• Contents for this Newsletter

About This Newsletter
Meeting Announcement
Upcoming Meeting Schedule
Meeting Minutes
Nextel Plan Adopted
Court Overturns Ownership Rules
Amateur Radio News
Nextel Spectrum Exchange Details
FCC Freezes FM Applications
2004 Broadcast Clinic Schedule Announced
FCC Rulemakings
Local Legals
SBE Resume Service
Chapter Sustaining Members
Return to 2004 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:

© 2004 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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Larry Bloomfield, Chairman of the "Order of the Iron Test Pattern" fame and regular contributor to Broadcast Engineering magazine is touring the country with a presentation of 2004 NAB equipment and technical highlights. This will be his second visit to Chapter 24. The evening's program will be entertaining and informative. The Road Show sponsors have donated door prizes that will be drawn at each event and each attendee can enter for several major door prizes that will be awarded at the conclusion of the tour at the end of August. You can learn more about the Taste of NAB road show and the major door prizes at http://www.tech-notes.tv.

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Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers met on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 at Badger Prairie Park, Verona, Wisconsin for the chapter’s monthly meeting and summer picnic. There were 7 members in attendance, 6 of whom were certified and 5 guests.

The meeting was called to order at 7:15 PM by Chapter Chair Vicki Kipp. The minutes of the May meeting as published in the June newsletter were approved.

The deadline for articles for the July issue of the newsletter will be Friday, July 9th at midnight. The folding party will be held Wednesday, July 14th at 5:30 PM at WKOW-TV. The deadline line for the August newsletter will be Friday, July 30th at midnight and the folding party will be held Wednesday, August 4th at 5:30 PM also at WKOW-TV.

Treasurer Leslie Franzen reported that the chapter is in the black. Membership Chair Paul Stoffel reported the chapter sent out 113 newsletters.

Under new business, Chapter Chair Kipp congratulated the following chapter nominees for national awards recognition:

• The 2003 WBA Broadcaster’s Clinic for Best Regional Convention or Conference

• The Chapter 24 Monthly Newsletter by Editor Mike Norton for Best Chapter Newsletter

• sbe24.org by Webmaster Leonard Charles for Best Chapter Website

• Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith for Best Frequency Coordination

• Best Technical Article, Book, or Program by an SBE Member:

­ Paul Stoffel for "DTV Dialog" and "Let the Class Begin"

­ Vicki W. Kipp for "Transmitter Crowbar Explained"

­ Kevin Ruppert for "Music at 78 RPM" parts 1 and 2

­ Tom Smith for "Summer of Controversy"

Recent Sustaining Member renewals were WMTV-TV, Swiderski Electronics, Roscor, Alpha Video, and Token Creek Productions. There are currently 23 sustaining members.

Program Chair Steve Paugh announced the next meeting will be the Taste of NAB on Thursday, July 29th at Avid Technology, with a Dutch treat dinner at the China One Buffet. The August meeting will be held Wednesday, August 11th and will be a presentation on fiber optics by Heartland Video Systems.

Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith urged members to file comments on the FCC’s Notice of Rulemaking that would allow WI-FI to operate on an unlicensed basis in the broadcast TV band.

Also under new business, Chapter Chair Kipp announced that the chapter officers had declined an invitation to host a day long VSB Seminar by Gary Sgrignoli, due to the financial and administrative involvement from the Chapter. This would have been an updated version of the seminar Gary gave at the Milwaukee Area Technical College in May 2001. If members would like to see the seminar hosted by the WBA, they should pass their interest to Don Borchert at either (608) 837-3462 or dborchert@mailstation.com. The meeting adjourned at 7:24 PM.

Entertainment for the picnic was provided by Trailing Edge Productions (Kevin Peckham and a "virtual" Kevin Ruppert). Steve Paugh served as Grill Master.

Thanks to Steve Paugh for planning and arranging the Chapter 24 Picnic in June. Thanks also to Kevin Peckham for the providing entertainment at the picnic.

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On July 8th, 2004 the FCC unanimously adopted a Report and Order which for the most part endorses a Nextel proposed spectrum swap. In a session that went late into the night, Chairman Powell obtained the unanimous decision he very much wanted. Part of the spectrum involved is now being used for Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) and had previously been auctioned to the Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) industry. MSS has to date not begun to deploy in the spectrum.

