• Contents for this Newsletter

About This Newsletter
Meeting Announcement
Upcoming Meeting Schedule
Meeting Minutes
FCC Goes After Kit Manufacture
Notice of Elections
Chapter 24 Seeking Newsletter Editor
Amateur Radio News
Panel Addresses Computer Security Concerns
Security Buzzwords
FCC Issues Guide To ULS Terminations
New York Seeks Waiver On 700 MHz Interference
SBE's Short Circuits
Nuclear Power Stations Seek PART 74 Waiver
Chapter Sustaining Members
Return to 2006 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:

© 2006 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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Leonard Charles, Director of Engineering for Television Wisconsin, Inc, will give a brief discussion on WISC's venture into POD' casting, covering what it is, how material is delivered to the third party "POD' caster" and what is required to receive a POD' cast. We will then have a tour of the newly completed Digital Tech Core and see the POD' cast equipment installed at WISC.

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Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers meet on January 18, 2006 at the facilities of the Educational Communications Board. There were 15 members present of whom 12 were certified. There were also 5 guests present. Chair Jim Magee called the meeting the meeting to order and the minutes from the December meeting as published in the January newsletter were approved on a motion by Steve Paugh and seconded by Herb Jordan.

Treasurer Leslie Franzen gave the Chapter financial report.

Sustaining membership chair Fred Sperry reported that the following sustaining members had renewed. They are Belden Wire and Cable (Networking Division), Norlight, Wave Communications, Heartland Video, WISC-TV, WKOW-TV, Clark Cable, Scharch Electronics and Sound Devices.

Program Chair Steve Paugh reported that the next meeting would be at WISC-TV and would be a program on Podcasting and a tour of the newly remodeled Channel 3 facilities. The March meeting would be nominations for elections of officers and the April Meeting would be elections and a Program by Satmon Technologies.

Steve also asked which Officers were going to run for reelection. Leslie Franzen said he would run again for treasurer, Tom Smith said he would run for Secretary, and Jim Magee stated that he would not be seeking another term as Chair.

Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith reported on a request by WHFA in Poynette for 950 MHz database information on a possible STL from Madison’s Westside to Poynette and on WHA-AM looking for a different frequency for their new STL due to interference problems. There was also a reminder on the FCC requiring information on the completion of all outstanding broadcast auxiliary licenses construction permits by the beginning of February. Any permits whose construction window has expired and that the FCC has not received notice as being completed will be deleted from the ULS.

National Liaison Leonard Charles reported the May 31st is the deadline for applications for National awards as well as nominations for officers for the National offices. Awards will be made at the National meeting in Verona, NY on Sept. 27th as well as new officers being installed. The SBE is also taking nominations for Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The SBE has also started an EAS Exchange, which will be an online forum for EAS information.

On February 21st, the SBE and the ASTC will have a half-day summit in Palm Springs, CA on Digital Newsgathering.

Also mentioned was the award by the American Woman in Radio and Television for "Outstanding Woman in Broadcast Engineering". Nominations are due January 31st. There was also a reminder that dues will increase by three dollars on July 1st. This does not affect this years dues, which are due in April.

In new business, Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith ask if there was any information on the status of the 2 GHz transition in Madison, having not heard from Nextel recently. Leonard Charles of WISC-TV and Steve Zimmerman from WKOW-TV reported that most of the negotiations on the replacement of equipment were completed, but the process was stalled due to concerns about tax liabilities. We will not meet the proposed deadline of March for transitioning to the new band plan.

The meeting was adjourned and Wisconsin Public TV photographer Jim Gill presented an interesting program on digital photography.

Thank you to Jim Gill from Wisconsin Public Television for presenting to us about digital photography at the January meeting.

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The FCC has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability For Forfeiture against electronic kit manufacturer Ramsey Electronics Inc. for the manufacture and sale of unauthorized FM broadcast transmitters and RF amplifiers in the United States. Ramsey is a long time manufacturer and marketer of electronic kits. Their ads are normally found in the electronic hobby magazines.

