Best of Site, Local News

KSDS Gets FCC OK to Raise Power

(Disclosure: The author is employed by Bay City Television, San Diego-based programming, advertising, and marketing arm of XETV Tijuana)

The FCC issued on October 31 a construction permit for KSDS (FM), 88.3 MHz, to increase power from their current 3 kW vertical to 22 kW ERP vertical, upgrading the facility from class A to class B1. The station, operated from the campus of City College downtown, but transmitting from a tower at Mesa College in Linda Vista, has been operating since 2002 with 3 kW ERP vertical polarization after a compromise worked out with Fox Television affiliate XETV, channel 6 in Tijuana.

The latest CP approval comes as a surprise to XETV, which has fought the increase in power since 1995 on grounds that it creates a substantial interference zone since the stations are only separated by a minimum of 200 kHz between allotments, or 550 kHz between carrier centers. The stations represent a unique situation in the U.S., where a border non-commercial FM had protected a channel 6 TV signal broadcasting in English-language from Mexico. The new construction permit appears to change the crossborder relationship by declaring previous protections null and void.

The new FCC ruling says that previous international broadcast treaties do not specifically deal with the TV-FM interference issue, so the XETV signal has no rights to protection from U.S. non-commerical FM stations after all. At the same time, the order gave recognition to XETV public service efforts and ordered that KSDS broadcast its increased power in vertical polarization only. KSDS must provide a shallow null to the southeast, and they must remediate any known interference and report unsolved cases to local FCC inspectors.

KSDS intends to have its facilities ready for increased power by spring 2007.

Local News

Yuma Market First in Nation to Adopt New 12 MHz BAS Plan

The Yuma-El Centro TV market underwent a changeover to the new BAS 12 MHz per channel ENG microwave spectrum plan Friday, September 22, according to Robbie DeCorse, Chief Engineer at KYMA (NBC) in Yuma. He says that they “haven’t had any issues since the switch; it’s business as usual.

Meanwhile in San Diego, Nextel is working to get the necessary 75%
of the market under contract. Pat Hughes of Sprint-Nextel says that
they believe it will be next summer sometime before the switch takes
place here. He forsees Santa Barbara switching soon, then Palm Springs
and San Diego. Los Angeles will be last due simply to the sheer number
of people involved in the project.

Once the market has contracted for the changeover, there has to be a “caucus” to decide the exact swapover date.

Hughes encourages those who want to learn more to get updated information from their special website at www.2ghzrelocation.com.

Local News

FCC Fines 106.9 Pirate in Encanto

The FCC issued September 27 an order asking Joni K. Craig to pay $500 for operating an illegal FM transmitter on 106.9 MHz in the San Diego neighborhood of Encanto. The commission had issued in May two Notices of Unlicensed Operation (NOUO) for the pirate station, located a few blocks south of the KOGO towers. That notice addressed Alan M. Conrad and Maria A. Conrad, who are listed as owners of the property and addressed the assumed name of the station, “Radio Active Radio.

In the latest FCC order, the original $10,000 fine was reduced to
$500 when Craig provided tax documents that proved to the commission’s
satisfaction that she was unable to pay the full fine. She was also
able to convince them that she played only a passive role in the
station and “took steps to shut down the station.” San Diego inspectors
had monitored the station several times between October 2004 and August
2005.

Joni K. Craig is a spokeswoman for the San Diego Foundation for Change.

Meetings

October 2006 Meeting – Studer

In a presentation of interest to both TV and Radio engineers, Jamie
Dunn, Studer’s Western Regional Sales Manager will introduce two of
Studer latest technologies with the opportunity to see Studer’s
complete digital console product range installed in their 53 foot
mobile demonstration truck.

Studer is one of the oldest and best known worldwide audio companies. Formed in 1948 by Dr. Willi Studer in Zurich Switzerland, Studer Professional Audio became famous throughout the world for its high quality and robust tape machines. Even today, a Studer tape machine can still be found in practically every studio or broadcast facility. Studer, however, was also a major manufacturer of mixing consoles for both production and on-air applications. For the past 15 years, Studer has been at the forefront of digital technology and now has a product portfolio dedicated primarily to digital mixing consoles focussed towards Radio and TV applications.

