It has been about a month now, has anyone taken them up on this:
iBiquity Digital and Citadel Media announced a partnership which will enable stations to upgrade to digital while avoiding cash expenditure. Stations will have the opportunity to provide on-air inventory to Citadel Media in exchange for the HD Radio license fee and equipment supplied by Broadcast Electronics, Continental, Harris and Nautel.
I was sure that my former employer, now that I have left the company, would at least look into this. I know there are many other frugal like-minded companies out there that look at trade as being “free.” Anytime I had a building project, like paving the parking lot or replacing the roof membrane, the first question asked was “Can we trade it?” I hated dealing with trade. Often, it would end up as a half-paved parking lot and the general manager asking “Gee, what happened?”
I would be surprised if this iBiquity scheme didn’t generate at least some interest in the HD radio holdouts. Has anybody heard anything else on this?
I snapped these pictures at WICC in Bridgeport, CT. It is an older PR&E BMXII console, with 26 channels, I believe.
Pacific Recorders and Engineering BMXII 26
These were manufactured starting in 1985, I installed one in 1990. It is a testament to their durability that this one has lasted 23 years. They were expensive when purchased, and all of them were purchased directly from PR&E, Carlsbad, California. The beauty of these things is their modularity. All of the major components are replaceable, including the module face inlays.
Penny Giles conductive plastic fader, PRE BMXII console
The faders, Penny and Giles 4000 series, are fully rebuildable. The part that wears out the most is the nylon bushings that slide along the metal rails. The contact fingers sometimes also need to be replaced. These are 10 Kohm conductive plastic linear faders. P&G does not make these anymore, they have been replaced by the 8000 series, which has an edge connector instead of a wiring harness. Since the top of the fader is open, it also tends to accumulate dust, dirt, and other debris. The fader board itself should be cleaned off with warm water, light soap may be used if needed. Do not use alcohol on these because it eats into the conductive plastic and ruins the fader.
PR&E BMXII line input module
One of the great things about this console is the fact that all the modules are hot-pluggable. If one needs to be serviced, it can be pulled out of the main frame while the console is on the air and a new module plugged into it’s place. Only the line output module replacement necessitated taking the station off the air, and then only for a few seconds. It was a great concept that is now standard in almost every broadcast console.
There were several basic module configurations. On the input side, line level, mic level, and telco were standard console inputs. There was also a passive remote line select button set. Out put modules consisted of line-level output, control room monitor, and studio monitor modules.
PR&E consoles were top-of-the-line gear, but expensive. Most radio stations could not afford them and went with less expensive models like Wheatstone, BE, LPB, Autogram, Radio Systems, etc. The fact that some of these BMXII consoles are approaching 30 years of age and still in service is a testament to their construction.
In the early 1990s, PR&E began branching out into the lower priced market with their product line. They produced the Radiomixer and Productionmixer consoles, however, mid-market-sized radio stations were slow in adopting them because PR&E had the reputation of being expensive. After all, if you can only afford a Chevrolet, why bother looking at the Mercedes?
WQXR control room
This is a grainy promotions photo from the early 1990s showing what I think is the WQXR master control room, nick named “The Bridge.” I took a tour there around 1993 or so and it was a fantastic facility, of course, the New York Times spared no expense. I really felt like Willie Wonka in the Chocolate factory.
Later in that decade, they changed the name to Pacific Research and Engineering, and the went public. I think going public was the death knell, soon thereafter they sold the entire product line to Harris Broadcast. The final non-Harris console was the Airwave, which is a good medium-duty modular console, incorporating some of the traditional PR&E designs. The later consoles stopped routing audio directly through the faders, using voltage-controlled amplifiers instead. This solved some of the channel drop out problems that sometimes occurred in earlier consoles. The Airwave consoles are much less durable than the BMX series, however, with the advent of voice tracking, perhaps 24/7 durability is not that necessary anymore.
Harris has dropped support of much of the early PR&E line, but there are those that soldier on, buying up parts and rebuilding these things. Mooretronix has a good selection of BMX and ABX parts.
The WICC/WEBE installation is about to be refurbed, which means these consoles will be headed out the door. There are three of them in fair condition.
Or, it could also be phrased “A solution that causes more problems.” Radio World, once again, has a good article on the consequences of increasing IBOC power of the FM hybrid system. Especially telling is figure 24, a fuzzy 400 Hz sine wave showing how much distortion is added to the analog signal by a mere 4% HD signal. I’d be especially interested to see the results of the full 10% now allowed.
Naturally, HD proponents will cry “But this is only temporary! Wait until the transition to all digital!”
Bunk.
