Society of Broadcast Engineers

Chapter 16, Seattle, WA

(Titles are links, clicking on the title will take you to the article)

From the Chair
Jim Dalke

The big news in September:  vandals topple two of the new KRKO antennas.  Tough to take after  nine years of Andy Skotdal’s persistent and costly effort to get them up and operating last year.

Andy’s engineer Buzz Anderson got an alarm at 3 am indicating a phase problem at the transmitter.  Unable to correct the problem remotely, Buzz headed to the site and noticed the single tower light on the 350 foot main tower was off.  As he got closer, it became apparent the problem was more serious as he saw flashing red and blue lights and spotlights trained on the massive tower sprawled horizontally on the ground.

Buzz called Andy when it became apparent a major catastrophe had happened.  When Andy answered the phone, he feared it was news about his father, who was scheduled for open-heart surgery later in the day.

Transmitter operations were transferred to the old KRKO transmitter facility near Everett.
Before the morning was over, more than a dozen federal agents were scouring the site for clues.  A sign on a fence had a crude ELF spray painted on it.  Was the vandal a disgruntled local protester or something more sinister?

As the investigation to find the culprit continues, Andy has

returned operation to the new site using the two remaining towers under an STA.  Construction is underway to replace the downed towers as well as installing two new towers to allow operation of the new diplexed 1520 transmitter that will share the site with KRKO on 1380.

September 29, KKHJ, primary station in the American Samoan EAS system sent out two EAS alerts following the 8.3 earthquake hitting the area, one immediately following the quake and the second when the water in Pago Harbor started to rise.  The ensuing tsunami generated alerts around the Pacific.  The station went off the air soon after, but was able to return to the air with the arrival of an emergency generator.

Two new FM enabled portable mp3 music players made their debut in September, the new Apple iPod Nano and Microsoft’s competing player, the upgraded Zune.

The Nano features an FM tuner that allows the listener to record and playback music from FM stations, see the song titles in the RDS display, and the ability to “tag” tunes for downloading.

The Zune has an HD tuner built in, allowing reception of the many HD2 and HD3 offerings off-the-air.

It will be interesting to see if these new players will bring new listeners to the broadcast market.

SBE 16 Luncheon Meeting Minutes
September 10, 2009

The September Luncheon was held at the Newport Bay Restaurant in Kirkland.
Jim Dalke conducted a brief business meeting.  There were 15 members and guests in attendance.
Jim gave a brief up-date on the KRKO antenna damage September 4.  Jim showed some of his pictures showing the damage at the Snohomish transmitter site.
Our guest speaker was Mike Uhl of Telos and Omnia Systems.  Mike showed pictures of the Mount Wilson fire before his presentation.
Mike spoke about the latest developments in audio over IP transport networks and managed networks.
BSW hosted the luncheon and the food and service were excellent.

Well, Summer has come to an end and it’s time to again consider some new challenges for the Fall. Specialty Certifications demonstrate that special and unique knowledge and skills are part of your technical resume. Consider the following…

Specialist Certifications

To establish a benchmark of individual strengths, the National Certification Committee created the concept of Specialist Certifications. To apply for a specialist certification, you must currently hold certification on the Broadcast Engineer, Senior Broadcast Engineer or Professional Broadcast Engineer Certification level. Exams are three hours and consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. One essay-type question will be selected for each designation. Each essay question is worth 20 points.
Certified 8-VSB Specialist (8-VSB)
The SBE Program of Certification designed the 8-VSB Specialist Certification to help evaluate an individual’s ability to perform the necessary tasks to keep facilities operating properly. The exam will cover these areas of competency: transport stream, audio (AC-3), video (MPEG-2), PSIP, DTV standards documents and transmission systems.
Certified AM Directional Specialist (AMD)
The SBE Program of Certification designed the AM Directional Specialist Certification to help evaluate an individual’s ability to perform the necessary tasks to keep facilities operating properly. AM radio stations can operate as non-directional with a single tower or directional using more than one tower. While both require knowledge and skill to maintain in proper working order, the directional antenna system involves a higher degree of skill and understanding of RF theory.
The exam will cover the operation, maintenance and repair of a directional antenna system. These are the tasks common to the station engineer charged with maintaining these systems. The exam will also gauge a person’s knowledge of AM radiators, understanding of the principles of phase addition and cancellation, familiarity with the various components used in a directional antenna system, and ability to correctly make necessary measurements and take proper procedures to make repairs and adjustments to the system. In addition, the exam will cover the FCC rules concerning directional operation, test equipment and safety procedures.
Certified Digital Radio Broadcast Specialist (DRB)
The SBE Program of Certification designed the Digital Radio Broadcast Specialist Certification to help evaluate an individual’s ability to perform the necessary tasks to build and keep facilities operating properly. It will qualify an individual's knowledge of digital radio broadcasting including audio processing, studio-to-transmitter links and transmission of multi-channel digital program streams.
The specialist exam will include knowledge of  importers, exporters, the various methods of combining analog and digital transmitters to antenna systems, delivery of digital audio signals and data to transmitter sites, transmitter emission mask measurements, AM and FM FCC rules, monitoring of digital signals and bandwidth requirements for AM antenna systems.

