About This NewsletterMeeting AnnouncementUpcoming Meeting ScheduleMeeting MinutesFCC OK's White Space DevicesFrom The ChairLocal LegalsAmateur Radio NewsFCC RulemakingsSBE Notes & RemindersChapter Sustaining MembersReturn to 2008 Newsletter Archives The Chapter 24 Newsletter is published monthly by Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers; Madison, Wisconsin. Original hard copy edited by Paul Stoffel on InDesign CS. Submissions of interest to the broadcast technical community are welcome. You can make your submissions by e-mail to:
Information and/or articles are also accepted by US Mail. Please address them to:
SBE Chapter 24 Newsletter Editor
4809 Retana Drive
Madison, WI 53714-2637
Please submit articles as .txt or Word.doc files, images can be submitted as .jpg or .tif files, pdf files are also acceptable.
Steve Paugh is the editor for the Electronic Version of this Newsletter uploaded monthly onto SBE Chapter 24's web page.
Thanks to Leonard Charles for his work on the Chapter 24 WWW page and electronic newsletter. Many thanks to Amanda Wegner anf John Salzwedel for their past work as newsletter editors!
Contributors this month:
Dennis Baldridge
Tom Smith
Tom Weeden
© 2008 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.
Thank you to Clear Channel Radio for providing copying and folding facilities for the Chapter 24 newsletter!
Thank you to WISC-TV for maintaining the web server for the Chapter 24 Web page!
Join us for this month's meeting when we celebrate the Holidays and toast the New Year in a relaxing atmosphere at Fitzgerald's in Middleton. We'll gather in the bar area before heading to the dinning area. You can sign-up for the dinner on the Chapter 24 web site, http://www.sbe24.org, and follow the links to the December Holiday Party sign-up sheet.
Visitors and guests are welcome at all of our SBE meetings!
| DAY | DATE | TOPIC | PRESENTER |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tues | Jan 13 | Kevin Peckham | |
| Weds | Feb 18 | Matt Rockwell | |
| Thurs | Mar 19 | TBD | |
| Tues | Apr 14 | TBD | |
| Weds | May 13 | TBD | |
| Thur | Jun 11 | Chapter 24 | |
| Tues | Jul 14 | TBD | |
| Weds | Aug 12 | Steve Paugh | |
| Thur | Sep 17 | TBD/ Chapter Chair | |
| Weds | Oct 15 | TBD | |
| Weds | Nov 11 | TBD | |
| Thur | Dec 17 | Fitzgerald's/ Steve Paugh |
Submitted by Tom Smith, Secretary
On November 12, 2008, Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers met at the Madison Master Headend Facility of Charter Communications in Fitchburg. There were 14 members present of which 13 were certified. There were 6 guests present.
Chairman Dennis Baldridge called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. He noted that there was a number of visitors and one visitor introduced herself, Jamie Poindexter of UW Extension’s ICS. Sympathy cards were signed by those present to be sent to members Clif Groth who recently lost his father and Ken Dixon who recently lost his mother. Dennis acknowledge the two plaques that the Chapter had received at the National Meeting, one for hosting the meeting and one for Best Attendance as part of the yearly SBE National awards.
A motion from Steve Paugh and a second by Bill Hamilton accepted the meeting minutes for September and October. Treasurer Leslie Frazen gave an update on the current bank balance. Certification Chairman Jim Hermanson noted that he had given two certification exams on the meeting day and that the next exam period was to be from February 8-16 with the deadline to submit applications being December 31st.
Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith reported that ABC had asked for coordination information for two Badger football games and ESPN had asked for coordination information for a third football game. The two ABC games involved communications with a blimp. He also noted that the FCC had adopted rules on November 4th authorizing the use of unlicensed devices in the TV broadcast band, which wireless microphones share.
Leonard Charles reported that the national SBE was working with the NAB and MSTV on the TV white space issue. We also received a thank you from the National SBE for having the Broadcasters Clinic host the National meeting and for the Chapters efforts in producing the National Webcast. The National SBE invited us to apply for next years National Meeting and we discussed the matter.
Chairman Dennis Baldridge congratulated Leonard Charles for being inducted as a Fellow of the SBE at the National Meeting.
Program Chairman Steve Paugh announced that the December meeting would be at Fitzgerald’s in Middleton on December 11th and would be our annual holiday party.
