A couple of sunny, breezy days on a Maine lake in June.
Antenna and RF systems maker Dielectric and its U.S. distributor for FM antenna products SCMS cooked up a gathering of radio engineers and distributors this month. Keith Pelletier, Dielectric’s president, said the companies commenced discussions last fall for the event to raise awareness of the Maine-based company’s FM radio products.
He met with Matt Cauthen, vice president of SCMS. They considered a destination on Maine’s Atlantic coast.
But then Pelletier gave Cauthen a tour of Dielectric’s Raymond factory, approximately 20 miles northwest of Portland.
“SCMS really pushed — ‘You’ve got to work the plant into this event somehow,’” Pelletier said.
Conveniently, Sebago Lake, the deepest lake wholly contained in New England, is less than five miles from the Dielectric headquarters.
It made the lake’s rustic Migis Lodge an ideal destination. The resort is home to cottages and a main lodge, along with approximately 3,000 feet of lakeside recreation.
Now that the destination was chosen, what would the purpose of the lakeside gathering be?
“That we’re serious about FM and have the innovations to prove it,” Pelletier said.
A two-day agenda was outlined, and the event was given the title of Radiovana.
Pelletier said the June 4–5 event ended up netting 60 attendees, the most the lodge would allow. They came from as far as Canada and São Paulo, Brazil, and from all over the U.S., flying into Portland’s Jetport.
Among them was longtime Radio World contributor Jim Peck, who is the northeast regional sales manager for SCMS. His photos highlight what Radiovana had to offer.
It was to be two days sprinkled with presentations and demonstrations, along with activities on the lodge grounds. Those included games of cornhole and boating out on the lake.
With the setting being Maine, after all, a lobster bake was a necessity — bibs included.
The presentations featured six of Dielectric’s partners, including GatesAir, Burk Technology, American Tower and Vertical Bridge.
Networking at Radiovana was key. While some concerns were overheard — the still-unknown impacts of imposed and proposed tariffs were on the minds of those in attendance — the sense Pelletier and Cauthen received was one of appreciation for what Dielectric offers.
“We didn’t want this just to be a place to talk about engineering,” Pelletier said.
Dielectric and SCMS each had a chance to showcase their offerings.
SCMS gave an introduction to its wireless division as well as its studio side.
Dielectric, meanwhile, showcased its RingMaster DCR antenna technology, which combines full- and half-wave spaced antennas. The surge in demand for ring-style master antennas in broadband applications — aimed at maximizing circular coverage – sparked its creation.
They also showed off their DCPC panel antenna, which provides broadband performance out of a single input.
Finally, the company showed off its Ring360 antenna, designed for installation at the top of a tower. It had not demonstrated the antenna previously.
With a Ring360, Pelletier said that performance with approximately 12 rings can be achieved with what might otherwise require as many as 36 panels in a traditional antenna array.
Software advances have made it easier, just within the last decade, to model designs.
“Now you have to go build it for the customer,” Pelletier said.
He credited Dielectric’s engineers, some of whom attendees were able to meet during the factory tour.
The icing on the cake was the trip to its headquarters, which concluded the second day. Attendees saw several ongoing projects, radio and non-radio related, including one that focused on fusion energy.
At the factory, a manifold combiner ordered for the Farnsworth Peak transmitter site in Salt Lake City was on display.
The 13-station combiner, Pelletier said, might seem daunting. “We hear that it can’t get done — people worry about calculations of the output spline or flexibility,” he said.
But Dielectric believes the combiner’s design has solved previous problems. SCMS managed the order from Bonneville International, which operates four FM stations in Salt Lake City: 102.7 KSL, 97.5 KZNS, 100.3 KSFI and 103.5 KRSP.
The combiner will also serve Salt Lake stations for iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, Capital Broadcasting, KSOP Inc. and Community Radio of Utah.
They also had on display the RingMaster antenna the combiner is feeding.
Pelletier said the combiner is now installed in Utah and the antenna was being hoisted.
Radiovana factory attendees also saw equipment slated for a Vertical Bridge project in Dallas, which features two RingMaster antennas.
There was no specific sales goal for the parties, Cauthen said.
“We just wanted to show customers what Dielectric has to offer and let them make the decision for themselves.”
As far as the first Radiovana, “The word we kept hearing was refreshing,” Pelletier said. Like a summer breeze on Sebago Lake.
