Industry News

Fig. 1: Searching for warmth, this critter met its end inside a transmitter.

Jim Leedham’s Broadcast Electronics FM35T transmitter was down, although the station air signal was protected by a backup. As he drove to the site, Jim ran through the scenarios of what he might find, as most engineers do. 

Once on site, Jim killed the breakers, shorted the components and with a strong trouble lamp looked inside. It didn’t take long to find something that didn’t belong, as you will see in Fig. 1. He quickly removed the intruder and restored the rig to the air. 

The rest of Jim’s time was spent seeking to improve his rodent prevention. He plugged a couple of cable pass-throughs at the base of the transmitter. He also inspected the floor and racks for droppings, which would indicate a larger infestation. None found, he spread mothballs and mouse bait to guard against future intruders. 

This is the season when rodents seek the comfort of a building. A few steps now can ensure they don’t choose your transmitter building.

*** Fig. 2: Mice “Walk the Plank” in this commercially available mouse trap.

While we’re on the subject of rodent infestation: Wolfram Engineering principal engineer Greg Muir read about the DIY rat trap we described in October. He says he recently discovered a similar “trap” for rodents at one of the sites he maintains. 

As pictured in Fig. 2, a “plank” is mounted on a pivot shaft near the edge of a bucket. This plank is held in a horizontal position by a weak magnet, placed underneath, just before the pivot shaft. The unsuspecting mouse heads up the ramp (Fig. 3) and walks out onto the plank to get to the peanut butter. The magnet separates from its keeper, and the plank gives way, dumping the mouse into the water in the bottom of the bucket. 

Fig. 3: The plank tips as the mouse approaches the peanut butter bait.

The assembly appears to be a commercially-made item; the Home Depot bucket may suggest the source. Greg says that this rig was in place for a few months and never did dunk a mouse (even though the traditional mouse bait, located in other parts of the room, effectively did its job). 

Greg theorizes that the local mice may have served on board ships at some point, and knew full well what a mutiny meant! Arrrrrr, matey.

For sites where traps can be checked daily, Radio World editor Paul McLane prefers humane traps and recommends you Google “humane mouse trap.” 

***

From Monday Morning Coffee and Technical Notes — a free e-newsletter from the Alabama Association of Broadcasters, authored by Larry Wilkins, past recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award — comes this reminder: By now, all stations should have updated their EAS equipment to handle IPAWS messages correctly. 

The deadline was Nov. 8; however, some stations may have taken advantage of what they consider a “60-day extension.” The FCC did not issue an extension, but Part 11 of the rules has always contained a paragraph noting that if an EAS device is not operating normally, the station could operate for up to 60 days while correcting the problem. Larry warns that this is not a reason for delaying your upgrade.

***

Special project engineer and Radio World colleague Dan Slentz is a wealth of broadcast solutions, many of them at low- or no-cost. Dan found a radio news service that provides news content to stations at no charge, while encouraging financial support donations.

Public News Service delivers one newscast per  day, updating it if something is breaking. The six-minute newscast has a three- minute “clean out point” with the cue, “This is PNS.” 

They also offer both state and regional stories and actualities. The best part, they stay “content neutral,” meaning no “pro” or “anti” anyone. Find it at www.publicnewsservice.org.

*** Fig. 4: The Tempest, supported by crowdfunding, promises “AI-powered weather forecasting” in an easy-to-use package for your home or facility.

Modern advances allow ordinary folks to install weather stations on their own property. With the advent of smart technology, a company named Weatherflow plans soon to ship its latest weather system, called Tempest. 

The Tempest promises to use artificial intelligence to provide accurate, up-to-date weather information and may be helpful at operations where conditions can “turn on a dime.” Two things that set this instrument apart are that it is solar-powered and that it is compact, about the size of a camping lantern. It’s also wireless, so no cabling is necessary. 

Google “Weatherflow Tempest.” It is scheduled to be available in retail in April, with early crowdfunding backers seeing theirs sooner. (If you haven’t yet participated in a crowdfunding venture, read up on how they work first.) 

See other interesting products (like a tiny wind meter you plug into your smartphone) at weatherflow.com. Current products from the company are available on Amazon.

***

The Society of Broadcast Engineers is promoting a mentoring program for new engineers. Radio World and Workbench heartily support that goal. If you haven’t already, please consider joining SBE, and then inquire about how you can help.

Also, you can mentor others and earn SBE recertification credit by sharing tips here in the pages of Workbench. Send tips and high-resolution photos 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 SBE and is a past recipient of the society’s Educator of the Year Award.

The post Don’t Let Mice Kill Your Transmitter appeared first on Radio World.

Michael McEwen addresses the crowd.

The North American Broadcasters Association wants radio stations to “strongly consider” adopting HD Radio hybrid IBOC mode and to participate in national and international discussions about how migrations to all-digital transmission could work. 

The association further hopes that the radio industry will support internet-based content for use by the other type of “hybrid” receivers coming to the market — those that can tune over-the-air broadcasts while also interfacing with the internet.

