Broadcast television engineering related tech topics, rants and motorcycles!
Today I made the plunge and finally got off the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format fence and bought a PS3 system. There were several reasons for this; first I did NOT buy it because I love Blu-Ray. I like that it has multiple studio and vendor support as well as about 25GB storage per layer, but the hardware […]
For the old…. err.. “seasoned” television viewer that doesn’t understand what a “Tivo” is and still tunes in to re-runs of Matlock (after adding more tin foil to the rabbit ears), a few items just popped up on my radar I thought I would forward to everyone. First is a website discussing the digital transition […]
For several years I have been attending the NAB convention and this year I was asked to craft a report for my current employer: ION Media Networks. >General Observations: The last few years I have noticed a progressive thinning of broadcast television specific technology and a steady shift toward digital media primarily focusing on its […]
I am a fond proponent and avid ‘flag waver’ of local broadcasting and free HDTV and I would be happy to answer questions on the subject for anyone to the best of my ability. It is fun to show friends and neighbors what HDTV looks and sounds like when I invite them into my home […]
Since a new tower had been erected in 1997 with HDTV in mind, it already featured a broadband RFS panel antenna used to broadcast the analog channel 29 and was capable of accommodating the future DTV channel on UHF 15. The trick after expanding the building and installing the HDTV transmitter was to combine the […]
For this facility (KHOG) the gain of the antenna was considerable so that only about 10kW TPO would be needed to meet the maximized ERP level, so the choice of a solid-state Diamond transmitter from Harris was made. The benefits of this choice were that the multiple modules and power supplies allowed for considerable redundancy […]
Here is a project I am justifiably proud of. Our corporate engineering management had determined that we were to use a Harris Flexicoder as the core of our HDTV encoding, but outside of that we were to determine what we needed to best integrate it into our facility. Initially, I was not pleased with the […]
A few grainy images of the Andrew side-mounted antenna we ordered for the KHBS DTV transmitter in Poteau, Oklahoma (which serves the Fort Smith, Arkansas market).
Because there was simply no room on the existing tower to place a DTV antenna that would be even marginally effective, I was successful in convincing the company of the need to build the tower and locate the new antenna on it.
I’d love to take all the credit for this project, but who would believe me?!?! This required the experience and assistance of not only our station’s engineering department, but also the combined efforts of contracted electricians, transmitter installers, HVAC installers, a local construction company and tower riggers.