Noemy Rodriguez and her Alcon Media isn’t just purchasing a full-power FM and an FM translator from a husband-and-wife ownership team in the Tri Cities of Washington state.
In a separate deal filed with the FCC concurrently, Alcon is also seeking FCC approval for its purchase of a second full-power FM and two more FM translators.
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Wayne Eckert is an engineer with the Rural Florida Communications Cooperative. He occasionally comments here in Workbench on electrical matters of interest to broadcast engineers.
He noted the article by Mark Persons in the Oct. 14 issue of Radio World detailing lightning damage at KRJM. For engineers who are interested, he points out that AT&T has a relevant document “Grounding and Bonding for Network Facilities” that can be downloaded free in PDF form.
Fig. 1: The down conductor has been stapled to the 4-by-4 pole.Wayne writes that while the document was created for central office grounding and bonding, it is now considered a company reference for all cell sites as well. And many parts it are applicable to broadcast sites, studios or any other facility where uptime is of high importance.
Wayne believes that if just some of the practices detailed in the AT&T document had been applied at KRJM, the damage suffered could have been greatly reduced.
One thing that caught Wayne’s eye was it appears that the pole supporting the STL link lacked a down ground. Wayne bases this opinion on the damage to the pole and from what Wayne could see in the photograph.
A down ground is an old utility practice and is a simple lightning protection device. Normally before the pole is placed, a lineman will secure a #6 hard drawn copper conductor to the pole with fencing staples. This line will attach from the top of the pole to the “butt” or bottom of the pole, leaving 6 inches or so of it standing above the top and coil up a few feet of the cable on the butt.
The goal is to produce a grounding electrode on the butt of the pole, so when the pole is placed in the earth it will make good contact with the earth.
If the pole is already in place, you can add a down conductor by installing an 8-foot ground rod into the earth.
Note well: Before pounding anything into the earth, contact your state’s one-call utility notification center. All states have such centers and require by law that you call 48 to 72 hours before digging. In most states the number is 811.
A “locate” will be scheduled and done at no charge to determine if there are any underground utilities present. Keep in mind that though this service is free, it is not “next day,” so plan your work, giving the “locates” folks plenty of time. Failing to notify them can get you killed should you drive the ground rod through an electrical cable or natural gas pipe. At the least, it can result in being sent a substantial bill from a utility should you damage something below grade.
The down conductor provides a bypass for the lightning’s energy into the earth, sparing the pole from extensive damage. Keep in mind that all pole attachments shall be bonded to the down ground cable. It is required by code that you bond the grounding electrode to the building’s grounding system using a direct buried #6 copper conductor, which prevents potential differences between grounds.
Wayne included several photographs that detail a down ground installed on a pressure treated 4-by-4 support pole.
In Fig. 1 above, note how the down ground is stapled to the support post. Also note that the last 36 inches or so of the down ground cable is protected by a piece of PVC pipe secured to the post.
Since the size of the 4×4 is too small for a butt coil, a ground rod was used, shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2In this photo, also note that all of the bends in the grounding conductors are sweeps (gentle curves, no sharp angles). This is very important as it minimizes the inductance in the grounding conductors.
Fig. 3: A view at the top of the pole.Wayne writes that though lightning is direct current, it acts more like RF due to its extremely fast rise time, so inductance must be kept to a minimum.
Fig. 3 shows the top of the 4×4 pole with a pigtail, to which supporting structures like antennas or STL dishes can be bonded and grounded.
More on GDTs and MOVsRobert LaJeunesse in Ann Arbor, Mich., holds an MSEE. He read with interest our discussions about gas discharge tubes and metal oxide varistors.
Bob points out that there are unique differences. The MOV clamps above its breakdown voltage while the GDT clamps below its breakdown voltage.
This may seem like a minor point but it has a major impact on the power dissipated by the clamping device, not to mention the pass-through energy.
With the GDT clamping lower, this device reduces the amount of energy that can pass into the subsequent protected circuitry; and the lower clamping voltage likely allows for more clamping current without over-dissipating.
It also makes sense that both be used together to protect a load. The MOV would absorb lower power surges but might allow the voltage to rise significantly above the MOV threshold on a higher current surge. The GDT can then kick in and clamp the voltage down, pushing more of the dissipated power back to the source — and source wiring — thus limiting the surge power that gets to the protected device.
Bob notes two PDF resources from Littelfuse to learn more. One is “Varistor Products Overview.” The other is a datasheet about its CG6 gas discharge tubes.
John Bisset has spent more than 50 years in the broadcasting industry. With this column he begins his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. John holds CPBE certification with the Society of Broadcast Engineers. He is also a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Workbench submissions are encouraged, qualify for SBE Recertification and can be emailed to johnpbisset@gmail.com.
The post Workbench: A Lineman’s Tips to Ground an STL Pole appeared first on Radio World.
Deloitte on Tuesday released its “2021 Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions,” which highlights how worldwide trends in TMT may affect businesses and consumers worldwide.
