Archive
A Year! A Not A Review
Everyone with a blog, any columnist, and all news agencies have their “year in review” thing going. Shoot, why do that? After settling down on which blog app to use and where to host it, I’ve been posting for a year! I may not have many followers. I may not be the best writer. I may not even know what I am talking about at times. All I know is I am enjoying posting.
I have a twitter account and run under the name Dragonbill. I throw out thoughts here and updates on “pressing” matters. Tweets can be useful in our field. I feel that engineers are not using it to their advantage. Little posts, updates, and tips through this generates many ideas and solutions. Give it a try. I sure will try to find you and follow you!
I’m also surprised my employer has not sent me a cease a desist. I wouldn’t be surprised if this occurs in 2010. For some reason “Conflict of Interest” is a major thing in this world and is beginning to penetrate our own business of engineering more that ever before. I come from a scientific background and have been influenced by the scientific community where ideas get shared (or used to) without issue. Of course until the claims of whom discovered what first! Our industry is so niche that we all pretty much use the same technology, though implemented differently via different manufacturers. I personally like to share ideas and solutions.
If you have followed my posts, I am proud to have some accomplishments in a tough economic year. The first two Nautel NV20’s in the U.S. is pretty cool. I am currently evaluating the new Tieline Bridge-IT. We managed to keep many things under control with a tight budget. Shoot we had to commandeer $25k to upgrade air conditioning at a transmitter site due to HD! I bet you have managed some interesting things this year, too.
Thanks to all who follow me. Please feel to “speak up” to anything I state or mention, i.e. correct me if I’m wrong. That’s how we learn if you haven’t figured that out. I’ve promised I would fill in my “notes” page and failed miserably. I am going to try to in ’10. I am open to suggestions.
Have a good New Year!
Being the Best….
AT&T. T-1 line issues.
1. Tests good.
2. Data slips lead to audio outage and AT&T documents they see an issue.
3. Dispatch. Tech tests OK, but states he did not like what he saw. Claims he will head back to the CO (central office) to test again and may refer it to “engineering design.”
4. One day later, no phone calls with results or plan of attack.
5. I call to check. Trouble ticket is closed. Open and new ticket called an “informational ticket.”
6. Return call4 hours later. Ticket was closed as the line tested good. No referral to engineering. No reason for not calling with status. We are back on the circuit. So far, so good.
I ask why we were never informed of the status of the circuit. If it was cleared, why did I have to make the extra effort to find out what happened? Why would a tech tell me it would most likely be referred to engineering design? I fell for this as the copper cable to this site is old. It is worn. It is susceptible to moisture and temperature changes. What else should I suspect?
I figure AT&T has a very high volume of calls, so it could let a menial thing as a status update to fall through the cracks. I also figure that any company which wishes to maintain customer loyalty and professionalism would have procedures to prevent this info loss.
I see this as a growing trend among companies, even within our own. No follow-through. No professional courtesy. The drive to be the best is missing. Oh, the commercials on T.V. and radio say otherwise, but actions speak loudly. I am going to personally act and be the best I can be. How about you?
What?! Nothing Happening?
Wow, I cannot believe I have not posted in over two weeks! Well, yes I can. Nothing is going on. As my tweets have mentioned I have updated our NV20’s to Version 2.6. Guess what, 2.7 is available. From what I can tell I may not need 2.7 at this time as i am not experiencing the issues of which it contains. I do not update just for the sake of updating, so on this one I will wait it out just a bit and research more on what it is supposed to do. I am quite happy with 2.6. No issues. Uh, Oh, now there will be something.
Harris? This buffer overflow thing seemed to be the issue. I still am surprised that an HD data overflow would mute the exciter. How can you put something on the air that is NOT critical but can cause a critical outage? Flabbergasted is a word for that. Hey, at least we’ve been on the air since I changed the Exgine delay setting.
DaySequerra M2.2R? Not back yet. Still waiting. This better work when I get it back!
