|
CHAPTER 24, Inc., MADISON, WI
|
Wednesday, June 12th
WBA Summer Engineering Workshop
There is no scheduled Chapter 24 monthly meeting in June. Instead members are urged to attend the WBA Summer Engineering Workshop in Elkhart Lake on June 12th. This Workshop is held in conjunction with the WBA Summer Conference which includes two days of activities at the Osthoff Resort. You can choose to attend a single day or both days. Take a look at the Engineering Day Agenda.
On Line registration is now closed but you can call the WBA (608-255-2600 or Toll Free 800-236-1922) to register. On site registration will also be available.
In addition the WBA Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be the evening of June 13th at the same site. Chapter 24's own Clif Groth is one of this year's inductees. Remember to check that box on the registration form if you plan to attend the banquet.
Last Meeting's Minutes
Submitted by Russ Awe, Secretary
May, 2019
On Thursday, May 23, 2019, Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers held their monthly meeting at the Wisconsin Public Broadcast Center in Madison. There were 11 members present, seven who hold SBE certification.
Chairman of the Nominations Committee Leonard Charles called the meeting to order at 7:03pm with the Chapter 24 election results from last month. Thanks to Kevin Ruppert and Andrew Kennedy of WISC TV for serving on the nominations committee to certify the results of this year's elections. Thanks to the 18 members who cast their electronic ballot this year.
Leonard Charles announced the Chapter 24 elected officers for the next year:
Chapter Chair: Britny Williams of Wisconsin Public Radio
Vice Chair: Mike Norton of Wisconsin Public Television
Secretary: Russ Awe of Wisconsin Public Television
Treasurer: Roy Henn of WIFS TV, Channel 57, Madison
These officers begin their duties at tonight's meeting. Congratulations to all and thanks for your service to the Chapter.
New Chapter Chair Britny Williams continued the meeting.
No corrections or additions were offered to the April meeting minutes as posted on the Chapter 24 eNews page, so on a motion by Tom Smith and a second by Pete Deets they were approved.
Treasurer Roy Henn reported three recurring membership deposits, so the Chapter 24 checking account balance has increased slightly.
Leonard Charles reminded the group that the deadline for Chapter 24 eNews articles is at close of business on Friday May 31st due to the first of the month being on a Saturday. Information or submissions should be emailed to lcharles@sbe.org. Anyone not receiving the eNews letter should send an email address to lcharles@sbe.org to be added to the distribution list.
As part of the election process, Leonard Charles solicitated a new membership list from National. Chapter 24 currently has 49 members. Sustaining Membership chair Fred Sperry sent a note that there are 14 sustaining member companies, with Alpha Video being the most recent renewal.
For upcoming programs, Britny Williams reviewed the current schedule: The June 12th program will be held in conjunction with the WBA Summer Engineering Day in Elkhart Lake. Tower maintenance by Tower MRL will be the topic at the July 25 meeting, and a tour of the rebuilt Wisconsin Public Radio studios has been shifted to September 26th leaving August 28th open. Please contact Britny with program ideas. October 16th is the WBA Clinic and SBE National meeting in Madison. Volunteers are being requested to run cameras for the SBE National meeting.
Certification and Education chair Jim Hermanson reported on a radio exam being given next month with coordination and availability of a conference room. Upcoming certification opportunities, with the next local exam window from August 2 - 12; the application deadline is June 3.
For local frequency coordination, Tom Smith said there was no recent activity to report. He did mention that there was a FCC Public Notice deadline of May 28 to certify that what C-band was registered last year is true and accurate. Expecting frequency coordination for the Fitness games and Trek bicycle events this summer.
Leonard Charles provided the SBE National report. There are two SBE webinars coming up in June.
June 12th - "Power Meter Accuracy and Management of Multiplex Over AES Standard," with Bob Tarsio of Broadcast Devices. It is the first of a two-part series.
