Brian Walker
Chapter Chair
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
The Seattle Chapter of SBE is thrilled to announce that a SBE ENNIS WORKSHOP is coming to town! You do not have to be a member to attend. If you are a member, you will receive continuing education credits. June 23rd at Northwood Elementary School 4030 86th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040. Socializing over Coffee and Donuts starts at 9:30 and at 10:30 the morning session gets started on antenna theory, presented by Stephen Lockwood from Hatfield & Dawson Consulting Engineers. Stephen will discuss the theory of antennas and how they work. After the catered lunch, the day gets handed over to Stephen Wilde from AAT/Shively/Scala/Kathrein. He is bringing his one-third and half-scale antennas and they will be set up on the athletic field. At Part 15 low powers, we’ll experiment with how antennas react to tower structures, reflectors and bay spacing. It’s not very often that Broadcast Engineers get to put their hands on transmit antennas and experiment with the theoretical in a practical application. Registration cost is $30 to cover the sandwich box lunch and cooler full of drinks.
The World Cup is coming to Seattle this month. Lots of people from out of town and other countries who are not used to driving in our lovely little village by the sound. Yep, just another day in Paradise on I-5. With all the press coming, I feel so sorry for the frequency coordinators that have to track all the wireless mics and camera systems…
Canada’s National Research Council has announced that its Ottawa based shortwave site, CHU will go dark on June 22nd. Canada’s NRC says their equipment is very old and the cost to upgrade is too high. CHU has transmitters on 3330 kHz, 7850 kHz and 14670 kHz all operating on Upper Side Band.
Time to blow the dust off that credit card and get ready to bid on scoring an AWS-3 Spectrum License. Just because AWS-3 lands in the same frequencies as C-Band Satellite down-links, there shouldn’t be a problem since the sat dishes point up and AWS-3 follows the horizon, right?
Two stations in Illinois owned by Stratemeyer Media received notices of violation related to the towers for WIBV-FM and WKRO-AM (currently silent). An agent from the FCC’s Chicago Enforcement Bureau noticed that WIBV-FM’s tower was unlit. According to WIBV’s license, their tower requires white obstruction lighting. The Commish took a dim view of the owner’s inability to hire a repair crew in 21 months… Meanwhile, at WKRO, the FCC observed that the lighting on the tower was extinguished well after local sunset time including the top-level beacon and two side markers. The next morning, the FCC inspector noticed that the paint on the structures was “severely faded, flaking and exposing bare metal, and did not meet the standards of the FAA’s In-Service Aviation Orange Tolerance Chart.” According to the FCC’s account, Stratemeyer admitted later that month that he was aware of the poor condition of the antenna tower’s paint and he admitted the tower never had any lighting. Because the antenna falls within the FAA’s 100-to-1 slope criteria with respect to the nearby Cairo Regional Airport, it qualifies as an obstruction requiring a notice of proposed construction to the FAA.
The FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology picked up a new Lab Chief effective June first. Cliff Jones comes to the FCC from Verizon where he led operations for Verizon’s private‑cloud infrastructure and the applications supporting Verizon’s 5G network, overseeing core‑network modernization and large‑scale cloud deployment.
Mark your calendar for July 25th! It’s the SBE16 Summer Picnic and we thank our friends at KIRO Radio for hosting us at their transmitter site on Vashon Island. The much vaunted “transmitter crawl” is finally back in all its glory this year! Yes, we have access to KNWN’s (formerly KOMO Radio) transmitter site. If you have never seen a 50kW AM transmitter that is 32’ long, don’t miss this trip! KIRO’s AM Transmitter site is located at the intersection of Dockton Road SW and 228th Street on Vashon Island. Just look for the pair of 525’ towers. They are hard to miss!
Let’s talk next month.
Brian Walker
Seattle SBE16 Chapter Chair