The FCC obtained information that Ramsey was offering for sale FM broadcast equipment. They then obtained a copy of their catalog and searched their website (www.ramseyelectronics.com) and found that Ramsey did indeed offer equipment to broadcast on the FM Band. The FCC then checked their equipment certification database and found that the items in question were not listed as certified. The FCC requires all equipment for FM transmission along with all other transmission equipment, including RF power amplifiers, to be certified with the FCC so that they meet the FCC rules concerning RF emission standards to prevent in and out of band interference.

The FCC sent a letter to Ramsey asking if they did indeed manufacture and sell the units in question. They replied that they did. The units in question and the number sold are FM transmitter FM35LT (254 made, 101 sold), FM transmitter FM100BWT (1,457 made, 1,441 sold), amplifier LPA1WT (358 made, 343 sold) and PA100 (145 made, 131 sold). Both FM transmitters operate with up to one-watt output, the LPA1WT operates with one watt out over a bandwidth of 300 KHz to 1,000 MHz and the PA100 operates with 2-100 watts out in the FM band.

Ramsey claimed that they did not need certification because the units were for export and they required that the purchaser sign a form before the equipment is shipped, to state that they are for export. Ramsey stated in the form that the units exceed power limits allowed in the United States for such equipment and may exceed power levels for its use in other nations. The form also stated that the user would certify that they would operate the units in accordance with the laws of the nation that the equipment would operate in.

The FCC ruled that because Ramsey did in fact sell the FM transmitters to persons in the United States and not in direct export, the FM transmitter did need to be certified. In the case of the amplifiers, the FCC requires all RF amplifiers that operate on frequencies under 144 MHz to be certified. In the case of the LPA1WT, it had a second issue against it. It is illegal to make or sell an RF amplifier in the 24-35 MHz band. This was to prevent the use of linear amplifiers for CB radios.

The FCC issued the Notice of Forfeiture for the amount of $7,000, which is the base amount for each of the questioned items for a total $28,000. Because of Ramsey’s history of overall compliance the total was reduced to $25,000.

The FCC took this action on January 23, 2006 and released it on January 25th. Ramsey has 30 days from January 25th to make payment.

This action could be considered another step in the FCC’s enforcement against FM pirate broadcasters along with the FCCs regular shutting down of pirate stations.

From FCC Release (www.fcc.gov)

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In April we will hold elections for the Chapter 24 offices of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer for the 2005-2006 term. All interested members of Chapter 24 who are current in their dues are eligible to run for elected office. The nominations committee is now accepting nominations for Chair as current Chair Jim Magee will be stepping down. Secretary Dennis Baldridge will serve his second term as Vice-Chair. Leslie Franzen has agreed to run again as Treasurer, and Tom Smith will run again as Secretary.

During the February 15th meeting, the nominations committee will solicit the members present for nominations. If you would like to run for an office, or know someone who wishes to run, please bring it to the attention of the nominations committee. All nominees are requested to submit a short biography for publishing with the ballot. The nominations committee consists of Steve Paugh (Chair), Jim Hermanson, and Leonard Charles.

The appointed offices do not fall under the jurisdiction of the nominations committee and are appointed by the Chair of Chapter 24. Traditionally, the existing appointed officers continue for another term automatically. If you are a current appointed officer and would like to step down, please contact the current Chair Jim Magee. If you would like to serve as an appointed officer please make your desire known to the Chair. To a large extent, the success of Chapter 24 is due to the tireless dedication of the appointed officers. Their hard work often goes unseen by the membership and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their service.

The current appointed offices are Program Committee Chair- Steve Paugh, Program Committee Members- Fred Sperry & Steve Zimmerman, Newsletter Editor- Mike Norton, Membership- Paul Stoffel, Sustaining Membership- Fred Sperry, Special Events- VACANT, Certification and Education- Jim Hermanson, Frequency Coordination- Tom Smith and National Liaison- Leonard Charles.