June 26th - Module 2 of the three-part SBE series on ATSC 3.0 Networking. "Ethernet Switching" will be presented by Wayne Pecena, of Texas A&M University.
Both Webinars are free to SBE MemberPlus members. For traditional members, the cost is $59. It is $89 for non-members.
Input to the SBE Compensation Survey has been extended through Friday, May 24th. To complete the survey, go the SBE website and click on the survey icon. Results will be available in July, free to all SBE members.
The deadline for nominations for the SBE National Awards (individual and chapter) is June 14th. Winners will be recognized during the SBE National Meeting on October 16th in Madison at the Broadcasters Clinic. It would be a great time to have some winners from the Madison area.
There was no old business or new business brought forward.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:16pm following a motion by Pete Deets and second by Leonard Charles. The program that followed was by Dr. John C. Wright, Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Department of Chemistry on waves, resonances and lasers.
Amateur Radio News
compiled by Tom Weeden WJ9H
The Dayton Hamvention, hosting the 2019 ARRL National Convention, chalked up its third year at its new venue, the Greene County Fairgrounds and Expo Center in Xenia, Ohio. Amateur Radio's largest annual gathering took place May 17-19. Hamvention officials have not yet released a 2019 attendance figure, but last year's show drew 28,417 -- the third largest attendance ever. For many hams, Hamvention offers an opportunity each spring to renew old acquaintances and make new ones, and for manufacturers to debut their latest and greatest gear.
The former site of the Dayton Hamvention for more than six decades, the Hara Arena in suburban Trodwood, Ohio, was damaged on Memorial Day when tornadoes swept through the Dayton area.
Hams Help Trace "Mystery" Signal Disrupting Keyless Entry Devices in Ohio
A recent article in The New York Times reported that many garage door openers and keyless vehicle entry fobs in an Ohio town near Cleveland mysteriously stopped working. While the article invoked The X-Files and hinted initially that a NASA research center might be involved, the cause was not so much mystifying as arcane.
"Garage door repair people, local ham radio enthusiasts, and other volunteer investigators descended on the neighborhood with various meters," the May 4 article by Heather Murphy recounted. "Everyone agreed that something powerful was interfering with the radio frequency that many fobs rely on, but no one could identify the source."
More than a dozen residents reported intermittent issues getting their key fobs and garage door openers to operate, and most lived within a few blocks of each other. At one point, the local power utility started shutting off power to areas where the strongest RF signal was detected, but the signal persisted. Dan Dalessandro, WB8ZQH, a TV repairer, was among several hams who investigated. He initially picked up "little blips" on a signal detector, but finally, on one block and at a particular house, the signal was quite loud.
"The source of the problem was a homebrew, battery-operated device designed by a local resident to alert him if someone was upstairs when he was working in his basement," the Times reported. "It did so by turning off a light." The inventor, not identified for privacy concerns, had no malicious intent nor any inkling that his device was wreaking havoc on the neighborhood until a North Olmstead City Council member and a volunteer knocked on his door. The device operated on 315 MHz, the frequency many keyless-entry devices use under FCC Part 15 rules. The device's battery was removed, the signal stopped, and all who were involved breathed sighs of relief.
(Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League's arrl.org web site)
FCC NEWS
compiled by Tom Smith
NEW FM INTERFERENCE RULES
On May 9th, the FCC adopted a number of rules (FCC-19-40A1) to deal with interference issues between full power FM stations and FM
translators. With the increase in the number of FM translators, particularly those that provide
relief to AM stations reception issues, interference complaints have increased from listeners to
full power FM stations. Class A, Class C and LPFM stations are protected to their 60 dbu (1
millivolt) contours, Class B FM stations are protected to their 54 dbu (.5 millivolt) contour and
Class B1 stations are protected to their 57 dbu ( .7 millivolt), but as anyone who listens to FM
radio knows, stations are listenable beyond their protected contours. Listeners who listen to their
favorite station beyond the protected contour were receiving more interference because of many
of these new translators. Also, the protection zones from translators to full power stations is less
than that between full power stations.
