May 2011 – Page 2 – Engineering Radio

Stay tuned, 1994 redux

In case you haven’t heard, May 21, 2011, will mark the beginning of the end of the world. It is on this date, according to Harold Camping, the rapture will begin. For those not versed in bible lore, this is when God will take all of the saved souls directly to heaven, body, and all. Further research reveals that it will begin at 6 pm local time, in every time zone.

I’d imagine you can listen for updates on Family Radio stations or shortwave if there aren’t any local stations to listen to. Those on the west coast may want to tune into the shortwave broadcast (transmitters are in Okeechobee, Florida) for a preview of coming events. You can try:

5950 KHz 22:00 through 0100 UT (6 pm through 11 pm EDT)
11470 KHz 22:00 through 23:45 UT
15440 KHz 22:00 through 23:59 UT

The full shortwave schedule is available here. I am setting my clock so I can tune in and see what happens because I am curious; dead air? Does the station sign off? I really want to know how a station plans for the end of the world. Hopefully, it will be marked by some program, announcement, or something special. Operations as usual would be very boring, as most Family Radio programming is mundane and predictable.

Frankly, Camping has made these predictions before, the last was September 6, 1994, when the faithful gathered in the Alameda’s Veterans Memorial Building, bibles open, hands outstretched, awaiting the moment. After a while, it became clear that something was amiss and everyone went home, wondering what went wrong. There have been many religious-based predictions for the world ending: 1806; October 1844; December 21, 1956; November 1982; January 1, 2000: etc. The Jehovah’s Witnesses alone have predicted the end coming in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.

It’s either a really good radio stunt, which would go down as one of the greats of all time or they actually believe it’s the end of the world. In the case of the latter, does this mean they will be selling their radio stations? There are several around here that I’d be interested in getting my hands on. I’d even give a fair price, considering the circumstances and all.

Update: How do radio stations prepare for the end of the world? T -40 minutes and the answer appears to be play canned programming, or in other words, business as usual.

Comcast Buys FCC? or Business as Usual

I received this rather humorous, hyperventilating email from some group called “Freepress.net.”

Outrageous!

FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker is leaving the FCC to become a lobbyist for Comcast – just four months after she voted to approve the Comcast-NBC merger.

This is nothing new under the sun and has, in fact, been going on for years. It’s called “The Payoff.” Conflict of interest? On the surface, it sure seems that way, but perhaps there is some other innocent explanation for this move. I can’t, for the life of me, think of what that might be, but I’m sure somebody will come up with something.

The email continues with a plea to call some congressman to investigate the FCC. Perhaps I have grown a little cynical but I have my doubts about the effectiveness of such an effort.

In spite of my cynicism, as their motivations seem to be in the right place, I applaud Free Press for their efforts. Other like-minded groups need to keep the pressure on and keep this in the spotlight. Naturally, NBC and other networks have uttered not a peep about it. The public blindly goes along while big business and wall street banksters continue their efforts to return to Feudalism.

Soon, one company will own the entire country. Everyone will shop at the company store, Wal-something or another, live in company housing, go to the company medical clinic and worship at the company church.

The answer, of course, is independent voices, independent investigations, in-depth reporting, in short, everything that is currently missing from the media landscape today. That, and some kind of electric shock or something to get people off of their fat asses and care about something.

Update: Several people have taken notice; The New York Times, TIME magazine, and The Daily Show.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Well, That Was Fast – Comcast/NBC Merger

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

Wireless LAN bridges and STLs

Wireless LAN technology has been around for quite a while. Point-to-point 2.4 and 5.8 GHz spread spectrum hardware has also been around for some time. These systems operate in the ISM bands at relatively low power levels and are license free. There are several different makes and models, however, they all have some similar specifications. Most have DS-1 (T-1) or ethernet 10 base T or 100 base T 802.3 architecture. Some are field configurable for either format.

The advantage of using 802.3 ethernet is the availability of ethernet sound cards and the possibility of making inexpensive audio to ethernet A/D converter. However, if a station is currently using telephone company DS-1 service, then they likely have the audio to DS-1 multiplexers on hand.