As Radio World has reported, a paper published this year titled “The Value Proposition of Radio in a Connected World” by a working group of the NABA Radio Committee assessed the North American radio industry and explored major issues facing practitioners in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Topics included IP delivery, connected cars, the role of metadata and issues surrounding digital transmission.

A session at the recent IBC Show in Amsterdam discussed the report further.

ALL DIGITAL

NABA Director-General Michael McEwen said, “We recommend all radio broadcasters implement a hybrid IBOC broadcast mode and offer station and network content through as many paths as possible, while emphasizing over-the-air content.” 

McEwen called on the entire industry to jointly define criteria for all-digital migration decisions and to promote regular licenses, rather than experimental ones, for all-digital radio transmission.

In the session, he reviewed recent market research about U.S. listener habits, describing the popularity and healthy status of radio, and momentum for early adopters of a hybrid approach. 

A recent Infinite Dial report from Edison Research and Triton Digital, he said, confirms that broadcast radio is by far the favorite audio source in the car, with 81% of U.S. drivers age 18+ listening to “linear” radio emissions, while “owned” digital music scores 45%, CDs 43%, online radio 28%, podcasts 26% and satellite radio 22%.

Looking at listening trends, over three years linear radio usage is almost stable, as are owned digital music and satellite radio.

The decline of CD players is evident in that report, with CDs losing about 9 points over two years (from 52% in 2017 to 43% in 2019). Online radio is advancing, if not at an irresistible pace (26% in 2017 to 28% in 2019), as are podcasts, which jumped from 19% two years ago to 26% this year.

SOLID FOUNDATION

The strength of radio’s appeal, specifically in cars, is suggested by another report, “Techsurvey 2019” from Jacobs Media. In 2019, 91% of respondents were listening to AM/FM radio for more than 1 hour per day. (Techsurvey gathers data from a pool of radio listeners, so its results should be read as providing insight into behaviors among radio listeners rather than consumers at large.)

FM radio leads the list of can’t-do-without features when buying a new car: 80% of the respondents indicated FM radio as their top priority, followed by Bluetooth and aux-in. Smart speakers are experiencing a dramatic popularity rise, gaining 6 points from 21% in 2018 to 27% in 2019. 

Listening to AM/FM stations is the most popular activity people ask their smart speakers for. The graphic is from Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” via Westwood One.

The radio industry plays a noticeable role in this success, McEwen said, since AM/FM radio scores the best result among the smart speaker audience share: 18%, followed by Amazon Music (17%) and Pandora (13%), according to the “Share of Ear” report from Edison Research. 

While the most common use of smart speakers is answering general questions (28%), a quarter of smart speaker owners listen to music from AM/FM radio on their devices, and a remarkable 15% listen to news or talk from AM/FM stations.

HYBRID APPROACH

McEwen discussed the presence and possible future scenarios for radio in dashboards. “The radio tuner is less prominent in the car,” he said. “The question I have is: Where is the radio button on the car dashboard? It’s a huge issue for us.” 

Broadcast radio remains the most popular audio source in U.S. cars. The slide is from the “Infinite Dial” report by Edison Research and Triton Digital.

He said NABA is studying “strategies on how to get radio’s prominence back to the car and how to re-engage North American in-car listeners.”

In his opinion, internet-based content created with hybrid (over-the-air plus internet) receivers encourages automakers to add the technology; so, he said, the time has come to step on the throttle of hybrid adoption for both linear and non-linear consumption. 

He also emphasized the importance of metadata in any hybrid scenario. NABA recommends stations adopt at least static metadata, but preferably dynamic metadata, and then assess their audiences’ behavior to fully understand the potential benefit of the technology. 

DYNAMIC METADATA

Making metadata visible to listeners requires work for station personnel and technology investment for the station. So why do it? 

McEwen said data analytics show that enhanced content means more listening. Emmis Broadcasting has publicly shared information about monthly listener minutes compared with station use of metadata. (The data was gathered from millions of listening hours by users of the NextRadio mobile app before the company ended support for that initiative.) 

Comparison of monthly listening figures between radio stations using static vs. dynamic metadata as gathered by NextRadio in 2016 and 2017.

According to the data, listeners spent more time with stations that supplied at least a static logo than those that did not. Listeners spent even more time with stations supplying dynamic metadata than those that only supplied static metadata: from 52% to 64% extra minutes.

McEwen also recommend resources from NAB, found at www.nab.org/innovation/digitalDashboard.asp, as a valuable source for best practices around metadata and in-car listening.

He concluded by saying a key purpose of NABA will be seeking consensus among the North America broadcast community about how to preserve radio’s prominence in the automotive dashboard. Its goals include defining technical requisites for radio and audio in the car dashboard as well as common requisites for hybrid radio and metadata. 

“Those three projects are ongoing,” McEwen explained “and we will share the results at the NAB Show next April at our Future of Radio and Audio Symposium.”

Davide Moro reports on the industry for Radio World from Bergamo, Italy.

The post NABA Urges North American Radio to Look Ahead appeared first on Radio World.

