• Contents for this Newsletter

About This Newsletter
Meeting Announcement
Upcoming Meeting Schedule
Meeting Minutes
High-Definition Entertainment
Media Ownership Up Front And Center
Amateur Radio News
Comments Made Easy
Nextwave Saga Over
EAS Test Schedule Available
SBE Short Circuits
Certification Exam Session Dates Announced For 2003
Lynn Magnum Passes
FCC Rulemakings
Future Special Event
Chapter Sustaining Members
Return to 2003 Newsletter Archives

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The Chapter 24 Newsletter is published monthly by Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers; Madison, Wisconsin. Original hard copy edited by Mike Norton on Pagemaker 5.0. Submissions of interest to the broadcast technical community are welcome. You can make your submissions by e-mail to:

© 2003 by SBE Chapter 24. Views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the Society, its officers, or its members. SBE Chapter 24 regrets, but is not liable for, any omissions or errors. The Chapter 24 Newsletter is published twelve times per year. Other SBE Chapters are permitted to use excerpts if attributed to the original author, sources, and SBE Chapter 24.

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Join us this month for a tour of Madison Media Institute and the new facility they moved into in the summer of 2001. The school provides media and broadcast training, and courses which include recording and music technology, computer animation, web design, CD-ROM authoring, and video production. We'll see their 48-track recording studio and other media labs.

To get to Madison Media Institute from Stoughton Road (Highway 51), head East on Pflaum Road to where it meets Agriculture Drive. Continue straight on Agriculture Drive. Madison Media is on the right, on the corner of Agriculture Drive and Dairy Drive. The State Hygiene Lab is across the street.

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Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers met on Wednesday, January 15, 2003 in Studio C at WISC-TV in Madison, Wisconsin for the chapters monthly meeting. There were 25 people in attendance, 19 SBE members, 15 of who were certified, and we had 6 guests.

Chair Tom Smith called the meeting to order at 6:58 PM. Newsletter editor Mike Norton announced the deadline for articles for the February issue is midnight, Friday, January 31st. The folding party will be held the following Wednesday, February 5th at 5:30 PM at WKOW-TV.

Chair Tom Smith announced that the next meeting would be at Madison Media Institute which is located on the far east side of Madison. He is looking for ideas for a restaurant location for the pre-meeting dinner. If anyone has a suggestion they should contact him or one of the program committee members. Steve Paugh of the Program Committee announced that the March 20th meeting that was tentatively set up with AMS/Neve (audio console) has not materialized. Instead, we will have our DTV receiver PSIP comparison "shoot-out" experiment for the March meeting.

Sustaining Membership Chair Fred Sperry was unable to attend the meeting. His report was presented by Mike Norton who announced four recent renewals, WISC-TV, WKOW-TV, Clark Wire & Cable, and Richardson Broadcast. We have a total of 24 sustaining members.

Certification Chair Jim Hermanson announced that there was one re-certification in the last month (himself) and he thanked those who gave him letters of recommendation. The next testing periods will be February 7-17, 2003 (closed), April 8th at the NAB, application deadline is March 1st, and the next local exam period will be June 6-12 with that application deadline closing on April 25th. Applications are available on the national web site.

There was no membership report.

National Liaison, Leonard Charles reported that the SBE filed a brief in support of Koor Communications in their New Hampshire Supreme Court case against the City of Lebanon, NH, that resulted in a ruling that FCC authority preempts local land use regulations. He referred us to the article in the January newsletter. He also reported that the SBE gave a tutorial to the FCC staff on how broadcasters use the BAS. He announced that an Ennes Workshop would be given at the NAB on Digital Audio Technology, Facility Infrastructure and Improving Station Efficiency through Centralization. In other national business, the dues increase from $55/year to $60/year has been approved.

Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith reported that the Spectrum Policy Task Report has been issued. He also alerted us to increasing use of unlicensed devices in the TV broadcast band. It was noted that there is a general lack of frequency coordination by visiting sports teams, Chairman Powell is backtracking on his support for relaxing ownership rules, and one frequency coordination inquiry was made by a new FM station entering our market.

