Industry News

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

Is it that time of year again?

President Donald Trump has introduced his proposed 2021 budget. Once again, the White House proposes eliminating public funding for educational broadcasting, except for two years of funding for wrapping up loose ends of legacy support.

Slashing public broadcasting has been in every White House budget since Trump took office. The president’s full budget will be released in the spring. Then, Congress will then have its say.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Coming Down on Content]

Each year, lawmakers have spurned the president. It is reasonable to assume amendments will happen again in 2020. Moreover in a presidential election year, when voter energy is especially passionate, it is likely cuts like public broadcasting won’t make it to the final budget. The bottom line is many in Congress are worried about their races. The budget is already a hot potato. Public broadcasting enjoys wide support among everyday Americans. Every incumbent’s record will be excavated by opponents. Savvy politicians are unwilling to give their rivals ammunition.

However, the left-field nature of the budget deserves attention.

Most Americans have heard of public broadcasting through public television and radio. It is doubtful many know how much federal funding goes to such programming. The interest group Protect My Public Media estimates funding represents .01% of federal spending. The grand total? This funding amounts to about $1.40 per American annually.

The White House contends federal funding is no longer necessary. In the budget, the administration zeroes in on the large public media brands in its justification for cuts. “Services such as PBS and NPR, which receive funding from CPB, could make up the shortfall by increasing revenues from corporate sponsors, foundations, and members,” the proposed budget reads. “In addition, alternatives to PBS and NPR programming have grown substantially since CPB was first established in 1967, greatly reducing the need for publicly funded programming options.”

CPB counters these assertions by noting the diversity of public broadcasting.

In a Feb. 10 statement, Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said, “Through public media initiatives such as American Graduate and Ready To Learn, stations provide high-quality educational content and community engagement that helps Americans prepare for success in school and career. As the most trusted news source in America, local public media stations offer journalism that elevates local stories to a national audience. Further, public media stations’ infrastructure provides critical communications functions during local and national emergencies to first responders and emergency management officials.”

At heart is a need for common ground. If we agree in the importance of funding education, and the value in media as an educational tool, how can we support a system that we agree on?

In addition, one can ask that there is a greater commitment to expanding our nation’s investment in educational media. CPB does so much with its resources, but it is evident that it needs to be able to support many more initiatives. Media is so ubiquitous today. For the next generation, students go to the internet as often as they hit the books. Policymakers must look into expanding educational media funding to ensure the United States stays strong and creates even more opportunities to learn.

It seems highly unlikely many of the decreases Pres. Trump wants for the 2021 fiscal year will pass. Nevertheless, it is important for every station to speak loudly about the educational purpose they serve, and the need for the country to keep educational broadcasting part of its education arsenal.

The post Community Broadcaster: D.O.A.? appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World has learned it’s possible that thousands of radio stations in the United States failed to register their C-Band earth station terminals with the FCC prior to its 2018 deadline and presumably will be ineligible for reimbursement funds set aside by the FCC to cover the cost of a C-Band repack.

The alarm is being sounded by a person on the infrastructure side of the industry familiar with Chairman Ajit Pai’s draft Report and Order to make the lower 280 megahertz of the C-Band (3.7–3.98 GHz) available for flexible use, including 5G, through a public auction.

Radio and TV broadcasters utilize 3.7 to 4.2 GHz for satellite C-Band downlinks. However, the draft order released last week indicates incumbent satellite services are expected to be repacked from the 500 MHz to the upper 200 megahertz of the band (4.0–4.2 GHz).

[Read: C-Band Auction Could Begin in December]

There are provisions within the FCC C-Band draft Report and Order that spell out reimbursements to radio stations with incumbent C-Band earth stations that will be impacted by the relocation of spectrum. However, an industry source closely following the issue says he estimates as many as 2,000 radio stations never registered their C-Band downlinks.

“I estimate at least 25% of radio stations did not register their C-Band downlinks before the fall 2018 deadline, and they will be cut off from reimbursement of their costs to upgrade dishes,” the person said. “Their decision may have cost them each $1,000 to $5,000 because new equipment must be installed on their dish to block upcoming 5G cellular interference.”

The satellite infrastructure insider says the FCC’s reimbursement plan is “quite generous” and will protect the majority of radio broadcasters, but unregistered earth station sites will have to pay for the new gear out of their own pocket. “That might be a $500 dish filter and a few hundred dollars for labor to repoint it, but what happens if the dish has marginal reception already. It might become unusable and then you need a new $4,000 dish and more money for a new pad,” he said.

