" SBE Chapter 124, Portland, OR

A NOTE ABOUT E-MAIL ADDRESSES

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." Thanks!

CHAPTER 124 MEETING IN PORTLAND

WHEN:	Tuesday July 12th, 12 Noon

WHERE:	Buffalo Gap Saloon & Eatery 6835 SW Macadam (at California) Portland 503-244-7111

WHAT:	Statmon Technologies Corp. on their Axess network-based remote control and monitoring system, and EIF-32+ stand-alone remote control unit.

Be sure to arrive at the Buffalo Gap before noon, because once their parking lot fills up, you'll be searching for blocks to find a space on the narrow streets. For directions go to http://www.sbe124.org/SBE124_maps.html.

Everyone is welcome at the meetings. For more information on chapter activities, contact Chapter Chair Everett "Ed" Helm W7EEH at 503-977-7752, e-mail him at chairman at sbe124.org .

CHAPTER 76 MEETING IN EUGENE

WHEN:	Wednesday July 12th, 11:30 AM

WHERE:	SPECIAL LOCATION - THIS MONTH ONLY! McMenamin's North Bank 22 Club Rd. Eugene 541-343-5622

WHAT:	Statmon Technologies Corp. on their Axess network-based remote control and monitoring system, and EIF-32+ stand-alone remote control unit.

Anyone interested in these monthly programs is welcome to attend whether you're from the Eugene/Springfield area or not, SBE member or not. See http://www.sbe76.org for a map to the meeting location.

NEW CHAPTER MEETING IN MEDFORD

WHEN:	Thursday July 13th at 12 noon

WHERE:	Redrock Italian Eatery 17 W 4th St Medford 541-773-6840

WHAT:	Statmon Technologies Corp. on their Axess network-based remote control and monitoring system, and EIF-32+ stand-alone remote control unit.

For more information, call Mike Gary of KMVU-TV at 541-772-2600, or e-mail mgary at kmvu-tv.com. See http://www.sbe76.org/Medford/

THIS MONTH'S PROGRAM PRESENTATIONS IN PORTLAND, EUGENE, AND MEDFORD

Ken Dillard, Executive Vice President of Broadcast Sales and Marketing for Statmon Technologies Corp., will do a presentation focused on broadcast remote control and facilities management. A kind of a past, present, and future approach, leading to an overview of their Axess network-based remote control and monitoring system, and EIF-32+ stand-alone remote control unit. See http://www.statmon.com/Pages/Axess.html

PORTLAND INFO

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. For more information on Chapter 124 in Portland/Vancouver/Salem, contact Chapter Chair Ev Helm, e-mail chairman at sbe124.org, or call him at 503-977-7752. See www.sbe124.org .

EUGENE INFO

The Sizzler is going to be closed for remodeling in July, so the meeting at the North Bank where the meeting used be, but for this month only. The Eugene meetings are on the Wednesday after the second Tuesday of the month. You do not have to be a member of the SBE or of the local broadcast engineering community to attend these meetings. Anyone with an interest in the subject matter is welcome. For more information e-mail Dennis Hunt dhunt at cmc.net. See www.sbe76.org .

MEDFORD INFO

The Medford meetings are on the Thursday after the second Tuesday of every month. For information, call Mike Gary at 541-772-2600 ext 209 or e-mail mgary at kmvu-tv.com. See www.sbe76.org/Medford .

LAST MONTH'S MEETINGS

At all three meetings, Cam Eicher, Director of Sales for Logitek, did a presentation on their Console Router Systems. All Logitek consoles are built around the Digital Audio Engine platform which combines routing, switching and console functions into one mainframe unit. See www.logitekaudio.com .

YXZ REPORT

LIFE WITH HD RADIO

Holding at 12 FM HD signals (eight with HD2) and one AM HD signal on the air in the Portland market.

I had the opportunity to drive to and spend 4-day weekends in Sacramento and near Seattle since I wrote last month's newsletter. There are a lot more FM HD transmitters on the air in Sacramento than there were last year, but no HD2's yet. I was delighted to be able to see text from San Francisco Bay Area stations there.

There are many HD's on in Seattle, including at least one AM, and 106.9 KRWM, not being owned by a company in the HD Digital Radio Alliance, had nostalgia-formatted 880 KIXI on their HD2 in stereo.

ANNUAL BROADCAST ENGINEERS' BBQ IN PORTLAND

The annual engineers' BBQ will be held on Saturday, August 5^th. Arrive about 3 PM, eat at about 5 PM. The location is on the Sandy River again this year. Host/Chef Tom, and Chefs Randy and Gray usually cook the main courses, and you will need to bring a salad, vegetable or dessert. Folks from Seattle to Eugene make the trek. Please RSVP by e-mail to secretary at sbe124.org (swap the "at" for an "@" and take out the spaces) and you will receive the URL for a map and directions.