Steve Paugh reported that the DTV web site is progressing and handed out for comment the Broadcaster information submission form that Web Master Jay Mielke developed. With the approval of the membership present, it was decided that we should publish the web site with at least the Madison market as soon as possible. This way we can derive some benefit for the local market as we continue to develop the site and add information for additional markets.

There was no old business or professional announcements. The meeting adjourned at 7:31 PM.

The program this month was a tutorial and demonstration of two new products from Sony. Thanks to Kevin Peckham, Craig Beardsley, and Michael Taylor of Sony for bringing in pre-production examples of the IP enabled MSW-2000 "e-VTR" and the COFDM wireless camera system, and for providing the complimentary pizza and soda.

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Super Bowl Sunday. Commercials, parties, food, fun, and oh yes: Football! But for this TV geek, it was more exciting than that. It was HDTV football! Last fall, my parents purchased an "HDTV Ready" Television (Toshiba 50HDX82) to go along with their new house off of Airport Road in Middleton. After a few hours of explaining that even though they have digital cable, when they do get this home it’s nothing more than a fancy "normal" TV, but it will still look very nice. Needless to say, they did not purchase an HDTV receiver or progressive scan DVD player (yet!). It does have a pretty good array of "stretching" options to fill the wide-screen with the standard definition signal.

Flash forward to Super Bowl Sunday! My employer was kind enough to let me borrow an HDTV receiver (Samsung SIR-T150) for the day. I connected it to the Toshiba with the supplied component video cables and attached a monopole el-cheapo antenna (with one of those pseudo F connectors!) to the DTV receiver. Even with this terrible antenna, the signal came in perfectly. The coverage on ABC leading up to the broadcast appeared to be SD stretched and encoded at 720P. Everything was distorted and the people seemed "fat." I guess I can say I am not a big fan of the stretched out SD signal, as the TV itself can do that in 7 different modes that I could choose.

Just before kickoff, ABC went to break, and came back with the official game coverage, and we were taken to a nice, pretty wide shot of Qualcomm Stadium in 720P HD splendor. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the production quality of the HD Broadcast seemed to be missing something. I went and grabbed a regular old 13" NTSC TV and set it on top of the HDTV, using a bent out paper clip for an antenna, and now I had a "side by side" comparison. Sure enough, totally separate productions of the same event.

Of course, the HD cameras looked splendid. Pleasant, crisp shots of the players, field, football action, and even the half time show. What was especially nice for the hardcore football fan was that while the SD broadcast could only show all of the offense and the defensive line, the HD broadcast showed all of that plus the defensive secondary. You could see plays developing and the coverage adjusting to it.

Besides the clarity and wider screen of the HD broadcast, there wasn’t much else to enjoy. The overall broadcast was definitely produced for SD. The HD production seemed to just have enough cameras to follow the action and a couple replay angles. There was no virtual 1st down marker, the "Fox Box" didn’t show up until late in the 1st quarter, and the announcers were definitely announcing for the SD broadcast. All of the pre-produced packages and most of the graphics were made in 4:3 NTSC. Occasionally, you’d see them keyed over a wide shot of the stadium, other times they would just switch to 4:3. Also, the special cameras, such as the airplane, overhead cable cam and on-the-field reporter cameras were all SD, so it looked awkward to switch back and forth between wide and narrow screen cameras.

It just looked like there was an SD Truck feed into the HD truck, and when the announcers were referring to something the SD broadcast had but was missing from the HD, the director would just "take" the other truck. Everything on the HD production just seemed a little choppy, and not up to the standards you’ve come to expect from the most watched TV program all year. You almost had to have the NTSC television there to see what you would otherwise be missing. (Other note: The commercials for the most part were in SD, with the exception of the movie trailer commercials and one promoting ESPN-HD.)

All in all, it was great to see this in HDTV. Seeing this production reiterated that it’s still a new technology and this transition period is going to be awkward for a while. Considering the audience for HDTV is just a fraction of the NTSC audience, it just doesn’t make sense to go all out for the HDTV production, and that’s just fine with me for now! Despite all of my nitpickyness above, my family and I enjoyed how great it looked, and it was fun to be "TV Geeky" with them. I’m looking forward to the Stanley Cup Playoffs!