I have used the Axxcelera point to point system as an inter-city relay for a satellite downlink. Axxcelera is owned by Moseley, which has a long history in the STL business. The point-to-point system has an indoor unit, which has the RJ-45 ports, and an outdoor unit, which has the RF section and an integrated antenna. The two units are connected via Cat 5 cable (be sure to use UV resistant cable) through a power injection port. The newer units do not need the power injection port. The system gain is about +46 dBm and the claimed effective range is 20 miles. I’d suspect it to be somewhat less than that with the integrated antenna. There is also an N connector for an external antenna, making the outdoor unit a MMA (Mast Mounted Amplifier).

The indoor unit came configured with four 10 base T ports, which we reconfigured for DS-1 service. We connected a QEI CATLINK T-1 mux with several 7.5 KHz audio channels and one control channel connected to a broadcast tool DSC 3264 (Starguide satellite receiver channel controller) that allowed the station to change channels on the fly. It took some doing, but in the end, the system worked well. The path was about 1/2 mile through downtown buildings, it was line of sight but did not have full Fresnel clearance. I never heard of any dropouts.

The other system that I have used is the ADTRAN TRACER. This system is different in that it does not have an integrated antenna, an external antenna is required. We installed this over an eight-mile path using two six-foot grid parabolic dishes (Radio Waves G6-2.4NF) on 2.4 GHz. The primary configuration is a rack-mounted indoor unit with either four or eight 802.3, E-1, or T-1 ports. These ports are not field configurable. The antenna connector is a type N. There is also a split configuration available; an indoor unit with the T-1 ports and an outdoor MMA. This setup is best used where transmission line lengths would create prohibitive losses. MMA’s are not my first choice in these systems, there are too many things that can go wrong when active components are mounted high above ground level.

This system replaced two Telephone company T-1 lines and is used as an STL for two stations and an inter-city relay for a satellite downlink site. It also extends the office LAN (802.3 ethernet) to the transmitter site where a backup audiovault server lives. This is accomplished through a T-1 port using an ethernet to T-1 bridge.

ADTRAN Tracer 6000 series microwave radio

ADTRAN also created a path analyser spreadsheet.

The license-free aspect of these system makes them easy to deploy. There are several frequency plans available and the paths are fairly robust. In highly congested areas, however, interference may become an issue. Of course, because they are unlicensed, frequency coordination would be a real problem. Axxcelera has the ExcelFlex which is a unit requiring a license that can run in any frequency band from 6-38 GHz

Rants

Keeping Public Radio Public has a good one.

And the lame-stream press — how dare they be called the “liberal media”! — only parrot the script prepared by the puppet masters, as corporate “largesse” and control has turned the media into toothless old watchdogs. They make good company for the regulatory agencies once charged with protecting the public from the excesses of corporate greed. They’re good dogs now, too.

Exactly why independent media outlets are not just a nice feature of a democracy. If one were to read the entire constitution of the United States, a theme, loosely known as “checks and balances” becomes apparent. You could also call that theme “Trust Not.” I recommend anyone who is interested in freedom read the Federalist Papers. Even with the watered-down press, US Congress has a 9% (Rasmussen, April 2011) approval rating. Surely, the public understands that something is amiss and needs to be fixed.

While the internet and new media are great, it is too easy to mess with the internet. True independent media needs to have independent distribution, and not be beholden to corporate ISPs, search engines, data centers, and so forth. Radio fits that bill, to the extent that it is not broadcasting homogenized safe, automated, faceless music formats programmed from afar or content from The Borg-like collective of NPR. Independent radio still exists in small pockets scattered here and there. Where it exists, it often thrives in spite of corporate conglomerates.

Of course, consolidation has reduced the radio business to a shell of its former self. The FCC has no interest in reigning in those corporations, or, so it seems, enforcing many of its own existing regulations. Money talks, screw the public.

What is the answer? Get involved. Don’t buy into the lies. Use your God-given senses and do some research. Draw your own conclusions. Make noise. Confront the corporatists with the facts. Use every means possible to get the word out. Write your representative or senator (after you register to vote). Talk to co-workers, friends, family people on the street, etc. It’s time, in fact, it’s now or never.