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CHAPTER 24, Inc., MADISON, WI
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Monthly eNews
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December 2021
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December Meeting Canceled
Due to COVID we will not get together for our annual Holiday Dinner. Our December meeting is canceled. Enjoy the Holidays with your loved ones, we will resume monthly meetings in January.
Last Meeting's Minutes
Submitted by Mike Travis, Secretary
The SBE Chapter 24 meeting was called to order by Matt Mommaerts at 07:00pm, November 18th, 2021 via Zoom.
Approval of Minutes
Michael Travis made a motion to approve the secretary meeting minutes from 10/27/2021, seconded by Matt Mommaerts and approved as submitted.
Treasurer's Report
Mike Norton, as Chapter Treasurer, reports there was one sustaining membership check received in November, from Heartland Video Systems. Following that deposit the Chapter 24 checking account balance is [well in the black].
Sustaining Member Chair
Fred Sperry was unavailable but Matt Mommaerts reports we have one renewal from Heartland Video Systems. We have 11 sustaining members.
Chapter Newsletter
The deadline for articles for the November eNewsletter is Wednesday, December 1st at 5pm. Please forward any article of interest to Chapter members to Lcharles@sbe.org.
SBE National News
There are three Ennes workshops already on the 2022 calendar. Locations are South Carolina, Michigan, and Louisiana. They are working with Texas, Mississippi, and Minnesota as possible additional sites next year. Cathy Orosz is the person to contact if there is interest in hosting an Ennes workshop.
Enrollment in the SBE Mentoring Program is creating a need for additional mentors. Please consider becoming a mentor in 2022. Contact Education Director Cathy Orosz if you are interested.
Membership Report
For the membership report, Matt Mommaerts and Leonard Charles report that we stand at 48 official members of the National SBE assigned to Chapter 24.
Program Committee
We have virtual meetings through April. We believe the consensus is leaning towards having an informal virtual meeting for December.
Certification and Education
With certifications and education, Jim Hermanson reports the 2021 certifications are closed for the year and the 2022 exam schedule is now open. The next exam session is February 4th - 14th, 2022. January 3rd, 2022 is the deadline to sign-up for that exam session. There is a webinar on December 9th at 1pm for "SIP Series, Module 4: EBU/3326 Guidelines and Requirements". There will be an end-to-end walkthrough on connecting two different codecs. There is a webinar on December 16th at 2pm for "Staying Compliant: Lighting Considerations for Your Tower".
Frequency Coordination
Tom Smith, with frequency coordination, has nothing to report.
Professional or General Announcements
Pete Deets reports that he is retiring December 31st from Channel 15. WMTV is looking for a full-time maintenance engineer.
Adjournment
Leonard Charles made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Pete Deets. Meeting adjourned at 7:11pm.
Presentation
The meeting was followed by a presentation on "AoIP and Remote Mixing" by Rob Lewis from Calrec. Thank you Rob! Check out Calrec's products and solutions at https://calrec.com/.
Search for a new Sustaining Membership Chair
Coming Down to the Wire!
Your current Sustaining Membership Chair is retiring at the end of the year and after 25 years in the position is looking for another Chapter member to take over the post. The workload for this position is minimal only requiring minutes of your time each month and is a great way to be involved in Chapter 24. Tasks involve sending out renewal notices to existing sustaining members of Chapter 24, sending application materials to prospective sustaining members, forwarding the received payments to the Chapter 24 Treasurer and providing announcements of new members and renewals at chapter meetings. All the necessary paperwork to do these tasks have already been created.
If you are interested in taking over this position, please contact Chapter Chair Matt Mommaerts or current Sustaining Membership Chair Fred Sperry.
Thank you for your consideration!
Job Opening: WKOW TV
Part Time Master Control Operator
For information Click Here
Program Ideas Appreciated
The Chapter 24 meeting schedule is available here. If you have any suggestions for program topics you'd like to see, or if there is a topic that you'd like to present at an upcoming meeting, please contact Matt Mommaerts or one of the Chapter 24 officers for consideration.
