• Contents for this Newsletter

About This Newsletter
Meeting Announcement
Upcoming Meeting Schedule
Meeting Minutes
Notice of Elections
Wisconsin Station Asks To End Analog
From The Chair - Professional Professionals
Amateur Radio News
FCC Rulemakings
700 MHz Band Auction Starts
SBE Notes & Reminders
Chapter Sustaining Members
Return to 2008 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 John Salzwedel on InDesign CS. Submissions of interest to the broadcast technical community are welcome. You can make your submissions by e-mail to:

© 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.

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Bill Hamilton, Technology Manager for Wisconsin Eye, the privately financed Wisconsin version of C-Span, will give us a tour of the broadcast facility which is located directly across from the Wisconsin State Capital. Bill will explain to us how the cameras are remotely controlled and how the signals are transported between the various capitol locations and Hovde Building location. Bill asks that we try to be at the entrance to the Wisconsin Eye building sharply at 7PM as the building will probably be security locked after 5 PM.

Recommended parking is in the Civic Center Ramp

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Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers held its regular monthly meeting at the office of Sound Devices in Madison on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. There were 14 members in attendance, 12 of whom were certified and two guests.

President Dennis Baldridge called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. Secretary Tom Smith was not available for the secretary’s report during the business meeting. Since there was no business conducted at the December meeting, a motion to accept the minutes of the November meeting was made by Clif Groth, seconded by Kevin Ruppert. The motion passed.

Treasurer Leslie Franzen was not present but submitted a written report showing the chapter’s bank balance in the black.

Sustaining Membership Chair Fred Sperry reported recent renewals by Belden, Heartland Video, WISC-TV, WKOW-TV, Scharch Electronics and Clark Wire and Cable. There are a total of 23 sustaining members.

National Liaison Leonard Charles reported that the first two issues of the SBE-news have been e-mailed to members who have provided the national office with their e-mail addresses. This new communication tool is intended to provide a closer link between National and members and provide a short, quick read of news and updates twice each month. The first co-branded SBE/Focal Press publication is expected to be available at NAB this year. It will be a book on implementing IBOC by Board member Tom Ray of WOR Radio in New York. John Poray from the National office intends to visit Madison and Chapter 24 for a pre-National Meeting planning meeting sometime in March. MSTV has said the tentative Nextel digital ENG timeline now has Madison and Milwaukee converting in October 2008.

Program Committee Chair Steve Paugh reported that the February 13th program will be a tour of Wisconsin Eye on the Capitol Square. The March 19th program will be at the ECB on HD captioning. Nominations of officers will also be held at that meeting. Elections will be held at the April 22 meeting.

Certification Chair Jim Hermanson reported two re-certifications. The next national exam session will be at the NAB convention, with a February 29 application deadline. The next local exam session will be June 6-16, with an application deadline of April 18.

With no other business before the membership, the meeting was adjourned at 7:08 p.m. Program Committee Chair Steve Paugh then introduced John Tatooles and Joe Ramos for the program on file-based digital audio recording.

Respectfully submitted,

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In April we will hold elections for the Chapter 24 offices of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer for the 2008-2009 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 the 2008-2009 term. Chapter Chair Dennis Baldridge and Chapter Vice-Chair Cliff Groth are eligible to serve a second term and have communicated their desire to do so. Treasurer Leslie Franzen and Secretary Tom Smith have both served the maximum consecutive three terms in their respective positions, but are eligible to run for another office.

Here are the current officers and their status:

During the February 13 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) and Leonard Charles. There is one vacancy on the nominations committee that needs to be filled prior to the counting of the ballots in April.

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 Dennis Baldridge. 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:

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 in the March Chapter 24 newsletter.

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Pappas Telecasting, owner of WWAZ-TV Fond du Lac, has asked the FCC for permission to end its analog TV transmissions on channel 68. WWAZ would continue operation in digital on channel 44. In their letter to the Commission, Pappas Telecasting claimed that it has loss nearly $9 million since the station’s inception in 1995. There was little or no income generated by this operation according to Pappas Telecasting. They noted that the loss of service to viewers in its service area would be minimal as the station did not meet the minimum reporting standards for Nielsen ratings and that most of the viewers had five or more viewing choices besides WWAZ-TV.

The Region 45 700 MHz planning Committee, the Region 54 700 MHz planning Committee, the Southeast Wisconsin Communications Resource/Support Group and the Dodge County Sheriff all sent in letters in support, noting that they all had urgent need of the spectrum for public safety use. The Region 45 700 MHz planning Committee serves three-fourths of Wisconsin, the Region 54 700 MHz planning Committee serves Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois including Milwaukee and Chicago and the Southeast Wisconsin Communications Resource/Support Group also serves the Southern Wisconsin area including Milwaukee. All four groups basically sent a form letter in support of Pappas Telecasting. The Commission has only issued a few public safety licenses in that band under special authority.

