General – Page 60 – Engineering Radio

Communications infrastructure vulnerability

I was speaking with a friend of mine recently about some interference issues he was having at an FM transmitter site. There were several cellular and PCS tenants at this site and something from the FM transmitter was interfering with the GPS receivers. This one very small glitch was causing multiple carriers to go offline, basically shutting down the entire wireless infrastructure at this particular site.

GPS signals are used for syncing carrier frequencies and modulation timing for CDMA and TDMA that all cellular, PSC, and 3G, 4G (or whatever G) wireless systems use to seamlessly hand off users from one site to another. Without it, the entire system will shut down.

What would happen to communications in this country if all GPS were interrupted? When I was in the military, we spoke often about high-altitude nuclear detonations and the possible effects they would have on our communications circuits. In fact, we drilled for such things. Often. What, if anything, are wireless carriers doing to keep their sites online if, heaven forbid, somebody does something to disrupt GPS? If terrestrial radio and television broadcasting is going to be replaced by 3G and 4G wireless networks, how redundant are they? I know, for example, many cell sites do not have long-term backup power. They have battery banks, which in a power outage, may last 6-10 hours, but after that, the site is down.

Further, how about vulnerabilities getting the data to and from these sites? Most cell sites rely on some type of TELCO circuit, usually a T-1 (DS-1) or multiple T-1 to interface with the wired network. This includes voice, text, and data services. If those circuits are down, then anything connected to them will be offline.

What about redundant transmitters, antennas, receivers, etc? How much of the current wireless infrastructure is backed up with spares? It causes me worry to think that someday traditional broadcasters will be going out of business due to poor financial planning, leaving us all to subscription-based data services that may or may not be there in an emergency. At least with many radio and TV stations, there are generators, backup transmitters, microwave systems, and so forth. Most good broadcasters have emergency plans for the restoration of service during a disaster. EAS may not be the greatest thing ever, but right now, it is the only emergency communications plan we have. Radio is still the best and most robust way to communicate vital information during emergencies. Cell sites go offline along with whatever G wireless service, cable TV systems go offline due to power outages or damaged distribution networks, landline phones can be taken out due to power interruptions at the company office, or damaged networks.

Why do I care? Why should you care? Because, as I have eluded in previous posts, with the demise of local newspapers, the demise of local radio, the erosion of local TV news coverage, and the general trivialization of our political apparatus on the local and national levels, we are losing our voice. We will lose our democracy. Right now, the US is on the verge of becoming an oligarchy or a corporatocracy.

What road are we traveling down when unrestricted free access to information is gone? The internet is a great resource, but it is not free. What will happen to the price of internet access when competing information and entertainment technologies such as radio, TV, and newspapers disappear? Look to our transportation sector for an example. Gone are the vast majority of passenger railroads that crisscrossed the country for nearly 100 years. In many places, public transportation is laughable. How do you get to work? How do you get to the store? How much will $5.00 per gallon of gas affect your life? More importantly, what can you do about it when the cost of fuel gets expensive? Nothing. Most people are stuck in their suburban homes with not even a convenience store within walking distance.

What will happen when terrestrial radio goes away? I shudder to think.

Future of AM radio

It is clear to me that radio is changing, in some ways, it is changing for the better, and in many ways, it is changing for the worse. In spite of many bad business decisions made by overpriced MBAs, large consolidated radio groups seem to be hanging on, if only by their fingernails. It is very likely that the investment banks, who have the most to lose, are not interested in seeing their loans written off in a bankruptcy proceeding. As we all know, the consolidators that paid multiples of 15 to 16 times cash flow for stations, way overextended themselves. There is no hope that values will ever return to those levels, so the banks are now in the radio business.

Sure, the banks are not the owners of record, and the FCC never would consent to transfer all those licenses to so many investment banks. However, they are calling the shots, making “suggestions” on how best to run things. Offering perhaps a 1/4 percent reduction in an interest rate if the expenses can be reduced below a certain level. Unfortunately, for the communities like Ellenville, NY, their local radio station means nothing to the banker living in Manhattan. It is a number, and more than likely, a negative number on a spreadsheet. It means nothing to the group owner in San Antonio, other than some miscellaneous real estate assets. The same can be said for all the radio stations in the Hudson Valley if not the entire country.

Why is this important? I mean, who really cares? The apparent answer is no one seems to care. Local news, or what used to be local news such as town board meetings, high school sports scores, police blotter, and all of the many other small town things do not get the hearing they used to. Town boards; well if no one shows up for the meeting to pass the new zoning laws, so be it. School boards; sure, raise the taxes, most homeowners will just pay the new higher amount and not say anything. It is for the children, after all. Seems that the local constabulary is spending more time at the Dunkin Donuts than out walking around checking doors. That’s the way it goes. With the demise of local newspapers, detailed in a previous post, who is keeping an eye on things? Who lets the community know when something doesn’t pass the smell test?