In this notice, the FCC set a new signal contour for all full power and LPFM stations in which
they will accept interference complaints from the public in which the owners of translators will
have to correct. The FCC will entertain complaints from listeners within a stations 45 dbu (.177
millivolt). The FCC set a minimum number of complaints that a station needs in order to take
action starting with a minimum of 6 complaints for stations with 200,000 people or less in their
coverage area with one additional complaint per each additional 100,000 persons within their
coverage area. The maximum number of complaints required is 65 complaints for a station with
a population of 6 million persons or more within a stations coverage area. A LPFM station
requires 3 complaints to receive action on interference issues.
The FCC is requiring a person filing a complaint to give their name, address and phone
number, a clear, concise and accurate description of the location where the inference occurs,
listens to the station a least twice a month, and give a statement that they are not affiliated with
the station that is interfered with. They must also sign the complaint either physically or
electronically.
Translators currently can file an application for a minor change if they are moving to a first,
second or third adjacent channel. In the new rules, the FCC will consider the move to any open
channel as a minor change in order to correct interference issues. Translators moving to or from
either the reserved band (88.1 to 91.9 MHz) or the non-reserved band will still be considered a
major change. The full power station must also show that the translator exceeds certain desired
to un-desired signal ratios on its channel and adjacent channels and they are operating within
licensed parameters. Both the full power station and the translators must also take steps to find a
solution to the cause of the interference.
The 45 dbu contour is a more realistic average measurement of the actual coverage of a FM
station. Many good FM radios are able to produce usable reception beyond the 40 dbu (.1 millivolt)
contour while many clock and portable radios have poor reception a little beyond the protected
contours of most FM stations. The current coverage rules and protections were set when the
formal table of FM allocations was created in 1962 when FM receivers mostly used tubes and
there were fewer stations which could cause interference to each other.
FCC TAKING ATSC 3.0 APPLICATIONS
On may 23rd, the FCC announced (DA-19-453A1)
that they will start to accept applications for TV stations to start operation using the ATSC 3.0
standards. The FCC has revised TV application form 2100 and started taking applications on
May 28th. Stations must file when they wish to start ATSC 3.0 operation either on their channel
or sharing with another station, when selecting a station to share ATSC 1.0 operation and when
and if they wish to cease any ATSC 3.0 operation or any ATSC 3.0 or ATSC 1.0 sharing.
FCC SEEKS MORE C-BAND COMMENTS
On May 3rd, the FCC asked for more comment on transitioning the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz C-band for
wireless broadband use. The notice (DA-19-385A1)
asked for comments on interference protection rights for both space stations (satellites) and earth
station operators. The two questions that the FCC asked are as follows.
1. What are the enforceable interference protection rights, if any, granted to space station
operators against co-primary terrestrial operations? Do those rights depend on the
extent incumbent earth stations receive their transmissions within the United States? And what
limits, if any, does section 316 of the Act place on the proposals raised by the
Commission in the Notice or by the commenter's in this docket?
2. What are the enforceable interference protection rights granted to licensed or
registered receive-only earth station operators against co-primary terrestrial operations? What
obligations does section 316 of the Act place on the Commission vis-à-vis licensed or
registered receive-only earth station operators? Are registered receive-only earth
station operators eligible to voluntarily relinquish their rights to protection from
harmful interference in the reverse phase of an incentive auction because they qualify as
"licenses" under § 309(j)(8)(G)? Does the Commission have other statutory authorities
that would enable it to authorize payments to such earth stations to induce them to
modify or relocate their facilities?
The notice further explains what the FCC is seeking with its questions. By asking for more
information, the final decision on allocating the C-band spectrum will be a little further off,
which gives a little more time before C-band users have to possibly seek alternative program
delivery methods.
