Society of Broadcast Engineers

Chapter 16, Seattle, WA

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

In the last days of August, our eyes were glued to television and web reports on the major wildfire in southern California that seemed ready to engulf the famous Mount Wilson Observatory and nearby two dozen TV and FM transmitters.  Mount Wilson is one of the largest broadcast transmitter sites in the world and most of Los Angeles markets TV and FM broadcast transmission facilities.

When the fire seemed hours from consuming the entire mountain top, all technical and fire fighting personnel were evacuated.  Miraculously, the fire subsided enough to allow intensive aerial retardant dumps provided some protection from the slowly advancing flames.  The fire slowed enough to allow firefighters to return to the site to clear fire breaks and set controlled backfires.

Eventually the wildfire was brought under control and the damage to the broadcast facilities and the Observatory were minimal and operations returned to normal.

During the crisis, the FCC told the stations they were being granted flexibility in using temporary facilities and going dark if necessary.

The event has caused a lot of reflection on the mountain top facilities serving the Seattle-Tacoma market from sites in the Cascades and Olympic Peninsula.

The big debate over elevating FM HD power levels continues.  NPR is conducting tests in several markets to compare the

interference problems the power increase creates versus the improvement in coverage.  We may have to wait until October to get the official results.

The FCC has changed the rules to allow AMs to operate on FM translators to fill in areas of poor AM coverage.  This will be particularly helpful for daytime only AM’s and those with restrictive nighttime coverage.  Until the rule change, FM translators could only rebroadcast FM broadcast stations.  Suitable translator frequencies are still difficult, if not impossible to license in the major markets.

Arbitron’s PPM program continues in controversy.  Congress has scheduled hearings and President Obama has been asked by advocates of minority broadcasting to step into the fray.  A report from Dr. Barry Blesser, director of engineering for 25-Seven Systems, states that "hidden assumptions" made by the designers of Arbitron's Portable People Meter system may be affecting ratings results.  This report raises some of the technical questions I have been concerned about.

SBE National has filed comments on a proposal before the FCC to allocate 20 mHz of spectrum for implanted medical devices within patients.  The spectrum they are requesting includes the 450 mHz broadcast RPU frequencies.  An interesting twist in the SBE argument:  The risk of interference from the micro-power medical devices is virtually non-existent, but the interference from a broadcasters RPU to the micro-power network is significant and nearly impossible to predict the effects.

Wednesday August 12, 2009
Executive Board Meeting at KING-FM studios

Chapter Chairman Jim Dalke called the meeting to order at approximately 6:30PM.  Also present were Treasurer Terry Spring, interim Secretary John Price and Directors Clay Freinwald and Tom McGinley.

The first order of business was a recap of the Vashon Island Transmitter Tour and Picnic.  Jim estimated that between 50 and 60 people attended the July 25th event.  The weather was perfect and reports were that all who attended had a great time.  The cost was about $600, for food, refreshments and a Porta Potty. All costs will be picked up by Broadcast Supply Worldwide who sponsored the event. 

Tom asked if we should do the event again next year. All agreed that we should.  Jim suggested we involve Jim Hatfield and Ben Dawson more in any future events, tapping into their experiences and history with the AM transmitter facilities on the island.  Clay suggested that next time there be printed handouts with some history and photos available at each site to pass on to anyone taking the tours.      

Next topic was the September luncheon.  Program chair Steve Lockwood was not present, so there was no further discussion.   

Third item was the reorganization of the Chapter website.  Jim recommended indexed articles replace the one long HTML page.  Jim also commented that some of the advertisements looked less than professional.  Clay again suggested that Email notifications be sent to all Chapter members that the Waveguide was available for viewing on the web.  Jim said he wants to make sure that the luncheon notices are also posted on the website.

The final topic was an election for Chapter Board members.  Jim noted that it was past time to hold elections.  He did say he’d review the Chapter bylaws and see what it says about elections.  The Board decided to defer until a future date on when to have an election.  John asked that the Chapter find another member to take over the Secretary duties.  Jim said he’d talk to John Barrett of KOMO to see if he’d be interested in the position. 

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:00PM.        

Thursday August 13, 2009
Chapter Meeting

The Newport Bay Restaurant in Bellevue was the site of the Thursday lunch.  This was our first time at Newport Bay.  The restaurant was packed, but there was room for the 12 Chapter members, guests and featured speaker.

Chairman Jim Dalke called the meeting to order around 12:20.  There was a Secretaries report from the previous nights Board meeting and a brief Treasurer’s report.  Jim relayed news from SBE National regarding the SBE University.  More information on the SBE University can be found at SBE.org. Jim also talked about the Vashon picnic and thanked Shannon Nichols (who was in attendance) and BSW for picking up the tab. 