Dates to Remember in 2009
Certification Application Deadlines:

December 31,2009      @Local Chapters        Test Date: February 5-15, 2010
March 26, 2010           @NAB                        Test Date: April 13, 2010
April 16, 2010             @Local Chapters        Test Date: June 4-14, 2010
June 4, 2010                @Local Chapters        Test Date: August 6-16,2010
September 17,2010     @Local Chapters        Test Date: November 5-15,2010

     CERTIFICATION OBJECTIVES
   To raise the professional status of broadcast engineers by providing standards of professional competence in the practice of broadcasting engineering. To recognize those individuals who, by fulfilling the requirements of knowledge, experience, responsibility, and conduct, meet those standards of professional competence. To encourage broadcast engineers to continue their professional development.

For more information and/or application forms please feel free to contact Michael Scott, CPBE.
E-Mail okscott@halcyon.com ; Voice (253) 680-7756 ; FAX (253) 845-5882

Clay’s Corner for October 2009

Due to the confluence of a number of events….For the first time in, I can’t recall when, I am late getting this column off to those that get it to you….for this, I apologize.  

And what are those events?

time to Columbia County from a 5100 foot location where we set up two stations (One Phone and one CW) 7 antennas, a wireless network using high gain antennas, multiple computers, transceivers and about a thousand feet of rope and coax.  We roughed it…except for the porta-potty that we rented and I hauled over and back.  If you are not a Ham you probably don’t quite understand this….Don’t feel bad, as a lot of Ham’s don’t either.   There are those that are into contesting and then there are the rest.
Last year we got the top score in the state, from neighboring Garfield County, and preliminary information indicates with did it again.  This event is administrated by the Western Washington DX Club in Seattle.  You can check out their web-site for more info.

The second event – I suddenly found out that I, quickly, needed to move my workshop from a little building on Cougar Mt, where it’s been for the last 5 years, back to Auburn.  This is no small task for a pack-rat and collector of perfectly good parts that someone might want to use someday.

damage to what’s left…..and - Do it now.    We are investigating the possibility of elevating the transmitter building by about 8 feet to save the expensive stuff from high-water.  At this writing, it’s not clear what the owners will do.  They did recently receive permission to operate 1210, at night, from the Day Site (at SR 18 & 167 in Auburn) with very low power.   Had the dam not have been built, 1210 would have a transmitter site like KRKO in Everett with everything on stilts.   Should the worst take place….A Pineapple Express dumping a foot of rainfall in the area, the damage to the Valley north to Renton is going to be huge as the Dam has no choice but let the water flow through.   Yes the Army Corps is frantically trying to make temporary repairs, but they cannot be tested until next spring.   Yikes !

On Monday, Oct 5th…I’m off to my final SBE Board of Directors Meeting in Verona, N.Y.  (East of Syracuse).  Am flying into Rochester and will be traveling with the Entercom Chief there, Joe Fleming, to the Chapter 22 Convention and meetings. 
Not only am I leaving the Board but will be ending my 10 year run as chair of the Society’s EAS Committee.  Taking over that job will be Ralph Beaver and boy is stepping in at an interesting time.   FEMA continues to wrestle or, perhaps, struggle, with putting this all together.  Meanwhile the GAO is out with very critical report on how the process is going.   Early on in this process, I went to Washington to try and find out what the Fed’s view was for what is not called – Next-Gen-EAS – and to determine how SBE could be helpful in the process.  Slowly FEMA has shown increased interest in making this all work (Reference FEMA’s presentation at SBE’s EAS Meeting in Las Vegas in April).  More recently, the Agency has come to SBE asking for assistance.    I will likely remain a member of the Committee, but due to the level of activity increasing, it’s a nice time to bow out of the chairman’s job.    At least, for a while, I will remain Chair of the Washington State EAS group, the SECC.

On the local scene – The investigation continues into the destruction of the towers at KRKO this past month with a track-hoe.    Recent news reports continue to deal with the linkage of the ELF in the matter.   I just hope that we can report on actual arrests.   Meanwhile the process to replace the towers is underway.    One (nameless) broadcast engineer submitted the following though – 

AM radio causes health issues like flies cause garbage…These folks need to loosen up their tinfoil hats its restricting the blood flow to their brains..

About the same time as the towers came down at KRKO, a 350 foot tower belonging to Clear Channel was cut down in Pennsylvania at a Clear Channel Station.  Investigators are not sure if these two events were related.

Interesting to hear about the recent debate at on the other coast about distracted drivers put texting in the same category as women putting on makeup while behind the wheel.  The ARRL (organization of Amateur Radio Operators), perhaps feeling a threat to mobile operation of Ham gear is letting it be known they will fight for the rights.   In our state, with it’s ‘secondary offense’ status – I still see a huge number of cell phones in use by drivers everyday.   Now if they would just put the phone down and turn on their car radio……..!

The economic picture remains painful – Here are some selected items –

Entercom, owner of 4 FM’s in Seattle, has elected to sell some of it’s non core assets to raise capital.

