Newsletter
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http://www.sbe124.org
SBE Chapter 124
PO Box 1727
Portland, OR 97207-1727
You may use excerpts if attributed to the original
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"Water Cooled Newsletter" SBE Chapter 124, Portland, OR
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| WHEN: | Tuesday August 14th, Noon. |
| WHERE: | Buffalo Gap Saloon & Eatery 6835 SW Macadam (at California) Portland 503-244-7111 |
| WHAT: | Tom Abbott & Steve Lampen of Belden Wire will present: "How big is your Pixel?" (Belden will cover lunch). See http://www.belden.com . |
Details below.
Tom Abbott & Steve Lampen of Belden Wire will present: "How big is your Pixel?" (Belden will cover lunch). RGB and VGA signals (and their cousins SVGA, XGA, QXGA etc.) are analog component delivery systems that split the signal into component parts that are carried by multi-coax or multipair cables. The delivery time of each pixel component is critical for resolution and picture detail, called “timing” for coaxes, and “delay skew” for twisted pairs. This presentation will show how far you can go in different variations of coax and twisted pair cables, how it is related to screen resolution and pixel size, and how you can calculate these distances yourself. See http://www.belden.com .
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 dot org, or call him at 503-977-7752. For a map see http://www.sbe124.org/SBE124_maps.html .
There is a lot of concern about new sources of RF coming into the "white spaces" of the TV spectrum, and rightfully so. Sennheiser, one of the world's leading companies in wireless mic technology, has developed some rather interesting methods for finding available frequencies in very crowded environments. They have taken wireless microphone systems into the 21st century with networked receivers, etc. See http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/icm_eng.nsf .
The Taste of NAB Road Show in Portland and Eugene, and the Medford presenter is still to be annouced.
by Kent Randles K7YXZ CBRE
Senior Engineer, Entercom-Portland
Co-Chair, Portland/Vancouver LAECC
Chapter Secretary/Newsletter Editor
secretary at sbe124 dot org
Since the "sponsor" side of our local membership drive ended up with only chapter officers, we decided it would be better to give an HD Radio to only the winner of the new member drawing. That winner is Jim Boland of KATU. I’m shopping for a Sangean HDT-1X for him. See http://www.sangean.com/product.php?model=HDT-1X .
There are currently 12 FM HD signals (nine with HD2, and one with HD3) and two AM HD signals on the air in the Portland market. For a complete list, see http://www.ibiquity.com/stationlist_hdradio.php?theState=OR&sortBy=StnMarket&theCity=PortlandOR#stationlist .
We're still waiting for the FCC's HD Radio rules to be published in the Federal Register and start the 30-day countdown to AM HD at night amongst other features.
The Car Toys car audio and cell phone chain sells more 12 volt car radios than any other chain in the country. At their recent Tent Sale, put on by the in the parking lot of the Portland Meadows horse racing track, Ibiquity had a booth. It was staffed by three people from their Maryland office who specialize in retail. One of them was Don Kelly, who once did all-nights on KFRC in San Francisco. Don went on to program, market, manage, own, and consult stations. He's now Ibiquity's Director of Broadcast Marketing, really making headway with Program Directors and retailers about HD Radio.
Can't miss the HD Radio banner.
Right next to XM, who were blasting one of their formats.
It was just coincidence that the frequencies of KGON, KKRZ, and KINK are on their background.
My wife Patti gets the Directed demo.
The HD2 of Entercom's 94.7 KNRK, Camas flipped its format from Entercom's national HD2 format "Deep Cuts" to a format produced in Portland and also played in Seattle: "All Northwest Bands." In perhaps the first local write up of HD Radio, "94/7Too" is mentioned in the August 9th issue of the Portland Mercury on page 27 under "Our Town Could Be Your Life." For the record, Entercom only owns five FM stations in the Portland market. You can read it online at http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=387973&category=237893 .
I hosted the
Portland location of the SBE RF Safety Course. Due to bigger things going on in
the Entercom building, we had to watch the Webinar in an unused office,
projected on the wall, and listen on a speaker phone. But it was all good.