FORMER TRANSMITTER BUILDING, NOW SWANK HOUSE, FOR RENT

The Kaye-Smith House (former KXL transmitter building) is up for rent. For those who didn't take a tour during the 2004 engineering BBQ, this is a 1,750 sq. ft. house at the south end of Council Crest Drive in the Healy Heights area of Portland. It was built in 1947 as the transmitter building for KPRA (later KWJJ-FM), Portland's third FM station. Later it served as studio and transmitter building for one of the incarnations of Channel 27. It was used as the 95.5 KXL-FM (now KXJM) transmitter building until KXL AM & FM was sold to Paul Allen's Rose City Radio in 1998.

I completely remodeled the building in 2004 - all interiors and infrastructure are brand new. The facade is art moderne in pink stucco. It has two spacious bedrooms (250 sq. ft., each) upstairs with spectacular views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams, the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and east Portland. The bedrooms are carpeted. One bedroom has a private enclosed garden through french doors and the other has a private deck. One bedroom has a spacious walk-in closet, the other has a large closet with mirrored sliding doors. Each bedroom has sufficient space for either a seating area or an office/study area. One bath with shower and tub, art deco fixtures and tile job.

The kitchen includes refrigerator with ice maker, gas range, dishwasher and disposal (all new in 2004) with generous dye stained maple cupboards with glass panel inserts.

The living room includes a large picture window overlooking Portland and adjacent fir forest, gas fireplace and air conditioner. Living room, kitchen and entry have maple Pergo flooring.

Downstairs is a 300 sq ft carpeted family room/TV room/home office with view and wired for 9.1 surround sound; a laundry room which includes washer, gas dryer (both new in 2004) and laundry tray; and 300 sq ft of clean dry unfinished basement (9' ceilings) with outside door, suitable for a shop.

There is a 33 foot triangular deck with view of Mt. Hood, built on the foundation (and base insulators) of the old KXL self-supporting tower and tucked into the forest. The house and deck are completely wired for telephone, sound, TV and data. There is a burglar and fire alarm. New landscaping is being installed this month.

The house is in the Lincoln High School service area and Healy Heights is the safest neighborhood in Portland according to Portland Police crime statistics. Rent is $1,800/month. Less if you are willing to mow the lawn and weed whack next door. Available mid July.

I will be traveling the next two or three weeks but will be checking my e-mail regularly and, God and Verizon willing, I can be reached by cell phone - 503-807-2989.

Don't miss this opportunity to LIVE RADIO HISTORY!

A FEW ITEMS FROM EUGENE,
OR STATEWIDE EAS

FREQUENCY COORDINATION
& OTHER STUFF

JULY 1^st: "USE IT OR LOSE IT" DTV DEADLINE

As I write this, the first of July approaches, and many stations are scrambling to digest the latest FCC DTV deadline. It’s sort of complicated, but essentially, after July 1^st you will lose interference protection for your tentative DTV channel assignment if you are not covering at least 80% of your analog population. This could be a real problem if your station only built out a minimal facility as the DTV rollout began. The FCC is accepting waiver requests, but since their Public Notice did not come out until mid June, it may have caused some to panic. In theory, this will not affect your replication coverage on your final channel if you have elected to go back to your original analog channel in February of ’09. In our part of the country even 3 dB is not very much population, so the likelihood of serious interference to your "temporary channel" seems somewhat remote and only if some Class A or other full service tries to sneak in on the perimeter.

KOPB-DT has been operating on ½-power with an STA to save electrical and tube costs, but is now up to full CP operating power of 753 kW. Even this is down from our original maximized CP of 1000 kW. These DTV big rigs really are expensive to operate. Tube costs alone are about $4 an hour, with electricity ranging upwards of $8K a month. Now remind me, how many DTV sets are there out there? At this rate, February 17^th, of 2009 will not come soon enough!

Interesting to note however that for KOPB-TV to replicate our analog 316 kW peak ERP power on channel 10 with DTV it will take only 20.5 kW average DTV power. This is the difference of a 45 kW TPO analog transmitter and a 3 kW TPO average digital transmitter. We’re already looking forward to the cost savings in electricity with a transmitter that is about 1/3 the size of present one. A nice solid-state design with about the footprint of a commercial refrigerator.

