Transmitters

Armstrong X-1000B 

While he was at first reluctant to consider Armstrong because he was not familiar with the company's products, Terry Suggs' extensive search showed that Armstrong offered the best in pricing and packaging. The transmitter was shipped within a week and installation was seamless.

Higher-powered Sidebands 

The first difficulty in accommodating increased IBOC sideband levels is that, because of the higher peak-to-average AM component of the IBOC carriers, the transmitter must be derated from Class C saturated FM operation.

Forgotten modulation methods 

Early in the 1930s French engineer Henri Chireix devised an ingenious method of modulation that he named most appropriately out phasing. It was based on the result of combining two out-of-phase voltages. This produces a fluctuating signal voltage that varies in amplitude as the audio signals change. This voltage, after amplification, drives a power amplifier stage with properly amplitude-modulated RF.

Tennessee Turnaround 

WKNO-FM, an NPR member station in Memphis, began operations on April 1, 1972, on 91.1MHz with 40kW of effective radiated power. The station launched its HD Radio signal in the fall of 2007. Up to that point, we underwent incremental upgrades and adjustments to the original installation.

Radio broadcasting and 700MHz 

The FCC is auctioning what may be the most important spectrum allocations of our time. This portion of spectrum will be available as a result of the FCC mandate for traditional analog broadcast television to migrate to the new digital HDTV system by Feb. 17, 2009, specifically the portion previously occupied by channels 60-69.

A break from Tradition: Using IP for an STL 

A station's studio to transmitter link (STL) is an integral part of its mission-critical transmission system, linking the site that generates the program material to the transmitter location itself. As such, the quality and reliability of STL equipment has always been of paramount importance. One critical aspect of an STL system has historically been lack of contention in its use.

Don't become a statistic 

There are many lists extant of precautions to take before working with high voltage pieces of equipment. Lethal incidents may be more often caused by completely unexpected circumstances than from pure, careless accidents.

Performance evaluation 

With HD Radio, it's important to monitor and measure the time alignment and level alignment between the analog modulation and the MPS, and stations will likely want to monitor the RBDS on the analog channel along with PAD data for both the MPS and SPS. Fortunately, there are now multiple monitoring devices made specifically for HD Radio, and each of these devices gives the end user options about which parameters are to be measured, and how the device is to alert the user once a problem is detected.

NAB Trains Engineers at NAB AM Antenna Computer Modeling Seminar 

The NAB AM Antenna Computer Modeling Seminar held at the NAB headquarters in Washington, DC, the week of Nov. 12, 2007 attracted 45 engineers.

RF filters 

Radio-engineering work is very involved with filters of one kind or another. The science of broadcasting depends on the correct passage of various frequencies through differing pieces of equipment. Some frequencies are in the audio range and others are in the RF domain.

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Radio Currents Podcast, Nov 24

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein seeks a PPM investigation, Nielsen steps into radio ratings with Cumulus, The NABEF seeks entires for the Celebration of Service to America Awards, Nautel opens a parts depot in Memphis, and Volvo makes HD Radio standard on nearly all models in 2009.

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Changes are expected in Washington when Obama takes office, Emmis Interactive signs several stations to its interactive platform and sales consulting services, MySimBook hires hired Doug Raines as vice president business development, and captioned HD Radio passes its test on election night.

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