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CHAPTER 24, Inc., MADISON, WI
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Monthly eNews
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August 2019
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Our Next Meeting:
Wednesday, August 28th
The Looking Glass/MPX Tool
by Modulation Arts
Alex Hartman will be presenting on Looking Glass, which is an FM analysis tool that can monitor up to 30 frequencies simultaneously. He's been developing the product for the past few years, and it was officially released at NAB 2019 where it won a Best in Show Award. It allows for remote audio monitoring, including real time RDS, all without encoding to AAC or MP3. It's also an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, modulation monitor, loudness meter, and more.
Dinner at 5:30 PM
Rocky Rococo Pizza
1618 W. Beltline Hwy
(north frontage road)
Madison, WI
Meeting and Program at 7:00 PM
Wis Public Broadcast Center
ECB
3319 W. Beltline Hwy
Madison, WI
Visitors and guests are welcome!
Map
2019 Broadcasters Clinic
and SBE National Meeting
This year's WBA-SBE Broadcasters Clinic will be held at the newly renovated Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Middleton on October 15th through 17th. The SBE National will be joining the Clinic this year with their national committee meetings, national membership meeting, and the annual awards reception and banquet. It is at that banquet that Wisconsin's own Bill Hubbard will be honored as the 2019 SBE Educator of the Year. As well the Wisconsin SBE Chapters will be recognized for their Best Chapter Regional Educational Event; The 2018 Broadcasters Clinic.
Take a peek at the 2019 session agenda. Early bird registration (on the right side of the page) will run through August 30th.
Last Meeting's Minutes
Submitted by Russ Awe, Secretary
July, 2019
The July meeting of Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 24 was held on Thursday, July 25, 2019. WISC-TV in Madison was the location for the monthly gathering. There were 13 members present, 11 who were certified, and three guests.
Chapter Chair Britny Williams began the meeting at 7:05pm, followed by having everyone present quickly introduce themselves. The secretary's report of the June meeting minutes were then approved as published in the July eNews website.
For the Chapter treasury, Roy Henn reported that the Chapter has a rebate check from the SBE National. A motion was made by Leonard Charles to return the check to National requesting that it be split between the four scholarship funds. This was seconded by Jim Hermanson. A vote was taken, and the motion passed. Roy will return the check to national with the chapters request. Roy also reported that the treasury account continues to maintain a steady balance.
With the Newsletter report, Leonard Charles announced that the deadline for articles for the August eNews letter is close of business on Monday July 29, 2019. Please forward any article of interest to the members of Chapter 24 to Lcharles@sbe.org. If you are not receiving the eNews letter and want it, send an email address to Lcharles@sbe.org to be added to the distribution list.
Program Committee chair Britny Williams announced the open August presentation will most likely be filled by a presentation from Looking Glass MPX Tool. September is slated to be the WPR tour as construction continues with the new studios. October is the Broadcasters Clinic and November is open. There is a conference call next week to go over details for the SBE National meeting webcast in October being held in Madison. There may be a need for volunteers to run camera.
Sustaining Membership chair Fred Sperry announced that Chapter 24 continues to have 13 companies that are sustaining members and no renewals.
Certification chair Jim Hermanson announced the certification of Michael Travis with the passing of the CRO exam. Congratulation Michael! The next exams are given at the AES convention in New York City on October 18th with September 10 being the deadline for registration. The next local sessions are November 1st thru 11th with September 20th being the deadline for registration. Exam schedules are now online.
With the SBE National report, Leonard Charles mentioned that electronic voting for the national Board of Directors opens tomorrow (Friday, July 26, 2019). Voting begins with a unique election email sent to each voting member that contains a link to the ballot and candidate information. The ballot information will be mailed to those who have opted out of electronic balloting. There is one candidate on the ballot for each officer position and ten candidates for six available director seats. Ballots can be cast through Wednesday, August 28 at 3:30pm CDT.
The SBE National Meeting comes to Madison on October 15-16, held in conjunction with the WBA Broadcasters Clinic (Oct. 15-17) at the Madison Marriott West Hotel. The Clinic schedule includes the SBE Annual Membership Meeting at 3:00pm CDT Wednesday October 16th and SBE National Awards Reception at 5:00pm CDT with Dinner at 6:00pm CDT. SBE Reception/Dinner tickets are now available online for just $16 at www.sbe.org.
Britny Williams reported that the 2018 salary survey was released.
Frequency Coordinator Tom Smith has received two 450 RPU coordination requests for the American Family Golf Tournament and Xgames. Last week a request came in from Dish Network for spectrum broadband on either side of the 2 GHz, five to six MHz off of the TV remote pickup. All chief engineers should have received this notice.
The FCC published a notice proposing taking 370MHz C-band satellite spectrum, leaving approximately five to six transponders at the top end of the spectrum.
There was no old or new business brought forward.
A motion to adjourn was made by Britny Williams and seconded by Andrew Kennedy. The motion passed by majority vote.
