Newsletter
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http://www.sbe124.org
SBE Chapter 124
PO Box 1727
Portland, OR 97207-1727
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"Water Cooled Newsletter" SBE Chapter 124, Portland, OR
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| WHEN: | Tuesday September
11th, Noon.
NOTE SPECIAL TIME: 11:30 AM |
| WHERE: | NOTE SPECIAL LOCATION
Oregon Public Broadcasting |
| WHAT: | Taste of NAB Roadshow
11 vendors, 11 door prizes, and a free lunch. Get the flyer at http://www.sbe124.org/Roadshow_Portland_Flyer.pdf , or for info and a map see |
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 .
Steve Lampen of Belden Wire presented: "How big is your Pixel?" covering all the different ways to transport video by cable, and what cables to use. See http://www.belden.com .
Sandy Berenics of Wheatstone on their lines of audio consoles, audio routers, audio processing, and radio studio furniture. See http://www.wheatstone.com/
by Kent Randles K7YXZ CBRE
Senior Engineer, Entercom-Portland
Co-Chair, Portland/Vancouver LAECC
Chapter Secretary/Newsletter Editor
secretary at sbe124 dot org
Note that there is not a lot of extra guest parking at OPB for this month's meeting. The best place to park is in Willamette Park, which is accessed by turning east from SW Macadam onto SW Nebraska St. Once you are in the park, drive south past the boat launch lot and the tennis courts to the lot at the southern end of the park, and it's just a short walk west to OPB.
10 kW day/1 kW night non-directional 1640 KDZR Lake Oswego, a Radio Disney station, turned off their AM Stereo and turned on their HD, so now there are 12 FM HD signals (nine with HD2, and one with HD3) and three 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 .
Randy Pugsley, Director of Engineering for Churchill Media, reports that 2.2 kW non-directional day/flea-power night 1040 KXPD Tigard has a new Nautel transmitter and will have its HD going by the middle of September, followed shortly by 10 kW non-directional day/flea-power night 660 KXOR Junction City.
The FCC's HD Radio rules take effect Friday the 14th, so the AM's can have their HD on continuously after that.
Ibiquity and Apple have announced "iTunes Tagging," a feature to be available through new HD Radios. You hear a song playing on an HD Radio station, you dock your iPod onto a radio with this feature, then push a button and "tag" the song. When you go to iTunes you can preview or purchase the song. Radios by Polk and JBL have been announced. See http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLTH16106092007-1.htm
No extra hardware is involved at the station end, just compatible software to generate the artist & title information for the HD Radio Importer & Exporter. The station ownership must have an agreement with Apple, though.
Using licenses of NBC Telemundo, CP Communications came to town to cover the Dew Action Sports event at the Rose Garden and fired up on 450.1125 without properly coordinating. Unfortunately for them, they interfered with KATU's base station.
FCC Portland Resident Agent Binh Nguyen was not amused and cited them. You can see the notice of violation at http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-276380A1.html .
See if this sounds familiar. You start getting calls at 3 AM about your station's FM transmitter popping off the air but resetting itself from VSWR (reflected power) overloads. You arrive at the transmitter site after the third trip. The station is still on the air at full power and you begin inspecting the unflanged rigid transmission line inside the building for hot spots, starting at the transmitter end. You find warm elbows, really warm elbows, and then at the not-so-well lit end of the room right above the antenna switch: you put your palm on a piece of line that is so hot, you later find out, that it vaporized the Teflon disk around the "bullet," the inner conductor of the elbow came apart in two pieces, and the solder holding the two outer halves of the elbow was dripping out.
Ow, and ow-fm.com! You have just learned that severely damaged bullets and elbows CAN stay on the air. A couple hours of intense pain and three big blisters later, you order an infrared thermometer.
I highly recommend Water-Jel Sterile Gel-Soaked Burn Dressings (http://www.water-jel.com), and a prescription-only cream called Thermazene.
Finally, I'll briefly stand on my soap box and remind everyone that 3 1/8" rigid transmission line may be rated for 56 kW "average power" in the FM band, but that's at an ambient temperature of 68 degrees with no VSWR. Serious derating happens with serious VSWR.
"I'm now the proud owner of a Canadian GE50 fifty kW AM transmitter with spare tubes if you know anyone interested. Also have a Harris FM20K looking for a good home. Open to trades. I'll take $2500 each, cash for either one. They both have just recently been on the air." E-mail Mike Flud WU7Q wu7q at yahoo dot com.
"I have a 3 bay steel equipment rack I need to dispose of. The center bay is 27" wide and the two end bays are 22" wide and have two spacer racks plus a tabletop. I'm willing to give it away, all you have to do is pick it up. Here is my contact information: Terrence Allen, 503-245-0749, northxnw at hotmail dot com."
33 folks sampled all sorts of BBQ'd food. The weather was perfect. Thanks again to Tom and Midge Cauthers for hosting the event!
by Chris "Ichabod" 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
Don't miss the 13th Annual "NW Tech Days & Vendor Show" September 26th & 27th put on by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers.
This is your best opportunity to network with over 500 other telecommunications professionals and see equipment from more than 80 vendors. Participating Chapters: Cascade Range Chapter - Portland, OR; Inland Empire Chapter – Spokane, WA/Coeur d' Alene, ID; Mid-Columbia Chapter - Tri-Cities, WA; Shasta-Rogue Chapter – Medford, OR/Redding CA.
Embassy Suites Portland Airport, 7900 Northeast 82nd Ave., Portland. 503-460-3000, or 800-EMBASSY.
Thanks, CUL, & 73, Ev
by Michael D. Brown N7AXC CSRE
Brown Broadcast Services, Inc., Portland
mike at brownbroadcast dot com
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 .]