Mike Norton has announced that he will be stepping down as Newsletter Editor. Please contact Chapter Chair Jim Magee or Mike Norton if you are interested in, or know of someone who would like to assume the duties of newsletter editor.

The election ballot will be included in the April newsletter. The deadline for nominations and the submission of biographies will be 48 hours prior to the deadline for submissions to the April newsletter, as announced during the March 16th meeting.

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The Chapter 24 Newsletter is published monthly by SBE Chapter 24 Inc., Madison, WI.

Could you be the next newsletter editor? Chapter 24 is seeking a volunteer to become the next editor of the award winning Chapter 24 newsletter. Good PC skills are helpful and experience with PageMaker for Windows a plus.

Please contact the Chapter Chair for more information.

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• The Amateur Radio community, students, scanner enthusiasts, space fans and others are monitoring the most novel satellite ever to orbit Earth. "SuitSat-1" consists of a surplus Russian Orlan spacesuit reconfigured to function as a free-floating Amateur Radio transmit-only satellite (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. SuitSat in its flight configuration. The electronics control panel is on the top of the helmet along with the SuitSat antenna. [Photo courtesy of Energia, from the AMSAT.org web site]

On Friday, February 3rd, International Space Station Expedition 13 flight engineer Valery Tokarev released the unique and enthusiastically anticipated satellite into orbit as he and ISS Expedition 12 Commander Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, began a six-hour space walk.

Using the call sign RS0RS, SuitSat-1 will transmit its voice message "This is SuitSat-1 RS0RS!" on 145.99 MHz in several languages plus telemetry and a slow-scan TV image on an eight-minute cycle as it orbits Earth. The three batteries powering the satellite are expected to last about a week, and SuitSat-1 should re-enter Earth’s atmosphere after several weeks of circling the globe.

SuitSat-1’s 500 mW transmitter will report mission time, suit temperature and battery voltage (28 V is nominal) down to Earth. Its single SSTV image is said to be similar in resolution to a cell-phone quality picture. Those who copy the SuitSat-1 transmissions on 145.99 MHz are asked to post a real-time report on the SuitSat web site, <www.suitsat.org>.

Initial reports are that the signal is much weaker than expected.

(Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League’s <www.arrl.org> web site)

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On January 26, 2006, Accelerate Madison presented a panel at the Fluno Center for Executive Education with the topic of "Security: Trends in Risk and Business Exposure." Panelists informed the audience of IT professionals and students on security crimes, regulatory and financial drivers for security, consumer privacy, and tools for managing security risks. The panel was moderated by Joshua Heling, the Chief Technology Officer of Secure Pipe, Inc. Panelists were Kelly Fitzsimmons of Neohapsis, Chicago; David Meunier, Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at CUNA Mutual Group; Steven Paulson, Special Agent with the Madison FBI office; and Craig Newman, Computer Forensics Instructor at Madison Area Technical College (MATC).

Joshua Heling kicked off the evening by presenting highlights of the biggest IT security attacks of 2005. Standout attacks included Choice Point, a company most people had never heard of, losing the personal information of 40 million people; Lexis-Nexis had 300,000 records compromised; A targeted attack on CardSystems, where the exploit code was planted 8 months before the attack resulted in the release of 40 million credit card numbers and personal accounts; A T-Mobile attack which publicized Paris Hilton’s cell phone number and other personal information; the Israeli Corporate Espionage incident; and Sober worm. Regarding the Israeli incident, three of the top private investigation firms in Israel were implicated in an attack to distribute a Trojan to top corporate networks. When the potential victims contacted the support address because they were unable to open the Trojan file, disguised as an investment opportunity PowerPoint show, the bold criminals mailed the soon-to-be victims a CD that contained the Trojan. The Sober worm virus was one of the largest email outbreaks in history. A new variant made a comeback on Thanksgiving Day 2005, doubling email volume for a time.