The meeting was followed with a talk by Christopher Mallon, P.E. of Tower MRL (Maintenance, Repair, and Landscaping) Inc. There was much discussion on mono pole construction, self-supporting and guy wire towers. Lightning strikes, grounding and corrosion of towers and anchors was discussed. Guy wire tension measuring with a black and white camera with software was also shown.
Amateur Radio News
Compiled by Tom Weeden, WJ9H
The spherical Chinese CAS-7B (BP-1B) Amateur Radio satellite carrying an FM transponder launched on July 25 on a Hyperbola-1 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia. CAS-7B was put into a 300 kilometer, 42.7° inclination orbit and is expected to have a lifetime of about a month before reentry, according to Alan Kung, BA1DU, at CAMSAT, the Chinese Amateur Satellite organization.
The CW telemetry beacon transmits on 435.715 MHz; the UHF FM transponder downlink is 435.690 MHz (16 kHz passband), and the VHF FM transponder uplink is 145.900 MHz.
ARRL member-volunteers were part of the excitement at the 2019 International Experimental Aircraft Association annual AirVenture show, which ran through July 29 in Oshkosh. This year marks the 50th anniversary of EAA AirVenture, which drew more than 600,000 visitors and 10,000 aircraft last year. The ARRL exhibit highlighted radio communications, encouraging pilots and aviation enthusiasts to discover the many facets of Amateur Radio and to expand their interest in technology. ARRL Product Development Manager Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, organized the booth (#2152 in Hangar B) and all-volunteer team.
"This is a great opportunity to show off Amateur Radio at such a large-scale event," Inderbitzen said. "There's a kinship among the aviation and Amateur Radio communities. In addition to introducing newcomers to ham radio, we met over 600 ham-pilots at last year's AirVenture."
Icom America and EAA Warbirds of America organized special event station W9W, which was on the air all week from AirVenture. W9W planned on operating on 40 through 10 meters and on VHF and UHF. The station was set up against the backdrop of the display of historic and vintage ex-military aircraft.
Members of the Fox Cities Amateur Radio Club (FCARC) were operating W9ZL from the nearby Pioneer Airport. The station was located within KidVenture, which was filled with activities for children and youth attending AirVenture.
Tying in with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, EAA AirVenture hosted Apollo 11 crew member Michael Collins on Friday, July 26, as the event's featured guest.
With increasing scarcity of IPv4 internet addresses, the nonprofit organization Amateur Radio Digital Communications has sold some 4 million unused consecutive AMPRNet internet addresses to establish and fund grants and scholarships in support of communications and networking research -- with a strong emphasis on Amateur Radio, an ARDC news release said. ARDC manages AMPRNet. While the sale fetched "several million dollars," ARDC said that its Board of Directors had agreed to keep the exact figure confidential for now, "to avoid adversely influencing others buying and selling addresses."
According to the AMPRNet's FAQ page: "Dr. Hank Magnuski, KA6M, had the foresight to see that Internet-style networking would be the future and wanted the emerging amateur radio packet network to be able to participate. We were allocated a Class-A (a /8) network in the 1980's when there was little demand for network space and large swaths of netspace were easily obtained....That allocation was the address space comprising some sixteen million individual IPv4 addresses, 44.0.0.0 through 44.255.255.255, conventionally written as 44.0.0.0/8, which was given the name AMPRNet.
"...[I]n mid-2019, a block of approximately four million consecutive AMPRNet addresses denoted as 44.192.0.0/10 was withdrawn from our reserve for Amateur use, and sold to the highest qualified bidder at the then current fair market value. This leaves some twelve million addresses devoted exclusively to Amateur Radio uses, which is far greater than the number of addresses which are currently or have ever been in use."
(Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League's arrl.org web site)
FCC NEWS
compiled by Tom Smith
BYE-BYE C-BAND
On July 19th, the FCC released a public notice (DA-19-678A1) asking for comment on plans for the reallocation of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band satellite spectrum. The proposal could reallocate 370 MHz of the band for 5G use leaving 130 MHz for satellite downlink use. This action is in response to comments by the American Communications Association (ACA Connects), the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), Charter Communications Inc. (collectively, ACA Connects Coalition), AT&T, Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, Google and Microsoft.
The ACA consists of wireless carriers and satellite service providers. Their proposal suggests that 370 MHz of the C-band spectrum be reallocated to wireless use nationwide with the spectrum to be auctioned. It could be a regular spectrum auction or an incentive auction where the satellite providers be reimbursed for the loss of their spectrum. Existing satellite customers would be transitioned to fiber. This would mainly affect Cable and satellite video providers. The remaining satellite service to mainly broadcasters would be repacked in the upper 130 MHz of the C-band Satellite spectrum. An alternative proposal would be allowing the cable and satellite providers to use non-urban satellite reception sites (farms) and provide fiber delivery to cable systems via fiber to close-by existing head-ends. They would still seek to reduce the amount of the spectrum used for satellite service. There were a number of additional questions asked pertaining to this proposal concerning cost and practicality.
