Paul Thurst – Page 50 – Engineering Radio

Whatever happened to the CFA?

Remember way back when, perhaps in high school or college, you met this really cool person who seemed to be wonderful in every way? Yeah, then you got to know them a little better, and, well, those first impressions changed a little bit.

Crossed Field Antenna, Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Crossed Field Antenna (CFA) sort of reminds me of my first prom date. There was a lot of promise there, but plans fell through.

From a 1999 Radio World article:

Imagine an AM antenna one–fiftieth of a wavelength long, that needs no radial ground system, occupies a small parcel of land, produces little or no RFI (Radio Frequency Interference), has great bandwidth and performs better than a full–sized vertical radiator.

This potential new antenna was all the rage during the early 00s or whatever you call that decade. I remember thinking to myself; I will believe it when I see the test results. At one point, there was a battery of tests run in the installation in Egypt and China. The test results are spotty at best, however, none of these installations performed up to expectations. While it looks like a cool idea, and it would have been great to see it succeed, it seems that sheer willpower alone will not make a particular system work outside of the laws of physics. There are a few of these still in operation out in the wild, mostly in Egypt.

Fixing small problems

This happened recently at an AM station we were doing work for. It seems the modulation monitor was not working when connected to the backup transmitter. A quick check of the RG-58 coax showed that I had the correct cable plugged into the monitor selector relay. Another check with an ohm meter showed the cable was okay. Then I looked at the connector on the monitor port of the transmitter and saw this:

Looks like the pin is too far back in the connector. This is an old-style BNC connector with solder in center pin:

BNC connector center pin — BNC connector solder type center pin

The center pin has a blob of solder on it, preventing it from seating properly in the connector body. I could have lopped it off and applied a new crimp on connector, but my crimp tool was in the car. I didn’t feel like walking all the way through the studio building, out into the parking lot and getting it. Therefore, I used a file and filed off the solder blob then reassembled the connector:

The transmitter was installed in 1986, I think the connector had been like that for a long time.

It may seem like a small detail to have the modulation monitor working on the backup transmitter, however, the modulation monitor is also the air monitor for the studio. Switching to the backup transmitter but not having a working air monitor would likely have caused confusion and the staff might think they are still off the air. I know in this day and age, a lot of station do not even have backup transmitters, but when something is available, it should work correctly.

I like my cool network analyzer and all that, but sometimes it is the Mark 1, Mod 0 eyeball that gets the job done.

Network Security, part II

With the spate of ransomware and crypto virus attacks on automation systems, perhaps a quick review of network security is in order:

Isolate the automation system on a separate network from the general office network and do not allow internet access on the automation system’s workstations or servers.
Use a separate switch for all automation network connections.
install a small router between the automation network and the office network. On the router, the WAN port faces outward toward the office network, making the WAN port non-pingable. Grant access from the office network for certain users; e.g. traffic, music director, etc via access lists. Open up a few ports for VNC or RDP on the router so technicians can remotely access machines to do maintenance and troubleshooting.
Use supported and up-to-date operating systems.
Use separate admin and user accounts, make sure that admin rights are removed from user accounts, and keep machines logged in as users. This ensures that some errant DJ or other person does not install any unauthorized programs.
Install and keep up to date with a good antivirus program.
Back up the data and test the backups.

The office network is more vulnerable because of the human element. Internet access is required, of course. Click on a pop-up, sure! Hey, that photograph has a funny file extension, lets’s open it and see what it is. I never heard of this person before, but look, they sent me an executable!

Much of the office network security will rely on the quality of the router connected to the internet and the antivirus software installed. Of course, the network users have a good deal of responsibility also.

Brother, can you spare a theorem?

A theorem is not, indeed, a fact. It is rather, an idea that is deduced and supported by other proven facts. Thus, a theorem is generally believed a truth. It should be of interest to the “All Digital” AM (AKA Medium Wave) proponents that noise on the digital channel will reduce data throughput as a function of channel bandwidth and Signal to Noise Ratio. This is known as the Shannon-Hartley theorem:

C = B \log_2 \left( 1+\frac{S}{N} \right)

Where:
C is the channel capacity in bits per second;
B is the bandwidth of the channel in hertz (passband bandwidth in case of a modulated signal);
S is the average received signal power over the bandwidth (in case of a modulated signal, often denoted C, i.e. modulated carrier), measured in watts (or volts squared);
N is the average noise or interference power over the bandwidth, measured in watts (or volts squared); and
S/N is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the communication signal to the Gaussian noise interference expressed as a linear power ratio (not as logarithmic decibels).

With this equation, one can discern a fundamental flaw in all digital logic. One of the main issues with AM Medium Wave broadcasting is the ever-increasing noise floor. Our society has changed drastically in the last one hundred years or so since AM was invented. Electrical noise generators; computers, plasma screen monitors, mobile phones, appliances, energy-efficient lighting, data over power line, street lights, poor utility line maintenance, and even electric cars, it seems, generate a cacophony of noise in the Medium Wave frequency band. A digital modulation scheme, be it HD Radio or DRM, will mask the noise to a certain extent, that is true. However, once the SNR exceeds the ability of the receiver to decode the necessary bits, the receiver will mute. While it is true, the listener will not hear noise, they may not hear anything at all.

I will also note; none of the current “AM improvement” schemes under consideration by the FCC addresses the noise issue on the AM band. Without addressing the noise issue, any digital modulation scheme will be a temporary fix at its very best. The noise floor will continue to rise and after it gets high enough, the all-digital modulation will simply not work.

It will be interesting to see the data from the all-digital HD Radio testing that is being done in various locations. That is, if the NAB, et al. does not decide to treat that data like some kind of state secret; they have become reticent of late. When somebody acts like they have something to hide, it makes me think they have something to hide…