The Nextel plan proposed to swap its 800 MHz spectrum for spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band and in doing so will need to cover broadcasters BAS relocation costs in the 1990-1995 MHz band. This will be funded by part of a $2.5 billion irrevocable letter of credit that Nextel will need to secure. The entire plan is hoped to be completed within 36 months (except where prohibited by international agreement along the Canadian and Mexican borders). The Commission will appoint a group of 800 MHz stakeholders to be the transition manager. The Commission also adopted an enhanced standard for "best practices" to address unacceptable interference and establish procedures for resolution of interference disputes.

All five of the Commissioners conceded that there was "no perfect solution," but agreed that this was the best solution possible. Chairman Powell stated that this proceeding involved "some of the most ruthless lobbying" he had ever encountered. He sent a strong message to the industry that they should avoid litigating the decision. To opponents of the plan, he said that the litigation risks "pale in comparison" to the threat of interference to public safety, and that industry must "rise above its commercial interests." He added that there was much information and dispute on spectrum values, but said "you can’t put a dollar value on the men and women who wear the shield." To Nextel, the Chairman acknowledged that it of course needs to act in accordance with its shareholders’ interests, but added that they "should" act in a manner consistent the interests of public safety.

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The US Court of Appeals for the Third District in Philadelphia overturned the FCC’s broadcast ownership rules by a 2-1 decision. The specific rules that the court objected to were broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership and local ownership limits. The court ruled that it was OK for the FCC to lift the rule against cross-owners, but it was done incorrectly. The court also ruled on local TV and radio ownership rule changes.

The court said it was OK for the FCC to tighten up some of the radio ownership rules and loosen some of the local TV ownership rules, but that the FCC did not change the rules correctly. The court ruled that those changes in the local ownership rules would need to be modified, as the new local ownership rules did not take into account station audience share. The FCC will have to rewrite the rules on these concerns. The court left the rules for network ownership and national TV ownership intact. The Court stated that the FCC had the right to change the rules, but did it incorrectly. At issue was the FCC’s diversity index for figure concentration of media which determined the percentages of station one could own in a market.

In written comments, Chairman Michael Powell stated that the ruling would create confusion in the state of media law. Democrats Michael Cops and Jonathan Adelstein both praised the ruling and wished to start on creating new ownership rules that would respect the values of localism, diversity and competition, and respond to Congressional and public concerns.

The lawsuit was started by a number of consumer groups and small broadcasters. The ownership rules go back prior to June 2, 2003 when these rules were issued. Because of another Court ruling which invalidated the old rules, stations can be bought and sold freely. At this time there are few ownership rules in effect. The full opinion is on the US Courts website (www.uscourts.gov) under Third Court of Appeals, as Prometheus Radio Project vs. Federal Communications Commission.

Information from the Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com), New York Times (www.nytimes.com) and FCC Releases (www.fcc.gov)

Note: The link to the opinion has some technical problems and may not open, which is why the opinion is not directly quoted in this article.

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• A Russian Dnepr LV rocket carrying the AMSAT-OSCAR Echo Amateur Radio satellite and several other payloads launched on June 29th at 0630 UTC from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ground controllers made their first contact with Echo at 1452 UTC and collected some telemetry to analyze before shutting down the digital downlink transmitter. Echo’s sun-synchronous orbit is some 800 km (nearly 500 miles) above Earth.

Among other capabilities, the 10-inch-square microsat–equipped with a transmitter capable of up to 7 W output–will allow voice communication using handheld FM transceivers (Figure 1). Echo will feature VHF/UHF, L-band/S-band and HF/UHF operational configurations, with VHF/S-band, L-band/UHF and HF/S-band also possible. FM voice and various digital modes–including narrowband PSK31 on a 10-meter SSB uplink–also will be available. The satellite is still undergoing testing and is not yet available for amateur use.

Figure 1. The Echo satellite prior to launch.

The Echo satellite was given a designation of AO-51. It joins a long line of amateur radio satellites beginning with OSCAR-1 launched in December 1961.