Amateur Radio News
Compiled by Tom Weeden, WJ9H
Russia's Destruction of an Orbiting Satellite Raises Space Debris Concerns
Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon on November 15, destroying one of its own old and defunct satellites, Kosmos 1408. Its destruction generated a debris field in Earth orbit that prompted the seven International Space Station crew members, including one Russian cosmonaut, to take cover in their crew capsules for several hours, in case they had to abandon the station. The incident also has generated criticism from many corners and a grave discussion on the possible impact of any future such tests, by Russia or anyone else.
Very small debris in space is essentially impossible to track reliably, if at all. The incident also comes at a time when the number of spacecraft in Earth orbit continues to grow. Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) President Robert Bankston, KE4AL, said that Russia's action will pose a threat to all activities in low Earth orbit for years to come, placing satellites and human spaceflight missions at risk. Bankston said. "While space stations have the capability to move out of the way, with sufficient notice, most satellites in low Earth orbit, including those designed, built, launched, and operated by AMSAT, do not. As such, they face greater risk of catastrophic destruction or degraded mission functionality, if struck by fragments from Russia's destruction of Kosmos-1408."
The FCC has orbital debris rules for communications satellites that date back to 2004, when the FCC adopted requirements affecting not only Parts 5 (experimental) and 25 (communications satellites) rules, but also Part 97 Amateur Service rules. The FCC has made it clear that orbital debris rules apply to amateur radio satellites, in general requiring submission of an orbital debris mitigation plan with each license application.
AREx Says Artemis 2 Proposal Process was Instructive
Last November, NASA called for proposal submissions to document the story of the upcoming Artemis 2 mission to the moon. Amateur Radio Exploration (AREx), a joint initiative of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) and AMSAT, submitted its plan to fly hardware and cameras on the lunar mission. Although NASA did not select the AREx proposal, ARISS-USA Executive Director Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, found a silver lining in the whole process. Bauer said the AREx team "learned a great deal in the development of the proposal" and was able to significantly refine its lunar payload design into a concept that can now meet Lunar Gateway payload requirements. Bauer said, "What we did learn was that we could develop a hardware concept that can meet the volume, mass, and power requirements of Gateway, and that we could develop an antenna scheme that would not require an antenna-pointing system and still have some decent gain toward Earth."
When NASA next returns astronauts to the moon, National Geographic cameras will document the historic space mission, in order to share it with the public. On October 29, NASA announced its selection of the exploration-focused media company to assist in telling the story of Artemis 2. Like Apollo 8, Artemis 2 will be the first planned human spaceflight mission in more than 50 years to orbit the moon and return to Earth.
(Excerpts from the American Radio Relay League's arrl.org web site)
FCC NEWS
compiled by Tom Smith
TV Licenses to be Auctioned
On November 19th, the FCC released a notice (DA-21-1444A1) for comments on rules and procedures for the auctioning of 27 licenses (DA-21-1444A2) for new TV stations. These licenses would be for existing open or new TV channel allocations. As the recent updating of the TV allocation table in October which included only stations existing when the base Incentive Auction channel listing was made, the existing open allocations would be for channels that either forfeited or were not renewed. There are some new allocations made since the FCC lifted the freeze on new allocations and opened the allocation process in November of 2020 to new and replacement channels and station upgrades. There are three open channels that affect Wisconsin; a new channel 9 in Freeport, ILL, a new channel 26 in Eagle River, WI and previously existing channel 31 in Wittenberg, WI which was previously occupied by the former Wausau FOX affiliate. Gray Broadcasting bought the rights to the stations programming including the Fox affiliation and the station's owners turned in the license a few months before the Incentive Auction began. The Freeport and Wittenberg licenses have a minimum bid of $500,000 along with two other licenses and the Eagle River license has a minimum bid of $200,000 as with the rest of the licenses. There is one channel which is for a channel 15 license in Syracuse, NY that has a minimum bid of $1,000,000. Comments are due on December 13th with replies due on December 23rd.