There was no old or new business or professional announcements.
The meeting was then turned over to Jamie Childs, Randy Montgomery and TimVowell of Charter Cable for a tour of their headend facility.
As expected on November 4th, the FCC adopted rules allowing unlicensed broadband devices to operate on the TV broadcast bands. The vote was delayed twice during the day with the final vote being four votes in favor and one vote in favor with a partial dissent. The four Commissioners voting for the rules were Chairman Kevin Martin, Michael Copps, Jonathon Adelstein and Robert McDowell. The partial dissent was issued by Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, who expressed concerns about the lack of a compressive interference complaint process, that licensed white space devices were not addressed and that higher power point to point operation for backhaul uses was not authorized. The report and order runs 158 pages with the actual rules that will be published in the FCC rules running 15 pages. The report and order was released on November 14th, and as of November 29th, the rules have not been published in the Federal Register. The rules will become official when published in the Federal Register.
White space device opponents, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Association of Maximum Service Telecasters and Shure, Inc., expressed their disappointment over the ruling while white space device proponents Google, Microsoft, Motorola and the New America Foundation expressed their pleasure in the ruling. Those in the computer and broadband industry see it as an opportunity to increase broadband reach and to sell new devices. The broadcast and entertainment industries still are expressing concern over possible interference issues. What will the unlicensed broadband devices look like and what is required for the operation of unlicensed broadband devices to prevent interference to existing users? There are two type of devices that are authorized under the new rules: personal or portable devices and fixed devices. All devices will be required to operate with geolocation capabilities and have the capabilities to access the Internet to search a database of protected services and the location and channels that may be used by the unlicensed devices. The unlicensed devices must access the database before they can begin operation. A third party or parties to be selected through a public notice process will operate the database. The database will include all TV broadcasters, any part 74 licenses using the TV bands, fixed venues where wireless microphones are used such as theatres, sport arenas and stadiums, mobile radio services that currently share parts of the TV broadcast bands, cable TV headends, TV translator receive sites and fixed unlicensed TV white space broadband sites. All TV broadband devices must also be able to sense, digital and analog TV signals and wireless microphones at a -114 dBm level. The geolocation system may either by GPS or from entered information by a professional installer. There are specified intervals that the device must query the database or do a spectrum search. A client device, which is one that works with a fixed station, will get its open channel information from the fixed station. Fixed stations that operate in a network must exchange information when they sense a new protected user and all fixed TV broadband devices in the network must leave that channel.The unlicensed TV broadband devices have limits on what channels they can operate on. The unlicensed devices cannot operate on channels 3 and 4 in order to protect set-top box users and on channel 37, the radio astronomy channel. They are also limited for a period of time from using channels 36 and 38 in order to protect medical monitoring equipment authorized to use channel 37. Fixed units may operate on any open channel from channels 2 to 51. Personal and portable devices can only operate on channels 21 to 51. Personal/portable devices can operate with 100 milliwatts except when operating on an adjacent channel to a TV broadcast station. There, they are limited to 40 milliwatts. Fixed unlicensed devices are limited to one watt out of the transmitter with a radiated power of 4 watts. Fixed devices may not operate on channels adjacent to a TV broadcast station. The adjacent limitations for personal/mobile devices are within a broadcasters service contour. Fixed stations must operate at a separation from the protected contour of a co-channel TV broadcast station of 6 km when under 3 meters antenna height, 8 km when the antenna height is between 3-10 meters and 14.4 km when the antenna height is between 10-30 meters. Separation must be .1 km from an adjacent channel TV stations protected contour when operating with an antenna is under 10 meters and .74 km when the antenna is between 10 and 30 meters.
The FCC plans on testing all unlicensed devices that will operate on the TV bands and will eventually allow some personal/mobile devices to use spectrum sensing only, but will require more stringent testing of these devices. All of the FCC tests on these devices will be open to public comment. The SDR Forum, a trade group for manufacturers of software defined radios, which are agile radios that use a combination of multi-function hardware and software to operate over a large span of frequency bands announced that they were working on their own testing procedures for unlicensed TV broadband devices.