The comment period ends on August 7th and replies are due on August 14th. Normally when the FCC issues a public notice asking for comment on a current rulemaking and using the minimum 15 day comment period and 7 day reply period, it means that an action is near, either a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or a Final Rulemaking.
KIDVID RULES EASED
On July 10th, the FCC adopted rules (FCC-19-67A1) that eased the requirements on the airing of children's programming on local TV stations. The new rules affect both the amount of hours of children's programming a station must air and the reports to the FCC on children's programming compliance.
The rule changes are as follows:
- A station must air 156 hours of children's programming a year with up to 13 hours of
it being able to be aired on a sub-channel.
- 26 hours of programming a quarter must air in the core regularly scheduled programming
block. Programs must be 30 minutes in length. Stations may air up to 52 hours of
children's programming, either specials and non-weekly scheduled programming at other
times as well as short programs and PSA's aimed at children.
- An extra hour is added by allowing required children's programming to start at 6 AM instead
of 7 AM. Required programming may not air past 10 PM.
- Preempted children's programming nay be aired within 7 days, and in some cases may not
be needed to be broadcast.
- Educational stations will not be required to use the E/I logo.
- Stations still are required to provide program guide information identifying children's
programming, but no longer need to provide age information.
- Programming information and commercial limits reports will now be yearly with the filings
due January 30th.
The biggest changes have to be the fact that there is not a requirement to air additional children's programming on sub-channels and the filing of the required FCC report yearly.
TV FREEZE LIFTED
On July 22, the FCC lifted a freeze (DA-19-684A1) on full power and class A TV stations that have not completed their transition to a repacked channel. Full power stations now can apply for an increase in their noise limited contour and class A stations can apply to increase their protected contour.
CABLE NOTIFACATIONS
The FCC issued a Notice of Rulemaking (FCC-19-68A1) on July 10th that would allow cable systems to notify TV stations by e-mail instead of paper notices of changes in station carriage such has channel changes, channel deletion, changes in headend and merging of cable systems where there is different must carry and retransmission contracts.
Also, the FCC adopted a Rulemaking (FCC-19-69A1) on July 10th that would allow TV stations to make their must carry or retransmission requests by e-mail. Both TV stations and cable and satellite providers must provide their e-mail addresses to parties involved. These rules would take effect during the next election cycle in 2020. Must carry and retransmission contracts run for there years.
Certification and Education
compiled by Jim Hermanson
Well Done!
Congratulations to Michael Travis for being recently certified as a Certified Radio Operator (CRO)!
The Open 2019 - 2020 Exam Schedule
| Exam Dates |
Location |
Application Deadline
(to SBE National Office) |
| October 18,2019 |
AES Convention in NYC |
September 10, 2019 |
| November 1-11, 2019 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
September 24, 2019 |
| February 7-17, 2020 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
December 31, 2019 |
| April 21, 2020 |
NAB Show in Las Vegas |
March 9, 2020 |
| June 5-15, 2020 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
April 17, 2020 |
| August 7-17, 2020 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
June 12, 2020 |
| November 6-16, 2020 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
September 21, 2020 |
What certifications am I eligible for? Click here
A reminder that each year, account balance permitting, Chapter 24 will reimburse half the application fee to any member of Chapter 24 in good standing who successfully obtains any SBE certification level not previously held by that member.
When you are ready to take an SBE exam, please fill out the appropriate application and send it into the SBE National office (see address below). You will be notified once your application has been approved. Approximately 3 weeks before the exam time, your local certification chairman will receive a list of applicants in his/her area. He/she will then contact those applicants to schedule a date, time and place for the exams. The exams will be mailed back to the National office for grading. The pass/fail grades will then be mailed directly to the applicants.
You may mail, email or fax your applications to:
Megan E. Clappe
Certification Director
9102 N. Meridian St.
Suite 150
Indianapolis, IN 46260
317-846-9120 Fax
mclappe@sbe.org
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August Webinar
Thursday, August 22, 2019
50 Tips for the Broadcast Technical Professional
With almost 30 years of experience and hundreds of transmitter site visits under his belt, presenter Jeff Welton, Nautel has seen a few things and will attempt to share some of the challenges he encounters most often in this webinar. The content will cover tips from the areas of grounding and lightning protection, safety, IT security and whatever else comes to mind, so there should be a bit of something for everyone in this fast-paced presentation.
Members $59, MemberPlus Members FREE and Non Members $89. Register Here.
Several On-Demand Webinars ranging from ATSC 3.0 to cybersecurity to networking to RF courses are available at https://www.sbe.org/sections/edu_seminars.php.
Views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), its officers, or its members. SBE Chapter 24, Inc. regrets, but is not liable for, any omissions or errors. Articles of interest to Chapter 24 members are accepted up to the close of business the 1st day of each month. Send your article to lcharles@sbe.org .
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