Receiver tuned to local AM station playing good sounding music — A receiver tuned to a local AM station playing good-sounding music

A small AM radio station can be made profitable, just not at the margins expected by the big boys. There is a niche for perhaps a 1 KW or 5 KW non-directional station with its own real estate that is not in too bad shape and can be turned into a community radio station. Those types of stations are fairly low maintenance, most have some type of PSRA and PSSA to keep them on at least during drive times if they are daytimers. Others have minimal amounts of nighttime power. Almost all of them cover their city of license, even with small nighttime powers.

I have been looking into good quality AM radio receivers and there are a few out there which are not too expensive. Most GM car radios and older Chrysler radios have good AM radios. A group formed to promote AM radio, ensure that automakers install radios that are at least as good as their older versions, and work with manufacturers to make better small tabletop receivers and such would go a long way to improving the unjustly bad reputation that AM broadcasting has received. Further, working with the ARRL (amateur radio) to reduce and keep noise levels from things like BPL and other noise-making technologies that do not comply with current FCC regulations would also help. It is true that our environment has become electrically noisier, one might not be able to listen to the 50 KW clear channel station 500 miles away, but the local station should come in well enough to enjoy, especially if the programming is good.

FM radio is becoming crowed with translators, adjacent channel HD radio interference, LPFMs, and whatever else can be shoehorned into the band. The quality of FM is set to decline precipitously in the next few years. It seems that with the right combination of good local programming, good receivers, and radio station owners/operators that are not looking to get listed on the NASDAQ, small AM stations could survive, if not thrive in the business that the big stations turn away.

There are a number, a small number, of stations already doing this. As long as there is free local news and free quality programming, people will listen, no matter what band it is being broadcast on. Free trumps paid any time, any day.

AM radio

When I was a young lad, still impressionable I might add, I would listen to the big AM powerhouses at night with my little transistor radio. I have eluded to this in previous posts. I have also written an article for Radio World in which I suggest turning AM transmitter off at overnight hours to save money, with certain caveats. I still listen to AM radio quite often. I have a Kenwood R-2000 MF/HF receiver which, while not the best technical receiver, is the best-sounding AM receiver I have ever heard. Its wide AM IF bandwidth is 6.5 kHz, which seems to work very well with the high-end pre-emphasis curves most good AM processors employ. Music, especially oldies, which were recorded in AM’s hay day sounds spectacular. There is no other AM radio that sounds as good as this unit. Right now, the sun has just set and I am listening to WFED 1500 KHz in Washington DC. They are airing a VOA program called “Issues in the News.” It’s real red-meat radio. We are 250 air miles from the transmitter site.

I think there is a place for AM stations, not just merely being satellite repeaters, but making a meaningful contribution to their communities of license. Unfortunately, I am one of the few that thinks so. For as long as I have been in radio, AM has been declining. It is a matter of economics, most GMs would tell me. That being said, the two three-letter call signs that I worked at were consistently in the top four in the rating book. Clearly, live local programming was the key to this success.

The notion that they sound bad may or may not be true. An AM station that has a properly tuned and matched antenna can sound very good. Using a good receiver, one that has good fidelity, good selection and sensitivity can also increase listening pleasure. Unfortunately, almost all AM radios being sold today have an IF bandwidth that is only slightly better than a telephone around 2-3 kHz. This is because… I don’t know. Originally receiver manufacturers began limiting bandwidth to reduce interference. NRSC-2 was supposed to limit interference by reducing out-of-bandwidth splatter. Apparently, the manufacturers didn’t get the word.

Who knows, as the FM band gets filled with shit (interference from adjacent channel IBOC, translators shoehorned in, LPFM’s on third adjacent channels) AM radio might be viable again.

Once the moneymen got a hold of the broadcasting industry, everything was geared toward making money. Not that making money is wrong, it is certainly good to make a profit, however, with the margins on the FM stations, usually between 25-50%, AM stations were relegated to second place because their margins were much less than that. Even so, many AM stations were initially profitable during the consolidation and still had some ratings. Not so anymore. AM stations also require more maintenance, because of directional antennas and all that is associated with those systems. What a banker or an accountant sees when he looks at an AM radio station is a money pit. And, if the station has been run into the ground, it is a money pit.

Still, a small AM at a fire sale price might be fun to rehab. Launch some type of community radio format, put AM radio back where it was 30 years ago, solidly in the community. It might be fun.

Low Power FM, House passes H.R. 1147

The House passed the “LOCAL COMMUNITY RADIO ACT OF 2009 ” (aka HR 1147) last night in one of the last legislative acts of 2009. This is the companion bill to S. 592, which is still in committee.