The FCC acknowledges in the draft order there is concern by some in the industry that a substantial number of small rural radio and television stations and private networks that rely on C-Band programming failed to submit registration filings. However, the FCC says it will not open another window for the registration of earth stations, according to the draft order. There are approximately 20,000 registered earth stations in the contiguous U.S., according to the FCC.

“I’m sure all of the major broadcast groups took the time to register, but I know of many small broadcasters who ignored doing so,” according to the satellite equipment supplier.

For those who have unregistered earth band downlink, their only recourse apparently is to lobby the FCC for reconsideration. “If there are hundreds of radio stations contacting the FCC in the next few weeks, all asking for an extension to register their C-Band downlinks, it is possible they could get in on the planned reimbursement program, but only if the FCC rethinks the situation,” the person said.

The post C-Band Repack Could Be Costly for Many Radio Stations appeared first on Radio World.

Audinate’s upcoming Dante AV Product Design Suite will ship this quarter. The PDS is intended to aid users in creating AV-over-IP products that employ the Dante AV technology used in more than 2,500 existing Dante products from more than 450 different manufacturers.

The Dante AV Product Design Suite is designed to help OEMs to build an AV-over-IP endpoint with low latency over a 1 Gbps network. It provides interoperability for audio distribution and control, delivering independent, synchronized audio and video streams. Based around the Dante AV module, the Dante AV PDS may be modified, branded and differentiated by OEMs via software, control and integration with other members of their product lines.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The Dante AV PDS is designed to be a feature-complete AV-over-IP solution for the professional AV market, implementing a codec, local HDMI and HDCP, ancillary data channels, and control. The onboard Dante AV Module provides Dante clock synchronization, control, discovery, transport, messaging, management, updates and more. A set of hardware documents, design files and a software SDK allows OEMs to create complete, fully interoperable Dante AV products with end-to-end HDCP support.

The Dante AV PDS includes a complete implementation of the intoPIX JPEG2000 codec supporting UHD and Cinematic 4K resolution, up to 60fps, up to 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, up to 10-bit color depth, up and down scaling, and ultralow latency dual block encoding and decoding.

The Dante AV PDS implements a software control stack which is accessed through the Dante API and Dante Controller. In addition to codec control, this software supports the routing of ancillary data channels for control over Dante, including USB HID, infrared, serial (RS422), and consumer electronic control for HDMI devices. All of these signals are transported over Dante and appear as routable channels, just like audio and video.

The Dante AV PDS comes with basic metal enclosure design, packaging design, preliminary EMI and thermal product scans, manufacturing instructions, and test fixture design guidance. Each Dante AV PDS contains two preconfigured Dante AV Endpoint Design Boards and five Dante AV modules in order to validate end-to-end performance.

Info: www.audinate.com

The post Audinate Tees Up Dante AV Product Design Suite appeared first on Radio World.

Fig. 1: Amprobe ULD-420 Ultrasonic Leak Detector

You may be familiar with Amprobe; for years they have manufactured a clamp-on ammeter, which you clamp around a wire to measure the current. 

The company has released a product that detects leaks. It’s the ULD-420 Ultrasonic Leak Detector. The handheld detector is easy to use and provides an accurate location of an inaudible air or non-flammable gas leak. The detector can also identify vibrations and electrical discharge by picking up the ultrasonic sound produced by the leak or disturbance. 

This product sounds like it is ideal for detecting transmission line air leaks, but the manufacturer says it can also be used on plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems, even motors or electrical systems. Read more at Amprobe.com; enter “ULD-420” in the search box.

*** Fig. 2: An inexpensive volt pen detects high voltage before your hand does.

I’m happy to report that big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot are now stocking the safety “volt pen” I discussed recently as a Telos representative on an SBE webinar. Head to the electrical aisle to pick up one of these lifesavers.

For those unfamiliar, it’s shown in Fig. 2. It’s an AC inductive probe that glows red when it senses AC voltage. Before reaching into any equipment, pass the volt pen around breakers and disconnects to ensure they are “off.” The version shown in the photo is a Southwire Non-Contact AC Voltage Detector, model 40116N. We also found it on Amazon.

***

Newman-Kees Principal Engineer Frank Hertel makes note of a relay contact transmitter and receiver pair that monitors eight separate switch contact input signals, and sends the status of each via an embedded device server to the matching relay output receiver. The combo costs under $900. Use it when you want to send contact switch or relay information over a Local Area Network or a wireless network link using TCP/IP protocol. The device is model IPG-8T and IPG-8R and you can get more information at www.fmsystems-inc.com/product/ipg-8tipg-8r.