SPRING/NEXTEL 2 GHZ RELOCATION UPDATE

By the time you read this, Sprint will have had their market kick off meetings in Portland (April), Eugene (May), Medford (June), and Bend (late June). They are pushing to get the preliminary inventories done and soft cost estimates which are needed to get the Frequency Relocation Agreements (FRA) signed. Still a reminder, there is a new Broadcaster’s Guide and other valuable information on their website: www.2GhzRelocation.com

MORE DTV DELAYS AT KOAB IN BEND

OPB just can’t seem to catch a break with the DTV construction in Bend at KOAB on Awbrey Butte. After literally years of delays of land use issues, months of delays with manufacturing and weather delays, we thought this week (June 26^th) would finally see the start of work to modify the tower and lift the new stacked VHF/VHF antenna. The truck was a day late showing up to pick up the antenna in Maine from the manufacturer. The rigging crew was a day late with their airline connections, due to a cancelled flight. The crane from Portland that was big enough to do the job, got tweaked on a previous job and had to be repaired, and its trip to Bend was complicated by state restrictions on oversized loads traveling on holiday periods. After some hot, sweaty effort on the part of KOAB CE Max Culbertson, and a smaller local crane just big enough to pick the antenna off the truck, we can finally say at least that the antennas are on site. Construction is contemplated to begin now on July 5^th. This is a stacked antenna system with the 10-bay DTV channel 11 Superturnstile mounted on top of a 4-bay channel 3 Superturnstile. In all, the antenna structure is over 100’ tall and weighs about 30,000 lbs. This is the reason it takes a rather special crane to be able to pick that up and install on the 233’ KOAB tower. Overall structure height will be 350’ when completed, 50’ more than at present. When KOAB finally comes on in mid July (if no further delays) in its final configuration, it will be at 90 kW DTV ERP. Should really be a fantastic signal on high band VHF! KOAB has elected to stay on channel 11, so if the DTV deadline in ’09 sticks, the channel 3 analog antenna will have a rather short useful life. Can’t say enough about the long hard work Max has put into this project over the course of at least 3 years!

ARRL FIELD DAY 2006

No Field Day at The Ranch this year. Too many other things going on for me. I am glad to report that several of the Skyline regulars were able to participate with the Lake Oswego ARES group, WA7LO. Although their first time participating as a group for Field Day, they had a really nice operation in Westlake Park. You know, light standards on the baseball diamond make pretty good antenna supports! KD7DNM also furnished a retired TV ENG van with a nice mast and generator. Amazing, the bonus points amassed with the public operation, which drew attention from the newspaper and elected officials. At last word, Eric W7OSN made over 350 QSO’s.

PDX RADIO WAVES

JOBS

IN EUGENE

Churchillmedia is in the process of building a new radio group and needs a hands-on engineer. The successful candidate will be a team player with ability to interact with management and staff at all levels in the local and corporate environment. We are seeking a Chief Engineer to supervise the activities of other contract engineers and technical staff; planning, organizing and scheduling daily work assignments, including prioritizing work to supply the most efficient technical support while providing direction and technical control of engineering projects, evaluating progress and correcting projects as needed. Primary responsibility includes technical compliance with FCC rules and safety regulations. Candidate must have proven outstanding management skills to direct and manage people in an increasingly complex radio broadcast environment. Candidate must be able to work under pressure; should be well versed in all facets of radio station technical operation and have 3-5 years of experience in station related engineering. Candidate should also have extensive experience and demonstrated success in similar assignments in previous broadcast engineering management positions. Prefer candidates with electronic engineering or computer science degree, plus SBE certification.

Identify, respond to and repair component level problems of all broadcast related production equipment, uplink transmitters, antennas, etc.

Maintain broadcast production equipment, uplink transmitters, antennas etc.; proactively identify potential issues and develop and implement plans to address and fix potential problems.

Work collaboratively with the Engineering team and be willing to assist other team members on projects, trouble-shooting and repairing technical problems.

Resumes should go to Churchill Media, 895 Country Club Road, Suite A 200, Eugene, OR 97401, or e-mail mail at churchillmedia.com.

IN PORTLAND

Job Title: Product Marketing Manager - Video Test Segment
Location: Beaverton, OR
Post Date: 6/30/2006
SBE Job #: 763
Job Description: In this role, you will have operational responsibility for product lifecycle management. You will manage the product positioning for introductions and contribute to launch plans, evaluate and ensure product success in the market, and recommend and execute end of life activities.

Furthermore, you will recommend future investments for a portfolio of video test products. Therefore, you will anticipate current and future business opportunities worldwide and periodically serve as the marketing lead for product development teams. The most important contribution for product development is to successfully translate the voice and environment of the customer into product concepts for the broader team.