The FCC has allowed stations operating in the public safety bands of 700 MHz band as well as stations operating on three channels already auctioned for commercial use to cease operations and allow those winning bidders to start operations on those channels. These provisions were part of the Auction Reform Act of 2002.

WWAZ-TV operates with a transmitter site south of Mayville at the intersection of Highways 33 and 67. WWRS-TV and WMDC-FM have transmitters on adjacent sites to WWAZ-TV. For a number of years, WWAZ-TV operated a low power at the WFON-FM site north of Fond du Lac with the digital transmitter at the KFIZ-WFON studios on a short tower of about 50 feet. WWAZ-TV was to become an Aztec TV affiliate and carries Spanish Language programming. Those plans fell through, and they joined Family Net. WWAZ-TV has little or no cable carriage, including no carriage in their city of license, Fond du Lac. A number of publications have noted that Pappas has a number of stations for sale, and this request could be in preparation for WWAZ-TV to be sold.

From FCC Releases (www.fcc.gov)

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Doing what is right is at the heart of the SBE’s Canon of Ethics —standards outlined in four main areas encompassing 27 sections. The first area, "Professional Life," includes:

Section 1. The Broadcast Engineer will cooperate in extending the effectiveness of the engineering profession by interchanging information and experience with other broadcast engineers and students and by contributing to the work of engineering societies, schools and the scientific and engineering press.

Section 2. The Broadcast Engineer will avoid all conduct or practice likely to discredit or unfavorably reflect upon the dignity or honor of the profession.

The first section describes the ideal working relationship between engineers and the members of greater broadcast industry or related disciplines. Ethics enable. True professional engineers will interact in such a way as to strengthen others, making them better equipped and ready to succeed. Professional ethics involves not only seeing that our work is done properly but allows our own experiences to benefit others. Professional principles promote progress throughout the industry.

The second section speaks of responsibility; knowing and doing what is expected of us. When we as broadcast engineers maintain proper conduct honoring the profession, it reflects our personal character by demonstrating our respect for those in leadership and the authorities they represent.

Let us all work to practice the SBE’s Canon of Ethics, particularly in our professional life, by doing what is right.

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Veteran meteorologist and amateur radio operator Bill Read, KB5FYA, was named the new director of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Tropical Prediction Center, which includes the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in January. Read had served as the Center’s acting deputy director since August 2007. The NHC has a dedicated amateur station on-site – W4EHW – and has worked closely with hams for decades.

In announcing Read’s appointment to head the Center, NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher cited Read’s three decades of experience with the agency and of his reputation as "a trusted consultant to emergency managers" in the Houston area.

On January 16, Motorola announced that its subsidiary, MI, Inc, has successfully completed its tender offer to acquire a controlling interest in Vertex Standard, parent company of Yaesu, a manufacturer of a wide variety of amateur and professional radio equipment.

Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, Yaesu’s Executive Vice President for Amateur Radio Sales in North America, told the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) that he sees the joint venture of Vertex Standard and Motorola as "a very good thing for Amateur Radio in general and Yaesu customers in particular...I am really excited to see what the joint engineering capabilities of these two huge communications companies will bring in the way of new technology advancement for the Amateur Radio Service."

Motschenbacher continued: "There is a unique aspect of business that comes with Amateur Radio. It’s not just about a radio. It’s the relationship between the ham, the radio itself and the company that makes that radio. This relationship in Amateur Radio is far different than it is, say, between a buyer of a HDTV, the TV and the TV manufacturer. The relationship in Amateur Radio is far more personal and ‘bonding,’ per se. I am certain that we will do our utmost to ensure that Motorola understands this delicate bond."

According to Motorola, "[t]he joint venture is expected to expand and develop a comprehensive suite of products to address the rapidly growing demand for 2-way radio solutions. Vertex Standard’s strength in the amateur, marine and airband (avionics) segments provides Motorola with access to new business opportunities. In addition, Vertex Standard’s solutions are highly complementary with Motorola’s products and add greater depth and breadth to Motorola’s Government and Public Safety business. The venture also provides additional engineering talent for Motorola."

Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League’s site at arrl.org, and NASA.gov

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On November 27, 2007, the FCC adopted the Third Report and Order on the Low Power FM service and also issued a Second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. On December 11, the Commission released the full report and order. Since the LPFM service was approved, the FCC has had 3,336 applications for LPFMs, with 1,286 construction permits being approved. There are 809 stations on the air, and 221 construction permits have lapsed.