In order to aid in preventing interference to wireless microphones, the FCC is proposing to leave 2 channels open in each TV market for wireless mike use. Other then using the assigned open channels there is no protection for wireless microphones that are used for newsgathering or at venues that do not qualify for the database. Wedding DJ’s and the like will have to deal with interference from these devices from time to time. And because there is no agreement with Mexico or Canada concerning unlicensed devices in the TV bands, the Commission is restricting their use near the borders.
As of the November 26th, the NAB, MSTV or other groups, which opposed the white space devices, have not filed petitions for reconsideration. Evenwith 70 members of Congress opposing the rules, Congressional action has not be started either due to the transition in Washington. Because there was such a diverse group of organizations opposing the ruling, there is the likelihood that the FCC will be taken to court. Besides the current users of the TV bands, the wireless industry is upset, because they paid billions for spectrum and Google and others are getting free spectrum. The editor of the Sports Video Group’s newsletter suggested that Verizon, AT&T and other wireless carriers were the most likely to sue.
The best thing about the ruling is for the wireless microphone manufacturers and the entertainment industry is that the FCC has recognized the fact that wireless microphones in the TV band are being used by others then those that were eligible under the rules, broadcasters, cablecasters and movie and video producers.Expect more debate about unlicensed devices in the TV bands as there is already suggestions of higher power devices, the first tests on the devices and other requests for the spectrum such as distributed TV transmission systems. The comments of the New America Foundation concerning DTS (see FCC rulemakings) and their comments in October about ending TV over-the-air broadcasts to allow broadband use (see November newsletter) indicate that they wish to lay claim to the spectrum regardless of the current use by broadcasters and others. As broadcasters find new services to provide, they may have to defend their spectrum and any future use of it by them. Mobile television was not even considered in this ruling.
From FCC Report and order (www.fcc.gov), with addition information from TV Technology, (www.tvtechnology.com) Broadcast Engineering (www.broadcastengineering.com) Sports Video Group (www.svg.org)
(Disclaimer: author filed comments on this rulemaking)
Broadcast engineers work hard; sometimes long hours; way into the night. Then there are always the late night calls – "this does not work" or "we’re off the air." The demands on the broadcast engineer’s time are ever increasing.
An old proverb puts it this way, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." I’ll take it one step further – all work and no play can destroy relationships. What have you gained if you install and operate the latest HDTV station and yet lose your family? What has it profited you if you set up multiple HD radio facilities and yet lose your closest friends? Indeed, our jobs and work are very important, but friends, family, relationships and devotion to God transcend to a higher level. Technology advances, equipment goes obsolete, but relationships are life long and too important to ignore.
Time passes quickly. Sometimes, even years later, we are left with regrets about missed family time. Louisa May Alcott once penned this thought: "Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success." This Christmas season remember to take time for the truly important things in life: relationships.
Four area DTV stations recently received new post-transition channels. They are the following.
On October 31, 2008, WMSN-DT in Madison was granted the right to substitute channel 49 for channel 11. They will be authorized to operate with 280 kilowatts at 450 meters above average terrain. On October 1, 2008, WXOW-DT in La Crosse was granted the right to substitute channel 48 for channel 14 in order to avoid interference from land mobile service, which occupies the spectrum just below channel 14. WXOW-DT will be able to operate with 200 kilowatts at 348 meters above average terrain.Two other area stations were granted channel changes, WIFR-DT in Rockford was granted the right to substitute channel 41 for channel 23 and WFXS (TV), Wittenberg-Wausau was granted the right to substitute channel 31 for channel 50. WIFR current operates its DTV transmitter on channel 41 and was to go back to channel 23 after the transition. WFXS (TV) was granted its construction permit and license in the last round of new analog stations to have applications processed by the FCC. They operate on channel 55 and because their application was granted during or after the original DTV table of allotments was made, they did not receive a second channel for DTV use. They will start DTV operation on February 18, 2009.
From FCC Releases (www.fcc.gov) and the Federal Register (www.gpo.gov>)
The Global ALE High Frequency Network (HFN) -- an international Amateur Radio Service organization of ham operators dedicated to emergency/relief radio communications -- has become the first network to operate continuously for more than 500 days on all international Amateur Radio shortwave bands simultaneously. According to HFN International ALE Coordinator Bonnie Crystal, KQ6XA, the main purpose of the Network is to provide efficient emergency and disaster relief communications to remote areas of the world. "Beginning with a core group of six North American radio operators in June 2007, HFN rapidly expanded to cover large areas of the planet with 24/7 digital communications," she said."HFN was designed to be an open framework for global Amateur Radio emergency services to interoperate on HF using the Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) system." Relying on ionospheric radio communications, interconnected HFN base stations scan the radio bands every 10 seconds, from 3.5 MHz-28.0 MHz. Through this Net, Crystal said, ham operators stay connected with each other at all hours of the day or night in any mode of operation, and can send Internet e-mail or cell phone mobile text messages from the field."