Bob Crane

In the history of affordable AM/FM portable radios, there have been few that combine sensitivity (the ability to reliably receive distant stations) with selectivity (the ability to separate them for clear, intelligible listening). Even fewer AM/FM portables have combined those characteristics with great sound, the most notable being the legendary GE Superadio/Superadio II series of the 1980s and early 1990s. (Many used Superadios are selling above their original list prices on eBay today.)

The new $89.99 CCRadio-EP PRO belongs to this exclusive club. Created by Bob Crane, long-time radio innovator/retailer and owner of the C. Crane Co., the CCRadio-EP PRO combines AM/FM sensitivity, selectivity and great sound in a large, analog-style radio receiver, complete with a large illuminated “slide rule” tuning dial. 

The CCRadio-EP PRO retails for $89.99.

Although the CCRadio-EP PRO looks like old-tech analog, it is anything but. Inside this 20th century-style case is the brain of a very 21st century digital radio.

A DECEPTIVE SIMPLICITY

At first glance, the CCRadio-EP PRO doesn’t look like a premium AM/FM portable. There’s a lot of unused space on its main front panel, like the blank dashboard of a economy car whose owner wouldn’t spring for an AM radio.

This uncluttered simplicity is misleading because the CCRadio-EP PRO is a sophisticated receiver. The deceptive appearance was a deliberate choice, driven by Crane’s core market for this radio: “It is somewhat embarrassing, but the original CCRadio-EP was made for my mother,” he said. “She painted with watercolors and drove until she was 90, but a digital radio was one thing she did not want to invest her valuable time in to learn.”

Now one mother is not enough to base a product launch on. However, when it came to the CCRadio-EP PRO, “We presumed there were a modest amount of radio listeners in the same boat,” Crane said.

“This radio was designed as a gift to radio lovers who want radio listening to be easy or uncomplicated or simple,” he added. In this way, “it has a similar position in the market as the older models of the GE Superadio.”

THE NITTY-GRITTY Internal componentry

Built as an enhanced version of C. Crane’s CCRadio-EP analog AM/FM radio, the CCRadio-EP PRO is contained inside a grey plastic case (with black trim) measuring 11.4 inches wide by 7.3 high and 2.75 wide. It comes with a 5-inch speaker and high-fidelity amplifier. Sound can be heard in mono through the front speaker, or stereo (for FM only) through earbuds or headsets.

Because he prefers analog technology, Bob Crane didn’t want to go digital with this new mode. But he had no choice.

“The analog chipset we used in the first model was not available anymore,” Crane told Radio World. “Analog chips are generally not manufactured anymore. We also lost our ferrite antenna manufacturer at same time. Changing chipsets is sometimes challenging but finding a new ferrite manufacturer was positively chilling.”

This knob allows for directionally tweaking the Twin Coil Ferrite AM Antenna. “We actually have a total of five coils on the ferrite devoted to AM reception,” said Bob Crane.

The top of the CCRadio-EP PRO has an extendable FM whip antenna plus power and display light buttons. (Being able to turn off the display light saves battery power and keeps from disturbing others at night.) There is also a flip-up handle that locks in place for easy carrying. The CCRadio-EP PRO is powered by an included 6V AC adaptor, or four D batteries.

The CCRadio-EP PRO’s speaker is on the left side of the front panel; the audio controls on the lower right side. These controls are the FM stereo/FM/AM switch for selecting bands, bass and treble knobs for adjusting audio quality and the wide/narrow bandwidth switch for the AM band. (This last switch is central to the CCRadio-EP PRO’s outstanding AM sensitivity. The narrow setting filters out adjacent AM stations to improve selectivity.) The large horizontal tuning display is at the top right side of the front panel.

[Read:  Windup Radio Inventor Trevor Baylis Changed Life for Many]

On the right side end of the CCRadio-EP PRO is the large tuning knob, the AM Fine Tuning knob (for directionally tweaking the built-in C. Crane-patented Twin Coil Ferrite AM Antenna) and the volume knob. 

“We actually have a total of five coils on the ferrite devoted to AM reception,” said Crane. “Four coils take advantage of the magnetic north/south axis of ferrite for a 3 dB boost over a typical AM antenna with one coil. The fifth coil is for the external AM antenna interface.”

On the left side end are located a headphone jack, a line input jack that allows the CCRadio-EP PRO to serve as an amplified speaker for a connected music player/smartphone, and the AC adaptor power jack. 

Finally, the back panel of the CCRadio-EP PRO contains ports to attach a two-wire AM and/or coaxial-style FM external antenna, an Internal/external antenna switch, a 9 kHz/10 kHz tuning step switch (for using this radio in countries with 9 kHz spacing between AM stations rather than the 10 kHz gaps of the United States), and the battery compartment door. 

The company estimates that the CCRadio-EP PRO will run for up to 300 hours on D cell batteries, if the display light is kept off.

AM TV-STYLE PERFORMANCE

Back in 2010, I measured the crowded nighttime AM radio landscape in my hometown of Ottawa, Canada, using the stock AM/FM receiver inside my 2006 Mazda MPV minivan (which is still on the road today). Available at https://tinyurl.com/rw-am-dx, the test showed that U.S. AM stations such as WSB-750 Atlanta (935 miles away) can be received in Ottawa at night, when AM signals propagate over the horizon due to bouncing off the ionosphere.