KING-FM has laid off a number of staffers and shifted to voice-tracking. (formally called Automation) to save money.  Recent pieces in the Seattle media have explained the rocky road ahead for our areas classical music station.   Perhaps the change to PPM has been a factor here as the ratings for the station appear to be much lower with the new measurement system.

Westwood One employees will be losing 10 days of pay this

year under a cost cutting plan announced….The bad news was tempered by the announcement that employees will get 5 additional vacation days next year.   Obviously they are betting on improving conditions.

So how does 2010 look ?   Ask 10 experts and get 10 different answers.   Perhaps the good news is that at least some of them are predicting things improving.

One bright spot…All the money being spend on spots advocating something in the health-car debate (reported to be about 100 Million) .  Guess it would be wrong to think that this money should have been spent on health care?  

Looking at some recent local FCC Activity – KUSE-LD (Ch 46 at West Tiger) has been granted a mod of their license.  KMCQ (104.5) has been granted a CP to move their transmitter to Cougar Mt

I recently received a nice email from Larry Powers who reads this column on the NW Broadcasters web-site.   Larry lives West of Pasco and was responding to my comments about possible TV interference from the windmills in the area.   According to Larry, the answer is no-problem.   Thanks Larry !

A lot attention was paid to the Station Fire in LA this past month as it threatened the Radio and TV transmitter installations on Mt Wilson.  Apparently due to the hard work of the firemen in that area the site was, thankfully, saved.    I found it interesting how this story was being followed by so many across the country.   We have the potential for something similar in this area at West Tiger.  This site has grown to a large number of FM and TV operations that could be threatened with a summer weather like we had this year.  All it would take would be some num-skull tossing a cigarette out a window along I-90 and a fire could roar up the North flank of Tiger.  With no roads on that side, fire fighting would be restricted to air-drops.  Meanwhile, several of the sites on top have no clearance between the forest and the structures.  I tried to make some ‘noise’ about this, but interest was minimal.   We have a lot of ‘it can’t happen here’ thinking.

So how big is the national TV Audience?  According to Neilsen the answer is 114.9 million, that’s up some 400,000 this year.

You may have read about the decline in Honey-Bees.  According to a recent study the cause may be NIER from cell towers and users.     Hmmmm ?   I can tell you that NIER from AM and FM stations is not the culprit.  Bees have historically loved transmitter sites.

Arbitron is setting up shop across the border with news that they are moving forward with a nationwide rollout of the technology in Canada.

Here’s a story that had to send a message to the FCC – The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recently presented a certificate of outstanding service to a pirate (un-licensed) station operating on 87.9.    No word on whether the FCC sent a team in to check all the radio equipment and licenses held by the city.   Something for Michele Ellison to do as she takes the helm of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau.

October is the official date for when AM Stations can begin re-broadcasting their signals on FM Translators.   Not much of a chance for this in the Seattle area as the FM band is more than full.

SBE’s elections are final and in the event you did not see the results – Here they are –
President: Vincent Lopez, CEV CBNT, Director of Engineering, WSYT-TV, WNYS-TV – Sinclair Broadcast Group, Syracuse, N.Y.
Vice President: Ralph Hogan, CPBE DRB CBNT, Director of Engineering, KJZZ-FM/KBAQ-FM, Tempe, Ariz.
Secretary: Ted Hand, CPBE AMD 8-VSB, Chief Engineer, WSOC-TV, WAXN-TV, Charlotte, N.C.
Treasurer: Andrea Cummis, CBT CTO, Consultant and Project Manager, Media Project Partners, Roseland, N.J.
Elected to two-year terms on the Board of Directors were:
Mark Heller, CBRE CTO, President, General Manager, and Chief Engineer, WTRW Incorporated/WGBW Radio Station, Two Rivers, Wis.
James E. Leifer, CPBE, Director of Engineering and IT, Clear Channel Communications, West Palm Beach, Fla.
Jerry Massey, CPBE DRB AMD 8-VSB CBNT, Corporate Regional Engineer, Southeast, Entercom Communications, Inc., Greenville, S.C.
David Priester, CPBE, Director of Technical Operations, Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, Ithaca, N.Y.
Christopher H. Scherer, CPBE CBNT, Editor, Radio magazine, Overland Park, Kan.
Joe Snelson, CPBE, Director of Engineering, Meredith Broadcasting Group, Henderson, Nev.

Here’s a keeper –  You can't stay young forever ... But you can be immature for the rest of your life !!!!

Radio folks were elated recently with the news that the new Apple iPod nano will have a built in FM tuner in one model including Tagging.  This again proves the relationship between the providers of new music and radio.   Getting FM Receivers in Cell Phones is being pushed by NAB.

I have been openly wondering for some time what radio is going to really do with all those HD-2 and HD-3 channels instead of filling them with lame programming.   Sports teams are a possibility.   News is that the Dallas Cowboys and a team in Pittsburgh may be willing to do their own thing on a local HD Channel.    In this area with two large AM’s doing sports we are not likely to see this happen.

Signs of the times…On October First – I received my first Christmas catalog for Craftsmen Tools in the mail.   Geeesh – Christmas already?

Well folks, I am going to leave it with this for this time – Til next month

Clay, CPBE, K7CR