While you’re on the site, click on the FM Systems Publications tab, then “Engineers Corner.” In addition to some interesting articles on relays and maximum cable lengths, read the article “When LEDs Act Like Photocells.” The article explains that in addition to providing an efficient light source, an LED can be used as a photocell to supply a voltage output that actually responds to the light levels in a room. It turns out that when light strikes the P-N junction of the silicon, electrons flow, generating a voltage, albeit a small one. You’ll find the article fascinating.

***

Frank also passed on an interesting note for engineers returning equipment for repair. 

He and his son Dave provide equipment repair services at Newman-Kees. They have noticed that some products were shipped by UPS but with final delivery handed off to the US Postal Service. Many of these shipments arrived damaged.        

This damage issue is not unique to Frank and Dave’s company. Other repair techs report similar instances of rough unconcerned handling. It appears to Frank that the problem is not UPS, but rather when the shipment is handed off to the USPS for final delivery. His suggestion is to instruct the UPS agent to ship UPS Ground (or UPS 3 Day Select, UPS 2 Day Air or UPS Next Day Air). Failure to stipulate a UPS service leaves it up to the agent to choose USPS Handoff Delivery, which saves UPS money.

So the bottom line is to be sure to specify one of the UPS services when shipping equipment, and ensure there is no handoff to USPS for final delivery.

***

Phil Florig, W9IXX, wrote to pass on a link to a small company that manufactures another version of the “walk the plank” mousetrap. Head to https://kentuckymousetraps.com/store to see several versions for both mice and rats. Phil just bought the rat version, we’ll wait for a report on its effectiveness.

***

Randall Davidson is the director of radio services at the University of Wisconsin/Oshkosh’s WRST(FM). Randall was pleased to see Dan Slentz’s submission about the Public News Service. Randall’s station uses it and has told others who are looking for a good, free news source. 

Randall also wanted to tell you about another inexpensive option for stations to consider. Feature Story News offers hourly five-minute, three-minute and 30-second audio newscasts each weekday via download from stable URLs. The five-minute version is the three-minute offering plus “FSN Extra,” a 90-second feature on one topic. The last newscast on Friday evening is branded “Week in Review” and can be used throughout the weekend. 

The network was founded in 1992 by former ITN reporter Simon Marks. They have reporters in 30+ bureaus around the world, providing video and audio packages for a variety of clients, and they offer this news service to radio stations for $15/month. 

Randall uses a software package called Radio Spider to download the newscasts twice an hour and direct them to buttons in their playback system, so the content is always fresh. WRST has carried this service since 2011, and Randall says he couldn’t be happier with their service. For information, go to featurestorynews.com.

This is another opportunity for engineers to demonstrate their usefulness to the radio station. Let your manager know about this; the price will make the GM smile, and whether or not they use the service, it demonstrates your interest and involvement in all facets of the radio station. 

***

With the New Year, set a goal and get certified by the SBE in 2020. Successful completion of any level of certification not only provides you with a professional certificate, but also a letter to your boss from the SBE, complimenting you on your achievement. An ideal combination for a salary review! Plus, recertification credit is provided to engineers who share a tip published in Workbench. Thank you for sharing your tips and high-resolution photos by sending them to johnpbisset@gmail.com.

John Bisset has spent 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is still learning. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He holds CPBE certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.

The post A New Ultrasonic Leak Detector Pinpoints Leaks appeared first on Radio World.

San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll holds up a copy of the newspaper at the “Civic”/KSFP launch event.
Credit: Event photos by Jennifer Waits

Just a few blocks from San Francisco City Hall, news and public affairs station KSFP(LP) launched out of a “glorified storage closet” that once housed thousands of newspapers. 

The San Francisco Public Press, a 10-year-old non-profit, membership-based print and web newspaper focused on in-depth local news, is an unusual entrant into the community radio space, although it owes its very existence to a public radio-style model. 

“We always considered ourselves a newspaper inspired by public broadcasting, and now we have a radio station inspired by a newspaper inspired by public radio, so we’ve kind of come full circle in a way,” said San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll.

TIME SHARE

Hitting the airwaves in San Francisco last summer, KSFP joined time-share partner San Francisco Community Radio KXSF(LP) on 102.5 MHz. One of the last low-power FM radio stations to launch from the 2013 application window, KSFP broadcasts daily from 4 to 10 a.m., and from 4 to 10 p.m. via an antenna on Sutro Tower.

For about a year, San Francisco Community Radio’s KXSF was the sole station on 102.5 FM, transmitting during the other 12 hours.