I certainly expected the CCRadio-EP PRO to be even more sensitive than the Mazda’s AM radio, and it did not disappoint. The AM band on the CCRadio-EP PRO was jammed at night. But thanks to this radio’s wide/narrow filter set to the narrow setting (you lose a bit of audio range using the Narrow filter in exchange for eliminating adjacent channel overlap), the CCRadio-EP PRO was never overloaded. Scanning across the AM band in narrow mode was like flipping channels on a television set. The selectivity was that good.

Meanwhile, the AM fine tuning knob allowed me to boost a selected AM station’s power and clarity (as did rotating the radio on its horizontal axis to improve directional reception). In cases where two radio stations were on the same channel, I was able to tune one out in favor of the other. (Granted, AM signals did fade in and out, which is due to the nature of AM propagation at night.)

The most impressive proof of the CCRadio-EP PRO’s selectivity was its ability to separate New York’s WCBS(AM) on 880 from Chicago’s WLS(AM) on 890. WCBS is a powerhouse in Ottawa at night, even coming in occasionally during the day if the atmospheric conditions are right. On other radios, WLS would be drowned out by WCBS. On the CCRadio-EP PRO, WLS punched through.

FM STEREO SURPRISE

I assumed that the CCRadio-EP PRO’s FM performance would be excellent, and again this radio did not disappoint. It received and separated lots of FM stations effortlessly, even without the whip antenna extended.

The big surprise was how different each FM music station sounded on the ear buds. Depending on the era that the song was recorded in, the frequency separations varied widely. Some songs in stereo had the highs and lows congregated together. Others had the bass guitar on the far side of the left channel (or so it seemed to this listener), and the drums far on the right.

The CCRadio-EP PRO is what it promises to be, and more. For $89.99, C. Crane Co. has created a top-of-the-line AM/FM receiver that makes radio listening fun again, all driven by Bob Crane’s undying love for this medium, and for his mother.

Comment on this or any story to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post C. Crane Offers Up a Premium Portable appeared first on Radio World.

BRUSSELS — The second edition of Digital Radio Week took place Nov. 4–8, hosting a number of events and special broadcasts. The now nationwide gathering is designed to promote and inform Belgians about the benefits of DAB+, and digital radio.

Radio executives celebrate the launch of DAB+. Pictured from left are Francis Goffin, maRadio.be; Stéphane Gilbert, Radio Contact; Xavier Huberland, RTBF; Emmanuel Mesdag, Bel RTL; Jacques Galloy, 1RCF; Natacha Delvallée, Sud Radio; Marc Vossen,N-Group; Maria-Eva Jauregui, Antipode; Philippe Deraymaeker, Dh Radio; Gregory Finn, Fun Radio; and Eric Adelbrecht, Maximum FM. Credit: mmpress

“This year, for the very first time, DAB+ platforms (Digitale Radio Vlaanderen and maRadio.be), radio stations and governments team-up to add a national dynamic to the Digital Radio Week,” explained Eric Adelbrecht, president of maRadio.be, grouping RTBF and the commercial stations in Wallonia.

Public broadcaster Radio 2 offered free DAB+ receivers in a competition during the week. Credit: VRT

After one year of thorough testing, Karim Ibourki, Conseil Supérieur de L’Audiovisuel president, announced the launch of DAB+ in the southern Belgium

RADIO IS NOT DEAD

“Contrary to what some people think, radio is not dead,” Ibourki said. “Recent figures reveal that 85% of the European population listens to radio. Last summer, we assigned 123 radio frequencies, including four DAB+ only networks and eight DAB+ only independent stations. The audience will benefit from the transition to DAB+, resulting in a bigger diversity with more stations broadcasting.”

The new Nostalgie+ logo.

With the French-language public broadcaster RTBF acting as network operator, 23 stations are broadcasting in DAB+, covering between 98% (car) and 75% (indoor) of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Region. The region’s commercial networks and stations each pay RTBF some €100,000 per year for their DAB+ transmission.

Manufacturers joined the event with a DAB+ receiver campaign.

“We’re probably the biggest beneficiary of DAB+,” said Maria-Eva Jauregui, managing director of Antipode. “As a regional FM broadcaster covering the Walloon Brabant region, DAB+ now gives us access to the Brussels area, and some 1.4 million listeners.”

In Flanders, DAB+ is gaining momentum — during Digital Radio Week, Digitale Radio Vlaanderen published the results of a survey issued by market research company Ipsos, revealing that the DAB+ audience tripled (from 3 to 9%).

MORE DIGITAL STATIONS

The study also showed that 55% of the Flemish population is familiar with DAB+ technology. “Media is in full transition,” said newly appointed Flemish Media Minister Benjamin Dalle. “It’s my intention to continue supporting Digitale Radio Vlaanderen, both substantively and financially.”

DPG has just added the digital Q-Moose Bar channel offering “après-ski” ambiance. Credit: DPG Media

DPG Media, parent of Joe and Qmusic, used the occasion of the Digital Radio Week to announce the launch of three new channels. “Digital has become the new normal, and we evolve with our audience,” commented DPG Media Radio Director An Caers.