According to CIO magazine, cyber security incidents were up 22% in 2005 from 2004. The baseline cyber security threat is increasing. Each year the SANS Institute (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) loads a computer with the Microsoft Windows operating system and places it on the Internet without protection. SANS then times how long it takes before the computer becomes compromised. In 2003, the average was 40 minutes. In 2005, it took just an average time of 20 minutes before the computer was compromised.

According to Heling, computer crime is a business–not just a prank or a nuisance. The Internet favors the attacker by giving them a cloak of anonymity, the ability to victimize people from a distance, and the ability to scale large volume attacks at little cost to the attacker. Heling mused that security is analogous to analog electronics, as opposed to digital electronics; Security is not "all on" or "all off". Security is context-specific.

FBI Special Agent Steve Paulson reported findings from the 2005 FBI Cyber Computer Crime Survey. The main observation of the survey is that most people don’t report cyber crime. Cyber crime examples include viruses, Trojans, worms, spy ware, and a non-stop barrage of spam emails. The risk of internal and external network intrusion attempts is high. According to Paulson, most intrusion attempts originate in the United States or China.

David Meunier of CUNA Mutual explained that the attacks on and security vulnerabilities of computers is ever-changing. An evolving threat to on-site security is the camera-equipped cellular phone. In the past, companies could minimize the risk of having private data photographed by forbidding camera-equipped cellular phones on premises. Today, digital cameras in cellular phones have become so ubiquitous that it is no longer practical to forbid the potentially-compromising technology. Meunier predicts that we’re not far from the day when virtually all cell phones will include a digital camera.

Craig Newman of MATC stressed that encryption is the only method that keeps personal data private. Newman thinks it is inevitable that networks will eventually be compromised. He explains, "If you keep throwing objects at a target, you’re eventually going to take it down." Newman outlined his vision for the secure computer of the future. In Newman’s eyes, the computer will have two operating systems (OSs): one OS for user applications and a separate OS for security and encryption.

Kelly Fitzsimmons, CEO of Neohapsis, tests five new technologies in her lab each year for security vulnerabilities. In the past, a network was considered to have a solid secure perimeter if anti-virus software, a firewall, and a virtual private network (VPN) were in place. Now, that "secure" perimeter is shifting, and proving to be less stable than once thought.

Fitzsimmons suggests that organized crime is the main culprit of cyber crime. Information theft from financial clients is the most prevalent security problem today. In large businesses, attackers seek human resource records that contain a social security number, address, and a bank routing number. Such personal information would net $30 a victim on the illegal market. Laptop computer theft is a common "end user" attack.

Fitzsimmons laments that well-intended government regulations and required paperwork slow down the fight against information crimes. She applauds the publication of "Best Practices" to manage and respond to information theft effectively.

When asked if the computer industry is winning or losing the battle against cyber crime, three of the four panelists voiced that we are losing the security battle. One expert, Newman, suggested that the computer industry is holding their own in the battle, but that a major storm is brewing. Newman suggests that some nation-states are gearing up for more severe cyber attacks on the United States.

In a moment of levity, one of the experts observed that circulating viruses are better at patching themselves against weaknesses than the commercial operating systems that we rely on.

Computers have added many words to our lexicon that didn’t exist a decade ago: phishing, pharming, biometrics, etc... (See Security Buzzwords)

Phishing, the new form of social engineering, is an automated cyber crime in which the perpetrators mine personal data by tricking the victims with a crisp, authoritative email pretending to represent a financial institution which the victim is affiliated with. The click-through success rate is 3 – 5 %. This is more successful than a typical legitimate direct mail campaign. The average phishing scam yields a thousand dollars per victim. While the typical phishing web site only stays up forty eight hours, it takes investigators two weeks to track the origination of the site backwards through all of the routing hops. US investigators often track these scams to Eastern Europe, where local governments have little interest in prosecuting the perpetrators.

One expert advised businesses to customize their security solution for each environment. There is no longer a single "silver bullet" approach to security. For example, web sites may choose to no longer offer to store credit card information as a convenience to returning customers because the burden of doing so is too great.