Time change. Hopefully everyone who needs to made their changes. When you get down to it I find it amazing how many things have clocks in them. I also find it amazing why. I know my processors have dayparting, but we do not use it. Need a clock? Not really, but we check them anyways. Anything that logs need updating. Now my Nautel transmitter clocks need to be checked so I can get accurate logs on any issues. Nice feature, eh?
The super secret item mentioned in a tweet? It is a Tieline product. I am beta testing for a week coming up here. I don’t think I am supposed to talk about it yet, though it is a product they demonstrated at NAB. I am honored to be able to test something for a company. They trust I will either like it or can find issues with it. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
That’s all folks. I’ll keep you posted and may even write an opinion on something like HD power increase.
Week of Fun
So you all saw the updates of the week via Tweets. Some also have seen the latest post regarding the STL. Here is a summary of stuff that will help those troubleshooting (STL) and planning (software updates) in the coming weeks.
1. The STL. The symptoms were quite surprising on the Moseley aural STL. We noticed the failure via audio drop outs. It was somewhat periodic, too, which was quite interesting. As we had planned to drop the system to 32 quam from 64 quam to make it more robust in the first place, we began to do that from the far end (receivers at transmitter sites) back to the near end (studios). No bit errors were being received at the transmitter site, so there was no real need to worry, yet the problem was there. When we got to the transmitter at the studio, and after visiting the mid-point, we noticed the issue after making our Quam adjustment.
As we are running 32 Quam now, an issue like this will not show itself unless you are diligent on routine maintenance. Now we are going to schedule monthly tests of the backup STL system by placing it on air for at least 1 hour. We will also make sure we check the units themselves for any parameters out of range.
2. Harris HTHD+: Amazingly this thing will drop when you least expect it. After spending a better part of the day Friday with tech support we are experimenting with the Exgine buffer. The premise is the buffer is overflowing or having some issue causing a system restart. During the restart RF is muted. I will know more tomorrow when I hit the site and see how are buffer is doing after doing recommended adjustments to buffer timing. If we remain unlocked, then we are looking at some issue. If it is a data stream issue, then we may have something up with our Intraplex STL. It would be odd if this was our issue and I would conclude that the Flexstar processing system and Exgine would need some sort of overhaul. On a side note it also shows how critical a good network path to the transmitter site is for iBiquity HD radio. Nuts considering many transmitter sites have little or no network access.
3. UPSs (Uninterruptible Power Supplies): Never purchase a consumer grade UPS even if it is a “true” UPS. If possible purchase an online UPS large enough to handle the plant or a section thereof. I have 15 more batteries to replace in the next day or two. They are running my budget up and it is killing me. It is worth the money to protect your systems, but a maintenance nightmare. Try to keep it simple.
4. Remote Controls: More monitoring is a definite requirement for major markets. Reliable, too. I need something reliable, versatile, and flexible. Will it be Davicom, Audemat, Burk, or Statmon? I am tending towards Statmon, but the cost may be too steep. I’ll keep you posted on my progress on this one.
Enough rambling, back to more fun!
When Motivation Fades
Have you gone through a phase where all your motivation to work begins to fade? Seems to come and go, so I call it a phase. Some phases are deeper than others, too.
In this phase it seems a number of items are contributing. One is the feeling of “I can do more.” This one is silly as the economy prevents us from spending and at the same time makes us more creative. Dealing with this one is easy. Another item is the lack of cooperation I see within the facility. It makes me wonder why we even bother. Even those on the same staff just do not get it and all communications are lost. When you see their supervisor not make any effort to correct or follow through, it just gets worse. Moral drops. Again, I do my part on the technical side, but I’ve been pressured not to interfere with the “other” stuff. Crazy. In all, these still lead to my lack of motivation.
On the other side the warm weather and and all makes it more difficult to concentrate. This is common for many. If you have vacation time, take that Friday off or even do a half day. This helps. I know. Some I know take a Monday off occasionally. I have not tried that route yet, but it sure seems like a good idea, too. Another thing that works for me is to focus on something that is different than the norm. Learn or catchup on something different. Break the cycle by doing something else.