Funding for the effort came from Public Press members as well as institutions like the James Irvine Foundation, the California Endowment and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Operations Manager Laura Wenus, left, interviews “Muni Diaries” co-founder Eugenia Chien and producer Peter Clarke.

While KXSF’s crew of volunteers was full of folks with radio experience, San Francisco Public Press staffers were less seasoned and sought help from the broader radio community, including KXSF, to get up and running. 

As the vision for the station crystallized, two experienced radio producers were brought on board to oversee the station and its programming. 

At an evening event last August, community media supporters gathered at Impact Hub in San Francisco’s Mission District to celebrate the debut of both KSFP(LP) and its flagship show “Civic.” It had been a long road to the airwaves for San Francisco Public Press; and radio veterans in the room shared that they were happy about the rare launch of a new radio station in San Francisco.

“ENORMOUS RESOURCE”

KSFP Operations Manager and reporter Laura Wenus and KSFP Program Director Mel Baker are the core team managing KSFP, with Stoll serving as general manager. Wenus and Baker also are host and producer, respectively, of “Civic.”

Rather than launching with a full slate of original content, they opted to start slowly, beginning with the radio show and podcast “Civic,” which developed out of the journalism being done in the Public Press newsroom. 

In the studio of KSFP(LP)

Stoll acknowledges that while there’s been a lot of buzz in journalism circles about podcasting, KSFP wants to ensure that it’s taking full advantage of the opportunity that it’s been given with LPFM. 

“Everybody’s been talking about this sort of pivot to audio in the nonprofit local journalism space really for the last two to three years. … People have been starting to take it really seriously, but most of the organizations have tepidly dipped their toes into podcasting … they haven’t put a lot of energy into the volume of content or staffing or the distribution. It’s often considered kind of an add-on,” Stoll said. 

Understanding that 12 hours of daily airtime on KSFP is an “enormous resource,” Stoll and team have tried to be thoughtful and methodical about bringing their current work to the airwaves. 

Although they are entering a crowded radio dial in San Francisco that includes a variety of non-commercial powerhouses, KSFP’s hyperlocal news focus sets them apart. 

“We have a reputation for truthful, careful journalism in print, and we’re translating that into other media in a way that is aimed at keeping the work that we’re doing in print and print style journalism on the web relevant to new audiences.”

With “Civic,” airing at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays), San Francisco Public Press hopes to not only have something “of interest to San Franciscans,” but that also “encourages and enables civic participation,” according to Wenus. 

“Civic” features interviews and stories focused on local San Francisco issues and news. To pique interest in the show, the launch party featured a live on-stage interview that would form the basis for a future episode. Wenus’ entertaining conversation with the team behind public transportation-themed storytelling blog/podcast “Muni Diaries,” had the audience engaged, with many sharing their own amusing and harrowing public transit stories during the Q&A that followed. 

Other recent shows have included stories about climate change, homelessness, mental health and San Francisco elections. With an understanding that audio on demand is increasingly important, “Civic” is running both terrestrially over 102.5 and in podcast form, with additional bonus episodes available online.  

For now, the station is an FM-only venture, with a live stream on its wish list. Wenus shares that one of the exciting aspects of the project is the simultaneous launching of a radio station, radio show and podcast. She said it’s been interesting “trying to straddle those worlds.”

“EXCITING POWER” Mel Baker

From its small studio, Wenus and Baker record “Civic” and oversee the daily tasks of the radio station, slowly building out the schedule. It airs syndicated news and public affairs shows such as “Radio Survivor” and KQED shows like “The California Report Magazine,” “Political Breakdown,” “Making Contact,” “Bioneers,” “Reveal” and “Philosophy Talk” — and rounds out the remaining hours with PRX Remix, a stream of “stories, podcasts and documentaries” from non-profit media company PRX’s 24-7 stream. 

They’re also in talks with several independent audio producers for original programming that would have its broadcast home on KSFP.  The hope is that local producers will take to the KSFP airwaves, bringing additional programs to the schedule in months to come. 

The team is optimistic about its place in the media landscape. 

“There is just so much enthusiasm for the idea of … expanding the airwaves,” Stoll said, “and bringing new voices to the air and new choices.” 

Radio will allow them to reach new audiences. Baker speculates that, “Audio is a living breathing medium for communicating. People have more ear time than eye time. You can listen to more stories than you can ever read or watch, so that’s the exciting power of this medium.”

Jennifer Waits writes frequently about community, college and low-power radio. She is a co-founder of Radio Survivor, which produces a free syndicated weekly show that airs on KSFP.

