The following is from the Alabama Broadcasters Association’s weekly e-newsletter, Monday Morning Coffee and Technical Notes. Thanks to ABA’s Larry Wilkins. To subscribe to the newsletter, email[email protected].
UPDATE FOR SAGE AND DASDEC
Emergency alerts and test issued in the CAP format have, for security reasons, specific signed certificates.
These certificates are routinely updated. FEMA, the agency that issues IPAWS alerts & test, has scheduled an update to their security certificate on June 24 at 11:24 AM.
Both Sage Alerting Systems and Monroe (DasDec) have released updates that users must upload to their units in order that their are compliant.
Download Information is available at both companies web sites.
SUMMER STATE ASSOCIATION CONVENTIONS
During the summer months most State Broadcasters Associations hold their annual conventions. A good number of these conventions offer a special “Engineering Day” at which speakers from various technical companies will offer presentations covering topics of interest to engineers. Check with your State Broadcasters Association for information concerning the convention in your area.
Alabama Broadcasters Association will hold its annual convention Friday and Saturday August 10th and 11th. The Engineering day is Friday August 10th. We have some great presentations planned for both radio and television. There will also be plenty of vendors on hand in the exhibit hall.
Mark your calendar now for Friday August 10th. Visit www.al-ba.com for more detail and registration.
REGISTER YOUR C-BAND DOWNLINKS
We continue to remind stations that presently have C band satellite dishes to register them with the FCC. This is vital to help prevent the possible lost of the C-band operations for your station.
You will need the station FRN number and password to log into the site. Once logged in select and complete Form 312 Schedule B, remit the statutory application filing fee, and provide any additional information required by applicable rules. The filing fee is $435.00. Visit www.fcc.gov and select “myibfs” under licensing and databases.
FCC ACTIVITY
For those of you that keep up with the “going ons” with the FCC, they have issued a decision rejecting an objection filed by three groups advocating on behalf of LPFM stations against almost 1000 FM translator applications — most of which were filed to provide FM translators for AM stations.
The decision found numerous issues with the objection. It noted that 55 of the applications had already been granted when the objection was filed, and 35 had been dismissed, thus the objection came too late. Additionally, a number of the applications to which the objection was directed were mere minor changes in existing translators.
THERE’S GOLD IN THEM THERE HILLS
A new super computer that can process 200,000 trillion calculations per second — or 200 petaflops has come online at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, where it was developed in partnership with IBM and NVidia.
It is named Summit and contains 4,608 computer servers plus has more than 10 petabytes of memory.