As broadcast engineers we have many hats to wear which works to our advantage, so put on another one and leave the mundane behind for a week. Stir it up.
Weely Roundup
Well, as the economy goes, so does the number of projects that get done. What do you do when things slow down? I like to catch up on documentation and one thing that really gets boring, inventory. I am also working on a couple of ideas that need to be researched before I make the budgetary plan. Sure it may not be for a couple of years, but it is fun to keep up and look into potential time-saving projects.
This week we had a Harris Flexstar exciter failure. Coincidentally, and if you have been following my tweets, it occurred about the same time our T-1 went down. The T-1 repair was at a B-box mid-span though AT&T testers showed it out our site. The tech dispatched showed it at the CO end. Go figure. Anyways, the XLR input board seems to have an issue on the exciter. No AES audio in the main nor the aux inputs. The analyzer says the audio is there and our axillary transmitter is on the air, but the Flexstar is not happy. My new parts should be here tomorrow. We’ll see if this is the only failure. I have a feeling I will be sending the box in for factory repair.
On the other side, I upgraded our Nautel NV20’s to version 1.3. Many of the minor things mentioned before are fixed. They even incorporated a screen saver. Some cosmetic changes makes the AUI look a bit better. One of these items is the Local/Remote button. It is not a split button and shows green on the half that is currently engaged, i.e the half that says Remote is green when in remote mode. Also fixed is the saving of profiles. The boxes will no longer put the profile being saved on the air.
Enco “fixed” their PADApult software and we are running PAD data on the older version of the Exporter. I don’t really know why the product was not compatible with the older versions as there are more out there than the the latest 4.2.
As for the Exporter 4.2, IBiquity has fixed the left/right channel swap and we await the software update from Nautel. Still have to wait for everything. Good thing HD is not that important.
DaySequerra has had our first M2.2R for over a week now. I still do not know if the fixed receiver board solves our RFI issue. When I know, you will know.
Phew. Have a good week!
92kHz SCA on an HD Station
One last post of the evening. I don’t know how I missed this, but it is quite a story. I will only put the highlights in.
We have a client on a 92kHz SCA. I am not a fan of doing this in a competitive market, especially this one, but money talks. While doing the HD installation, and the reason I needed a good modulation monitor, the client called within an hour of us turning on the digital carriers. NOISE. That’s all they could say. From all my spectrum analysis I was not able to determine what the deal was. I obtained one of their cheap radios and tested. Sure enough it was gone. Was I missing something? I obtained a modified FMeXtra Aruba radio so I can use that as a base. Way worse.
I made a couple of calls the the Radio Doctor, Lyle Henry, to pick his brains and maybe commission him to fill in the blanks. Well, last week he was all ready to come down and I said to wait as I was going to double check everything and meet with the client to really compare the apples with the apples this time. The day before I spent about an hour verifying all the parameters. I even decided to give the client a bit more injection above what our contract was written. (all I can say is I did not write this thing and we will leave it at that.) I tweaked the Modulation Sciences SCA generator. These guys are not getting what they are paying for and then some.
The next day we met outside the client’s offices. They were late. I turned on the digital carriers. We walked their building with their cheap radio. We ran the Aruba from the back of the car. We were quite amazed that the changes I did the day before made for a better quality signal for them. The client arrived and asked them to listen. They liked what they heard and that is when we told them the digital was on.
“oh, hear the noise?” they exclaimed. I explained to them that everyone has this noise, and believe me the noise was not that bad. It was a hash sound, by the way. I proceeded to take our secret weapon, the Aruba, and tune to another station running HD and a 92kHz SCA. Same noise, even worse. We tuned to our sister station with a 67kHz SCA. Same noise crappy audio. (don’t ask, it’s what we get from them.) Then came the icing, the car SCA tuner the client uses. After a little exchange, the answer is it was just fine. We won them over, and HD is still on today.