In addition, the report highlights how many of these trends are being driven by the global pandemic’s economic and societal impacts, resulting in growth for cloud technologies, the intelligent edge, media segments such as sports and the shift to telemedicine.
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EUREKA, CALIF. — On November 10, an asset purchase agreement codified the transfer of a series of full-power and FM translator radio stations from an estate, trust and related broadcasting company to an individual who served as the day-to-day president of the stations under the now-deceased seller.
Here are the details of this Golden State transaction.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — It may be non-binding, but it certainly has meaning.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed H. Res 549, a resolution reaffirming the lower body of Congress’ commitment to diversity in media.
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Emergency alerts will be showing up on more digital billboards in the United States through a partnership of FEMA and Lamar Advertising.
“The alerts are transmitted over FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) on select Lamar digital billboards throughout the country,” the agency wrote in a press release.
[Read: COVID-19 and Emergency Alerting Best Practices]
The announcement was made by Administrator Pete Gaynor, who called 2020 an “unprecedented” year for public alerts thanks to the pandemic and “a record number” of hurricanes.
IPAWS alerts have appeared on Lamar digital billboards in 17 states “and are available to run in all 43 states that Lamar covers,” FEMA said.
“Alerts will be displayed for 30 minutes at a time. Not all alerts sent through FEMA will appear on a Lamar billboard.”
FEMA said that since 2011 IPAWS has carried more than 81,000 alerts and warnings, and of those, 11,000 have been delivered in 2020 alone.
The post FEMA Expands Use of Billboards for Alerts appeared first on Radio World.
The Telos Alliance has released a “soft” console through its Axia Audio badge.
The iQs AES67 mixing console software is an HMTL5 software-based console designed to provide remote operation powers via Windows and Mac computers along with mobile devices. It works with the company’s AE-1000 server or Docker.
[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]
Telos Alliance Executive VP of Sales, Support, and Marketing Marty Sacks said, “IQs software runs on roads built by industries much larger than our own and gives broadcasters flexible options for deployment, including our new AE-1000 server and Docker container. … All while giving you total control with a simple web browser, allowing broadcast engineers to ‘Studio Anywhere.’”
According to a release iQs is scalable and allows multiple iterations at the same time. It is compatible with off-the-shelf hardware and has easy upgrade paths. Multiple subscription levels are available. It also allows for customization.
The company also points to the advantage of cloud-based systems such as trimming cap-ex costs and also eliminating or keeping physical plant costs under control.
Info: www.telosalliance.com
The post Telos Alliance Releases Axia iQs Soft Console appeared first on Radio World.
The Federal Communications Commission has begun its largest auction of mid-band 5G spectrum.
With legacy occupants now in the process of clearing out, the commission is making “280 megahertz of prime mid-band spectrum in the 3.7–3.98 GHz band” available.
Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC “is paving the way for Americans to receive fast 5G wireless services. Together with the recent success of our 3.5 GHz band auction, our work to auction the 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz bands in 2021, and the other groundbreaking spectrum auctions we’ve held since 2017, our 5G FAST Plan is in full swing.”
Satellite companies, including the ones that serve the radio broadcast industry, are moving their services to different frequencies, a process that has involved broadcasters having to adjust their own infrastructure. The commission said the first phase of the repack of satellite operators will be done by this time next year, and the second will conclude by December of 2023.
Pai highlighted the pace of the process, saying the mid-band spectrum “will be available to deliver next-generation connectivity to American consumers and businesses years ahead of schedule.”
“This spectrum holds the potential to be prime spectrum for 5G services given its combination of geographic coverage and capacity, and the FCC’s auction procedures will ensure the assignment to auction winners of contiguous spectrum blocks allowing wide channel bandwidths that support 5G deployment,” the FCC stated.
The post C-Band 5G Spectrum Auction Begins appeared first on Radio World.
Several major U.S. media groups believe “front-line” journalists should be among those who get early access to vaccines.
The organizations sent a letter to a committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They say journalists who provide “critical and essential functions in their communities” should be included in the early phases. They emphasize the work of journalists as “a lifeline of important health information” and an important part of public education about the value of vaccines and the logistics involved.
The National Association of Broadcasters is one of the signatories.
“While highlighting the risk to journalists who are in the field reporting about health care workers and patients, meeting with people in essential businesses and covering rallies, protests and public events, the letter clearly specifies that the most at-risk populations should come first,” NAB wrote in a press release about it.
“The news media organizations support prioritizing vaccines for front-line health care workers, first responders and others providing critical support, as well as the most at-risk populations. However, the letter urges the committee to consider the essential role of journalists and the risks they encounter as it develops subsequent phases of vaccine deployment.”
Among organizations signing it are PBS, the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Association and numerous other journalism groups.
The post Should Front-Line Reporters Get Early Vaccines? appeared first on Radio World.
Prior to this autumn, only nine people had received a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Broadcast Engineers.
Mark Persons is the 10th. The award was presented to Persons during an SBE online membership meeting and award ceremony. Radio World is proud that Mark is a longtime contributor and valued member of the RW family.
We asked him to share thoughts and memories of his career.
