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.

In early December, 2016, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability, proposing a $25,000 fine for Iglesia el Remanente Fraternidad Elim in Panorama City in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. That church has operated a radio station on 93.7 MHz while repeatedly ignoring FCC requests to shut down since 2013. In fact, the website continues to publicize the FM pirate station.

In a second Panorama City church pirate radio case, field agents traced a signal at 95.1 FM back to an antenna atop the Ministerio Internacional Luz A Las Naciones church after they received complaints about the station in March 2015. They warned the property tenant, Nelson Quintanilla, that his continued unlicensed operations could lead to more than a warning. But the station remained on the air despite repeated warnings to Quintanilla—who at one point admitted to agents he was responsible for the station. The Enforcement Bureau says when agents returned to the church in October 2016, the station was broadcasting again. They are also proposing a $25,000 fine for this case.

Mt. Soledad in La Jolla is now home to another radiator, KI6KHB/F. A new Yaseu Fusion repeater is broadcasting on 445.540 -. It is in Auto mode meaning if you transmit FM, the output will be FM. If you’re using the digital C4FM mode, the output will be in C4FM.

Frequency: 445.540 -, PL 88.5Hz, DSQ code: 36

Repeater output is 25 watts TPO on a station master omni antenna right above the roof line at the KGTV site.

Note: This repeater is coordinated with SCRRBA and is co-channel with the WB6AJE repeater on Mt. Wilson in Los Angeles. Outside Oceanside there may be overlap between the two machines so we’re suggesting only use the repeater if within the county.

Local broadcast engineers are encouraged to use the new repeater.

Huge thanks to Chris Durso, Gary Stigall, Bob Vaillancourt, John Bush and many others that made this year long project a reality.

(Matthew Wilson Anderson installed the system and wrote this article.)