RATINGS REPORT RELEASED
On May 16th, the FCC released a report (DA-19-423A1) on the TV ratings system. After a discussion on the operation of the ratings system
and the board the does the ratings, the FCC made its suggestions. Various public interest groups
noted a number of examples of programs were the ratings were not suitable for the program. In
many cases a program was rated for a younger audience than the program was suitable for.
Sometimes a program had a different rating from when it was first broadcast and when it was
syndicated. The interest groups also noted that the board that manages the rating service was
difficult to contact. The FCC noted it did not even have its phone number on its website. The
FCC made a number of suggestions for the TV Oversight Board to become more transparent
including increasing its outreach, issuing a yearly report including the number of complaints
received and their content and have one yearly public meeting. The other issue in the report is
the accuracy of the ratings. The FCC was not able to determine the accuracy of the ratings
systems, but suggested that the board do periodic audits of the ratings that programs received.
Certification and Education
compiled by Jim Hermanson
The Open 2019 Exam Schedule
| Exam Dates |
Location |
Application Deadline
(to SBE National Office) |
| August 2-12, 2019 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
June 3, 2019 |
| November 1-11, 2019 |
Local Chapters (Madison Area) |
September 24, 2019 |
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
|
ATSC 3.0 Specialist Study Resources
During the Membership Meeting held during the NAB Show, Certification Chairman, Ralph Hogan mentioned that the areas of study have been compiled for the new ATSC 3.0 Specialist. Those areas are below.
Updates/Changes will be listed on the SBE website. The new specialist certification is still in the creation process, but should be available later this year. In order to apply to take a specialist exam, you must first hold an SBE 5, 10 or 20 year certification.
A/300:2017, "ATSC 3.0 System"
A/321:2016, "System Discovery and Signaling"
A/322:2018, "Physical Layer Protocol"
A/324:2018, "Scheduler / Studio to Transmitter Link"
A/327:2018, "Physical-Layer"-Recommended Practice
A/330:2018, "Link Layer Protocol"
A/331:2018, "Signaling, Synchronization, Delivery and Error Protection"
A/360:2018, "ATSC 3.0 Security and Service Protection"
If you have any questions contact Certification Director Megan Clappe.
June / July Webinars
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Power Meter Accuracy and Management of Multiplex Over AES Standard
Bob Tarsio, cofounder, President and CEO of Broadcast Devices presents this webinar that covers RF Power Measurements and Factors that Impact Accuracy and Multiplex over AES Switching, Distribution and Careful Cable Management. Calibration issues will be discussed as well as directional coupler characteristics needed for accurate power and VSWR measurements. In the second part, Multiplex over AES Switching, Distribution and Careful Cable Management will be covered. The discussion will include issues arising out of the new standard include proper choice of cables and terminations when managing AES over Multiplex in a transmitter plant.
Members $59. MemberPlus Members FREE and Non-Members $89. Register Here.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
ATSC 3.0 Networking: Module 2: Ethernet Switching
Wayne Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE presents Module 2 of this multi-part webinar series that will provide a foundation in networking technology utilized in an ATSC 3.0 infrastructure. In Module 2, ethernet switching will be discussed in depth to include network architecture design for performance and security use of VLANs to provide network traffic isolation. ATSC 3.0 promises to revolutionize the television broadcast industry with integration of traditional over-the-air (OTA) signals and broadband delivered IP content.
Members $59, MemberPlus Members FREE and Non Members $89. Register Here.
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
ATSC 3.0 Networking: Module 3: IP Routing
Module 3 completes the ATSC 3.0 Networking Series presented by Wayne Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE. In this final Module, IP Routing, secure remote access and security best practices to ensure reliable system operation and ongoing support capability will be discussed. ATSC 3.0 promises to revolutionize the television broadcast industry with integration of traditional over-the-air (OTA) signals and broadband delivered IP content.
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.
Recertification Credits for SBE WEBxtra
For those holding SBE certification, viewing the SBE WEBxtra qualifies for 0.5 points in category G (attendance), just like attending a local chapter meeting.
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 .
|
