October 2008 Member News

SBE recently bestowed Certified Television Operator (CTO) status to Chapter 36 members Randy Borgwardt and Carl Reis. Tim Toole earned Life Certification as Certified Broadcast Television Engineer (CBTE). Also, Gail Pineda of TV Magic recently joined the chapter. Thanks and congratulations to you all!

Have a Peek at Your PSIP

California Broadcasters Association President Mark Powers sent out a puzzling missive Friday afternoon: “The FCC has advised us that they have received complaints that the digital signals of many California stations have incorrect time codes (PSIP).  This is a FCC violation and they have asked our assistance in correcting this problem immediately.  Please check your signal as soon as possible.”

Turns out that a technically savvy San Francisco Bay area viewer complained to the FCC because several TV stations had switched to Daylight Saving Time October 2. Gary Lingren found that the PSIP parameter “DS_day_of_month” was set to “2” on the errant stations before October 2. It should have been set on October 3. This parameter, within the STT, sets the day of the current month that auto time setting devices change to DST. Apparently, one of the major PSIP suppliers set this parameter one month early. DST actually switches on November 2 this year. Your DS_day_of_the_month param should now read “2”, and your DS Status should read “In daylight savings time.” (Actually, it should read Daylight Saving Time, but that’s another conversation.) If it isn’t, you should edit it or notify your PSIP provider, depending on overwriting policies.

It’s not known yet which PSIP contractor set the errant parameter. If you find out, let us know.

Schecter Leaves Lincoln Financial Group

In another sign of tough economic times, Lincoln Financial Media and Eric Schecter, the San Diego Market Director of Engineering have agreed to part company. Eric had come to San Diego from Phoenix in 2005 where he had worked in technical management at CBS radio. He’s served as Chapter 36 Chairman for the past two years.

Schecter oversaw a number of projects at Lincoln, including new HD Radio facilities for KSON-FM, and preparation for rebuilding the KSON-AM tower downtown. “Walking out of City Development Services with an approved Building Permit was a great accomplishment. Thanks to the many companies and individuals whose efforts will not be forgotten”.

Eric says that for the time being, he will be doing work as an independent contractor. You can contact him via email at or by calling him at 619-517-1974. That number will be good through the end of October.

Broadcasting groups have released a number of well-known broadcast engineering managers and on-air personalities lately, most notably Ira Goldstone from Tribune Television in Los Angeles. Presumably, cost is a factor.

October 2008 Meeting – Bird Technologies

Classic RF measurement leader Bird Technologies pays us a visit October 15 at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa, at noon. Members and guests are welcome to join us for a free lunch and technical presentation.

Visiting Bird Technologies Applications Engineer Lynn Strube will discuss RF power measurement basics, and why the measurements are important, transmitter power measurement methods, RF power measurement traceability and why analog and digital TV measurements are done differently. Don Scanlon will join her to describe their new transmitter power monitor (TPM) products and their SignalHawk spectrum analyzer.

Bird has been a supplier of RF measuring equipment for more than 60 years and they supply to broadcast, semiconductor processing, military, medical equipment and many other markets. Lynn has been in the broadcast industry for more than 35 years.

FCC Issues Forfeiture Order Against KUSI

The Federal Communications Commission issued a Forfeiture Order against KUSI (TV) San Diego for $25,000. The September 17 order relates to KUSI’s coverage of the October 2003 wildfires in which several local TV stations were accused of not providing sufficient graphical emergency information for people with hearing problems. The FCC found that some critical information was provided, but was incomplete compared with vocal information, or delayed more than 30 minutes. The agency disagreed with KUSI’s arguments that they have a "filtering" role, asking why the station was filtering information only for those unable to hear the dialog. KUSI broadcast some maps and graphical emergency information, but did not have real time closed captioning during their extended coverage of the fires.

KFMB-TV settled their Notice of Apparent Liability last March for its lack of visual emergency information during coverage of the 2003 fires with a Consent Decree in which they agreed to make a "voluntary contribution" to the US Treasury for $18,000 and have all charges dropped.

(The author is Director of Engineering for Bay City Television, the US operations company for XETV Tijuana, and was an engineer for KFMB Stations at the time of the 2003 wildfires.)

Society of Broadcast Engineers