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CHAPTER 24 FEBRUARY 1996 NEWSLETTER
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Edited by: Mark Croom Electronic Version: Leonard Charles Electronically Distributed by Chris Cain Contributors this month: Paul Stoffel Tom Smith Leonard Charles Articles Welcome!! Send correspondence to: Chapter 24 Newsletter 34 Rustic Parkway Madison, WI 53713-4700 or call (608) 271-1025 (home) or (608) 221-1979 (work) or Email at mcroom@aol.com MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT Visitors and Guests are welcome at all SBE meetings. This month's meeting will feature a presentation by Marshall Frey of TCI Cablevision of Wisconsin, Inc. Could '96 be the year that you stop running the ENG truck all over town for video feeds? Marshall Frey of TCI Communications will be with us for our February meeting to discuss a potential Madison Area Video Network. He will also talk briefly about impending telecommunications competition under the new Telecommunications Reform, and about high speed data services over cable and when they might be available in our community. Business meeting and program at WECB / Wisconsin Public Broadcasting Center 4th floor board room at 7PM. Dutch treat dinner at Perkins (near Fish Hatchey Rd. and West Beltline) at 5:30 UPCOMING MEETINGS Tentative Program Subjects Tue, Mar 19, 1996 WP&L Center Tour (or Milwaukee area station tour) Wed, Apr 24, 1996 Chapter Elections and annual NAB review Thu, May 23, 1996 TCI Cable TV Technology Tue, Jun 18, 1996 Related technology; Internet/software support Sat, Jul 27, 1996 3rd annual Chapter 24 Family Picnic JANUARY BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES The January meeting of Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers was scheduled on Thursday, January 18, 1996. This meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather. Submitted by Neal McLain, Secretary. CHAPTER 24 ELECTIONS IN APRIL Jim Hermanson has again agreed to chair the Nominations Committee which will determine how to solicit nominations for the Chapter 24 election of officers to be held in April. Contact Jim if you are interested in being a Nominations Committee member or if you are interested in running for a Chapter 24 office. Jim's number is 836-8340. LOCAL LEGALS By Tom Smith WERN (FM) 88.7 mhz, Madison, WI. Educational Communications Board seeks permission to modify directional antenna pattern. Announced Nov. 7, 1995. >From Broadcasting and Cable. LOCAL EAS COMMITTEE MEETS Chapter 24's Local EAS Committee held its first meeting on Thursday, February 1. Attendees included Neal McLain, Kevin Ruppert, Tom Weeden, Leonard Charles and Paul Stoffel. The committee decided: - to take an active role in building a Local EAS Plan - to educate counties located within the South Wisconsin Operational Area - to determine broadcasters, cable operators, emergency government officials, sheriff's departments and the National Weather Service Office within our Operational Area - to sponsor a mid-week all-day EAS seminar in June - to gather information from EAS encoder/decoder manufacturers at NAB Upcoming Local EAS committee meetings will be published in the Chapter 24 newsletter. Your participation will be welcomed. EAS UPDATE by Leonard Charles Despite the Federal Government furlough shutdowns and the snow days suffered out east, the FCC's technical lab did manage to complete certification of all the EAS equipment designs submitted to date. TFT and SAGE ALERTING SYSTEMS both received certification in late January. The companies are busy producing product and both say they will have plenty of units to sell on the floor at NAB - LasVegas in April. Though no other companies have submitted prototypes to the FCC as yet, it is rumored that at least three other companies are working on designs including one at the field testing stage. Other companies are contemplating producing consumer receivers that will not require FCC certification. Many thanks to Paul Stoffel who has taken up the duties of EAS Local Area Committee Chairmanship. After our first meeting, we are on our way towards building an effective local system. CERTIFICATION NEWS by Jim Hermanson 1995 proved to be a busy year for the Program of Certification. In December, Linda Godby, SBE National Certification Secretary, distributed an annual certification report to the SBE Executive Committee, the National Certification Committee, and Chapter Certification Chairmen. The following is an edited summary of that report, mixed with late-breaking certification-related news. 1995 NEW CERTIFICATIONS As of December, 325 new certifications were granted last year, not reflecting all November '95 exams nor all Television Operator exams. This compares with 282 in 1994. RECERTIFICATIONS Recertifications are pouring into the National Office. 1400 recertifications are due between January '96 and June '96. As of December, 216 recertifications were granted, with another 75 to be processed as of report time. This compares with 163 in 1994. STUDY GUIDES A grand total of 386 study guides were obtained from the National Office in 1995. This compares with 303 in 1994. RADIO OPERATOR'S CERTIFICATION HANDBOOK This handbook was introduced in March '94. 