Newman observed that past good practices would dictate sending a password through an entirely different channel than the related data was traveling on. However, that may no longer be possible since people are shifting to Voice Over IP (VoIP) services. With voice over IP, a phone call is no longer out-of-band with data communication. The phone call revealing a password now travels down the same wire as the password-protected traffic.

When asked how to encourage users to adapt more secure practices, Newman conceded that it’s very difficult to limit the actions of minors on computers. Adults, however, do a better job of minding their security practices because they face the consequence of having their credit card number in the hands of criminals if they are careless with security.

Before the "California Privacy Act" passed, most people would never realize that their personal data had been unintentionally released. California passed a law that fines companies who allow their users personal data to be revealed and required that victims be notified of the breach in a letter.

Other states soon followed California’s lead in passing privacy legislation. Unfortunately, the legislation passed in all the other states tends to be duplicative and places a cumbersome burden of compliance on companies. Fitzsimmons expressed that all the state laws are practically the same, but politicians in each state want to pass their own version in order to have their name connected with it. Consumers would be better served by a unified national law.

Fitzsimmons suggests that the Wisconsin Privacy Act is harmful to consumers because it requires companies to notify information release victims, even if the lost data was encrypted. She feels that this indiscriminate requirement creates a disincentive for companies to encrypt personal data. Fitzsimmons claims that market forces alone don’t result in secure practices. She sites thoughtful policy as the only real solution.

Some institutions have community education events. Companies can fight fraud by reporting phishing attacks on their web site. Other companies communicate that they won’t ask personal questions in email. Another approach is to allow each user to customize their login to a corporate web site with personal graphics to help the user authenticate that they are at the proper web site.

While the Internet is the source of most security threats, it also provides some support after a person has been attacked. At the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), users will find a clearing house for cyber crime reporting. This site receives postings of Internet auction fraud, phishing, and pharming.

While biometrics was once thought to be a security silver bullet, real-life experience has demonstrated otherwise. Several panelists implied that fingerprint reading technology seems to be easily defeated. One expert claimed that a clay hand with warm saline circulating through it can be used for fingerprint spoofing. Even a gummy bear can be used to emulate a fingerprint.

One panelist reported that Trojan biometric keyboards were mixed in with a massive supply of legitimate biometric keyboards manufactured in Australia. It has proved impossible to identify and weed out the compromised keyboards. A weakness of biometric security is that a person’s logon and password (based on a scan of the human body) remain the same for a lifetime. Once security is compromised, the person has no way to change their biometric output.

There was consensus among the panelists that encryption is the golden standard for security. Newman predicts that either we will abandon personal privacy altogether or we will adapt extreme encryption which is used for every last communication.

No matter what approach individuals and companies use to guard against information crime, there will be breaches. Unfortunately, security against –and the consequences of– cyber crime have a tangible effect on all consumers and shareholders. The expense of maintaining security and losses from failed security are passed on to the legitimate stakeholders.

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Biometrics – Measurable human physical characteristics are automatically checked for authentication. These characteristics include face, fingerprint, hand geometry, retina, iris, signature, vein, and voice.

Encryption – Data is translated into a secret code that requires access to a key or password in order to decrypt it. Encrypted data is called cipher text and unencrypted data is known as plain text.

Phishing – A false email is sent to a user claiming to be a legitimate business, directing the user to a web site where they are prompted to update personal information that the established organization already has. The sole purpose of this web site is to steal personal information for identity theft.

Spear Phishing – This phishing attack targets a single user or department of an organization. An email that appears to come from a company employee in a position of trust requests usernames or passwords or asks employees to click on a link (which deploys data theft spyware). Hackers use login information to access company networks.

Pharming – Pharming is similar to phishing, but it seeks private information through domain spoofing rather than with malicious links in email requests. Pharming hijacks a Domain Name System (DNS) server by redirecting users from a legitimate site to a dangerous site by injecting a DNS server with false data. Pharming is difficult to detect because a browser will continue to indicate to the user that they are at the correct web site.

