Charles Gawlik of San Diego passed his Certified Broadcast Network Technologist (CBNT) exam at the NAB Show in Las Vegas in April and has become a member of Chapter 36. He’s a systems engineer for Vigor Systems in La Jolla by day and a photographer by night. Congratulations Chuk!

According to their website, new non-comm KNSJ installed their antenna at Monument Peak and expect to hit the air on 89.1 MHz as soon as they install their transmitter.  The FCC lists the station as having an ERP of 330 watts and city of license as Descanso, but the elevation will give the station a decent signal to line-of-sight locations throughout San Diego County. The organization behind the new station says in their mission statement:

Activist San Diego is a social justice organization that promotes and facilitates the development of an active, inter-related, progressive community in San Diego through networking, culture and electronic technology.

For the time being, listeners in the Pacific Beach, La Jolla, and University City areas shouldn’t expect much reception due to co-channel 4-watt K206AC in La Jolla that rebroadcasts KPBS-FM.

Sam Bass at CBS Radio in San Diego reports in Facebook:

Our long time chief engineer Lee McGowan is in the Critical Care at a local hospital and unable to receive visitors for the time being. We want to be ready to cheer him up when he feels better. I’m asking all of my radio friends who know Lee to please share some personal insights or memories. We want to make him feel loved and maybe have some laughs at the same time. Thank you all in advance.

I hope Lee gets well soon. My prayers for his full recovery.

Thanks to Bob Gonsett for passing on this bit of news. Bob adds:

Lee, you are one of my favorite people. Your combination of enthusiasm, curiosity and technical competence have made you a perfect fit for the job your’re in. Your story about “the tank, the tank!” is a classic. We all miss you and want to see you “back in the saddle” at the earliest possible moment. You’re in my prayers.

Well said, Bob. Lee has been engineering at KYXY 96.5 and 103.7 FM since the mid-1980s. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Lee.

San Diego SBE Chapter 36 member Tox Cox came away from the 2013 NAB Show with an award for the best technical session. His paper title, “Using Public Domain and Open Source Software to Derive Base Drive Voltages for AM Method of Moments Models, “described his presentation about an inexpensive means of deriving these calculations. Tom was given the award at the annual Technology Luncheon at the show.

Tom Cox

Tom serves as Senior Vice President Engineering for Clear Channel Media + Entertainment overseeing technical and regulatory operations for over 150 radio stations in 28 markets in the Southwestern U.S. Tom has been employed in the broadcasting industry for over 35 years, including KFMB AM/FM and Clear Channel in San Diego. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics degree from Chapman College and is a Registered Professional Electrical Engineer.

We learned last month that Chapter 36 member Nigel Worrall accepted the position as Plant Manager at Broadcast Microwave Systems’ Kemel, Germany facility. Nigel most recently served as Applications Engineering Manager, and has been with BMS since 2010.

BMS has manufactured ENG microwave transmission systems for decades, but since being purchased by Cohu they produce systems primarily for law enforcement, and often now for unmanned aerial vehicles.

James Culligan of El Cajon recently became an SBE Certified Radio Operator.

Ken Tondreau joined Avid Technology as Enterprise Account Manager for the Los Angeles region in January this year. Ken had been a Sales Representative with Grass Valley since 1986. Ken recently renewed as Certified Broadcast Technologist.

Matt Lunati joined a technical team installing and servicing mobile cellular sites for CellularOne in Show Low, Arizona. Matt says they serve a large network in northeast Arizona.

Broadcast engineering managers who get hired from outside the company have to spend some time becoming familiar with the plant. Not so with Fred Swift, who took over as Chief Engineer at KUSI after 29 years of building much of the facility. Fred succeeds Richard Large, who retired February 1st.

Like most older broadcast engineers, much of Fred’s knowledge is self-taught. “I took ROP electronics Junior and Senior year of high school at Santana. I got up at 5AM everyday to catch the bus to Santana from Mt. Miguel. I got my [Third Class] FCC License at 16, had an A.S. equivalent when I graduated high school, then worked at Conic Data Systems about a year on L-band FM video transmitters. A guy in the calibration lab told me about a job at KCST-TV (now KNSD). I applied, and Tom Wimberly, the chief then, hired me. That’s when Richard and I met. Tom hired Richard from WAND-TV. He came in about a year after me and left after a couple of years to work in Philly at WPHL-TV. Then He was Hired to put KUSI on the air.

“A lot of my education was self-taught. The most beneficial part was freelance work. I’ve done Atlanta Olympics, two Super Bowls, Oscars red carpet wireless HD cameras, New York Marathon, NBC Golf, etc. Those shows teach you a lot technically and a lot about your abilities and confidence.”

When Fred started at KUSI in 1984, the station was outfitted as an RCA package of 1/2″ reel VTRs, Plumbicon cameras, telecine, Grass Valley switcher, and big TVU-55 UHF transmitter. But Fred embraced change and taught himself the technologies necessary to eventually integrate high definition file-based streaming and transmission systems. You always see him at local high tech seminars.

At channel 39, Fred met his wife who continues as Production Manager at KNSD after 36 years. They have one son Daniel who is a student and works at Sea World.

When asked about career highlights, Fred mentions moving to Viewridge Avenue location and starting newscasts in 30 days. More recently, their conversion of master control and news studio to HD. The trademark of KUSI is their low-cost, high local content news with its many live on-location shows, and Fred was always part of those behind the scenes.

Fred and Richard battled the effects of the 2003 Cedar and 2007 Harris and Witch Creek fires, when their ENG relay sites were going down one by one, backup generators running out of fuel, phone lines failing, burnt telephone poles falling.

During the 2007 Harris fire, the Mt. San Miguel site Proscan antenna rotator stopped turning. “It was the only site still up for us. I was at Jamacha junction watching the site at midnight from below, on the phone with Richard telling him it looks like the fire went past our site and south west toward Otay Ranch because some genius thought a back fire in Proctor valley was a good idea.

“Richard and I went to Miguel around 9 AM (the next morning) and wanted to go to our site. We were stopped by US Forest Service brush truck with four firefighters. We requested they escort us up to the site. Their reply was, ‘No way—it’s too dangerous—but you can go by yourselves!’

“We got up to site through fire tornadoes in the canyons. It was very surreal, like the moon. Scorched earth and dead wildlife everywhere. We entered our site and found the cable company building collapsed, still smoldering. We went to our building and noticed our roof cap was smoking pretty well. I called our assignment desk to have CDF come up and put some water on the fire. [CDF] basically said, ‘You’re on your own.’

“Richard got the ladder out. I found a five gallon bucket and some RG-59 for a rope, and I bucket brigaded water up to him on the roof and we put it out ourselves. We fixed the bad relay in the Troll [controller] and came back to studio. Wow–what week that was!”

In spite of their tight budgets, Fred and Richard managed an almost complete upgrade to high definition video. Their current news operation uses JVC GY-HM-700’s that output .MOV files directly to Apple Final Cut Pro. They play out video with a Bitcentral system.

Their channel 18 ATSC transmitter is a Harris Diamond Solid State with Apex exciters. Fred says that next on the horizon is a bonded cellular field video transport backpack system.

KUSI is looking for an Assistant Chief Engineer. And no, you don’t have to commit to 29 years.