The post KSFP Highlights Journalism, Public Affairs appeared first on Radio World.

Wheatstone.com has a major new element: an online spare parts store.

According to a press release, the Wheatstone Store offers “spare cards, sub-assemblies, modules and other discontinued or out-of-production components for Wheatstone, Audioarts, PR&E and VoxPro products.”

This means DIYers have a new way to ensure their console surfaces, FM/AM/HD audio processors and complete AoIP studio systems stay in tip-top shape, according to the company.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

But never fear, the Wheatstone Store doesn’t mean the company’s support team is being put out to pasture. Customer support can be reached online or via 1-252-638-7000.

The company considers the Wheatstone Store to be an addition to its existing online support, including the manuals, white papers and tutorials as well as technical and discussion forums already hosted on wheatstone.com.

Note that the products themselves will not be available via the Wheatstone Store; customers must go through existing distribution channels or order directly from the New Bern, N.C., factory.

 

The post Wheatstone Store Sells Parts Online appeared first on Radio World.

Getty Images/PashaIgnatov

The author is chairman of the Washington State Emergency Communications Committee. In 2016 Radio World interviewed Freinwald about EAS reform. We checked in with him for this issue.

The Washington SECC has a reputation for thinking outside the box when it comes to how they deal with Public Alert and Warning, in particular EAS. We think of ourselves as “progressives.”

The structure of the Washington SECC is an open, ongoing, cooperative and collaborative process that welcomes everyone involved with public alert and warning. We meet every other month, operate two in-state email list-servers, and often have ongoing committees working to deal with specific needs and tasks. 

Our EAS plan is unique in that it covers a broad range of areas that go well beyond what is required by the FCC. For example, Amber, Wireless Emergency Alerts, Organizational Structure, etc. The FCC is only interested in a portion of what we do. Yet, the idea is to be more inclusive for more public alert and warning systems.

Not long ago, the FCC announced that they are moving toward hosting State EAS Plans online via a process they call Alert Reporting System or ARS. After closely looking at what the FCC was proposing, it was decided that this would be a good time to perform an extensive update to our State Plan. 

To accomplish this task, the SECC created the Plan Revision Committee. Its goal was to review our existing plan and make changes indicated by the FCC’s proposed changes.

WA-PAWS

One of the first addressed was to rename our new plan. Whereas the FCC would be hosting the Washington State EAS Plan (online) and whereas the contents would likely differ from our Plan, it was determined that having two plans with the same name was not wise. 

Therefore, the Plan-Revision Committee proposed to the SECC that the name of our new Plan be WA-PAWS, or Washington Public Alert and Warning Systems. This title has been approved by the SECC. 

The new WA-PAWS plan will be like the existing EAS Plan and be printable as well as be available online. We will continue to use “tabs” to house specific items that will make updating much easier. 

Unlike the present plan, the new one will be broken into segments: Overview, Structure, Distribution, LECCs, Amber and Additional Resources. And finally, rather than duplicate what the FCC will have online for the State EAS Plan, we will simply provide a link to the FCC site hosting that tab information. In other words, the State EAS Plan will be a segment within the WA-PAWS Plan.

The process of getting from here to there is a gradual and deliberate one. We meet via a conference bridge about every two weeks, with periodic in-person meetings. Ongoing are a lot of emails with electronic document support. The committee reports to the SECC as to its progress every two months during their regular meetings. The Plan-Revision Committee has been working on this process now for over a year.

Once we agreed to the overall concept and structure, we have been dealing with each segment of the new plan’s tabs, slowly and deliberatively. At this writing we are dealing with what we call our Monitoring Matrixes, which are tables that guide participants as to what they should monitor in each operational area. We are dedicated to getting each segment right before proceeding further. The impact on participants (radio and TV stations and cable systems) of these updates will be minimal, and FCC compliance will be easier for participants.

In the future, participants will be able to view the WA-PAWS Plan online, hosted on the Washington State Emergency Management website. The refreshed state plan will be a wealth of information about how the overall process functions, including such details as “what needs to be monitored,” etc. Specifics regarding the State EAS Plan will be available online via FCC ARS. Validation of all the monitoring sources will be determined by the FCC (and FEMA) via the existing ETRS. 

BEYOND BROADCAST

It is important to understand that today, broadcasting is no longer the primary means of alerting the public. Today, there are more, and perhaps better, “tools” in the Public Alert and Warning Tool Box. It can be argued that the most effective tool for that task is WEA. 