Lunch orders were taken and then Jim introduced Scott Esterson of Genelec who gave a presentation entitled “Understanding This Small Room That Sounds Bad and What To Do With It.”  Scott had lots of information on acoustics and controlling reflections in small rooms.  Scott also showed off the new Genelec 6010/5040 compact speaker system. 
 
The meeting adjourned around 1:15PM.

Respectfully submitted,
John Price
Interim Secretary
SBE Chapter 16

As the remaining days of summer wind down and the leaves cover the ground with a touch of color – relaxing would be a natural tendency. However, it’s been years and years since you started your career in broadcasting….. Spark-gap transmitters…long wave matchers… dyno-generators… tubes… analog television…and all of that OLD stuff. Yep, Old-timer it’s time to take the ultimate step and become certified as a Professional Broadcast Engineer. Apply before the arthritis stops you from filling out the application.

Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer (CPBE)

The candidate for Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer must have at least twenty (20) years of professional broadcast engineering or related technologies experience in radio and/or television, exclusive of any educational credit. Because the CPBE requires twenty years of professional experience in broadcast engineering, educational credits will not be counted toward that total. CPBE candidates must verify 20 years of compensated professional experience excluding educational credits. The candidate must presently be certified on the Senior Broadcast Engineer level unless registered as a State Professional Electrical Engineer.
The candidate must submit evidence satisfactory to the Committee that he or she has the appropriate engineering background, experience and training. The candidate must demonstrate a degree of knowledge and participation in one or more of (but not limited to) the following:

1. Maintenance
2. Systems Design
3. Management or Supervision
4. Continuing Education

A state registered Professional Engineer’s license will count as four (4) years. However, if you are a state registered Professional Electrical Engineer and meet the 20 years of service in broadcast or related technology, you may obtain Professional Broadcast Engineer Certification without taking a test.
The candidate must have three (3) letters of reference. Two (2) must be from Certified Professional Broadcast Engineers, Certified Senior Broadcast Engineers or State Registered Professional Engineers. At least one letter of reference must be from a person who has supervised his/her work. This person does not necessarily have to be certified; however, if he or she is certified at one of the above-mentioned levels, that reference will be counted as two (2) letters. The required letters of reference, written specifically for the 20-year certification level, must accompany the application. In addition to the completed application form, a resume attached to the application is most helpful to the National Certification Committee in reviewing the application. You must also submit a statement showing why you believe your professional experience, educational background and training qualifies you for certification under this provision of the Certification Program.
The review procedure for Professional Broadcast Engineer certification will be the same as that used for recertification. The application for CPBE will be reviewed by the SBE Local Chapter Certification Committee before final evaluation by the National Certification Committee.

Dates to Remember in 2009
Certification Application Deadlines:

September 18, 2009    @Local Chapters        Test Date: November 6-16, 2009
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 September 2009   

All I can say is – wow, what a summer!  You have been reading that this is our shortest season…Not this year…Summer is going on and on and ... Along the way we have set some records for our extended dry and warm one.   But we all know what’s around the corner.  The PNW is sure to not let us down with plenty of wet ahead.   Speaking of ahead…How does it feel to know that there are only 4 months left in the year?

Attention Hams - In the middle of September, I will again be with the crew from the South Hill Contest Club, N7PP, operating during Salmon Run.  This year we will be in the Blue Mountains, in Columbia County .  Look for us - 1600Z -- 0700Z Saturday and 1600Z -- 2400Z Sunday Sept 19th and 20th On all bands, Phone and CW.   

On October 5th and 7th I will be in Verona NY (Just East of Syracuse) for the SBE Board Meeting during the Chapter 22 event.    A bittersweet time as this will end my 10 years on the SBE Board.   I sincerely hope that one of you will elect to serve the Society by putting you name in the hat.    Thus far we have only had two of us from this area on the Board.   It’s a great experience.

HD Radio has it’s first portable on the market now.   Tom McGinley had one at the picnic and said that it works pretty good.   I did, however, read a review in the paper where the device got a terrible review, while he was at it, the writer slammed the whole HD Radio concept.  One thing that surprises me is that more stations in this area are not running foreign language programming on their HD-2 or HD-3’s.   HD-R is certainly superior to the old analog SCA’s in terms of coverage and audio quality and the ability to be heard in a vehicle.….Not to mention you can get a larger number of different receivers     My understanding is that this is the case in other markets.   In some cases, non-commercial stations are using their HD2’s to carry a wide variety of programming.   Have not heard about much of this around here.