• Alliant Energy has called an early end to its broadband over power line (BPL) pilot project in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The "evaluation system" went live March 30, and plans were for it to remain active until August or September. Alliant shut it down June 25. Ongoing, unresolved HF interference from the system to the stations of retired engineer Jim Spencer, W0SR, and other amateurs prompted the American Radio Relay League to file a complaint to the FCC on Spencer’s behalf demanding it be shut down. Spencer said he was happy with Alliant’s decision, and was gracious in expressing appreciation to the utility for working with him on the interference issues.

According to Spencer, five fixed amateur radio stations within proximity of the BPL evaluation system and two mobile stations formally reported BPL interference on HF. "The radio amateurs and Alliant Energy cooperated by sharing interference information," he said. "Alliant Energy turned the BPL evaluation system off twice to allow collection of extensive BPL frequency and signal level data–with and without BPL." He said Alliant and BPL equipment vendor Amperion tried various "notching" schemes to rid amateur frequencies of the BPL interference with only limited success. The system included both overhead and underground BPL links to feed 2.4 GHz wireless "hot spots" for end user access.

Alliant Energy’s BPL Project Leader Dan Hinz says the ARRL complaint "certainly was a factor" in the utility’s decision to pull the plug prematurely but "not the overriding factor." More to the point, he said, was that Alliant also was able to "accomplish the majority of its objectives" ahead of schedule. The primary purpose of the Cedar Rapids evaluation was to gain an understanding of BPL technology and what issues might be involved in a real-world deployment, Hinz explained, adding that regulatory uncertainty and other unspecified technical issues also factored into the choice to end the pilot early.

(Excerpts from the arrl.org and amsat.org web sites)

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The FCC has settled the Nextel Spectrum Exchange with a 5-0 ruling issued on July 8th. The FCC settlement may not last word as a number of companies have threaten to sue the FCC to overturn the action. Those companies include .Verizon Wireless, Cingular, and Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. Congress could also block the action because of members of Congress objectioning to the FCC not auctioning the spectrum.

In the decision, Nextel gets two 5 MHz blocks of spectrum, with one block at 1910-1915 MHz and the second block at 1990-1990 MHz.. Nextel will pay the FCC $ 4.8 billion, less what Nextel pays for relocation of incumbent users. Nextel will also give up all their licenses in the 700 MHz band and certain licenses in the 800 MHz band. Nextel will get a credit against the $ 4.8 billion for the spectrum they return which is valued at $1.6 billion, as well as a credit for the cost of relocating incumbents in the 800 MHz and 2 MHz bands. Nextel will be required to escrow $2.5 billion for relocation of incumbents in the 800 MHz band and the 2 GHz Broadcast Auxiliary Service.

Nextel would also be required to pay for the moving of Public safety licenses which will receive 4.5 MHz of spectrum as well as having all the public safety bands consolidated. The new spectrum is equivalent to 90 two-way radio channels. If the relocation costs are less than the escrow amount, Nextel will be required to pay an anti-windfall payment to the government. The total payment is $1.5-1.7 billion more then Nextel expected and they are determining if they will contest the increase in cost to the FCC.

The new 800 MHz band will be divided into two large paired blocks with public safety located from 806-816 MHz and 851-860 MHz and Enhanced Specialized Mobile Radio located from 817-824 MHz and 862-896 MHz, which is mainly held by Nexel. The upper part of the band is adjacent to the cell phone band. The lower block of the public safety band is adjacent to the 700 MHz public safety band.

In the old band plan, public safety had one 3 MHz band at the top of the spectrum at issue, which was just below the cell phone band with the rest of their spectrum interweaved in the 809.75-819 MHz band and the 854.75-861 MHz band. The interweaved band had 70 public service channels, 80 SMR channels, 50 Business band channels and 50 Industrial land transportation channels.

The action has gotten much press. The Washington Post had several articles leading up to and after the ruling. The New York Times also did an article.

On Friday, July 9th, the FCC issued a notice warning of improper written communications before the official notice for this action was released. The Commission must have received some letters concerning the Nextel action with the FCC only issuing a press release. Under the sunshine rules, the official notice must be issued before ex parte or other communication can occur. There will no doubt be petitions for reconsideration and other papers filed as soon as the full Report and Order is Released. The Action was taken on July 8, 2004 and Press release was issue the same day.