The FCC approved a number of rule changes concerning ownership limits and clarified local origination standards. The new ownership rules increased flexibility in governance of stations allowed for limited sales of stations and set limits on number of LPFM stations one entity can own. The new rules now allow for more than 50 percent of the governing board to change without considering the station to have changed ownership. The FCC will also allow a LPFM station to be sold to another qualified group. A station must be held for three years before it can be sold, and payment can only allow to the depreciated value of the station’s facilities. Construction permits may not be sold. The Commission restricted ownership to one LPFM station per entity except for groups using LPFM transmitter for public safety purposes; they may own more then one with some limitations. The FCC was originally going to eventually allow one entity to own up to 10 LPFM stations with ownership limited to on

e station when the first filing window was opened and the limit increasing starting two years after that filing window had occurred.

In other ownership rules that were adopted, applicants for new LPFM stations must reside, or in the case of an institution, must be located within 10 miles of the proposed transmitter site within the top 50 radio markets and within 20 miles everywhere else. The mileage limit was increased to allow listeners that live a distance from the transmitter, but drive to the area for work or other purposes and listen to the LPFM station to become active in its management.

The Commission also clarified some local origination standards. They ruled that automated programs did not constitute local programming. The programming must be locally produced and only the original and one taped airing could be counted as time used for local origination.

The Commission also set time limits for applicants to negotiate time-sharing agreements when competing applicants, who received the same number of points for the comparative evaluations of their applications, decide to share a frequency instead of being forced into involuntary successive limited license terms over the standard eight-year license term. Each station would operate at one-year intervals within the regular license period. Those stations that are subject to involuntary sharing will not be renewed at the end of the standard license period unless they come to a voluntary agreement at renewal.

LPFM stations were given 18 months to construct their stations or their construction permits would expire. The FCC will now allow them to apply to extent the construction time by another 18 months. with good cause allowing them to use up to the same three-year time limit to construct as full power stations.

The FCC also took action concerning the issue of translators versus LPFM stations. Both have secondary status to full power stations, but are basically equal in the FCC rules. The FCC expressed concern that the upcoming Auction 83 for FM translator license may preclude spectrum for new LPFM stations in many markets. With over 13,000 translator applications filed and the concern by many of the commenters about abuse and speculation of the application and auction process, the commission is limiting each bidder to bidding on one of its 10 applications.

Finally, the FCC is seeking comment concerning changes made by full power stations that may affect LPFM stations. The FCC is proposing that LPFM stations that provide eight hours or more of local programming per day receive consideration when a full power station seeks to move its city of license and transmitter or when a new station is allotted that may affect the LPFM. When the LPFM station is unable to move to a new frequency, the Commission is proposing a waiver of second adjacent spacing requirements between full power and LPFM stations. They are also considering not allowing a station seeking to move to a new city of license to make the move if it affects the LPFM station. And finally they may require the full power station to pay for changes that the LPFM station has to make to accommodate to full power station. The FCC is also considering contour-based spacing between full power and LPFM stations and also between LPFM stations themselves. Contour-based spacing is whe

n stations meet certain signal levels at the specific points between them. Low power TV, TV and FM translators and AM radio use this method to determine spacing and interference levels between stations.

Many of these rules were the result of petitions by the Prometheus Radio Project, an interest group interested in broadcast issues including low power broadcasting.

On November 27, 2007, the FCC adopted new standards for TV stations’ public files and created a new form for stations to report their local programming and public affair efforts. The full report and order was released on January 24, 2008.

The FCC is requiring stations to give notice twice a day on the existence, location and accessibility of its public file. One notice must be given between 6 and 12 p.m. The public file must be at the main studio and the contents must be posted on station’s Web site if it has one or starts one, or on its state’s broadcast association’s Web site if permitted. It must have copies of everything in the public file including e-mails, but does not have to have letters sent to the station in paper form.

Each TV station will now have to fill out a quarterly report to the FCC on its programming effort. The form is a paper form and needs to be sent to the FCC and placed in both the station’s private and public files. The form is eight pages long with an additional four pages of instructions. The form will replace the current issues/programming list that stations place in their public files every three months.

Information required on the form is station channel and location information along with ownership, network and license information. There is a data section that asks for information on the station’s main and digital sub-channels, along with types of programs broadcast and the percentage of time each type of program was presented. They then ask for information on specific programs including titles, time aired and length. The list of program types for which they have a box for each type include: national news, local news, local public affairs, local election affairs programming, independent produced programming, local programming, public service announcements by time period, programming for underserved communities and religious programming.

The form also asks for information on how the station meets community needs such as services for the disabled which includes closed captioning efforts, the amount of English and Spanish captioning and descriptive video aired, and current emergency information efforts including a description of the emergency situation covered. The final question concerns local marking and joint sales agreements.

This action has already claimed its critics according to several trade papers. The critics have made the claim that this action will impose a costly burden on most TV stations.