“After the recent launch of Willy, we have now gone ahead with Joe 60s & 70s and Joe Christmas on DAB+ as well as the digital ‘après-ski’ channel ‘Q-Moose Bar’.”

Both maRadio.be and Digitale Radio Vlaanderen promoted DAB+ listening during Digital Radio Week with radio and TV-commercials, educational videos, free DAB+ receiver sets and information on social media. The Digital Radio Week was also embraced by leading retailers nationwide.

In the French speaking part of the country, maRadio.be set up a seven-week commercial radio campaign with between 112 and 154 DAB+ spots per station, promoting the launch of DAB+ for a total investment value of some €1.2 million.

The post Belgium Holds National Digital Radio Week appeared first on Radio World.

While it hardly qualifies as cutting-edge technology, the project described here did provide a solution to an annoying problem I have faced several times: How do you get a decent off-air signal from an AM station, where the studio is in a modern curtain-wall office building and is located at or beyond the 5 mV/m contour of the station?

I saw evidence that several engineers had explored solutions in the past. The hardware was still around when I arrived. A very nice (and pricey!) commercially-made shielded loop was installed on the roof with inside phantom power for its preamp in the studio racks seven floors down. That didn’t really work. A better antenna signal could be had from the coax shield than from the actual loop antenna and preamp output.

Another iteration was the installation of pre-amplified loopstick antennas, taped to the window glass in one of the studios with coax routed back to the rack-mounted receivers. This, too, yielded a marginal signal — enough to tell if we were on the air, but not useful for critical evaluation at all.

Yet the stations both had very usable, listenable signals on my car radio parked in the building driveway.

A COMMON PROBLEM

As is always the problem with metal-skinned buildings, the openings in the exterior walls behave like sections of waveguide at frequencies below cutoff — virtually all of the field is cancelled. I concluded that no inside solution would ever work satisfactorily. Long runs of coax also weren’t working.

How could the car radio result be replicated in the building? To do that, I borrowed old technology and married it with some moderately-priced new technology to build what I believe is a solid solution.

Fig. 1: Home-brew shielded loop antennas.

I fabricated two shielded loop antennas from home center components as shown in Fig. 1. Inside the tubing is 10 turns of ordinary hookup wire. I used some multi-conductor wire and joined the ends to make one long wire length (see Fig. 2). Recall that the purpose of a shielded loop is to make the antenna responsive to only the magnetic component of the transmitted signal.

Fig. 2: Multi-conductor wire with the ends connected together was used to make the actual loop conductors. Note the variable capacitor used to resonate the loop.

The shield is there to prevent successful capacitive coupling with electrostatic fields. Since the electrostatic fields from AM stations (and from most sources of interference) are vertically polarized, the electrostatic field induces voltage in only the vertical pieces of conduit. That same electric field exists inside the tubing as well and induces a voltage on the wire turns inside.

So how does this shielding help? Because the electric field in the vertical tubing sections induces voltage in the wire turns in opposite directions on either side of the loop. Thus the electrostatic contribution (in a perfect world) cancels. The gap in the conduit at the top of the loop (Fig. 3) is to avoid having the shield look like a shorted transformer turn, thus cancelling the magnetic component as well.

Fig. 3: A gap in the top of the loop creates the necessary electrostatic break, just like on your FIM.

This is how your field intensity meter works. Regardless that the meter scale is calibrated in volts per meter, it is a magnetic device. The relationship between the electric field and the associated magnetic field is a known constant (120π)t  and the Potomac folks figure you won’t be using the meter in other than an air environment, a pretty safe bet. Loop orientation works just like your field meter as well, with distinct nulls and maxima as you rotate it.

To provide just a bit of pre-selection to the loop, I added a small transistor-radio-style variable capacitor bought from an eBay seller. I calculated my ten turns to have about 200 microhenries, but with the capacitance contributed by the tubing and other unquantifiables, who knows?

My variable cap has two sections, each about 220 picofarads. I paralleled the sections and wired loop and capacitor as a tank circuit — the miracle of adjustable components. Just turn the dial until it works! Tune for maximum smoke. The result is a broad resonance, but helpful for me, since my location is in the 50+ mV/m field of two other AM stations.

To couple each loop to a receiver, I used some randomly chosen ferrites found in a drawer and made a small ferrite loaded transformer for each loop antenna. I figured the impedance of the loop would be low. I guessed maybe an ohm or two. So, a 1:5 turns ratio would get me somewhere in the 50-ohm neighborhood.

NON-CRITICAL DESIGN

As you’ve probably guessed by now, nothing in this design is particularly critical. The radios are ordinary Panasonic in-dash models bought on eBay for about $20 each. This, too, is anything but critical.

Now, with two steerable antennas, I have a decent signal from both stations. But how to get that RF down seven floors to the studio? The answer is not to try. Instead, I installed my two car radio receivers in a weatherproof box (see below) and clamped the whole business to a railing on the roof.

The signals from two AM stations, as well as power, are carried on a piece of Cat-6 cable following the telephone riser path down the seven floors and into our leased space. Power comes up on two paralleled pairs, and baseband audio is coupled from the radio speaker outputs on the other two pairs.