Computer Modeling of FM Antennas
The FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC-21-117A1) proposing to allow FM broadcasters to verify the pattern of a directional FM antenna by computer modeling rather than requiring physical modeling or measurements of the antennas pattern. Currently, an antenna either has to be tested on a test range by placing it on a turntable and rotating it while feeding it a signal on its licensed frequency and measuring radiated strength at different angles. It has become more common to use a small model of the antenna built for a higher frequency and test it in a chamber that shields the test from outside signals. In the proposed rulemaking, the FCC asks for information on the standards for computer modeling and if only certain software should be allowed, experience between current software and any measurements on past antenna installations and possible measurements that may be required when a new FM directional antenna is placed in service. Computer modeling is already allowed for TV antennas and for AM directional systems using the Methods of Moment modeling with some limitations. On November 30th, the FCC announced a comment period ending December 30th with replies due on January 13, 2022.
ATSC 3 Transition Licensing
On November 4th, the FCC issued a Further Notice Of Rulemaking (FCC-21-116A1) that would clarify the relationship between host and guest stations during the ATSC 3 transition. Stations must share channels in order to provide both an ATSC 1 and ATSC 3 signal during a five year transition. Some stations are having issues when converting to ATSC 3 due to possible liability issues for the host station that is carrying guest stations programming. They are concerned that they could be held responsible for any issue that arise from a guest station's broadcast. Currently stations are operating under Special Temporary Authority and contracts between the stations to share channels. The NAB asked the FCC for clarification on liability and proposed that the guest stations could be licensed under a separate license as an extension of its license for its own channel. This would be similar to the license of a station that gave up its channel in the Incentive Auction and elected to share with another station. It retained its license to broadcast as a separate channel, but no longer had its own frequency to broadcast on and is considered a separate station even though it operates on another stations channel and the host station has no liability for the actions of the guest station. Guest stations would still have to follow the same rules as it does on its main channel such as with children's programming. The FCC has proposed to allow for the extended licensing of both the main and sub-channels between host and guest stations to prevent the loss of current viewing options by the public. Stations would also be allowed to air their current ATSC 1 sub-channels as guests on another station's channel even without carrying them on their ATSC 3 channel. That is the case in most markets now, one or two stations are ATSC 3 and carry the other stations main channels in ATSC 3 while sub-channels are guests on multiple ATSC 1 host stations. The notice also asks comments for possible loopholes that could allow for a station to get around ownership rules including network carriage and gaining new TV spectrum in a market.
There is a 60 comment period followed by 30 days for replies.
Certification and Education
compiled by Jim Hermanson
The next certification exam window in the Madison area is February 4-14, 2022. If you wish to take an exam then, please send your completed application materials and fee to the National office by January 3, 2022.
The Open 2022 Exam Schedule
| Exam Dates |
Location |
Application Deadline
(to SBE National Office) |
February 4-14, 2022
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Local Chapters (Madison Area)
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January 3, 2022
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June 3-13, 2022
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Local Chapters (Madison Area)
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April 15, 2022
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August 5-15, 2022
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Local Chapters (Madison Area)
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June 10, 2022
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November 4-14, 2022
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Local Chapters (Madison Area)
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September 9, 2022
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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. Contact the SBE Chapter 24 chairperson or certification chairperson for more information.
When you are ready to take an SBE exam, note the open exam schedule, complete the appropriate application (found here... http://www.sbe.org/applications) and send it directly to the SBE National office (see address below) with the respective fee. You will be notified once your application is approved. Your local certification chairman will receive a list of applicants and exams in his/her chapter and arrange for a proctor. He/she will then contact applicants to schedule a mutually agreeable date, time, and place for the exam(s) within the respective exam date window. This must be coordinated before the exam will be sent by SBE National. Completed exam(s) will be mailed back to SBE National for grading. Pass/fail results will be mailed directly to the applicants within approximately six weeks.
The majority of SBE certifications are open book and access to the Internet is allowed to give a more "real world" situation.
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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To apply for a specialist certification, an individual must currently hold certification on the Broadcast Engineer, Senior Broadcast Engineer, Professional Broadcast Engineer or Broadcast Networking Engineer Certification level. Exams must be completed within three hours and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions (two points each) and one essay question (20 points maximum). Examinees are provided one essay question to answer. Exams are pass/fail, and a score of 84 is a passing grade.
