Columns and Views
Finding Suitable Transmission Line
A broadcast engineer designing an FM transmission system has a number of choices for...
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Columns and Views
Starting the New Year Off Right
I've been fortunate during the past year to receive and share a number of...
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Care and Feeding at the Site
Maintaining older transmitters can be fun, if you know what you're looking for.
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Rigid vs. Semi-Flexible Line
In the case of FM antenna systems, there generally are two choices for transmission...
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Rings, Stubs and Rototillers
There are numerous FM antenna designs commercially available with various characteristics. Types include the...
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Reflections and Predictions on Satellite Radio
As we celebrate the holiday season and the close of 2002, the urge to...
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Lights, Camera … Chainsaw!
If you maintain an older tower, lit with traditional red lighting, you might want...
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VSWR Bandwidth, Friend or Foe?
Too often, FM antenna systems are tuned with the engineer watching the transmitter reflectometer...
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A Story of Radio Mice and Men
How does that nursery rhyme go, "Hickory, dickory, doc-tor ... the mouse climbed up...
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Overshoots and Close-In Coverage
In this segment, we will discuss methods of dealing with the problem of overshooting...
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Protection Inside the ATU
Tower light monitoring is still high on the "hit lists" of the FCC and...
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Antenna Gain vs. Transmitter Power
How many bays do I need in my antenna and how much transmitter power...
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A Better Way to Implement AM IBOC
Will the controversial invention now called HD Radio steadily grow and gather more speed...
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The Buck Stops With You
Budgeting; doing more with less; saving money...These are the "new" rules of radio engineering
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Understanding FM Systems: A New Series
With this article, we begin an in-depth look at FM transmission systems.
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He Found the Fix in the Drawer
In this era of consolidation, things are done a little differently. Instead of one...
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How to Expand Scrunched Screens
We'll start off with a simple yet effective tip from Fred Greaves Jr., director...
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‘Old’ Tricks for New Engineers
Brent Barber, station manager and chief engineer for WDSO(FM) in Chesteron, Ind., read the...
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Lightning Strikes; So Do Thieves
John Stortz of the Moody stations in Florida protects his VRC-2000 remote control from...
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Soaking up the waves. RF might hurt you.
Other than this obvious effect of tissue heating, we still don't know what the...
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Stupid-Proof the Lockup
You may remember last year's photo of all the gate locks, looped through each...
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Modulation and the Older Tx
Like it or not, at some point in your career you'll probably need to...
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Install This Insurance Tray
Now that summer is in full swing, consider adding a safety "insurance" tray designed...
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Understand the Rules on RFI
It's probably one of the most disturbing phone calls you'll receive as a chief...
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Building a Better Model for Ibiquity
It's like we're all watching a troubled sci-fi movie: "The Day the IBOC World...
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It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane …
Pulling cable? Make sure you place two labels on the cable runs, as shown...
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Wasps, Pine Trees and Meter Bulbs
A recent inquiry comes from an engineer in charge of three AM stations, with...
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Digital Cameras Are a Big Help
Damian Centraf is the chief engineer for Herald Broadcasting's WSHB Shortwave station in Pineland,...
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A Bumpy Ride for Ibiquity at NAB2002
It wasn't quite what the Ibiquity Digital brass had been hoping for. The long-awaited...
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Doing It Right!
Longtime friend John Francioni with Capitol Broadcasting in Raleigh, N.C., loves all the "how...
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Hot Numbers You Need to Have
When was the last time you checked backup items like surge suppressors, the UPS...
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Emergency-Proofing the Tx Site
Do you work for a station ownership that understands the importance of keeping a...
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Got Your Sterno and Spaghetti-Os?
One of the benefits of doing contract engineering and project work is the breadth...
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Deriving the Real IBOC Equation
My colleague Skip Pizzi spends a lot of time gazing at the crystal ball...
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Let’s Play ‘Spot the Problems’
Damian Centgraf is with WSHB Shortwave of the Herald Broadcasting Syndicate Inc. He needed...
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Dodge PC Problems Ahead of Time
After building computers for critical broadcast applications for more than 15 years, Jeff Allen,...
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Can’t See the Tower for the Trees
Backups are great – when they work!...Winter’s elements can force dependence on a generator....
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Keep Your Transmitter Healthy
Robert Gonsett's CGC Communicator recently spoke of white-colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) being incorporated into...
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Death Star Strikes Planet Earth Radio
We saw it coming. Some said it could never work. Others said no one...
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Tones to Troubleshoot AM Xmitters
Engineers are perhaps the most resourceful members at a radio station - quick to...
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Last-Minute Gift Ideas for Work
Here’s a column you’ll want to cut out and give to your friends and...