The radios I used are bridge amplifier designs, meaning that the speakers are driven in a balanced, differential way, but I used small audio transformers for isolation anyway. Preserving balance yields undiminished audio quality downstairs. I also added a local headphone jack for each, allowing confirmation of proper operation before leaving the roof.

The whole business was installed into what Amazon calls a “black, tactical, weatherproof case” as shown in Fig. 4. We’ve all seen these used for sensitive electronics that must be shipped. They have snap locks and gasketed lids. I just ordered a generously sized one and installed the shelves you see. The loop antennas attach using ordinary 3/4-inch plumbing components with the antenna coax fished through. I added reinforcement where the pipe flanges attach. Finally, the whole assembly is U-bolted to the railing.

Fig. 4: The Panasonic receivers were mounted in a black, tactical, weatherproof case.

WHAT ABOUT POWER?

Powering the system remotely involved a little I-squared-R thinking. The Cat-6 run overall was about 250 feet. Paralleled Cat-6 conductors at that distance worked out to be about 5 ohms overall. I had no idea what current the radios drew and, barely visible in the pictures, is a small lead-acid battery also in the enclosure. It’s there to hold up the radios’ channel memory if the downstairs power needs to be disconnected for some reason. It needs to remain charged.

Finally, there’s a small 12-volt fan in the box as well. I guessed 2 amps for the radios which, with 5 ohms on the way, means my 12 volts will be 2 volts on the roof. I could have done some bench measurements and built a supply, but when I can buy a 30-volt 3-amp adjustable supply with metering and overcurrent protection on Amazon for $60, why bother? The supply is pictured in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: This $60 variable supply was perfect for powering the receivers and keeping the battery trickle-charged.

With the battery disconnected, the supply voltage was gradually raised until the receivers saw about 13 volts. I then noted the current. When the battery was connected, the voltage came down to about 12.8 and the current increased by about 50 milliamperes. That seemed a reasonable amount for trickle charging one of the 7 amp-hour batteries commonly used in UPS devices. We’ll see.

Anyway, the completed project, which is shown in Fig. 6, was simple, straightforward, not too terribly expensive, and solved a long-standing and annoying problem. For engineers it doesn’t get any better than that.

Fig. 6: The completed rooftop installation.

Frank McCoy is chief engineer of Salem Communications’ Chicago cluster. Got an idea for a hands-on engineering article? Email rweetech@gmail.com.

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Inovonics has released firmware updates for five of its INOmini receiver-monitor models. The company says the update “improves the internal reference clock” as well as addresses other issues since the June release of these products.

The new firmware is available at each product’s description page and is also aggregated on the Downloads section. The models with available updates are:

• INOmini 661 DAB+ Firmware
• INOmini 673 FM/RDS Receiver
• INOmini 674 AM Reciver
• INOmini 676 NOAA Receiver
• INOmini 679 HD Receiver

Read instructions for downloading and installing the updates here.

 

The post Inovonics Updates INOmini Firmware appeared first on Radio World.

All four commissioners and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission stand behind the decision to propose hefty fines against two Boston-area individuals accused of allegedly operating radio stations without a license.

At its December meeting, the FCC proposed two forfeitures — one of $151,005 and the second of more than $450,000 — an action that marks the largest fine ever proposed by the FCC against a pirate radio operation.

[Read: Failing to Notify FCC of Primary Station Change Proves Costly]

The commission proposed a forfeiture of $453,015 against Gerlens Cesar, the operator of Radio TeleBoston, for allegedly broadcasting three unauthorized transmitters on two different frequencies. According to the FCC, Cesar allegedly simulcast Radio TeleBoston on three unauthorized transmitters on two different frequencies, which had the potential to cause interference in various locations in and around Boston and at different channels on the FM dial. As a result, the commission proposed the maximum penalty amount for all three transmitters.

Cesar had been notified that his broadcasts were illegal, but the FCC said he continued to broadcast Radio TeleBoston from multiple transmitters and frequencies.

In a second action, the commission proposed a fine of $151,005 against Acerome Jean Charles who the FCC accused of being the long-time operator of an unlicensed radio station in Boston called Radio Concorde. Despite several FCC warnings, Jean Charles apparently continued to broadcast radio signals without authority at power levels that require an FCC license.

In the case of Radio Concorde, the FCC received a complaint from a local Boston-area broadcaster who said that Radio Concorde’s broadcast on 106.3. MHz from the Mattapan neighborhood in Boston was interfering with the station’s new FM transmitter station at 106.1 MHz. The complaint was investigated by field agents from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau who repeatedly warned Jean Charles that his alleged broadcast were in violation of FCC rules.

According to the FCC, Jean Charles ignored repeated warning from FCC field agents. He has been given an opportunity to respond to the commission’s Notice of Apparent Liability before further action is taken.

According to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the two Notices of Apparent Liability send a strong signal that the FCC will not tolerate unlicensed radio broadcasting. In each case, he said, the pirate radio operator in question was given multiple warnings that he was violating the law. In each case, therefore, the commission moved to proposing the maximum forfeiture amount permitted under the Communications Act.