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The FCC has completed the comment period of its Notice of Inquiry concerning media ownership. The FCC received over 2000 comments, including many one and two page comments from individuals that mainly said no more consolidation. Many of the industry comments asked for the rules to be loosened more, with the NAB asking for the allowing of TV duopolies in all markets with certain restrictions.

Just before the end of the comment period, FCC Chairman Michael Powell announced a public hearing on media consolidation in Richmond, Virginia which will be held on Thursday, February 27th. Commissioner Michael Copps had threaten to hold his own hearings.

On January 14th, all five Commissioners appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to discuss telco issues. After questions critical of the Commissions handling of telco competition issues–in which the Senators and Commissioners both agreed that there was not enough telco and broadband competition yet–the Senators raised the issue of media consolidation and local ownership limits. Senators from both parties express their concerns, and mentioned the ownership of 1200 stations by Clear Channel many times in the questioning. All the Commissioners agreed there was a problem in determining the number of stations one could own in a local market, and that the limits were being abused by loopholes in the rules. By the end of the hearing, Chairman Powell was backing off from the idea of major changes in the ownership rules.

On January 16th, Chairman Powell and Commissioners Copps and Kevin Martin appeared at a Forum on Media Ownership where they gave statements and participated in the discussion. On January 20th, William Safire wrote a column in the New York Times critical of media consolidation, and on January 29th, Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold held a hearing on media consolidation, which included Lowary Mays, the head of Clear Channel as a panelist.

From C-Span (www.c-span.org), FCC Releases (www.fcc.gov), the NY Times (www.nytimes.com), The Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com), and eWeek (www.eweek.com)

Disclaimer: This author did file comments in the Notice of Inquiry on Broadcast Ownership

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• We Energies, a Wisconsin gas and electric utility, has given Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) organizations in 17 Wisconsin counties a total of $39,000 to enhance their emergency communication capabilities. A ceremonial check presentation was held January 21. "We are excited about this timely award, which will bring needed equipment to several of our counties," said Wisconsin Section Emergency Coordinator Dr Stan Kaplan, WB9RQR, who also serves as Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) Chief Radio Officer in Wisconsin. "We thank We Energies for their forethought and generosity." Kaplan said the grant would help to build an effective statewide packet network for use during emergencies. He also said he hopes the idea will "snowball" and inspire other companies to follow suit.

Last November, PA Consulting Group–the energy industry’s largest management consulting firm–honored We Energies by presenting the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability in the Midwest during 2001. "In planning how we wanted to celebrate this award, including what we could give to our employees as recognition, we decided that we could put these dollars to better use," said Charles Cole, We senior vice president of distribution operations. "We are proud that we were able to take this award, take it one step further, and share it with a worthwhile organization such as ARES."

Counties picked to receive funds were those with at least 5000 We customers, and funds were apportioned according to the number of customers it serves in each county. The top grant of $9000 went to Milwaukee County, while Waukesha County got $6000 and Racine County $3000. ARES/RACES organizations in 14 other Wisconsin counties plus one We-served county in Michigan got $1500 each.

• If you think obtaining your amateur radio license is hard, here’s some encouragement. Six-year-old Mattie Clauson from Roseburg, Oregon, earned her General class license January 13th. Mattie, KD7TYN–a fourth-generation Amateur Radio operator in her family–could be the youngest General-class operator in the US. She earned her Technician license last July. "The Element 3 test was pretty hard," Mattie said, recalling the January 8 test session in Myrtle Creek. "I studied for it a long time. I tried a total of three times and passed it on my last try. The Element 3 test was a lot harder than the Tech test." Mattie was ambivalent about the 5 WPM Element 1 Morse code exam, characterizing it as "not too hard, just a little, but kind of easy too." Mattie is already working on her Extra ticket, which she expects to be a whole lot tougher than the General. Her parents, Tim and Charlotte Clauson, AC7SP and KD7QZB, say Mattie became interested in amateur radio when she was five.

(Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League’s "The ARRL Letter" and the www.arrl.org web site)

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The FCC has added a new feature to its Electronic Comments Filing System. It is called ECFS Express and allows comments to be files by subject rather than docket number. To use the new system, a person selects the subject they wish to comment about from a pulldown menu, fills in their personal information such as name and address, and writes their comment. Available subjects will change as new issues emerge.

The subjects will be those that most concern the average consumer, and the FCC’s goal is to get more public participation in the rulemaking process.

From FCC Release (www.fcc.gov)

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On January 27th, the Supreme Court ruled that the FCC had no right to take the licenses of NextWave Telcom away while under bankruptcy protection. NextWave had defaulted on their payments to the FCC, and the FCC canceled the licenses and reauctioned them. A US Appeals Court ruled against the FCC in an earlier action. The vote on the Supreme Court was 8-1.

In a statement FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the "The Supreme Courts decision brings much needed certainty to an unsettled area of the law" and that the FCC was studying the decision and would faithfully implement it.

NextWave has not announced its next step, which could either be the build-out of some or all of the licenses or the sale of some or all of the licenses.

From NY Times (www.nytimes.com), eWeek (www.eweek.com) and FCC Release (www.fcc.gov)

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The schedule of Required Weekly Test (RWT) and Required Monthly Test (RMT) times to be sent on Wisconsin Public Radio is listed on the web. It can be found at www.wpr.org/eas. All of the designated State Relay stations in Wisconsin are members of Wisconsin Public Radio. Also listed on the web page are scheduled time for RMTs from NOAA Weather Radio stations.

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SBE will be releasing the new SBE Handbook for Radio Operators early this year. A new certification level and exam are being prepared and will be available when the book is released. The book will include sample questions to help users prepare for the optional test. Watch for future announcements about the release and discounts for pre-publication sales.

As announced in October of last year, SBE has raised membership dues as of January 1, 2003. The increase will affect most members. The rate for Regular, Senior and Associate members is now $60 per year, up from $55. This is the first dues increase for these membership categories since April 1992. Dues for Student Members are now $18 per year, up from $15. This is the first increase in this category since 1996.

The new rates will apply to new members that join on or after January 1, 2003 and for current members who are due to renew April 1, 2003. Membership dues for Youth Members will remain at $10 while dues for Sustaining Members will stay at $550 per year.

Life Membership remains free. There is a one-time $35 application fee for those applying for Life Membership. Members who are retired and have held membership in SBE for at least ten consecutive years at the time of application for Life Membership, can qualify. Life Member applications can be submitted at any time and are available from the National Office.

Chapters will also share in the increased revenues from the dues increase. Rebates to qualifying chapters will go up since they are determined by the amount of dues paid by Regular, Senior and Associate members. The overall increase will bring the total rebates earned by qualifying chapters to more than $36,000 beginning in 2003.

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The SBE National Certification Committee has announced exam session dates for 2003. Check the list below for the exam period that is best for you. For more information about SBE Certification, see your Chapter Certification Chair or contact Linda Baun, Certification Director at the SBE National Office at (317) 846-9000 or lbaun@sbe.org.

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On December 11th, Lynn Weiss Magnum passed away from complications of breast cancer at the age of 33. Lynn and her husband David Weiss Magnum owned Magnum Communications Group and operated a number of radio stations in our area, including stations in Portage, Wisconsin Dells, Tomah and Kewaunee.

They had previously owned WIBU in Poynette and recently received a construction permit for a new FM in Mount Horeb which they were in the process of selling.

Besides her husband, she is survived by two sons aged 8 and 9.

From Wisconsin State Journal

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The FCC had previously issued a notice of rulemaking on this allowing unlicensed devices in the TV broadcast band and in the 3 GHz band which was covered in last months newsletter. The FCC has now published a notice of this rulemaking in the FEDERAL REGISTER on January 21, 2003. In this notice, the comments dates were set. Comments are due on April 7, 2003 and replies on May 6, 2003. The notice was published on pages 2730-2733.