This story starts in the mid-1920s when my father, Charles B. Persons, became a radio broadcast engineer at age seventeen at WEBC Radio in Duluth, Minn. — the only station in town. It grew to become part of a seven-station network before he left to build our own WELY in Ely, Minnesota, in 1954.
It was a great time for me to learn electronics and Ohm’s Law, turn knobs on the 250-watt AM transmitter and build Heathkit equipment at age seven. That station was later owned by well-known CBS journalist Charles Kuralt.
I became a radio amateur in 1963, the year before our family built and owned KVBR Radio in Brainerd, Minn. At age 17, it was a natural for me to wire the transmitter and studios with the latest innovation: cartridge tape decks.
There was never a question about my future. Broadcast engineering was not just a job, it was a lifestyle.
Three years later, I found little interest in college, which taught nothing about electronics. I enlisted in the U.S. Army and taught electronic repair at Fort Monmouth, N.J. Then it was off to Vietnam to do high-tech electronic repair. The plan was to fulfill the obligation to our country so I could go back to broadcast engineering in 1969.
Work ramped up in the 1970s, when engineers were let go from radio stations because the FCC no longer required them. Soon I was a full-time independent radio broadcast engineer, building 12 new stations and repairing countless others. Good test equipment helped solve the problem of a noticeable hearing loss from my service in Vietnam.
Treat it like your ownComing from a family ownership situation, I treated each station as if it were my own. The attachment was personal because the work was mostly for clients who believed in engineering. A message on our telephone recorder said, “I am out working on one of America’s great radio stations.”
My wife Paula came into the business full-time after working as a legal secretary. She has a keen sense of character and it paid off. Her job was to run the office, freeing me to go out in the field 60 hours a week at 40 or more clients.
Once I was almost hit head-on by a drunk driver at 2 a.m. but went in a ditch instead.
I never wanted to own a station. The challenge of installing, troubleshooting and repairing equipment was more than enough. It is a great feeling to get all electrons flowing in the same direction, so to speak.
Along the way, two engineers tried to get into our “territory” by promising lower prices. (They never asked; we might have given them a few stations.) In the end, the clients came back to us for dependable results.
We lost less than $4,000 to bad debts over the years. I remember two times when a customer was slow to pay and then called looking to send me to a transmitter right away. Paula’s response in one case was, “You are no longer a customer!” That day I drove right by his downed transmitter while coming back from another project and did not stop.
That dented our reputation a bit, but we stuck by our principles. As Paula said, “We are not a bank that loans money.”
The author working at KLOH(AM) in 1988.My first AM directional was a five-tower array in 1982 at Hibbing, Minn. It was built from parts, including a custom phasor controller. The phasor was, and still is, a room in a building with an eight-foot-high aluminum wall with inductors, capacitors and contactors on the backside. Coupling units were built open-panel style at each tower.
The client liked this so much that he had me build a three-tower array in Cape Coral, Fla., and a three-tower in Carmel Valley, Calif. All 10KW stations. He gave me the freedom to design and build what I thought was best for each job.
Then there were more than 40 C-Quam AM stereo installations. One of them was at the Cape Coral station, which introduced the “oldies” format in 1986. It placed second in the Arbitron after being on the air only six weeks.
Sharing knowledgeNever satisfied, I modified equipment, then designed and built many electronic gadgets used in stations. That evolved into designing products for manufacture such as the Programmer 3A Live Assist Program Controller and the Max-Tel Remote Broadcast Telephone, later updated to be the Max-Z and ZII.
I have always enjoyed telling stories. Approximately 188 of my articles have been published, mostly in Radio World. Then there is the popular Tech Tips section on my http://mwpersons.com website, where free answers are given to radio broadcast engineering problems.
[Read recent Radio World columns by Mark Persons.]
We retired when I was 70 and mentored two engineers to take over the territory. There was no charge except for a few hours of classroom training to bring them up to speed on measuring AM impedance etc. Then the SBE mentor program added two mentees in other parts of the country. I also became a member of the National Radio Systems Committee’s AM Improvement Working Group.
It is volunteer work, and it feels good to continue to be a part of the broadcast industry that I grew up and prospered in.
The plan is to keep writing articles for Radio World in the quest of spreading knowledge to broadcast engineers everywhere. Radio has a great future and needs good engineers to keep it going.
Regarding the SBE Lifetime Achievement Award: I had no intention of seeking that or any other accolade. Life just worked out that way while keeping the “families” of stations the best they can be. Paula says she will bury me next to a transmitter when the time comes.
Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.
The SBE John H. Battison Award for Lifetime Achievement recognizes and pays tribute to individuals for their dedication, lifelong achievement and outstanding contribution to broadcast engineering, according to the society. Prior recipients are Benjamin Wolfe and James Wulliman (1995), Philo and Elma Farnsworth (1997), Morris Blum (1998), Richard Rudman (2002), Richard Burden (2005), John Battison (2006) and Terry Baun (2010). You can watch the replay of the membership meeting and awards ceremonies on the SBE YouTube channel.
The post Mark Persons: “I Never Had a Plan B” appeared first on Radio World.
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