If HD radios were indeed flying off the shelves as iBiquity claims, and if the public expressed interest, okay, maybe. Clearly, that is not the case. The only thing that HD radio is doing is creating more interference. Period. More interference to the parent station and more interference to the adjacent channels all for an audience that does not exist. Another way to put it: NOBODY IS LISTENING. One of the stations that I service had a Harris Deathstar go offline for four days. NOT ONE PHONE CALL, NOBODY CARES!
The public did not perceive a technical problem with analog FM broadcasting. Of course, that can always change as the band gets filled with interference.
Let’s see where FM IBOC stands:
Rolled out with 1% digital power vs analog carrier, the system was found to lack building penetration and generally performed poorly in mobile listening environments (NPR labs study, Nov 24, 2009)
FCC allows up to 10% digital power vs analog carrier to overcome these problems, a few stations implement some type of power increase
This shows that self-interference is the largest problem IBOC needs to fix, one that is un-fixable due to the laws of physics
The public yawns, turns on their iPod
IBOC is a failure, both in AM and FM bands.
We are watching the self-destruction of radio broadcasting in the US.
WSPK is located on North Mt. Beacon, which is the highest point for miles around. It has a fantastic signal. The site is a little difficult to get to, however, especially in the winter. In previous years, the road has been impassable four months out of the year. Some engineers have hired a helicopter to get up there when the snow is deep. For that reason, it is important to keep the equipment in good shape.
WSPK Shively 6810 antenna with damaged top radome
After last February’s snow/rain/ice storm, it was noted that the top antenna radome was missing its top. A tower climber was sent up to look at it and it was also discovered that the top bay was bent down and the element was almost cracked in half. A result of falling ice, likely from the big periscope microwave reflector (passive reflector) mounted above it.
WSPK tower
The periscope reflectors went out of service in 2007, but the tower owner did not want to pay to take them down, thus a problem was not being solved. It was decided to replace the 25-year-old Shively 6810 antenna with a new one, during which work, the radio station would pay to remove the reflectors from the tower. In exchange for that work, the radio station would then be able to repair and remount the old Shively antenna below the new one, thus having a backup antenna. Problem solved, except for, you know: The actual work.
The tower and the periscope microwave system were installed in 1966, operated on 12 GHz, and were used by the Archdiocese of New York to relay their educational television programming from their Yonkers headquarters to the various schools in the Hudson Valley. Sometime around 1975 or so, the FCC mandated that periscope microwave systems could no longer be used due to all the side lobes and interference issues they caused. They were to be taken out of service as soon as possible. The Catholic Church, being a multi millennial organization figured “as soon as possible” meant within the next fifty years or so. Anyway, somebody else needed that frequency, therefore in 2007, they bought the Archdiocese a new digital microwave system.
The problem with the reflectors; they are big. They are also heavy, and present a huge wind area. They are also 300 feet up in the air.
WSPK tower periscope reflectors seen from ground level
Finding a day with lite winds on top of Mount Beacon can be a problem. Luckily, the weather was with us. Still, it took a while to get this work moving along. The other consideration is RFR and tower climber’s safety. There are two digital TV stations, WSPK, several cell carriers, something called “Media Flow,” and a bunch of two-way radio repeaters. The main concern was WSPK, the DTV, and Media Flow since the top of this tower is right in the aperture of those antennas. All either went way down in power or off the air while this work was ongoing.
Rigging a gin pole and getting it to the top of the tower was a chore. The gin pole needed to be threaded through those torque arms like a needle.
Gin pole
The tower riggers truck had two winches, one a basic 120-volt capstan, the other a hydraulic winch in the bed of the truck with 1/2 inch steel cable.
Tower rigger’s truck
The bolts holding the reflectors in place had to be cut with a saw, you can see the tower climber working on the left-hand reflector, which gives you an idea of size. If this reflector were to fall off the tower, chances are good that major damage and or injuries would result on the ground. Proceed with extreme caution.
Cutting bracket mounting bolt on periscope reflector
Carefully lowering reflector past Shively 6810 FM antenna and Scala PR-950U microwave antenna. During this phase, the tower climbers had to push the reflector out away from those obstacles with their legs. You can see the gin pole at the top of the tower.
Lowering Periscope reflector
Another view:
Lowering reflector
Another view:
Lowering reflector
Almost down to the ground. This measured 15 by 10 feet and ended up weighing 830 pounds.
Reflector almost to the ground
One down, one to go. I can’t believe those gigantic things were at the top of this tower, on the top of this mountain for 43 years and the tower is still standing. This is going to change the appearance of the mountain top from down below. For years, it looked like a pair of mickey mouse ears, now it will only look like a tower. I wonder what the environmentalists will think.
I will make a second post with the antenna pictures as this one is getting a little long.