394 were distributed in 1995, compared with 151 in 1994. A new EAS section will soon be inserted into new booklets. TELEVISION OPERATOR'S HANDBOOK 849 Television Operator's Handbooks were sent out to date! Finishing touches were put on the 2nd Edition Television Operator's Handbook. This new handbook should now be available. The new edition will contain the changes on EAS as well as the FCC changes on "unattended". The price of the new Handbook is $39. EAS HANDBOOK The following is a direct quote from the report. "With a mission ahead of us, we asked, begged, implored, connived, and finally convinced Mr. Leonard Charles to take on the task of EBS/EAS. Boy, what a man, what a Committee, what a team, what a lot of work. The EAS Committee has produced the next "SBE Best Seller". The EAS Primer is currently in the final stages of review. Mr. Dick consented to do a final edit..." CERTIFIED SCHOOLS Rogers State College and Boise State University implemented a "course" using the SBE Television and Radio Operator's Handbooks. These two facilities, as well as others, use the test from the National Office as students' final grade. Boise State has taken this a step further and has joined Bates College in using the Broadcast Technologist exam as their students' final grade. NATIONAL CERTIFICATION COMMITTEE James Bernier and Richard Ryan are the two newest members of the National Certification Committee. They join dedicated members Jim Wulliman, Terrence Baun, David Carr, Robert Dye, Dane Ericksen, Richard Farquhar, Douglas Garlinger, Paul Lentz, Jack McKain, William Orr, Troy Pennington, and Roy Trumbull. Marvin Born and Bill Hineman are also commended for their service to the Committee. NEW ASSISTANT Jill Bolhuis joined the National Certification Office as Linda Godby's assistant on November 2. Jill and her husband moved to Indianapolis from Michigan. NEW CERTIFICATION BROCHURES I've received some of the new Program of Certification brochures. They certainly have a new look. Very nice! Dated January, 1996, they're now 8.5 x 11" and contain the latest information and application forms for certification. 1996 EXAM DATES LOCATION APPLICATION DEADLINE April 16 NAB Convention March 4 (Las Vegas) June 14-24 LOCAL CHAPTERS April 29 October 10 SBE Conference August 26 (Los Angeles) November 8-18 LOCAL CHAPTERS September 30 FOUNDER TO RETIRE One of the founders of the Program of Certification, Jim Wulliman, will retire in June '96. Mr. Wulliman is truly a dedicated individual who has served the Program of Certification to the best of his ability. He will remain a member of the National Certification Committee. CERTIFICATION INFORMATION ON THE WEB There's a new addition to the SBE's World Wide Web page. Certification and recertification information can now be obtained at "http://www.sbe.org/cert.html" or by selecting the appropriate area of the SBE's home page. AMATEUR RADIO NEWS by Tom Weeden, WJ9H The FCC has made the new "vanity call sign" application form 610V available, but it is still not yet accepting completed forms. That won't happen until the Commission acts on four Petitions for Reconsideration and until computer software has been installed and checked out to handle the expected avalanche of applications for custom call signs. Once the FCC does begin accepting 610Vs, they won't go to the normal Gettysburg licensing office, but to the FCC's bank contractor in Pittsburgh, since there is a $30 fee involved. Five schools have been selected for participation in the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) during the upcoming STS-76 flight set to launch March 21. Amateur radio on board the space shuttle's nine-day mission will allow the school students to communicate with the astronauts. Two groups, Near Space Sciences (NSS) and the Wisconsin Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) will be joining forces in May to launch two amateur-radio equipped high-altitude vehicles. WSBR will launch a rocket donated by NASA from the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Sheboygan. The rocket, which will have on board a live amateur TV camera and a GPS unit for location and altitude tracking, is expected to reach at least 280,000 feet altitude. Prior to the rocket launch, NSS will launch a high-altitude balloon which will have a similar payload, but also include a crossband repeater to provide communications for stations who can't make it to Sheboygan. The two launches are currently scheduled for May 4 or 5. The FCC Interference Handbook is now available on the Internet. The World Wide Web version includes the same information as the hard copy edition, "Interference to Home Electronic Entertainment Equipment Handbook," including illustrations. It discusses equipment installation, identifying interference sources, curing interference problems, and filters. It also includes a list of home electronic equipment manufacturers and telephone numbers. The "Interference Handbook" is at http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Compliance/WWW/tvibook.html. (Excerpted from February 1996 "Badger State Smoke Signals" and "QST" magazine) AREA CODES 312 and 708 SPLIT (AGAIN) by Neal McLain In November 1989, Chicago's area code 312 was split, and the suburbs were moved into a new area code, 708. Now, after just six years, both area codes are about to be split again. By the end of the 1996, the Chicago area will have five area codes: 312, 630, 708, 773, and 847. Suburban area code 708 will split three ways, creating 630 and 847. The new areas, as described in Ameritech's press release, are: 847 - Suburban Cook County north of Chicago's city limits, most of Lake County, the portion of McHenry County currently in 708, and the northern portion of Kane County. 