You will be asked to recommend both tactical and strategic actions to senior management, through the VP level.

The successful candidate will have an advanced degree in technical/business areas with 4+ years significant industry related experience or BS degree with 8+ years experience or equivalent. Direct involvement/experience in an environment requiring a multinational perspective is strongly desired.

The candidate should also have strong knowledge of video (equipment design, content transmission, distribution, or production) applications and interpretation of marketing principles and practices in technical and business environments. Experience with video test and measurement is not required, but is preferred.

This position requires approximately 25% domestic and international travel. All employment offers are contingent upon successful completion of our pre-employment drug screening and background/criminal check. Candidates with less education/experience may be considered for other opportunities.

IN OREGON

Job Title: Staff Engineer
Location: Southern Oregon
Post Date: 5/19/2006
SBE Job #: 671
Job Description: One of the Nation’s Top Syndication Companies has an immediate opening for a Staff Engineering Position, with possibility of fast growth. Applicant must be proficient in all aspects of Broadcast Engineering, and have high communication, and organizational skills. Knowledge of PC based applications is a must. Ability to take initiative and work unsupervised, ability to quickly analyze and repair issues, and ability to document all work is a requirement. Applicants must have 3+ years of previous experience in Broadcasting, and must be able to learn quickly. This is a high pace and high pressure environment, individual must be able to think and act professionally in emergency situations.

IN SEATTLE

Job Title: Production Technician (Part Time)
Location: Seattle, WA
Post Date: 6/22/2006
SBE Job #: 745
Job Description: Responsibilities include operation of television studio equipment - including audio boards, hand-held studio cameras, microphones, studio lights and dimmer panel and Teleprompters – and assisting in the production of live and taped television programming. Requires high school diploma or equivalent, and minimum 2 years TV broadcast experience or equivalent training. Requires valid Washington State driver’s license.

IN CALIFORNIA

Job Title: RF Engineer
Location: Redding, CA
Post Date: 6/6/2006
SBE Job #: 719
Job Description: We have an immediate opening for an experienced RF Engineer to maintain our solid-state Larcan and Harris Diamond transmitters. This position requires 5 years’ experience troubleshooting to the component level, with the ability to create workarounds when necessary to keep the signal up while equipment is being repaired or replaced. Responsibilities include the installation and maintenance of RF and audio/video equipment, UHF transmitters, NTSC and ATSC signals. AA in electrical engineering and 5 years’ related experience is required. Must be able to lift 70 lbs. FCC or SBE certification desired. The potential candidate must have the flexibility to work as a field engineer for 6-7 months of the year, while spending the remaining 5-6 months of the year rotating two weeks on, two weeks off in site at our Shasta Bally transmission site

JOB LISTS, SBE AND OTHERWISE

OREGON EAS MONITORING REQUIREMENTS

All the broadcast stations in Oregon, and the Washington stations that are part of Oregon EAS Operational Areas, are listed at http://www.sbe124.org/or_eas/Oregon_EAS_Monitoring_Assignments.html. We note which stations are ready for the "CAE" Child Abduction Emergency or Amber Alerts.

The Oregon State Relay (Oregon Public Broadcasting) is now ready for the EAS CAE event code, so we won't be seeing any "CEM" (Civil Emergency Message) alerts for Amber Alerts again.

RESUME SERVICE GOES ON-LINE

The SBE Resume Service is now online at http://www.sbe.org/sbe_resume_service.htm ! With increased visibility and ease of use, the Resume Service is the perfect companion to JobsOnline for SBE members searching for new positions and for employers searching for the right candidates.

At no cost, SBE members complete a questionnaire and send the national office copies of their resumes. This information is used to compile an anonymous profile that is posted (not the resume) on the SBE website for employers to browse. Employers interested in one or more profiles will contact the national office and pay a small fee to access the actual resumes.

Only SBE Members may use this service and any broadcast related employer may participate. For more information Contact Angel D. Bates at abates at sbe.org, 317-846-9000 or go to http://www.sbe.org.

E-MAIL LISTS

There are three Oregon e-mail lists you may be interested in: SBE-PDX, which distributes the unabridged e-mail version of this newsletter plus other news and announcements; EAS-OR, for announcements, news, and help on EAS-related topics; and OR-ENG for everything else that interests broadcast engineers, including frequency coordination.

If you have World Wide Web access, you can use it any time to unsubscribe from the lists, to switch to and from digest mode, to check back issues of the list (which will be available after the list has been getting posts for a day or so), etc. The Web addresses for these resources are:

If you do not have WWW access, you can do these same things via email. Send mail to "list name"-request at broadcast.net" (without the quotes and with an "@" instead of "at") with the subject or body containing just the word "help" (also without the quotes). You will receive an automated reply giving you further directions. Or, just send an e-mail message to kent at randles.com, who moderates these three Oregon lists.