The FCC has issued Notice of proposed Rulemaking concerning issues surrounding the transition to DTV. They are asking for some general information concerning the transition to DTV and HDTV including obstacles to broadcasters, consumer equipment availability, cable and DBS HDTV programming, and program availability from program producers.

Comment is sought on a proposal to set a deadline of May 1, 2005 for final channel election and to allow the swapping of digital and analog channels before the end of the transition.

The Commission also addresses the issues of replication and maximization of signals including how long stations can go before having to maximize their signal and if they should be allowed an intermediate level that provides more than city grade coverage, but does not cover the whole existing analog service area. Channel 51-69 signal issues are also discussed including interference from new services in the band and the clearing of the band by TV stations.

Other issues that the notice covers include Channel 51 interference to and for new services, pending DTV applications which are in limbo due to Mexican or Canadian border issues and other legal restraints, the non-commercial station deadline, and DTV set labeling and Consumer awareness of DTV. Also included are changes in the simulcasting rules, DTV station Identification, V-chip, closed captioning, updates to the ASTC standards and PSIP, including how it affects translator stations.

Public Interest obligations of the public file and children’s TV requirements are discussed in relation to DTV. One question is if they should be expanded. This is treated as a separate rulemaking and should be filed as such. Actions on these issues may affect your analog station also.

The FCC has finally started to address the issue of translators and satellite stations in a couple ways. PSIP is the main issue with translators, but on channel booster stations are dealt with also. The main issue surrounding satellite stations is if they should be able to just cut from analog to digital operation, and should it be dependent on the market size. Satellite stations in larger markets could be required to transmit both an analog and digital signal during the transition.

A new issue is being raised: that of allowing distributed transmission technologies. In distributed transmission, a station would use several smaller transmitters and towers operating on the same channel to cover the same area as that was covered with one tall tower and high power transmitter. This issue has implications on translators also.

The biggest issue in this notice is Section 309(j)(14) of the Communications act. which is the requirement to return the analog channel by January 1, 2007. This part of the notice asks for comment on how to define a market, and compute when the number of homes having DTV receivers is over 85%. Availability of set-top boxes, translator, and Class A TV stations are also discussed.

The notice was adopted on January 15, 2003 and released on January 27th. Comments are due on April 14, 2003 and replies are due on May 14, 2003.

The Commissions actions on this notice may set the final direction of the DTV transition.

On January 30th, the FCC reallocated 30 MHz of spectrum from the Mobile Satellite Service for Advanced Wireless Service or 3rd generation wireless. Spectrum allocated is the 1990-2000 MHz band, the 2020-2025 MHz band and the 2165-2180 MHz band. The 1990-2000 MHz and the 2020-2025 MHz bands are in the first two channels of the 2 GHz remote TV pick-up band. Broadcasters were to clear the band for MSS Service, but most of the systems never started operation due to financial problems. MSS retains the 2000-2020 MHz and the 2180-2200 MHz bands. Three licenses for MSS service were canceled in this action.

There will be more on this action next month because of its effect on the 2 GHz band. A number of actions relating to this were released at the newsletters deadline.

From FCC Releases (www.fcc.gov)

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During the Broadcasters Clinic last October Dave Pritchard and Gordon Carter invited Chapter 24 to tour their facilities in Chicago for Norlight and WFMT/WTTW. This already sounds like a whole day event. However, with good planning and a helpful membership, Chapter 24 can realize this special event.

In coming weeks I will be in contact with people at each of the facilities. In the mean time, keep these thoughts in mind: When is a good time to visit the facilities? March, April… How will we get there? Bus, car pool… Is there interest for a trip to Chicago? Yes, maybe, no… Will this take a whole day? Maybe, yes… What about food? Good question…

The Norlight Teleport is located in Skokie, Il, at 3617 Oakton St, and WFMT/WTTW is in Chicago at 5400 N. St. Louis Ave.

For more information or ideas, contact Lonnie at Lcooks@ecb.state.wi.us.

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