“The harms of unlicensed radio broadcasting are serious: pirate stations interfere with licensed stations — whose owners have invested time and money in providing lawful service to the public — and can also cause interference to critical public safety systems,” he said.

Pai pointed out the other “legal alternatives” to unlicensed broadcasting including former windows for low-power FM construction permits, permits for vacant FM allotments as well as internet streaming.

Both Chairman Pai and Commissioner Michael O’Rielly praised the efforts of the Enforcement Bureau, saying that field staff members “relentlessly pursue these rogue, illegal actors” even as the plague of pirate radio operations continues to persist for the FCC.

“[P]irates not only harm legitimate broadcasters and their listeners in multiple ways, but also put their own audiences at risk by failing to broadcast any emergency alerts or abide by consumer protection regulations,” O’Rielly said.

Although O’Rielly admitted that the FCC may never see a single dollar from these illegal operators, “our goal must be to use our enforcement authority to help shut down the perpetrators, those aiding and abetting, and any landlord willing to house such activities.”

 

The post FCC Proposes Record-breaking Forfeitures to Pirate Radio Operators appeared first on Radio World.

According to the latest WorldDAB market report, more than 82 million consumer and automotive DAB/DAB+ receivers had been sold in Europe and Asia Pacific by the end of Q2 2019. This, it shows, is up from 71 million one year earlier.

The new data gives an overview of DAB receiver sales, road and population coverage, household penetration and the number of national stations on DAB/DAB+ compared to FM. The report covers Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It also also details the rollout status in 24 emerging markets including information on trials and population coverage.

Key findings from the WorldDAB report include:

• More than 40 million receivers have been sold in the U.K., with 65% of households having at least one DAB receiver
• In Switzerland, 65% of all radio listening is via digital platforms, and 35% of all listening is on DAB+. Switzerland has also confirmed digital switchover will take place no later than the end of 2024
• Italy, France, Netherlands and Belgium all show positive signs of growth in the last year
• In Norway, following its digital switchover in 2017, radio listening is now back to similar levels as achieved in 2016

“2019 has been an exceptional year for DAB+ radio. By mandating digital terrestrial capabilities in all new car radios, the European Electronic Communications Code is transforming the European radio landscape. This year we have seen DAB+ launches in Austria and Sweden, and next year France will launch national DAB+. In the Asia Pacific region, Australia is seeing its highest ever levels of DAB+ in new cars, and Tunisia is the first country in Africa to launch regular DAB+ services,” said Patrick Hannon, WorldDAB president. “A record 12 million DAB receivers were sold worldwide in the last 12 months, and we expect this figure to grow in 2020 as DAB+ uptake continues to rise.”

To download the latest infographic, click here.

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We reported in May that URCA, The Utilities Regulation & Competition Authority in the Bahamas, had shuttered Sportsradio 103(FM), owned by Navette Broadcasting.

At the time, the broadcaster claimed that the decision was “unlawful and unconstitutional,” and that it was “eager” to have a date in appeals court to defend itself and prove its “rightful claim” to the 103.5 FM radio license. There is a question now, however, about whether that day will ever arrive.

In recent developments, Kahlil Parker, Navette Broadcasting’s attorney, said to the appellate court that the decision to close its client’s broadcast company was a “unilateral decision” and “without due process of law.”

The company had originally filed two appeals but then requested to begin judicial review proceedings. Navette ended up withdrawing the first two appeals, but then the court dismissed Navette’s application for the judicial review proceedings.

Parker said he subsequently — and tardily — filed a notice of appeal against that decision. He did so late, he said, because he erroneously thought the judge’s verdict was a final judgment and that he couldn’t appeal it. When he realized however that he was mistaken, he belatedly requested the appeal.

Now, according to reports, URCA’s lawyer argues that Navette shouldn’t be granted time to appeal due to its “continuous refusal” to “abide” by the appeal process.

As a result, Navette Broadcasting still does not know whether it will be sanctioned for unintentionally not carrying out the appeal process correctly, or if it will be granted more time to state its case.

The post Navette Broadcasting Awaits Day in Court appeared first on Radio World.

There have been plenty of articles written about small single-board computers including in the RW family of magazines (most recently, https://tinyurl.com/rw-pi-2). Getting started with the Pi or Arduino is easy because there is so much ready-to-run software available.

This article begins a series focusing on simple, practical, cost-effective and reliable uses of the Raspberry Pi and Arduino in the broadcast environment.

This first article will serve as a brief introduction for those who haven’t started “Making Pi” yet. Here’s your first warning: The people who make these little systems love bad puns and plays on the device names.

HATS ON!

When the Raspberry Pi foundation released their first system-on-a-chip (SOC) in 2012, they had no idea how overwhelming the response would be. The credit-card-sized computer once meant to be an easy entry point for British students to get into programming and computer science has burgeoned into a whole community of add-on boards (“hats”), screens and extras that people all around the world are using for all kinds of things.

Raspberry Pi computers have ARM processors on them and most Linux distributions that support those processors will run on them. There are also Windows 10 IOT (Internet of Things) embedded platforms that will run on them as well.