From FCC Release (www.fcc.gov) with additional information from the Washington Post, (www.washingtonpost.com)

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While the FCC is accepting Form 175 applicants for the upcoming FM Auction, the FCC has placed a freeze on all petitions to amend the FM Table of Allotments and counterproposals that propose to a change of class, channel or reference coordinates of the 290 vacant channels up for auction. Any petition or application that affects these channels will be dismissed by the FCC. The Auction is to begin on November 3, 2004.

In other news concerning the FM Auction, the FCC announced the timetable for the Auction activities.

Those interested in the Auction can sign up for a Pre-Auction Seminar by July 19th with the Seminar taking place in Washington, DC on July 22nd. The Short-Form 175 filing window is from July 22nd to August 6th. Upfront wire transfer payments are due on September 24th and a mock auction will be held on October 29th. For those unable to attend, the seminar will be webcast live and a recording will be available on the FCC’s A/V Archives page.

From FCC Release (www.fcc.gov)

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The 2004 Broadcast Clinic program schedule has been released. Go to the sbe24.org web site and click on the program schedule link from the front page. Then mark your calendar for this year’s event October 12th, 13th, and 14th.

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The FCC has set a comment date for this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which would allow the use of unlicensed Wi-Fi digital data transmission equipment on the TV broadcast band. Comments will be due on September 1, 2004 and reply comments are due on October 1, 2004. In other actions concerning this proposed rulemaking, the Association for Maximum Service Television, Inc. (MSTV) has filed a request for clarification of some of the aspects of this proposed rulemaking.

The MSTV wants to test interference potential to analog and digital receivers and assess what spectrum may be available for use by unlicensed devices, along with other tests that may be needed to evaluate potential interference to broadcast TV. The MSTV would like information from the FCC on bandwidth and channelization of the service. They ask if operation will be on one channel or over a number of channels, and what type of modulation would be used. The MSTV would also like more information on desired signal levels. The FCC proposed the use of F(90,90) curves, which are not defined in the FCC’s rules. Information is also sought on undesired signal levels, mainly the calculations used by the unlicensed devices antenna height. Would it be figured from height above ground or height above average terrain, the MSTV asks.

Finally, the MSTV wants the FCC to define "other appropriate models" that installers of unlicensed equipment can use to determine signal levels when calculating potential interference.

For more information on this rulemaking, see last month’s Newsletter. The notice giving the comment dates was published in the June 18, 2004 edition of the FEDERAL REGISTER and the MSTV request for clarification can be found on their website (www.mstv.org).

At the request of the National Association of Broadcasters, the FCC has extended the comment period for the inquiry into use of over-the-air TV broadcast signals by viewers. The original deadline for comments was July 12th and the deadline for reply comments was August 5th. The new deadline for comments is August 11, 2004 and replies are due on September 7, 2004.

Data from this inquiry will be used to create policy concerning the final shut off of analog TV service. For more information, see last month’s Newsletter or the Mass Media bureau webpage on the FCC website at www.fcc.gov.

The FCC created a task force on Localism in Broadcasting last year, has held three hearings and plans to hold three more around the country on the subject. When they created the task force, they asked for comments, but did not issue a formal notice. The Commission has finally issued a formal Notice of Inquiry on the subject.

In the Notice, the FCC asked for comments on a large number of issues, including programming for the local community such as newscasts, political programming, including the possibility of requiring setting aside time for candidates and political discussion, providing programming for underserved audiences including minorities, and providing disaster warnings. The FCC also wants to look at network affiliation rules, including the right to reject network programming to air local programming. Another issue that information is requested on concerns music programming issues such as payola, sponsorship identification, the use of voice tracking, and national playlists.

The Commission seeks information on the license renewal process, including possible audits of the public files, length of license terms, and the possibility of mid-term reviews. Besides dealing with the renewal of licenses of existing stations, the FCC asks about the additional allocation of stations in the spectrum. The discussion centered on low-power FM stations and FM translators, including the expansion of the satellite feed translators from which a non-commercial station can gain coverage in cities far from its main transmitter.

The notice was adopted on June 7, 2004 and released on July 1, 2004. Comments are due on September 1, 2004 and reply comments are due on October 1, 2004.

The FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which, if it became a rule, would require all broadcasters to retain recordings of their programming for a period of 60 to 90 days. The reason for the retention of these recordings is for inquiries into airing of indecent material. Because of this, the Commission asked if recordings should be made of the safe harbor period of 6 AM to 10 PM or of all 24 hours of the day.

Comment is sought on methods of doing the recordings and how those methods would vary for analog or digital transmissions, including use of lower resolution recordings. Questions of cost are asked, as are questions on copyright and contract liabilities. Finally, possible First Amendment issues are raised, as well as the question that if persons know that the station were holding these recordings, would they file more indecency complaints.

The FCC adopted this notice on June 21, 2004 and released it on July 7, 2004. Comments are due on July 30, 2004 and reply comments are due on August 30, 2004.

The FCC is proposing to rechannelize the 17.7 to 19.7 GHz band. The FCC has reallocated some of the band on a co-primary basis for use by both terrestrial microwave links and satellite feeder uplinks. The FCC is proposing that the band be divided for various services so that there are fixed paired and unpaired microwave links in the 17.7-18.3 GHz and 19.3-19.7 GHz bands, a block of unpaired frequencies in the 17.7-17.74 GHz band and a 500 MHz wide contiguous band from 17.7- 18.3 GHz for multichannel video providers such as cable, Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) and satellite master antenna services. The 18.3 GHz to 19.3 GHz band would become primary to satellite feeder links.

Broadcasters currently can use this band under part 101 of the rules. The remaining primary fixed link band would be divided into paired frequency channels and into a number of different bandwidth groups. The bands overlap and are all for fixed point to point microwave links. There is an extensive table attached to the proposed rules that give various bandwidth groups, channels pairings, and a list of channels that are secondary to satellite service.

This notice was published in the FEDERAL REGISTER on July 7, 2004. Comments are due on August 6, 2004 and reply comments are due on September 7, 2004.

The FCC made major changes to the spectrum used by Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) and the Instructional Fixed Service (ITFS). The new rules eliminate the interweaved 6 MHz channels and divides the band into distinct band segments. Each band will be used for either high-power service such as video or lower-powered two-way service such as two-way fixed and mobile broadband services. The new rules also rename the MMDS service into the Broadband Radio Service (BRS). ITFS licenses will keep the label ITFS. The FCC also added 5 MHz to the 2500-2690 band to allow for the migration of Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS) licenses from the 2.1 GHz band. The new band will start at 2495 MHz and will end at the present 2690 MHz upper limit.

The new band goes from thirty-one 6 MHz channels to one 6 MHz MDS channel at 2496-2502 MHz, four 16.5 MHz blocks from 2502-2568 MHz, a 4 MHz guard band, seven 6 MHz Blocks from 2572-2614 MHz, another 4 MHz guard band, a second MDS 6 MHz channel from 2618-2620 MHz, and four more 16.5 MHz blocks ending at 2690 MHz. The band starts with a 1 MHz guard band at 2495 MHz. The four 16.5 MHz blocks are subdivided into 5.5 MHz channels. ITFS applicants can apply for 5 of the 16.5 MHz blocks and 5 of the 6 MHz blocks for access to 111.5 MHz of spectrum and BRS/MDS has access to 66.5 MHz of spectrum with MDS having access to an additional 12 MHz of spectrum.

There will be a three-year transition to the new band plan. ITFS licenses will be able to lease spectrum to BRS licenses and BRS licenses will be able to lease their spectrum to other parties.

These rules were adopted on June 10, 2004 and a press release was issued the same day.

From MSTV (www.mstv.org), the FEDERAL REGISTER (www.access.gpo.gov), and FCC Release (www.fcc.gov).

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The FCC has granted construction permits for two FM translators in the Madison area. Edgewater Broadcasting, Inc. was granted a construction permit for station W266AQ on 101.1 MHz in Whitewater, WI. The action granting the CP was on June 30, 2004 and the notice was released on July 6th. Sister Grace Inc. was granted a construction permit for station W284BA on 103.1 MHz for Beaver Dam. That action was granted on June 2, 2004 and the notice released on June 6th.

From FCC Daily Digest (www.fcc.gov).

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Want to get your resume out to employers? Participate in SBE’s new Resume Service, available to SBE members only, free of charge.

Call the SBE National Office at (317) 846-9000 or e-mail Scott Jones at kjones@sbe.org for a Resume Service participation form.

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