Shadownet – An Internet service provider for phishing and pharming web sites.

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On January 23, 2006, the Wireless Bureau of the FCC issued a release explaining changes to the Universal Licensing System for the deployment of the automatic termination of licenses for unconstructed stations.

The system will place an icon "TP" in several places on the ULS to alert of a pending termination. They include the license manager, license search results, and the application search. The icon may be next to the call sign for a site-based license or in the comment for market-based licenses. In the printable reference copy, the icon and termination information will be in a comment section.

There is a four-page attachment to the three-page release giving the timeline information on termination of licenses. It may be a good idea to have a copy of this release to provide guidance in avoiding termination of an auxiliary license.

From FCC release (www.fcc.gov)

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The State of New York requested a waiver of the FCC rules concerning interference from public safety communications systems to TV stations operating on channels 62, 63, 64, 67, 68 and 69. The State of New York wishes to use channels 63,64, 68 and 69 for public safety systems in the New York City Metro area. Use of these frequencies in the metro area would not meet part 90.545 of the FCC rules concerning minimum spacing between public safety systems and TV broadcast stations. These are the TV channels that are being reassigned for public safety use with the DTV transition and downsizing of the TV broadcast band.

New York claims that they need use of this spectrum to complete an integrated Statewide Wireless Network to provide service to downstate New York. The reasoning is that the current system does not meet interoperability requirements and lacks the needed coverage. The State of New York claims that interference to viewers of these channels would be minimal and that the interference would end at the end of the DTV transition. The FCC asks if any waiver granted should be conditioned on a requirement that any reported interference be corrected. They also ask if any other conditions be required.

Doug Lung in his RF Report from TV Technology reported that nine stations could be subject to interference from this system. They are; WMBC, Ch. 63, Newton, N.J.; WNAC Ch. 64, Providence, R.I., WPVI, DTV Ch. 64, Philadelphia, PA; WQPX, Ch. 64, Scranton, PA; WEDY, Ch. 65, New Haven, Conn.; WUVP, Ch. 65, Vineland, N.J.; WFUT Ch. 68, Newark, N.J.; WFMZ, Ch. 69, Allentown, PA; and WPXQ, Ch. 69, Block Island, R.I. This makes up about one-quarter of the stations on the four channels that are allotted for public safety. A third of the 39 stations on these channels are located on the Eastern Seaboard from Massachusetts to Virginia. See the October Newsletter for more information on these channels and public safety.

Comments on this notice, which was in press release form, are due on March 13, 2006 with replies due on March 28th.

From FCC Release (www.fcc.gov) with additional information from Doug Lung’s RF Report

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On January 24, 2006 the Society of Broadcast Engineers filed comprehensive comments related to the FCC’s EAS Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making (FNPRM). Among the many recommendations for changes and improvement to the EAS, the Society called for the creation of point-multipoint distribution systems for the distribution of EAS messages from their sources to those systems that transmit emergency messages to the public and for the elimination of the EBS era ‘daisy-chain’ system.

Due to the critical need for providing text messages to existing television based systems and a growing array of other, non-broadcast EAS participants, the SBE also called for the adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol as the vehicle for the distribution of emergency messages from their sources. The complete text of SBE’s response to this FNPRM can be found under Regulatory/Gov’t Relations.

The Society of Broadcast Engineers, in response to those who have requested a forum dedicated and limited to the discussion of issues related to the Emergency Alert System, has instituted the ‘SBE-EAS Exchange. The EAS Exchange will be moderated by SBE EAS Committee Chair, Clay Freinwald, CPBE. On occasion, another member of the SBE EAS Committee may also moderate the discussion. SBE membership is encouraged to participate on the EAS Exchange, but it is not required.

Participants can discuss equipment issues, the latest related FCC activity, share EAS failures or success stories etc. To subscribe to the SBE-EAS Exchange, go to http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/sbe-eas.

