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An inside look at radio technology and other news twice a
month from Radio World News Editor/Washington Bureau Chief
Leslie Stimson.
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Issue: May. 08, 2008
Looking for Answers on EAS
Let’s hope FEMA has a more complete answer to what its plans are for integrating next-gen emergency alert technologies — including the Common Alert Protocol architecture — and state government operations at the upcoming FCC EAS Summit here in D.C. on May 19.
A FEMA representative speaking at an EAS panel at the recent NAB convention told attendees that the agency has a plan in mind but he couldn’t share it just yet. FEMA has not yet released “CAP-to-EAS” specs.
Stations have been wondering whether they need new EAS decoders with the new system. At the same session, Gerry LeBow of Sage said the answer will be yes, though it’s not yet clear whether all EAS participants need to have CAP-to-EAS decoders or simply be able to receive CAP-decoded messages.
Alaska DRM Experiment Would Be Unique
I’ve got some details of the proposed Alaska test of Digital Radio Mondiale on three shortwave frequencies, which we told you about in RW Newsbytes last week.
I took a gander at the FCC application from Digital Aurora Radio Technologies for experimental authorization. The DoD-funded test would use Continental transmitters designed for an Over-the-Horizon radar transmitting system and a digital signal generator operating from the Delta Junction area.
“Compared to an ordinary analog shortwave signal, the DRM signal can operate with the same coverage reliably … in a 10 kHz channel using a transmitter power level approximately one-fifth of that needed for the analog signal,” states Digital Aurora in the application, which remains pending at the commission.
The company hopes to determine the “impact of high-latitude ionospheric propagation in the shortwave bands on digital audio modulation using the DRM system,” as well as determine what transmission power levels will produce a reliable signal that can be received on DRM radios. Digital Aurora also hopes to determine an antenna specification to deliver a signal statewide.
Judging from the application, the two-year test proposal appears notable because it would be the first time DRM has been tested in the U.S. at such high latitudes, and because the company is proposing to broadcast using digital shortwave technology to an entire state.
Digital Aurora believes it can contain most of the signal within Alaska with little spillover into Canada. To avoid causing interference it plans to stay at least two adjacent channels away from any channels used by international broadcasters into western Canada.
BPL Decision Detailed
The FCC is reviewing the recent court decision that remanded two portions of the Broadband-Over-Powerline rules back to the commission. Hams were encouraged by this latest development and hope it cracks open the door to serious changes in the BPL rules.
In setting the BPL rules nearly two years ago, the FCC relied on five studies that measured BPL emissions to determine likely interference levels with other spectrum users. The agency said it also relied on its own field testing and field BPL measurements conducted by its Office of Engineering and Technology. Two studies measured BPL company emissions, and three others measured emissions in BPL pilots conducted in New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
In its service rules establishing BPL, the agency acknowledged that “some cases of harmful interference may be possible from Access BPL emissions at levels up to the Part 15 limits” but it was satisfied that “the benefits of Access BPL service warrant acceptance of a small and manageable degree of interference risk,” concluding the risk was small.
The FCC made public part of those studies, but withheld some portions, saying those concerned internal communications that were not relied on in its decision-making process.
When it sued the FCC over the BPL rules, the American Radio Relay League argued that the public did not have the chance to review all the information the agency relied on to make its decision.
The federal appeals court judges agreed, saying in their decision that “there is no … precedent allowing an agency to cherry-pick a study on which it has chosen to rely in part.”
“Individual pages relied upon by the commission reveal that the unredacted portions are likely to contain evidence that could call into question the commission’s decision to promulgate the rule,” wrote D.C. Circuit Court Judge Judith Rogers. The appeals court told the FCC to release all of the five studies for public comment.
The second issue the court sent back to the agency for a re-do concerned how the FCC arrived at its distance extrapolation assumption; it told the commission to better explain why it wants to keep its current method for measuring BPL emissions or give the court a better justification for a different method.
The commission retained the existing extrapolation factor of 40 dB per decade for frequencies below 30 MHz to measure BPL emissions and any resulting interference. In this sense, a decade is a “10:1 range and refers to the ratio of the specified measurement distance to the actual measurement distance,” according to the FCC.
The ARRL said 40 dB is arbitrary and that British studies from 2005 from the FCC’s counterpart in the U.K. showed an extrapolation factor of 20 dB per decade may be more appropriate.
In its decision, the court did not specify when it expects a reply from the FCC; a commission spokesman declined comment on the timing.
In the meantime, all BPL rules remain in place.
…And BPL Takes Unexpected Turn in Dallas
In a related story, a BPL plan in Dallas is going to be used for a different purpose than originally intended. That’s because the owner sold its BPL service to a company that doesn’t intend to use it to deliver fast Internet service to homes.
Oops. That kinds of puts a kink in the commission’s pledge to treat BPL as the “third” wire into the home and enhance the broadband rollout.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Current Communications agreed to sell its Dallas BPL network to Oncor for $90 million. Oncor, which distributes electricity, told the paper it plans to use the BPL service to detect distribution network issues with its power grid.
“We’ve already used this technology to find problems before they lead to outages,” the paper quoted Oncor spokesman Chris Schein as saying. Information transmitted by BPL from meters, transformers and other electrical equipment will help Oncor prevent outages and reduce maintenance costs.
DirecTV has used Current’s network to sell BPL to customers in the first 64,000 Dallas-area homes to be wired for the service. The sale likely means those customers will lose the service, the paper reported.
Hogan Gets New Gig
Ralph Hogan, SBE treasurer and chair of the Association of Public Radio Engineers, has a new day job.
He’s now director of engineering for Arizona-based FMs KJZZ and KBAQ and Sun Sounds of Arizona, a radio reading service. The Class C FMs stations are in Tempe and licensed to Maricopa County Community College in Phoenix.
Hogan has a staff of four full-time and one part-time employees. His priority is “combining engineering, IT and Web services under one engineering organization to better serve our operations,” he tells me.
He spent the last 10 years at Washington State University where he was assistant general manager of engineering services for Northwest Public Radio.
Reach him at rhogan@kjzz.org.
Using Radio to Promote DTV? What?
In a sign that the DTV transition mess is still a mess, I see NAB has created radio PSAs explaining the digital television transition. (There was a press event related to promotion of the transition in Vegas, though I must admit I didn’t attend; too much radio news going on.) The spots are available for download.
Am I the only one who thinks an effort to use radio PSAs to promote the DTV transition is ridiculous?
What radio station would air those PSAs? Maybe a station that is co-owned with TV. Otherwise it’s asking radio to drive its listeners to another medium. Would TV do that for radio? I don’t think so.
Tell TV that radio will promote the DTV transition when TV runs PSAs promoting HD Radio. Or better yet, the groups promoting the DTV transition can actually buy the airtime on radio stations to explain what happens next February.
Tell me what you think — about this or any story — at Lstimson@nbmedia.com.
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