Launched in January 1990, AMSAT-OSCAR 16 (AO-16) -- a digital satellite -- has been operating as a voice repeater since January 2008, using FM voice on the uplink and transmitting DSB voice on the downlink (best received on SSB). But according to the satellite's command team, the satellite's orbit might force this to end sometime before the end of the year. According to Mark Hammond, N8MH, a member of the AO-16 command team, AO-16 has a hardware/watchdog timer that resets the satellite and shuts the transmitter down when the satellite's temperature is 15 degrees Celsius or cooler. When the timer "fires," it shuts down the transmitter. "When the bird's temperature is more than 15 degrees Celsius," Hammond said, "the hardware timer behaves and continuous operations are sustained." compiled by The satellite's temperature depends upon solar illumination. Hammond said that the "magic number" is around 85 percent of the orbit in sunlight: If the orbit provides AO-16 with less than 85 percent illumination, the spacecraft's temperature falls below 15 degrees and the hardware timer fires. "Illumination projections, as well as subsequent temperature predictions, suggest that we might be able to sustain operations until sometime in the window of November 22 until December 4, 2008," Hammond predicted. "So if you want to make some AO-16 contacts, you had better get them as soon as possible!" Hammond said that long term-orbital projections suggest that if the satellite hardware remains fundamentally unchanged -- such as no deterioration of on-board components -- "it will be nearly 10 years before AO-16 receives sufficient illumination to warm up the spacecraft enough to again support sustained operations." AO-16's uplink is 145.9200 MHz FM; the downlink is 437.0260 MHz SSB. Users are asked to restrict their uplink power to a reasonable power level, and not to transmit without being able to hear the downlink; all general single-channel guidelines apply. "Enjoy this grand old bird while you can!" said Hammond.
(Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League's (arrl.org) web site)
FINAL RULEMAKINGS
MB Docket No. 05-312
Digital Television Distributed Transmission System Technologies
The FCC will allow stations to operate multiple transmitters within its current tall single tower coverage area to fill reception problem areas or operate a number of transmitters to service an area instead of a single tall tower. All the transmitters would operate under one license. Stations constructing a distributive transmission using multiple short towers would have the option of using a mileage contour instead of current method of signal contours based on power, tower height and terrain calculations from a single tower. Stations could not locate transmitters outside of either of these contours and coverage outside of their normal coverage is restricted to that of minimal excursions due to transmitter placement needed to provide coverage to areas within their service area.
The FCC will allow a waiver period to allow existing DTV stations to place DTS transmitters in locations to compensate for differences between their analog and DTV coverage. Stations can provide service outside their normal service areas with on channel distributive transmission system transmitters, but they must be licensed under part 74 as a translator or low-power station as any translator that a station may currently have is licensed.
The New America Foundation with the Media Access Project objected to allowing DTV stations to operate translators using distributive transmission systems stating that TV operations should be restricted to provide more vacant channels for the operations of unlicensed devices. The Commission disagreed and stated that this spectrum was allocated on the primary and secondary basis for TV services, which are important media for the provision of news, information and entertainment, which warrant priority over those unlicensed broadband devices.
Stations could not "cherry-pick their coverage areas and provide the same level of service as they would from a single transmitter system. Transmitters must also be contiguous with a least one other DTS transmitter. This rules prevents a station from creating a system that favors one group over another.Stations must provide city grade coverage over their city of license and must prevent reception gaps between transmitters in the city of license. Distributive transmission system transmitters must conform to DTV emission masks and to the DTV interference standards.
Low Power and Class "A" stations will be allowed to use DTV within their service area with an experimental license only. At this time the Commission is not convinced the low-power stations with their smaller service areas would benefit from DTS. The Commission will allow Class "A" stations to operate interconnected DTS transmitters to from a commonly owned chain of station to cover a larger area. Each of the transmitters must be individually licensed.This ruling will give stations some more options in correcting reception issues as they move past the actual DTV transition and take advantage of digital transmission.