630 - DuPage County, the southern portion of Kane County, and the portions of Kendall and Will Counties currently in 708. 708 - South suburban Cook County, areas around Peotone and Beecher currently in 708, and near-west Cook County suburbs south of Franklin Park. The process has already started: 847 was introduced in February, and becomes mandatory on April 20, 1996. Area Code 630 takes effect on August 3, and becomes mandatory November 29. Meanwhile, what's left of the original 312 -- now just the City of Chicago -- will be further split in October: the downtown loop area will retain 312, and the rest of the city will move to 773. This situation is the outcome of a major political battle. It all started well over a year ago, when Ameritech announced that 708 was running out of central office codes, and that a new area code would be needed. Ameritech proposed assigning 630 as an overlay on 312 and 708. According to this plan: - Initial 630 assignments would be for cellular and paging services in 708. As the need arose, 630 also would be used for cellular and paging services within 312, and even for landlines. - Eleven-digit dialing would be required for all calls throughout the entire region, including intra-area code calls. - Additional area codes would be introduced in the future on a similar basis. The battle commenced immediately. Cellular operators objected that it wouldn't be "fair" if they had numbers in a different area code. Nobody liked the eleven-digit dialing requirement: it was claimed that the confusion would be bad for business, and that children would not be able to memorize their telephone numbers. The City of Chicago filed an objection with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), and threatened to appeal the matter to the FCC. The ICC held a series of public hearings, and eventually decided that the new code should be a geographic split rather than an overlay. This, of course, precipitated another battle: where would the split boundary be located?. Nobody wanted a new area code, least of all suburbanites who had just lived through an area code change six years earlier. In the end, the ICC decided on a three-way split in 708 and a two- way split in 312. They apparently recognized the fact that, if a geographic split was inevitable, a three-way split would at least forestall the need further splitting for several years. OVERLAYS ELSEWHERE Similar battles have occurred elsewhere whenever overlay area codes were proposed. In California, the battle over 562 began in early 1994, when Pacific Bell and GTE announced that 562 would be an overlay on 213, 310, and 818 -- the entire Los Angeles basin -- effective March 1996. The announcement was widely publicized at the time: even the Las Vegas Sun carried a story. But it wasn't long before the California Public Utilities Commission got into the act. After a year of deliberations, the PUC finally decided on two geographic splits: 562 will be split from 310 (even though 310 itself has only existed since 1991) and 626 will be split from 818. By March 1997, the Los Angeles area will have five area codes: 213, 310, 562, 626, and 818. In Georgia, Bell South wanted to introduce 770 as an overlay on 404 in the Atlanta area, but the Georgia Public Service Commission voted 3-2 in favor of a geographic split. The result is a donut: 770 covers the suburbs outside the I-285 loop, with 404 in the middle, surrounded by 770 on all sides. In Florida, Bell South proposed 954 as an overlay on 305 in the Miami area, but the Florida Public Service Commission decreed a geographic split. The result is a very lopsided split: 954 was assigned to Broward County (Fort Lauderdale), but Dade County (Miami) and Monroe County (the Keys) retained 305. In Missouri, Southwestern Bell South wanted to introduce 573 as an overlay on 314 in the southeastern part of the state, including St. Louis. The Missouri Public Service Commission voted 4-0 in favor of a geographic split. The St. Louis metro area retained 314, and the rest of the area, including Jefferson City, Columbia, Gape Girardeau, and Hannibal, moved to 573. In Texas, the battle still rages. Southwestern Bell proposed two overlays: 281 on 713 in the Houston area, and 972 on 214 in Dallas. The Texas Public Utility Commission has been studying the issue for over a year, and PUC staff has recommended that the overlays be approved. Meanwhile, the mayor of Dallas as threatened to sue the PUC if any of those "unglamorous" 972 numbers appear in his city. The PUC was