Shown, a FEMA info sheet for young people about Wireless Emergency Alerts. Clay Freinwald writes, “It is important to understand that today, broadcasting is no longer the primary means of alerting the public. … It can be argued that the most effective tool for that task is WEA.”

Interestingly, if you look at the software that’s used by emergency managers, many of these programs provide a means for launching both EAS and WEA Messages. These systems have been joined by other tools, for instance participation by the National Weather Service, Reverse 911 telephone systems, highway signs, opt-in local alert programs and more. 

The challenge for broadcasters is to enhance their willingness to broadcast these public alert and warning messages. Tragically, many broadcasters decline to air anything other than what the FCC requires. Emergency managers know this and, as a result, have had no choice but turn their attention to other additional resources to alert the public. 

Our role in this effort is to further educate emergency managers on how to more effectively use all these tools. The need to have broadcasters participate in both the state committees (SECCs) and local groups (LECCs). This participation needs to come from management. Unfortunately, too many broadcast managers have concluded that EAS is a technical function. The truth: It is not. It is a public service function with the goal of saving lives and, as such, deserves attention from higher levels in the broadcast industry.

One more thing our SECC is working on: how to provide post-disaster information to the public after a major event such as the major earthquake that is promised for this part of the country. This effort requires more tools and more training for all stakeholders, and perhaps is another story for another time.

Clay Freinwald has been chairman of the Washington SECC since 1996 and is a past recipient of Radio World’s Excellence in Engineering Award. He can be reached at k7cr@blarg.net.

The post Washington State EAS Is Evolving appeared first on Radio World.

The RFEngineers Watch Dog receiver is used by many radio stations for local and remote off-air monitoring of audio, signal level, RDS and pilot. In this installment of our ongoing Raspberry Pi project series, Dan D’Andrea, RFEngineers’ “software guy,” details a project that employs a Pi to channel alerts from the receiver.

The Watch Dog receiver does not have an Ethernet port for sending out alerts over the internet. Instead, the receiver is configured, monitored and powered via its USB port. Thankfully, the USB port on the Watch Dog makes the receiver available as a serial device, which is easy to connect to in a variety of ways. We refer to this as its “Serial API” or “serial interface,” and it’s quite extensive. (Plenty of documentation can be found at http://www.RFEngineers.com/WD1.)

As one demonstration of what can be achieved with the Watch Dog’s serial interface, have a look at the RFEngineers Watch Dog Dashboard for Windows. The Watch Dog Dashboard is a free program that lets one easily configure and monitor the receiver and which is based entirely on the Watch Dog’s serial interface. See Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: RFEngineers Watch Dog Dashboard for Windows software.

We began to wonder: How easy would it be to hook a Watch Dog receiver to a Raspberry Pi and have the Raspberry Pi continually monitor the Watch Dog’s status via the serial interface and send out an email any time an alarm condition is found? Perhaps a small Python program?

It turns out that the Watch Dog’s serial interface makes it ideally suited for automating with Python. We were able to write a simple Python program to monitor the Watch Dog and detect alarm conditions in less than 10 lines of code! We then extended the program to include email alerts.

This program is available for free and for you to adapt however you see fit in a public GitHub repository that we created: https://www.github.com/rfengineers/Watch-Dog-Python.

This article will go through the steps of setting up a Watch Dog receiver and a Raspberry Pi to work in conjunction as an Internet-enabled confidence monitor. It will use the AlarmEmail.py program referenced above and found on GitHub.

We used the following equipment:

• RFEngineers Watch Dog FM/AM/NOAA + RDS receiver, firmware v2.2.7
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
• 2.5A USB power supply

INITIAL SETUP

We used a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B with a fresh install of Raspbian OS, but just about any Raspberry Pi should do. We connected the Raspberry Pi to wall power using a 2.5A USB power supply. We then connected the Watch Dog to the Raspberry Pi via one of the Pi’s 4 main USB 2.0 connectors.

We chose to use a Raspberry Pi for this example but any PC, Mac or other computer that can run Python would be fine as well.

Note that you might ultimately gain better mileage using a powered USB hub to connect the Watch Dog to the Raspberry Pi, as we observed an Under-voltage detected! message in the system log file when first connecting the Watch Dog. The Raspberry Pi otherwise showed no problems powering the Watch Dog receiver.

FINDING THE WATCH DOG’S SERIAL PORT IN RASPBIAN

Run the following Linux command to determine on which port your Watch Dog is available:

dmesg | grep tty

Look for a line containing a message like USB ACM device. Copy down the full tty value for a later step, e.g. ttyACM0 in our case. See Fig. 2.