(Disclaimer: Author filed comments concerning this Docket.)ET Docket No. 06-195
In the Matter of Ultravision Security Systems Inc. Request for Interpretation and Waiver of Section 15.511(a) and (b) of the Commission’s Rules for Ultra-Wideband Devices.
On November 19, 2008, the FCC granted a waiver to Ultravision Security Systems Inc. to allow limited marketing of its Ultravision ultra-wideband (UWB) surveillance system. The proposed system is to operate on frequencies under 960 MHz, which is occupied by aeronautical users, land mobile, amateur, satellite and broadcast users including FM and TV broadcasters. Currently the FCC allows UWB devices to be used in these bands for the purpose of underground and in the wall radar locators.
Ultravision Security Systems would like to market a device that would sense intruders or vehicles outside of a building or facility. Their device differs from other UWB devices in the proposed spectrum, as it would be buried with its signal pointing up and out of the ground, where the other devices point into the ground or into a part of a structure such as a wall or floor.
The FCC currently restricts the use of UWB devices for surveillance to the spectrum between 1990-10,600 MHz and its use by law enforcement, fire or rescue organizations, or manufacturing, petroleum or power licenses as defined in section 90.7 of the FCC rules.
The system that Ultravision proposes would consist of 6-10 transmitters buried 6-8 inches into the ground and spaces 20 meters apart. The system would employ dithered pulses 2 nanoseconds long at a rate of 20-80 kHz and operate within the 80-600 MHz spectrum. The receiver would detect the differences in motion of what ever comes within range and determine the difference between people, vehicles or animals.
The FCC granted a waiver to Ultravision Security Systems Inc. with a number of conditions. The waiver is for two years and they are limited to 100 installations in the first year and 250 installations in the second year for a total of 350 installations. The units must be buried 6 inches under the turf or pavement, must be installed by a licensed security systems firm, sales limited to entities eligible for licensing under part 90 of the FCC rules (government and commercial entities), conform to part 15 rules and at the request of MSTV be located 78 feet from a property line and 452 feet from any area zoned residential and from areas near cable headends. These distances were determined by tests that MSTV and Ultravision Security Systems Inc. conducted together.
Ultra-wideband devices are very low-powered devices that send very short pulses out over a wide bandwidth. The signals are supposed to look like short bursts of noise and are not supposed to be detected by receivers looking for stronger signals. The are used for very short-range radar or detect devices such as those used to detect underground utilities or for short-range communications between electronic devices in the order of a few meters.
This ruling came a little over two weeks after the FCC passed the TV white space rules, which also would share the TV spectrum with these devices. The ruling controls where the equipment is located and it can be recalled, as no equipment will go to consumers.
from FCC Report and Orders (www.fcc.gov)HamNet meets the second Sunday of each month at 0000 GMT on 14.205 MHz. Hal Hostetler WA7BGX is the Control Station. Any amateur operator is welcome and encouraged to participate.
The SBE National Certification Committee has announced exam session dates. 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 Megan Clappe, Certification Director at the SBE National Office at (317) 846-9000, or mclappe@sbe.org .
| February 6-16, 2009 | Local Chapters | December 31, 2008 |
| April 21, 2009 | NAB | April 1, 2009 |
| June 5-15, 2009 | Local Chapters | April 17, 2009 |
| August 7-17, 2009 | Local Chapters | June 5, 2009 |
| November 6-16, 2009 | Local Chapters | September 18, 2009 |
USING THE SBE LOGO
SBE chapters and members may use the SBE logo on business cards, letterhead and chapter newsletters. When referring to a chapter, it must be used with that chapter’s name or number adjacent to the logo. Members must put "Member of" or "Certified by" adjacent to the logo.
The proper logo must be used in any case. The correct logo can be obtained only through the SBE National Office. Send an e-mail with your request to Angel Bates at abates@sbe.org.
The FAA has closed the Green Bay Flight Service Station, which was the FAA notification point for all tower light outages and restoration reports.
For all Wisconsin-based towers, the new reporting number for tower light outages now changes to 877-487-6867. Stations with current open notifications to the Green Bay FSS will need to call this new number when the notification can be cleared.
JANUARY 2009 NEWSLETTER DEADLINES
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