scheduled to vote on the matter on January 11, but, as of this writing, the vote has been postponed again. To date, the only overlay area code which has actually taken effect is 917 (overlaid on 212 and 718 in New York City), introduced in January 1992. Sources: Ameritech Illinois: "60-Day Countdown Begins" (News Release), November, 1995. Associated Press: "New Area Code Created for California Cellular Users," Las Vegas Sun, March 23, 1994. Wally Bloss: "314 Stays in St. Louis, 573 to Outside MO," TELECOM DIGEST, July, 1995. Edmund C. Hack: "Area Code Overlays in Texas Delayed," TELECOM DIGEST, January, 1996. Carl Moore: "History of Area Splits," TELECOM DIGEST, November, 1995. Mitchell Weiss: "630 Area Code and New Dialing Patterns," TELECOM DIGEST, January, 1995. FCC LAUNCHES INQUIRY ON PROMOTING CLOSED CAPTIONING AND VIDEO DESCRIPTION OF VIDEO PROGRAMMING The FCC has issued a Notice of Inquiry regarding closed captioning and video description of television programming. The Commission seeks comment on the current availability, cost, and uses of these two services. It also requests the public's views on the appropriate means of promoting the wider use of closed captioning and video description in programming delivered by television broadcasters, cable operators, and other video program providers. Legislation currently pending in Congress would, for the first time, generally mandate the closed captioning of television video programming, and also would require the FCC to study the uses of video description. The record developed in this proceeding will enable the Commission to expedite the implementation of this legislation if enacted into law. Closed captioning provides important benefits primarily for individuals with hearing disabilities by displaying the audio portion of a television signal as printed words on the television screen. Video description is a more recent innovation that benefits individuals with vision disabilities. It provides audio descriptions of a program's key visual elements that are inserted during the natural pauses in the program's dialogue. There are presently no Commission rules regarding video description. For the full, unedited news report, see Mass Media Bureau's NEWSReport No. MM 95-115 available on the FCC's web homepage. or contact Kara Palamaras at (202) 418-0500 or Charles W. Logan at (202) 776-1653. MASS MEDIA ACTION December 4, 1995. MCI GETS DBS SLOT By Tom Smith The telephone giant MCI won a full CONUS DBS slot in the latest spectrum auction held by the FCC. MCI will team up with Rupert Muroch's News Corp. in providing the new service. MCI's winning bid was $682.5 million for 28 channels at 110 degrees west. TCI dropped out of the bidding at $367 million and EchoStar dropped out at $650 million. EchoStar won a block of 24 channels at 148 degrees for $52.3 million. This slot offers coverage to the western half of the U.S. only. MCI's bid is still subject to lawsuits for TCI who was trying to buy the license for the 110 degree slot from previous owner TEMPO. The FCC pulled TEMPO's license for failure to construct. DirecTV and EchoStar are also suing, because as holders of full CONUS permits they were prevented from bidding. Instead of bidding on the auctioned channels AT&T purchased a 2.5% share of DirecTV with a option to acquire up to a 30% share. Finally, EchoStar plans to start operations in March after the successful launch of their satellite by the Chinese late last year. HTS and Philips will market their receivers. Compiled from BROADCASTING and CABLE and ELECTRONIC MEDIA TELECOMMUNICATION REFORM BECOMES LAW By Tom Smith In a ceremony in the Library of Congress on Thursday February 8th, President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Reform Act. The signing contained a little show biz with an Internet demonstration, leaders of the communications industry in attendance and speeches by leaders of both parties. The House and Senate passed the bill a week earlier, on Thursday February 2nd, with the bill passing 414 to 16 in the House and 91 to 5 in the Senate. The bill moved forward when senate majority leader Sen. Robert Dole ended his opposition to the giving of broadcasters the use of spectrum for ATV without paying for it. Congress adapted language that requires congress to take up the subject later in the year and prohibits the FCC from granting any licenses before that time. Broadcasters objected to the V-chip requirement and the computer industry and users objected to indecent speech restrictions on the Internet. Civil liberties groups objected to both as free speech issues. Many consumer groups have expressed concerns about the bill causing rates to increase as the caps on cable rates are lifted and companies start to merge and possibly create new monopolies. Industry groups say the law will create new competitors which should lower prices. Even before the bill was passed various communication companies were jockeying for position in this new deregulated world. Many broadcasters were purchasing additional stations that put them over existing limits and seeking waivers to hold on to them. They were counting on the communication bill to raise