SBE Certified Logo
If you hold a valid SBE Certification, you are authorized to display the SBE Certified logo on your business cards, letterhead, resume, website and email signature. For the proper use of this logo and to download please visit the Press Logo page.
December Webinars
SIP Series, Module 4: EBU/3326 Guidelines and Requirements
December 9, 2021 | 1 p.m. CT
Module 4 of the SIP Series provides an overview of the SIP protocol when working with Audio IP Codecs (N/ACIP - Network/Audio Contribution over IP links). It will also provide an overview of the EBU 3326 regulation and discuss why this standard is important to broadcasters. We will outline some of the key similarities and differences you will see when working with SIP for VoIP versus using SIP for AoIP. The presentation provides real-world examples of broadcasters using SIP for connectivity. As a bonus, this module will show you a short end-to-end walk-through of easily connecting two different brand codecs together.
Your Instructor
Jacob Daniluck, Technical Services, Tieline: The Codec Company
Jacob Daniluck is a part of the Technical Sales Staff at Tieline: The Codec Company. He has been with Tieline for more than 10 years and has been in the broadcasting industry for more than 15 years. Jacob has worked with stations throughout the world on building network contribution links for small market to global market companies.
SBE Recertification Credit
The completion of a Webinar from Webinars by SBE qualifies for 1 credit, identified under Category I of the Recertification Schedule for SBE Certifications.
Registration and Pricing
This webinar will be approximately 90 minutes long.
SBE Members: $62
MemberPlus Members FREE
Non-Members: $92
Register Here
Questions?
If you have questions regarding this course, contact Cathy Orosz via email or by phone at 317-846-9000.
Staying Compliant: Lighting Considerations for Your Tower
December 16, 2021 | 1 p.m. CT
A special THANK YOU to Drake Lighting for sponsoring this FREE Webinar
It's easy to get lost in all the rules and regulations pertaining to tower marking/lighting. This presentation will take engineers through a refresher on tower marking/lighting regulations, cost saving options that also reduce migratory bird issues, and working with the FAA and FCC.
We will pay special attention to the FAA compliance for broadcasting towers and the refiling process for any tower you may have in question. The obstruction lighting experts at Drake Lighting want you to walk away from this seminar equipped with knowledge to help you navigate the ever-changing world of obstruction lighting.
Your Instructor
Jacob Young, Director of Sales, Drake Lighting
Jacob Young is Drake Lighting's go to professional in FAA tower regulations and how it relates to obstruction lighting. Over the past five years he has learned the FAA circulars to help clients determine the best solutions for their obstruction lighting needs. Drake Lighting is a proud sustaining member of the SBE and continues to help broadcast engineers determine the right light for their FAA determination.
SBE Recertification Credit
The completion of a Webinar from Webinars by SBE qualifies for 1 credit, identified under Category I of the Recertification Schedule for SBE Certifications.
Registration and Pricing
This webinar will be approximately 90 minutes long.
SBE Members: FREE
MemberPlus Members FREE
Non-Members: FREE
Register Here
Questions?
If you have questions regarding this course, contact Cathy Orosz via email or by phone at 317-846-9000.
More information about registering using the SBE MemberPlus benefit
All SBE webinars are included at no additional cost for members who renew or join using the $175 SBE Member Plus membership option. Through this option you get access to all SBE webinars for no extra cost. Members can renew and newcomers may join online at the SBE website using the SBE MemberPlus option.
Access to the SBE webinars through the SBE MemberPlus program is limited to the MemberPlus-purchaser only. You are not permitted to distribute, sell, copy, share, project or otherwise make the webinars available to any other individual or group without express written permission by the SBE.
Several state-of-the-art radio, TV, multimedia, and IT engineering training is available through this page...
http://sbe.org/education/webinars-by-sbe/on-demand-webinars/
More information on SBE Education Programs is available here...
http://www.sbe.org/education/
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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