Richard Strickland of RF Safety Solutions is a great presenter with vast
knowledge, a twisted sense of humor, and great graphics and pictures.
by Chris Murray
Co-Chair, Oregon EAS (SECC)
Director of Engineering
McKenzie River Broadcasting, Eugene
ichabod at kknu dot fm
(See http://www.broadcast.net/mailman/listinfo/eas-or)
More from Chris next month.
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
Recently the
FCC published a ruling that allowed, but did not require, Sprint to reimburse
Broadcast Auxiliary microwave licensees that are associated with LPTV’s and
Translators. Sprint has decided to reimburse the relocation expenses for those
licensed systems. With the help of NAB, MSTV, and APTS, a very aggressive
schedule was recently published that went into effect on August 1st. I think
they could see that without resolving quickly the BAS Translator Relay issue,
the whole 2 GHz Relocation process could be held up. In return those parties
that participated will document and support Sprint in their request to the FCC
for an extension of time past the current deadline of September of 2007. We all
could see that it was not possible on the previous schedule, although there has
been great progress. So OPB, and a few others in the state, will be reimbursed
for additional microwave paths not previously covered. For OPB, it means about
15 licenses covering about 20 sites and a system wide solution.
(From TVNEWSDAY, Jul. 31, as forwarded by Howard Fine)
Prototypes of
devices that want to share the broadcast band failed to properly detect other
signals and caused interference to TV signals and to wireless microphones, the
agency says in test results. FCC engineers are giving a thumbs down to so-called
white spaces devices that want to share the broadcasters’ digital TV spectrum.
Reporting results of bench and field
testing of white space prototypes this afternoon, the FCC’s Office of
Engineering and Technology says that prototypes “do not consistently sense or
detect TV broadcast or wireless microphone signals. “Our tests also found the
transmitter in the prototype device is capable of causing interference to TV
broadcasting and wireless microphones,” the OET report says. The report
confirms what broadcasters have been saying all along—the devices will cause
“massive interference, said MSTV’s David Donovan. “If they are allowed in
this band, it will stop the DTV transition in its tracks,” he said.
In releasing the report—Initial
Evaluation of the Performance of Prototype TV-Band White Space Devices (OET
Report FCC/OET 07-TR-1006)—the FCC asked for comments by Aug. 15 and replies
by Aug. 27.
Ev’s Comment: Well duh? Our
esteemed colleague Charlie Rhodes has been telling us this for months! I’m
sure we have not heard the last of this. And when has Good Engineering prevailed
at the Commission over BIG money and special interests like the powerful lobby
that wants free spectrum for their wireless network boxes? The DTV transition
depends on clear spectrum!
I saw the other
day that cable penetration on the Portland DMA was now down to 52%. Satellite
was, of course, up some, but the surprising number came from the over-the-air
(OTA) viewers which is now up to 22%. At one time, not so long ago, cable was
about 75% and OTA was 15%. I wonder if this is a trend as we roll along towards
the DTV transition date with the OTA stations providing more choices in
programming at better quality, and FREE? Meanwhile cable & satellite prices
go up.
Mark you
calendars for September 11th. That’s the regular SBE Chapter 124 meeting date.
Larry Bloomfield will be bringing his “Taste of NAB Road Show” to Portland.
This year it will be held in the studios of OPB on SW Macadam, just blocks from
the usual meeting place. There will NOT be a meeting at the Buffalo Gap in
September.
We’ll be sending along additional
information as a meeting reminder next month, but try to save the date, allow
extra time, and plan on attending.
As Kent
reported last month, Field Day for all the ham operators has come and gone for
another year. This year it was hosted again out at the W7EEH ranch. In total,
about 25 people participated over the course of the three days. We made over 600
contacts, which should yield about 1200 points. Pretty good, considering the
poor propagation over the weekend. 40 meters was the most active band, with 75
and 20 following with good QSO counts. Even 6 meters opened up to the Southwest.
We also had a great pot luck BBQ.. A good time was had by all! We still plan on
posting some pictures at www.W7DTV.us
Thanks, CUL, & 73, Ev…
by Michael D. Brown N7AXC CSRE
Brown Broadcast Services, Inc., Portland
mike at brownbroadcast dot com
Mike's column switches to odd months, and so it will appear next month. Mike's company is feverishly preparing for the FCC's non-commercial FM application window.
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 .]
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