the various ownership limits so that they could retain all of their old and new stations. The phone and cable companies were creating new alliances that would allow for eventual mergers and consolidations of resource. With this bill long distance and regional phone companies and cable companies will be able to enter into each others businesses. Also, expect to see various phone and cable companies to start to merge to compete in new market areas against existing companies. Bell Atlantic has suggested that it may merge with NYTEX to form one large communication company serving the Northeast. AT&T plans on re-entering the local phone service market and recapture 1/3 of the market it held before the breakup. One writer in the WALL STREET JOURNAL suggested that we will all be getting more dinner time calls soliciting our business as more companies get more into each others businesses and start to compete. The FCC will have to start about 80 new rule makings and complete many of them in the next 6 months. Compiled from the WIS. STATE JOURNAL, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NY TIMES, BROADCASTING and CABLE and WASHINGTON POST NATIONAL NEWS REMINDERS Committee Reports are available from the SBE's Internet Homepage, including an EAS Committee Report. The SBE's web site has had more than 12,000 visitors since it began in July of 1995. SBE's homepage includes updated information about SBE, links to chapters' homepages, links to other broadcast related websites, lists of SBE Frequency Coordinators, the SBE Job Line and more. Check it out at http://www.sbe.org. Most SBE Board members have an internet address and welcome communication through this method. The SBE National Office is also on-line. Chapter 24 joins fourteen other SBE chapters with homepages reachable through the National SBE homepage. Chris Cain is the designer and coordinator of Chapter 24's homepage which includes upcoming monthly meeting announcements, lists of officers and committee representatives, and much more. For the second year, SBE will be co-sponsoring with the National Association of Broadcasters the Broadcast Engineering Conference (BEC), held as a part of NAB'96 in Las Vegas, April 14-18. This will be the 50th BEC. Special displays and some nostalgic glimpses at the early days of broadcasting will mark the occasion. A joint SBE/NAB committee, chaired by former SBE national Vice President, Jerry Whitaker, has planned five full days of broadcast engineering paper presentations, panels and tutorials. Joining Jerry on the Committee are Bill Beckner, Marvin Born, Andy Butler, Jerry Butler, Dutch Doelitzsch, Dane Ericksen, Bill Ruck, Robert Seidel and Milford Smith. Registration for NAB'96 is made through NAB. SBE members receive the NAB member conference registration rate, a savings of $300! For registration information, call (800) 342-2460. You are urged to make your hotel and travel arrangements early as rooms and flights tend to fill quickly each year. SBE President, Terry Baun, has appointed Vice President, Ed Miller Chairman of the Futures Committee. This Committee will seek to define who, what and where the SBE is today and explore potential directions the organization could take in the future. To help achieve those objectives, the Futures Committee is planning a strategic planning meeting for June 29 in Indianapolis. This meeting will involve officers, members of the Board, chapter representatives and office staff. The meeting will be guided by an independent facilitator skilled in keeping the group focused on the issues and bringing it to some constructive conclusions. More on the progress of the Futures Committee will be reported throughout the year. 1996 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE plans are being prepared by Dave Johnson, SBE Membership Chairman. Dave is planning a couple of twists to it to increase its effectiveness. Look for details in the February/March issue of the SBE SIGNAL. SBE and the Ennes Educational Foundation Trust will release a new booklet on the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The SBE EAS PRIMER will introduce the WEB concept of Emergency Message relaying. Also included is a guide for State Emergency Communications committee chairs, an extensive question and answer section clarifying many fine points in the rules, diagrams of the various levels of EAS configuration, and copies of FCC Public Notices and Press Releases issued since the R&O was originally released. Call the SBE National Office today to reserve your copy or use the order form found in the November/December issue of the "SBE SIGNAL." Please welcome our new sustaining member: Harris Corporation Our recent renewals: Scharch Electronics Thanks to all our Sustaining Members: BTS Broadcast Communications CCA Electronics CTI Clark Wire and Cable Comark Communications Electronic Industries Emmons Associates Fuji Film I&I Maney Logic MRC Telecommunications Panasonic Broadcast Richardson Electronics Roscor Wisconsin Skyline Communications Sony Broadcast Tectan, Inc. Teleport Minnesota Video Images WISC-TV 3 WKOW-TV 27 WMSN-TV 47 WMTV-TV 15
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