Fig. 2: Our Watch Dog was found on ttyACM0.

Next, clone the GitHub repository or simply download the AlarmEmail.py program directly from here: https://github.com/rfengineers/Watch-Dog-Python.

Open up the AlarmEmail.py program in your favorite text editor and change the following parameters:

ALARM_LIMIT_SECS

This limits how often, in seconds, an alarm email will be sent. For instance, if set to 900 then the program will wait 15 minutes before sending another alarm email. Leave at the default value of 900 seconds if this works for you.

ALARM_POLL_SECS

This is how often the program will query the Watch Dog via its serial interface to get the latest alarms reading. Leaving this at the default value of 15 seconds should be fine for most uses.

WATCH_DOG_PORT

Put in the value that you found above in the “Finding the Watch Dog’s serial port in Raspbian” section. For example, if the value you found was “/dev/ttyACM1” then you would change this value to that. You can leave it at the default value if your Watch Dog showed up on the same port as ours.

CONFIGURING ALARMEMAIL.PY EMAIL SETTINGS

You will need to change several email-related settings, and possibly a few other email-related settings as well.

EMAIL_SUBJECT

You can leave this as it is if you are fine with the default message we chose. Otherwise change to suit your needs.

EMAIL_FROM

You will need to put your email address here, or the email address where you want the emails to come from.

EMAIL_PASSWORD

The password used to send email on your email server with your email address. I used my Gmail account, which required that I set up an App Password. More info on that here: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en.

EMAIL_TO

Where the email alerts should be sent.

EMAIL_SERVER_HOSTNAME

This is the hostname of the email server for the email address you are sending from. In my case, I was sending from my Gmail account, so I used smtp.gmail.com.

EMAIL_SERVER_PORT

The default port should be fine for most email servers. Otherwise you can change it here as needed.

RUNNING ALARMEMAIL.PY

Fig. 3: AlarmEmail.py showing normal output with no alarms.Simply execute the following command to run the program: python AlarmEmail.py. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3: AlarmEmail.py showing normal output with no alarms.

Pulling the antenna from our Watch Dog receiver was enough for us to generate several alarms. See Figs. 4 and 5.

Fig. 4: Simulating an alarm condition and receiving an alert email. Fig. 5: An alert email showed up on my phone within seconds. ADVANCED: CONFIGURE ALARMEMAIL.PY FOR 24X7X365 FAIL-SAFE OPERATION

Fig. 6: Installing and starting the AlarmEmail.py systemd service.We want AlarmEmail.py to stay running, even if the Raspberry Pi temporarily loses power, is rebooted, or if the program ever crashes. We will accomplish this by running AlarmEmail.py as a Linux systemd service. Copy the AlarmEmail.service file from our GitHub repository to the /lib/systemd/system/ directory on the Raspberry Pi (see Fig. 6) and then issue two more commands to start the service:

sudo cp AlarmEmail.service /lib/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable AlarmEmail.service
sudo systemctl start AlarmEmail.service

Fig. 6: Installing and starting the AlarmEmail.py systemd service.

You may also want to go ahead and reboot your Raspberry Pi now to verify that the service starts on boot.

CONCLUSION

Getting real-time email alerts from devices that don’t provide an Ethernet interface can be easily accomplished when you combine a Raspberry Pi or other computer and a bit of Python code. In this sense, the Raspberry Pi can be a great piece of “glue” for broadcast engineers.

This article will hopefully get you thinking about other automation opportunities for your broadcasting infrastructure. For example, using similar methods to those outlined above, a device like the Watch Dog receiver could easily be turned into a multi-station confidence monitor. Stay tuned, as we will likely be publishing just such an article in the near future.

Dan D’Andrea is an amateur radio operator, embedded systems enthusiast, Software-Defined Radio (SDR) hobbyist and professional software developer with 20 years of industry experience.

Send your RWEE story ideas to rweetech@gmail.com.

***

Read the previous Raspberry Pi article by Todd Dixon.

The post Get Email Alerts From an RFEngineers Watch Dog Receiver appeared first on Radio World.

The author is editor-in-chief of the UNESCO Courier.

Is radio out of date? Is it time to bury this medium that entered our homes nearly a century ago? Far from it.

Certainly, the transistor of yesteryear has lived its life. Linear listening, ear glued to the radio receiver, has had its day. Radio has begun its digital transformation. Today, listeners are just as likely, if not more so, to tune in on their mobile phones or computers.

