Last week, the FCC announced fines for two San Fernando Valley parties accused of illegally broadcasting that we reported on in December 2016.

The Enforcement Bureau imposed a forfeiture order of $25,000 against Nelson Quintanilla for operating a pirate broadcast station on 95.1 MHz in Panorama City.

They also imposed a monetary forfeiture of $25,000 on Iglesia el Remanente Fraternidad Elim, Inc. and Belarmino Lara for operating a pirate radio station on 93.7 MHz in Arleta, near the intersection of I-5 and CA-118.

Bob Gonsett, a well-known broadcast engineering consultant who counted among his clients XETV Tijuana, said this about the announced closure of their San Diego office:

XETV not only had the best channel to cover San Diego from a propagation standpoint, it also had a rich history of being technologically first in a number of important areas including the use of circular polarization which significantly improved indoor “rabbit ear” reception.  Station management in the U.S. was constantly striving to make XETV Number One and they made the funds available to do so. The Tijuana transmitter plant, run by Felipe Fernandez, was a meticulous operation in full compliance with SCT/FCC mandates and from a labor perspective,

Phil always advocated the very best for his engineers. He was a true father to many. It was an honor and privilege for me to work with XETV for decades as their FCC engineering consultant.

In an effort to test our amateur radio equipment and prepare for the “big one” we will be conducting a net on the Mt. Soledad UHF repeater

When: Wednesdays starting 1-25-17 @ 1900 (7pm PST)

Where: Mt. Soledad UHF Amateur Radio Repeater      https://sbe36.org/amateur-radio-repeater/

445.540    – 5mhz      pl 88.5     FM

Who: Matt Anderson (KI6KHB) will be net control, we will start with group information and member check ins/traffic for the net

Suggestions or comments shoot me an email (MattAnderson@iHeartMedia.com)

Please throw this in your calendar, going to shoot for every Wednesday until further notice.

KFMB hired two Broadcast Maintenance Engineers in November.

The AM/FM/TV combo hired Julio Ramirez, previously with the Signal Wiz contract engineering company assisting with maintenance at KPRI (FM), KSDY-LD, and other clients. More recently, he had done IT work at XETV for Paul Redfield’s Orbdot contracting services company, and tech support for ESET security software. Julio enjoys music and photography after hours.

KFMB also hired Joseph Pandolfo, past Chief Engineer at each KMIR Palm Springs, WTXL Tallahassee and WDBD Jackson. He had also served with Harris Broadcast as server product field support engineer. He’s been a member of SBE since 1984 and has a CBNT certification.