SBE members are eligible for the special NAB Partner rate when registering for NAB2006, to be held April 22-27 in Las Vegas. If your station or employer is not a member of NAB (and therefore not eligible for the NAB member rate), you can use your SBE membership to your advantage and save $200 off the NAB Non-member rate. To register, go to https://registration.expoexchange.com/ShowNAB061/DefaultPartner.aspx. Use the special partner code, "SBE".

SBE will cosponsor a Digital Electronic News Gathering (D-ENG) Summit with ATSC on Tuesday, February 21, 2006 in Palm Springs, Calif. The half-day seminar will be held in conjunction with the Hollywood Post Alliance Technology Retreat.

Topics will include developments and technical aspects of data return links (DRL), DRL system implementation considerations, advanced codecs and what they mean to D-ENG, HDTV over ENG, a technical primer on COFDM, ENG spectrum issues and frequency coordination.

The Hollywood Post Alliance is a Southern California-based professional community of businesses and individuals who provide expertise, support, tools and the infrastructure for the creation and finishing of motion pictures, television commercials, digital media, and other dynamic media content. To register for the event, visit the ATSC web site at www.atsc.org. The registration fee to attend the D-ENG Summit is $225.

Some SBE Members go above and beyond the call of duty to do their jobs and serve SBE and the broadcast industry, and some local SBE chapters do an excellent job of serving their members. But often these efforts can go unrecognized. Don’t let that happen this year. Make your nominations now for the 2005 SBE Chapter and Individual Awards.

There are five chapter and five individual award categories from which to choose when making a nomination. Three chapter awards are determined by using statistical information on record at the SBE National Office. In addition, five of the chapter awards are divided into two classes so that chapters with vastly different membership sizes are not competing with each other. This means that up to 18 awards could be presented.

Award winners will be notified in July and invited to attend the 2006 SBE National Meeting, which will be held September 26-27 in conjunction with the 34th Annual SBE22 Broadcast & Technology Expo sponsored by Central New York Chapter 22 in Verona, N.Y. Winners will be presented with either a certificate or a plaque at the SBE National Awards Dinner held Wednesday, September 27.

Nominations are due to the SBE National Office no later than May 31, 2006. For additional information, please contact Angel Bates at abates@sbe.org or (317) 846-9000 or Larry Wilkins, Awards Committee Chair, at larry.wilkins@cumulus.com or (334) 303-2525.

If you know someone who deserves extra recognition, you can use the 2005 Awards form to make a Lifetime Achievement Award nomination. Nominations for this award can be made any time in accordance with the rules listed on the nomination form, but no more than one award will be presented in a given year.

SBE president, Chriss Scherer, CPBE CBNT has announced a new benefit for members who would like to have a forum for discussing issues related to the broadcast engineering field or SBE. The Society has created the "SBE Roundtable," an e-mail discussion group open to SBE members only.

Members may wish to discuss equipment issues, the latest technology advances or regulatory issues. Participants can also discuss issues regarding their SBE chapter or the national organization. Scherer will serve as moderator for the list. Current members may subscribe now.

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The Nuclear Energy Institute and the United Telcom Council seek a waiver of Part 74, Subpart H of the FCC rules that covers Low Power Auxiliary Stations. This section of the rules limit the use of low-power transmitting equipment to broadcasters, cable casters, and video and film production companies. Low power devices covered under Part 74 include wireless mics and intercoms that operate on broadcast TV channels.

The Nuclear industry wishes to use low-power intercoms that operate on the TV band in nuclear power plants. Currently the FCC has issued special temporary authority (WC9XCR) for limited times during refueling operations.

This waiver request is similar to the request by Telex to allow the use of wireless intercoms operating on the TV band for NFL and college football. The intercom systems would similar to the coaching intercom system.

Comments have already pasted. This notice was issued on December 16, 2005 and both comments and replies were due before the end of January.

From FCC Release (www.fcc.gov)

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