CERTIFICATION

The Society of Broadcast Engineers offers a program of certification for broadcast engineers ranging from the entry-level Broadcast Technologist to the 20-plus-years-of-experience-needed Professional Broadcast Engineer. The program includes certification for Audio and Video Engineers, and Broadcast Network Technologist which does not include any RF related questions.

SBE Certification provides recognition of your experience and knowledge in the field of broadcast engineering. It also shows others that you have made a serious commitment to stay current with new technology, regulations, and practices. Application and test dates are listed below in the calendar section of this newsletter.

For more information, contact Chapter 124 Certification Chair Eric Margeson W7OSN CPBE at 503-464-0860 or e-mail certification at sbe124.org.

SBE MEMBERSHIP

WHAT IS SBE?

The Society of Broadcast Engineers, formed in 1963, is a non-profit organization serving the interests of Broadcast Engineers. We are the only society devoted to the advancement of all levels of Broadcast engineering.

WHO ARE MEMBERS OF SBE?

Membership, international in scope, consists of studio and transmitter operators and technicians, supervisors, announcer-technicians, chief engineers of commercial and educational stations , engineering vice presidents, consultants, field and sales engineers. Also, broadcast engineers from recording studios, schools, CCTV and CATV, production houses, corporate audio-visual departments, and other facilities.

HERE'S WHAT SBE MEMBERSHIP CAN DO FOR YOU

All this adds up to keeping you at the top of your field, enhancing your value to your employer, or if you are self-employed, keeping you prepared to meet the changing needs of your clients.

MEMBER SERVICES

COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR PEERS

Each member receives "The SBE SIGNAL", a quarterly publication providing news about SBE members and activities, technical issues and FCC filings of the Society.

Most SBE Members live near one of the more than 100 SBE Chapters located throughout the United States and abroad. Attending regular Chapter meetings keeps you up to date on the latest technology, while you establish a new network of friends within the local broadcast engineering community.

Members can utilize informational and job listing services by using the SBE Web Site http://www.sbe.org.

HAM RADIO

As you may have noticed, many of us are Amateur Radio Operators. The Skyline Amateur Radio Club, run by W7EEH and KD7DNM, has three linked repeaters in northwestern Oregon. You can see the frequencies, PL's, and coverage maps at http://www.w7dtv.us/ plus look at the pictures of our annual Field Day operating event. Note that the TV monitor in the upper left hand corner is the link to the menu.

FYI

The SBE Chapter 124 Water Cooled Newsletter is published monthly, and mailed First Class to almost 200 broadcast professionals. An unabridged e-mail text version of this newsletter is available, and goes out to over 260 more people (get on the SBE-PDX list at http://www.broadcast.net/mailman/listinfo/sbe-pdx). The last couple years' newsletters are available here on the Chapter web site, http://www.sbe124.org/newsletters . Articles, news items, anecdotes, calendar events, stuff for sale/trade/free, jobs wanted/open, etc. gladly accepted. Fax to 503-777-0747, e-mail to watercooled at sbe124.org, or mail to Kent Randles, PO Box 1727, Portland, OR 97207-1727.

ON THE CALENDAR

July 11 (Tuesday) Monthly Portland SBE Chapter 124 meeting, noon, Buffalo Gap Saloon & Eatery. See http://www.sbe124.org .

July 12 (Wednesday) Monthly Eugene SBE Chapter 76 meeting, 11:30 AM. See http://www.sbe76.org .

July 13 (Thursday) New SBE Chapter meeting in Medford, Redrock Italian Eatery. See http://www.sbe76.org/Medford/ .

August 13 (Sunday) SBE Chapter of the Air, 0000 GMT, second Sunday of the month. Hal Hostetler WA7BGX in Tucson, AZ is Net Control. The published frequency is 14.205 MHz. Occasionally, that frequency is busy and you may need to move up (no more than 10 kHz) to find the SBE meeting.

September 22 (Friday) Deadline to apply to take an SBE Certification exam during the November 10-20 Local Exam Window.

FREQUENCY COORDINATION

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.

MONTHLY SBE LUNCH IN PORTLAND

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.org. As usual, everyone, member or not, is welcome to attend.

Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 124 - Portland & Salem Oregon, Vancouver, Washington

Newsletter

July, 2006

Editor/Webmaster: Kent Randles K7YXZ watercooled at sbe124.org