 There is no shortage of activity in the area of getting a power increase for HD- Radio with Clear Channel recently weighing into the matter with results of their own testing that, no surprise, show that there will not be more interference.   Certainly some power increase appears to be on the horizon, the question is how much and will it be across the board… Or will it depend on adjacent channel considerations as suggested by NPR’s recent ‘calculator’…This is the $64,000 question.   Many feel the increase will be approved by the Commish late this year.  Assuming that they do grant a power increase, the next question will be just how many stations will be able to pop for that new higher powered digital transmitter?   Perhaps Fisher was right waiting this out?   For one, I sincerely hope that they join the HD Radio club.   I also note that Toshiba is going to start producing decoder chips for the system. 

Things are not so rosy for HD-R on the AM Band where the system continues to struggle with technical issues.  In Southern California two stations (KFMB and KBRT) are battling with one telling the other to turn off their IBOC due to interference.   Could it be that
HD-R might become an FM only system in this country?   Perhaps those that are calling for AM to convert to DRM are right?

Taking a look at the economic situation  -

Entercom’s CEO, David Field, was recently in Seattle and expressed cautious optimism about the economy.  It was reported that 2Q revenues were down 18%....Cumulus reported business was off by 21% as they announced more staff reductions and cut backs such as furloughs....Entravision was reportedly down 23% from a year earlier…..CBS Radio was also down 23%.  CBS operates 3 FM’s and an AM in the Seattle Market.   Overall CBS has issued statements indicating that things are looking up…..Sirius XM Radio reportedly lost 157+ in Q2…(Pretty soon you are talking serious money)….Clear Channel (operator of a cluster of radio stations in this town) reported Rev’s were off by 20%.  Interesting to note that their outdoor business was doing even worse with revenues down 24%.

An interesting comparison -  According to a media source, Radio in Canada has not been hit as hard as it has been here in the States.   Reportedly stations there have seen revenues grow by 12% compared to a 9% reduction here.   The recession has certainly been felt world-wide, but we have to remember that the epicenter of this event was in the U.S.

TV stations are dealing with the economic situation in some unique and different ways.  In some markets they are adding more local news, while in Honolulu 3 stations have gotten together to pool their news efforts and with it a considerable reduction in staff (read that loss of jobs)

On the bright side, some of the major economic indicators are now pointing up.   Job’s are, however, likely to lag the rebound for some time to come.   I imagine that many firms have discovered that lean is good and will look toward recovering some lost revenue before they will be eager to increase expenses.

I ‘spose you noted that Radio Shack has been running some new spots calling themselves simply ‘The Shack’.   One has to wonder if the term Radio implies ‘Old’ to the younger set?

Sprint-Nextel has reported finished their upgrade of ENG facilities in SoCal bringing the total number of markets making the change in equipment and band-plan to 131.  Work has already begun in this market .  New gizmo’s in the rack at West Tiger for some of the local stations with more to come as we get closer to cut-over day.

A big congratulations to local broadcaster Andy Skotdal on being  appointed to the NAB Radio Board.   Andy is also chairman  of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters board and owns KRKO in Everett.   Speaking of Andy – Looks like he has won yet another legal battle to erect more towers in the Skodal tower farm in Sno-County.   Yah still need to write that book Andy – I can see the front cover now…The letters NIMBY on the front with a big red international no symbol over the top.

Down in Portland, Larry Wilson recently purchased 4 radio stations from CBS for 40 million adding this to the 2 he recently purchased from Paul Allen for 11 mil.   This must be the largest radio ownership activity in this region in some time. 6 stations under common ownership in PDX is certainly being watched by the other players there.

Apparently the FCC has been busy in Texas with news that they have fined a person for operating a pirate station on 101.5 in Houston.   Nice to know that the FCC is still on the job in this area.

There has been some more movement regarding 104.5 KMCQ, the station that moved to Enumclaw’s Radio Hill (Licensed to Covington) from Hood River, Oregon.   The FCC has now granted the station a CP to move it’s transmitter from Enumclaw to Cougar Mt.  To make all this happen requires a number of changes, including KAFE in Bellingham moving from 104.3 to 104.1 and installing a directional antenna.  You have to think that there has been a lot of money spent on this project over the years.   Power level for 104.5 on Cougar will be 8.1 Kw.   It will be interesting to see what kind of coverage this relatively low power level provides.  Certainly will be less than the 50 and 100Kw signals from there.  To give you an idea, KNHC runs 8.5 Kw with a directional antenna having a null to the South.