The need for LPFM stations is justified thusly:

In part due to consolidation of media ownership, there have been strong financial incentives for some companies to reduce local programming and rely instead on syndicated programming produced for hundreds of stations, though noncommercial educational radio stations, including FM translator stations, currently provide important local service, as do many commercial radio stations. A renewal of commitment to localism–local operations, local research, local management, locally originated programming, local artists, and local news and events–would bolster radio’s service to the public.
Local communities have sought to launch radio stations to meet their local needs. However, due in part to the scarce amount of spectrum available and the high cost of buying and running a large station, many local communities are unable to establish a radio station.
In 2003, the average cost to acquire a commercial radio station was more than $2,500,000.
In January 2000, the Federal Communications Commission authorized a new, affordable community radio service called `low-power FM’, or `LPFM’, to `enhance locally focused community-oriented radio broadcasting’.
Through the creation of LPFM, the Federal Communications Commission sought to `create opportunities for new voices on the airwaves and to allow local groups, including schools, churches, and other community-based organizations, to provide programming responsive to local community needs and interests’.
The Federal Communications Commission made clear that the creation of LPFM would not compromise the integrity of the FM radio band by stating, `We are committed to creating a low-power FM radio service only if it does not cause unacceptable interference to existing radio service.’.
Currently, FM translator stations can operate on the second- and third-adjacent channels to full-power radio stations, up to an effective radiated power of 250 watts, pursuant to part 74 of title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, using the very same transmitters that LPFM stations will use. The Federal Communications Commission based its LPFM rules on the actual performance of these translators, which already operate without undue interference to FM stations.
Small rural broadcasters were particularly concerned about a lengthy and costly LPFM interference complaint process. Therefore, in September 2000, the Federal Communications Commission created a process to address interference complaints regarding LPFM stations on an expedited basis.
In December 2000, Congress delayed the full implementation of LPFM until the Federal Communications Commission commissioned and reviewed an independent engineering study. This action was due to some broadcasters’ concerns that LPFM service would cause interference in the FM radio band.
The Federal Communications Commission granted licenses to over 800 LPFM stations despite the congressional action. These stations are currently on the air and are run by local government agencies, groups promoting arts and education to immigrant and indigenous populations, artists, schools, religious organizations, environmental groups, organizations promoting literacy, and many other civically oriented organizations.
After 2 years and the expenditure of $2,193,343 in taxpayer dollars, the independent engineering study commissioned by the Federal Communications Commission concluded that concerns about interference on third-adjacent channels were unwarranted.
The Federal Communications Commission issued a report to Congress on February 19, 2004, which stated that `Congress should readdress this issue and modify the statute to eliminate the third-adjacent channel distance separation requirement for LPFM stations.’
On November 27, 2007, the Federal Communications Commission again unanimously affirmed LPFM, stating in a news release about the adoption of the Low-Power FM Third Report and Order and Second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that the Federal Communications Commission recommends `to Congress that it remove the requirement that LPFM stations protect full-power stations operating on third-adjacent channels’. Until the date of enactment of this Act, Congress had not acted upon that recommendation.
Minorities represent almost a third of the population of the United States. However, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s most recent Form 323 data on the race and gender of full-power, commercial broadcast licensees, minorities own only 7 percent of all local television and radio stations. Women represent more than half of the population but own only 6 percent of all local television and radio stations. LPFM stations, while not a solution to the overall inequalities in minority and female broadcast ownership, provide an additional opportunity for underrepresented communities to operate a station and offer local communities a greater diversity of viewpoints and culture.
LPFM stations have proven to be a vital source of information during local or national emergencies. Out of the few stations that were able to stay on the air during Hurricane Katrina, several were LPFM stations. In Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, low-power FM station WQRZ remained on the air during Hurricane Katrina and served as the Emergency Operations Center for Hancock County. After Hurricane Katrina, when thousands of evacuees temporarily housed at the Houston Astrodome were unable to hear over the loudspeakers information about the availability of food and ice, the location of Federal Emergency Management Agency representatives, and the whereabouts of missing loved ones, volunteers handed out thousands of transistor radios and established an LPFM station outside of the Astrodome to broadcast such information.

Similar to S. 592, the bill aims to:

Increase the number of LPFM stations by doing away with the 3rd adjacent protections.
Mitigate interference by creating a 1 year period during which a new LPFM station must broadcast “periodic announcements that alert listeners that interference that they may be experiencing could be the result of the operation of the new low-power FM station on a third-adjacent channel and shall instruct affected listeners to contact the low-power FM station to report any interference.” LPFM licensees are then tasked with solving interference complaints within a licensed full-power FM station’s protected contour.
Protect translator input signals.
Protect reading for the blind services.

I am not finding fault with any of the justifications, they are all true and make a good point about the decline of Radio in general as I have discussed in previous posts.

The potential increase of LPFM stations is in the thousands.

The proposed interference mitigation is a pipe dream. The FCC enforcement bureau is overworked as it is. We have had a pirate on one of our frequencies for years, every once in a while they drive out and bust the guy, only to have him return a week or two later. Somehow this group of overworked people will be able to process hundreds or thousands of interference complaints?

Unless there is increased funding for the FCC enforcement bureau, I am skeptical. There is no specific discussion on funding, only specifying that the cost should be below $139 million.

We live in interesting times.