On December 22, 2007, the FCC adopted the final rules concerning the transition to digital television. They released the report and order on December 31, 2007.

For most stations that have completed their DTV facilities, the action will not have much effect on them. The two issues that will have the most effect on stations are that they will have to file a DTV transition report by February 18, 2008 and another by October 18, 2008. The Commission is also issuing a rule that will require stations to make their PSIP program information more accurate and dynamic. The title information for programs will have to be correct; they will not allow generic titles such as network or local program. The rules will require correct data for channel set-up and program guide set-up and the updating of program start and end times when they start late or run long.

The main focus of the rulemaking is construction deadlines for various types of DTV facilities. Stations that are currently operating on the DTV channel they will have after February 18, 2009 will have to complete construction by May 18, 2008 if they have been issued a construction permit that matches their post-transition authorization. Stations still needing a CP to match their post-transition authorization must complete their construction by August 18, 2008. Stations with current facilities that have problem issues such as having a side-mounted antenna that needs to be replaced with a top mounted have until February 18, 2009 to complete work. Stations that will be operating on a different DTV channel after February 18, 2009 than the one they are currently operating on will be allowed to operate on the pre-transition channel after February 18, 2009 while completing construction, or they can start operation on the post-transition channel if they have completed construction s

ubject to interference, comparable coverage to their analog signal and viewer notification. Stations may also cease their analog or pre-transition DTV transmissions before the transition date if related to construction of its own or another station’s post-transition facility. After November 19, 2009, stations may shut down their analog or pre-transition facilities with 30 days notification to FCC. Stations may also operate at reduced power for 30 days to facilitate construction. Viewer notification is required when shutting down or reducing power.

The Commission will also speed up application and waiver process for those who still need to update construction permits or need to make changes that are considered minor changes by the FCC. The Commission will also accept maximization applications starting on August 18, 2008.

The Commission will not accept anymore requests for delays in construction of DTV facilities other then for those stations in bankruptcy or financial hardship such as negative cash flow for the last three years. Other acceptable delays include acts of God, equipment delivery delays and construction delays because of weather, zoning and environmental or international coordination issues. Equipment delivery delays must be due to manufacture or shipping problems and equipment must have been ordered in time to meet deadlines. Those stations that cannot meet the February 17, 2009 deadline will be subject to the tolling standards that all stations are subject to under current construction permit deadlines.

The FCC extended the requirement for all DTV stations to file the yearly report and pay the FCC fees on payments for subscription services. This includes stations that are both licensed and those holding construction permits and other authorizations. The rules currently only call for licensed station to report subscription income and pay the 5% fee to the FCC for income from subscription services.

For stations that are rebroadcasting another station such as a LPTV station on a second DTV sub-channel, rules were issued on the proper method for giving both stations IDs.

The Commission adopted a .5% interference standard. The Commission also addressed antenna vertical pattern measurements and beam tilt in interference calculations and limited cell sizes when figuring population densities for computing the number of viewers affected by interference to 2 Km, 1 Km and .5 Km. New DTV station allotments will be governed by the mileage separation table, but those stations will still be required to conform to the .5% interference standard.

The report discussed the digital transition on cable, master antenna systems and DBS, but the Commission did not issue addition rules on the subject.

The report and order and all of its appendixes are 154 pages in length and some of the discussion is quite involved. Stations that have not completed their final construction or need to make changes to meet post-transition operation should check the report to know what options they have. Stations that have completed their DTV facilities and may be affected by a station that needs to make changes to another DTV channel for post-transition operation should also check the report, particularly if the station subject to a new post-transition channel wishes to change to the post-transition channel before or after February 17, 2009.

On January 30, the FCC published on its Web site and in the Federal Register a notice announcing the availability of the 387 transition report form, new 301 and 340 application forms for construction permits, and a new form 337 for those stations needing to file for an extension of time to construct.

The report and order can be found on the FCC Web site home page.

From FCC (www.fcc.gov)

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On January 24, the FCC started the auction of the remaining spectrum in the 700 MHz band. This includes all the spectrum starting at TV channel 52 and ending at TV channel 69, except for the four channels allotted to public safety and the three channels already sold, including the nationwide license for the MediaFlo service on channel 55.

As of noon Friday, February 1, after 23 rounds of bidding, the bids totaled over $16,937,080,500. The FCC had set a total minimum amount for the entire spectrum of $10,053,350,000. Any bids for licenses in this spectrum that do not meet the FCC’s reserve price will not be accepted and the licenses will be re-auctioned. As some of these licenses cover large regions of the nation, and in the case of one license that covers the whole nation, this could reduce the amount that the Commission collects in this auction and force another auction for the unsold licenses. This would delay the Commission in fulfilling the Congress’s request for addition funds to the treasury.

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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 .

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.

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