The matter of HD-TV on VHF            channels continues make the news with a number of TV stations opting to move back to their former UHF channels after discovering that the power level afforded DT on VHF is not enough to provide for building penetration.  One broadcaster was quite vocal citing the basis for reception complaints was sub-standard receiving antennas, like rabbit-ears etc.    It’s pretty hard to convince Joe average that DT is an advancement when he is unable to receive the same number of channels that he used to .   Recently I heard a story on NPR where they mentioned a fellow on Whidbey Island that reported he spent a good deal of money on converter boxes and antennas and can now only get 3 channels.  He, reportedly, said his TV set was about to be placed in a garage sale.

If you have been wondering what happened to the upgrades to EAS ….Well it’s still going to happen (we hope) but not likely this year.   For those of you that budgeted for new EAS equipment for 2009…You can tell your boss that it appears it will be next year.   In the mean time, if you do have to purchase a new EAS box (cause the old one went up in a cloud of smoke) you can purchase a new unit now with much of the new system already installed.  Most manufacturers will upgrade these units at no cost to be compliant with the new rules when they are released.   I did note that Clear Channel has a new Sage Endec just like the unit that the State of Washington recently purchase a number of.    I will have more on EAS changes in the coming months.  If you are not subscribed to the Washington State EAS Remailer, you should do so, as this is the method used to distribute new info.

I supposed you heard that Les Paul passed away this past month.  Not only was he a gifted musician, but he was one that loved to tinker with electronics.   Other passing’s of note this past month include Robert Novak and the creator of 60 minutes, Don Hewitt.

I was looking at an ad for a large Renton electronics store and this item caught my eye –
A 1TB USB Hard Drive …”Made with Naturally Grown Bamboo and Recyclable Aluminum”…Huh?   Took me a minute to figure out that the part of the box for the device is made of bamboo…The part about the aluminum is interesting.  Apparently you can put some of this in the same container as the pop and beer cans when it dies?

The Tacoma paper, in their ‘Looking Back’ section had a picture of a vehicle belonging to Wire Electric that had a 50 foot pneumatic mast with a TV antenna on the top they used for determining the best height and direction before installing a roof top antenna.  The interesting part is their pneumatic mast was in operation in April of 1951.   Just a few years before anyone heard of Wilburt.   Considering all the grief that some are going though these days getting good DT reception, perhaps someone needs to borrow an idea from 1951?

According to a piece in the Wall Street Journal, progress is being made on 3-D TV with some talking about 2011 as the year when we might see it.  A lot of questions about this one come to mind…guess we will have to wait and see –

It’s been interesting looking at the rapid changes in the world of radio ratings from week to week.  I also found it interesting reading a recent piece that stated that radio talk formats were doing very well with the new system.   Not the case in the Seattle area with stations that play a lot of music showing the most gains.   Do I dare say that folks in the Puget Sound area are …..Different?

If you travel to the Eastern part of Washington State you can’t help but notice the rapid expansion of the number of windmills.  It’s long been known that these things can reflect TV signals causing reception issues.  Anyone heard what they do to DTV?  In some locales these giant machines are creating another kind of problem.  They create echos that look like serious storms on weather radar.

Got a nice note from Dave Youell of CHUM Radio in Vancouver.   He passed on information about their new transmitter site for CFUN / 1410.   On air testing of CKST / 1040 is expected shortly.   Along with the information was an invitation to stop in for a visit.  You can reach Dave via email at - David.youell@chumradio.com or by phone at - (604) 230-0844.   I advised Dave that I rarely get that far north.  I also Invited him and any other broadcast engineers in BC if they are in our area to please attend any of our SBE Chapter meetings.  After all, they are our neighbors !

Walmart and locally owned Costco were recently cited by the FCC for selling wireless security cameras that violate FCC Regs.   Nice to see our tax dollars at work.

We often take for granted a lot of things that we have….Lets take a look back 100 years to see how far we have really come –  in 1909 only 8%  of the homes in this country had a telephone.  There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.  Only 6% had graduated from high school, no-one had a Radio or TV…and….Think NAB….the population of Las Vegas was 30.

Here’s a job opening with a twist.   A radio cluster in Las Vegas is looking for someone to be the IT Manager and Assistant Chief Engineer.   The interesting part – IT persons without broadcast experience need not apply.   SBE certification and/or an Amateur Radio License are a plus.   Interested?   Contact Bill Croghan, Chief Engineer Lotus Las Vegas.  loteng@lvradio.com

Well, my friends, that’s it for this month – Lord willing, I will see you at the same place next month.

Clay, K7CR, CPBE