The most popular operating system for it by far is Raspbian, which is a derivative of Debian Linux. The Raspberry Pi foundation also has an OS image called NOOBS, which will allow you to install a number of different options on it as well.

Getting started is as easy as buying a Pi, a case and its accompanying necessities, which you might already own, namely a microSD card, a 5V-2A wall-wart-type supply with a micro USB connection, an HDMI cable and a USB keyboard and mouse.

Several starter kits are available that include cases, power supplies and NOOBS already installed on a microSD card. If you already have access to a microSD card, it is simple enough to go to www.raspberrypi.org and download any of the OS images that they have there. There are also details on how to get the image onto the card.

FEEL THE BURN

My particular preference is to use a program called Etcher, which will take any OS image and burn it to flash memory (including USB thumb drives). We’ll have an article about my Linux distribution of choice (DietPi) for Raspberry Pi in a future article.

One of the first real-world uses of the Pi in our studios was as a network AirPrint server to allow wireless device printing. Prior to smartphones and tablets, when we received a new computer, I would have to install print drivers for any network printers, and we had several throughout the building. On top of that, IOS and Android phones and tablets needed a way to print email and other documents in the same way as their computer counterparts. See Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Our Raspberry Pi happily running a network AirPrint server.

When the Raspberry Pi came along, I saw an opportunity to provide a cost-effective designated computer that would simply provide all of that on the network and relieve my print driver installing duties at the same time. I downloaded the latest Raspbian version that was available and transferred the image to the microSD card.

With power, HDMI, Ethernet, mouse and keyboard connected, I plugged the unit in and let it install itself. The install, as expected, prompted to set time zones, language defaults, etc.

The default user and password is “pi” and “raspberry,” respectively. It goes without saying that network security concerns should motivate you to change the default password. Using the Raspberry Configuration GUI will allow you to make those changes.

You can also enter a terminal, type sudo raspi-config and enter the password, and do it that way. You’ll want to change a number of things including the Raspberry Pi’s host name and also the ability to connect to the Pi via secure shell and VNC by enabling them in the interfacing options. You will probably want to set a static IP address as well.

For the print server, there were several packages that needed to be installed: samba, cups, cups-server, avahi-discover and (if you have an HP printer) hplip. Samba will allow windows network sharing. “CUPS” stands for “Common Unix Printing System” and provides the actual print server packages. Avahi-discover is what allows IOS and Android to find the print server and all of the printers that are available. Finally, hplip as the name implies, supports HP printers.

At the command prompt in an xterm window, you simply enter sudo apt-get install samba cups cups-server avahi-discover hplip and the APT package manager will add those packages to your base install.

Linux has “conf” files and in this case, there are two that may need to be adjusted. Samba’s configuration file is located at /etc/samba/smb.conf and the CUPS configuration file is located at /etc/cups/cupsd.conf. Depending on the way your network is configured, you may need to edit those files. The way to do that at the CLI is to use sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf or sudo nano /etc/cups/cupsd.conf. From there, you can scroll through the files to see if there is anything that may need to be changed to suit your network.

The last two things to do before adding printers to the server is to make sure that the “pi” user is an admin for CUPS with the command sudo usermod -a -G lpadmin pi and that the CUPS server is accessible from anywhere on the network with the command sudo cupsctl  –remote-any. Lastly, reboot the pi with the sudo shutdown -r now command.

If you’ve made it this far, the sprint to the finish line is upon us. Now that we have done all of that, we can access the CUPS server locally via a web browser with your setup still connected to a display at http://127.0.0.1:631 or http://static-ip-address-you-gave-the-pi:631 from any device on the network. You’ll enter the site with the user “pi” and the password you supplied earlier. See Fig. 2. Once you click the administration tab, you can begin adding printers. Most network printers will be discovered automatically and you just need to choose them and the CUPS server will typically have a driver that will work for the given printer.

 

Fig. 2: The CUPS server home page.

WE’VE GOT RESOURCES

If you find that a driver is not available for a particular printer, many manufacturers provide drivers in the form of a PPD file. A PPD file (Postscript Printer Description) provides the CUPS server with everything it needs to setup the printer. You can generally find them on the manufacturer’s support page for the printer in question.

Once the file is downloaded, when adding the printer, choose the printer you want to add and when it presents the drivers that are available, you can provide the PPD by browsing to your download folder. Continue this process until you have added all of the printers that you want to be served over your network.

As you are reading this, you might easily fall victim to the belief that this is beyond you.  I can assure you that it will take longer to download the Raspbian operating system image and burn it to the microSD card than it will to get this print server up and running on your Raspberry Pi.

One real advantage is that if it doesn’t work out exactly as I have described, the community of people that have done this very thing and many other things with the Pi is truly massive. This is just one of the ways that a Pi has solved a problem we were having.

When you consider the power savings, the compact form factor and the ability to connect to it without having a monitor by using Secure Shell or VNC, it really makes it a perfect platform for network services like printing.

More to come next time. Email your comments or suggestions for this series to rweetech@gmail.com.

Todd Dixon is assistant engineer for Crawford Broadcasting Company in Birmingham, Ala.

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