Vistonics is Studer’s patented technology of mounting rotary encoders and switches onto a TFT Screen. It forms the basis of the revolutionary and award winning user interface of both the Studer Vista 8 and new Vista 5 Live Broadcast consoles. The presentation will give a brief insight into the philosophies that make Vistonics the Return of the Human Interface.

The OnAir 3000 is Studer’s 3rd generation of digital on-air console and is based on a modern router based architecture and flexible hardware concept. Jamie will introduce the underlying concepts and philosophies behind the product.

Jamie relocated to Los Angeles in July of 2005 with his wife and 2 year old daughter to take on his present role of Studer’s Western US Regional Sales Manager. Previously living and working in Zurich, Switzerland at the Studer Headquarters, he had been working for Studer for 6 years as Product Specialist and Sales Director for North and South America. Originally from the UK, Jamie is a “Tonmeister” (Sound Master) graduate and prior to working for Studer, worked as a classical recording engineer and editor for an independent production company based in London.

Members and guests, please join us Monday, October 23, at 6 PM for snacks and a social hour, and 7 PM for the demonstration. It all takes place at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa, San Diego.

Best of Site, Commentary

Making Waves: BPL Comes Home

What happens when you suddenly find your dipoles surrounded by BPL couplers? I’m about to find out.

The Broadband over Power Line (BPL) pilot project continues in San Diego. The test observation committee set-up by SDG&E power systems engineer Terry Snow, of which I am the token broadcasting representative, met last during the recent NAB Convention, but Terry was kind enough to forward a copy of the meeting minutes. 

{mosimage}So imagine my surprise when I looked at an enclosed map to see that the third vendor pilot would surround my University City home. The system power-up is scheduled for this week, and the amount of activity in the neighborhood has been very high. Truck crews have been installing wireless receive antennas and data couplers on poles and electricians have put data modems in a test  home…which happens to be a next-door neighbor.

I won’t comment much on the BPL pilots to date except to say we haven’t found any measurable interference to the broadcast bands that you care about. I’ve agreed with SDG&E to patiently await results of spectrum analysis tests before drawing any conclusions. There is something a bit childish about berating a scientist as he’s performing his experiments, whether you agree with the science or not.

It appears as though Terry and his co-workers are genuinely interested in getting feedback on interference caused by their BPL pilots, and they are studying similar pilots around the country for experiences with interference. In fact, they added a vendor to their pilot series that was known for reduced interference. There are at least three of us on the committee who are licensed ham radio operators. Whether the board at Sempra Energy takes their, or our, final recommendations to heart is another matter.

I have to believe that my neighborhood was chosen because it was one of the last with overhead electrical lines, and due to the lack of CC&R’s, it has has a higher incidence of ham radio operators than later built neighborhoods. If Terry chose specifically to surround my house, that’s very funny Terry. Very funny.

As a ham radio licensee for 35 years, I haven’t been very active for the past few years. I have enjoyed 6 meter E-skip operations from time to time, but that’s about it. I have a dual 10 meter/40 meter dipole and a decent collection of 40-year-old Drake equipment, so I’ll be firing that up to make sure there the HF interference characteristics haven’t changed. It’s been amazingly quiet here considering the urban nature of the neighborhood. I hope it remains that way, but the future’s not bright. 

One of the surprising findings on a previous pilot project site test was that the primary radiators in the fake home office was a plasma TV generating a big, raspy signal on the upper portion of the AM broadcast band. When we turned that off, we found another device radiating in the middle frequencies of AM–this was the power supply of the BPL modem, not the power lines themselves. We saw a heterodyne on channel 6, but turning off the BPL system made no difference. 

Ever played Whac-a-mole at Chuck E Cheese?

Society of Broadcast Engineers