Overall, yes there is a hash noise that is very noticeable on the SCA’s when the digital carriers are on. Injection is very important at this point in the game. Also allowing them to modulate the full or close to full 7kHz deviation is a good thing. It all ties in and it all works. Thanks Radio Doctor for your insight. I would not recommend an analog SCA on an HD station, but it can be done. It’s old technology meshing with new. Go new and use FMeXtra or wait until we can sell secondary services on HD3, HD4, or whatever.
I still do not like HD. Seems to be quite a headache. A bitch to deal with. A pain if you have to use older software on a newer box. (That’s a whole other story that I cannot discuss quite yet.)
Round Up
As you can tell from my last two posts we have been busy fixing things. My signature line, “breaking things before their time”, seems quite fitting for me. My assistant gets a kick out of this stuff as I train him on the ins and outs of broadcast engineering.
Yes, I am training a new assistant. He is a sponge right now and he asks the right questions. He does not hesitate to ask the questions. He asked a question that had a simple answer. I gave him the simple answer and then asked him, “do you want to know what really is going on?” It was on optos and relays in our SAS 32KD system. Using a simple example of what we are about to wire up, I started to show him what really was happening and bounced over to our one and only satellite delivered show that is fully automated. His last comments of the day, “now I won’t sleep. My head is spinning.” Welcome to my world.
For those of use doing this for so long it is amazing how second nature some of this becomes. Then you try to explain it to someone. It is mind boggling. I think we should get more credit for some of the miracles we pull off. Today it seems some much easier than 20 years ago. At the same time we are dealing with newer technology and companies who are attempting to do radio from a non-radio mentality. It is fun.
As a round up, over that last few months you have read the completion of a 445-foot tower with a diplexed, shunt-fed, skirt system; the installation and commissioning of the first 2 Nautel NV20 transmitters in the states; the early issues with the Daysequerra mod monitors; the total lock-out and corruption of an Audemat FMB80; and early on the success of our Arbitron PPM equipment installation and Nautel V1-D transmitter. Not bad for the last 4 months.
I hope we all make it through this little economic down turn and get to move on. I have so many other ideas to make this facility a dream place to work.
What’s Happening
I’ve done a number of posts on the Nautel NV20. What else is going on? Well, we are rebuilding our AM tower that “broke” in half 4 years ago. It is now at 445 feet. We intend to move the diplexed AM stations to the new tower this coming Tuesday. Hopefully we will match well. We are using the existing ATUs for this move. Insurance would not pay for the complete replacement. Go figure.
As you know we install our PPM equipment. This is a completed project included our Internet streams. We are using the Roku Soundbridge for our monitoring source to the PPM monitor. It works well. I have also given each station a selection on the console to monitor this feed, too. Nice what I can do quickly with the SAS system.
One morning show talent has moved out of state, again. Still part of the show we create a studio for her. Our feed back to the station is using a Tieline iMixG3 using IP. We’ve done it before and will do it again. I make sure we are ready for Monday tomorrow.
Hope you all have a Happy New Year. I hope we make it fine during this slow economic times. I will have some comments on the FCC and their weak backbones and the liberals that will try to ruin the industry. I still have thoughts on how greed has attempted to ruin the industry, too. We’ll see how it all pans out!
When Deliveries Go Wrong
As twittered the other day, my Friday was not too good. I ordered a 20-foot piece of 3 1/8″ line for our HD projects. You know, a piece to cut up as needed. Well, the carrier used was UPS Freight. Here is what happened.
First, a week ago they tried to deliver to the studios. Not. I instructed the vendor to deliver to the transmitter site. Unattended, so I required a call in advance to meet the driver. Obviously this was not the case. Delivery refused.
Then came Friday. A fellow engineer calls saying UPS was trying to deliver something. Again, no call in advance, so my assitant and I run up there. When we arrive we see no truck which was not unexpected. It’s what we saw next that blew our minds. The delivery was made. The driver THREW the box over the fence!
Tech Notes from the Field 