A major factor in reinventing the medium has been the production of podcasts — programs available on demand. Radio can sometimes even be watched, when programs are filmed and posted online. The listener has evolved too. Once passive behind their devices, they can now take part in broadcasts, and even help shape programs, by voicing their opinions on social media.

CRUCIAL ROLE

So it is a very different but thriving medium that we now celebrate on Feb. 13 each year, on World Radio Day. Proclaimed in 2011, the day reminds us of the crucial role of this medium, which reaches a wide audience, even in the most isolated areas or in emergency situations. Since UNESCO’s creation, the Organization has relied on this key medium to help fulfill its mandate to foster freedom of expression and the free flow of ideas throughout the world.

The Organization provided programs to radio stations around the world, supporting radio information campaigns — such as the 2016 information campaign on the Zika virus in Latin America and the Caribbean — something it continues to do today. UNESCO offers training in radio broadcasting and reporting, as it has done for young Syrian refugees in Lebanon since 2014. It also supports the creation of community radio stations, or those broadcasting in the aftermath of natural disasters.

The theme of World Radio Day 2020 is diversity. This remains a burning issue because the representation of women, minorities and people with disabilities on the airwaves is still unsatisfactory. We have come a long way since female reporters had to make way for men to read their reports on air, because male voices were considered more credible. But the challenge is real.

The lack of statistics in many countries makes it impossible to draw a global map of diversity in radio. But the data that does exist, speaks for itself. In France in 2018, women accounted  for 37% (Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel, 2019) of radio broadcasters. They constituted 23% of political guests, and 37% of experts on radio.

In the United Kingdom, while 51% of radio staff were women, only 36% held positions of responsibility (Ofcom, 2019). Another example: in the United States, in 2017, only 11% of radio newsroom staff were from minority backgrounds (The Radio and Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and Hofstra University Newsroom Survey, 2018).

It’s important that radio reflects the audiences it serves more accurately, because diversity in radio is the key to fair and independent information. It is also a means of giving a voice to the variety of cultures and opinions that form the basis for critical thinking.

In spite of the evolution of radio in recent years, it remains that irreplaceable voice, which populates our solitude and seems to speak to us alone — even though it addresses the multitude. In a world invaded by screens, “paradoxically, one advantage of radio is that it is not accompanied by the image”, noted the UNESCO Courier in the editorial of its February 1997 issue devoted to radio.

This message is just as relevant today. “The chief quality of the TV image — that it seems so realistic — is actually its main flaw because it inhibits our imagination and our capacity to stand back and think,” the editorial continues. “We shall always need sound without image as part of our right to interpret for ourselves, as we tune in to the morning news, the meaning of world events.”

This article first appeared in the UNESCO Courier.

The post World Radio Day: Radio Is “Stronger and More Vibrant Than Ever” appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters is closely monitoring the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in China, with an eye toward its potential impact on attendance and exhibitors at the 2020 NAB Show, April 18-22, in Las Vegas.

As of this writing, no exhibitors have pulled out due to the virus; however, NAB is currently reaching out to companies from China to assess their status, said Ann Marie Cummings, senior vice president of Communications for the broadcaster trade association.

According to NAB’s demographic breakdown of its 2019 show, 30% of non-U.S. attendees came from Asia.

This week, several large companies, including Amazon, Ericsson, Intel, LG, Nvidia and Sony, announced they were pulling out of the 2020 Mobile World Congress, April 24-27, in Barcelona due to the risk of coronavirus.

In Las Vegas, the city’s convention bureau has seen no cancellation of trade shows since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, China, said Erica Johnson, director of communications of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. There are 16 trade shows with more than 5,000 expected attendees scheduled for Las Vegas between now and the beginning of April.

As of Feb. 12, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at 45,171 with 1,115 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. NAB is following the advice of the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control as it plans its 2020 gathering, said Cummings.

[Coronavirus: ABU Takes “Necessary Precautions” for DBS 202]

“The health and safety of our attendees and exhibitors is our first priority,” and to that end, the association is developing policies and procedures “to combat potential threats and ensure a safe and productive environment for all,” said Cummings.

Possible steps include “enforcing best practices to prevent the spread of flu viruses,” ramped up sanitation efforts and making sure medical personnel are present at the event, said Cummings.

While it is still too early to determine what, if any, effect the virus will have on the show, the trade association is “confident the NAB Show will convene as the world’s largest and most comprehensive media and technology convention,” she said.

“More importantly, our hearts go out to the citizens of China and all who have been directly affected,” said Cummings.

The post NAB Monitoring Coronavirus, Assessing Impact on 2020 Show appeared first on Radio World.