Industry News

Pirate radio, console trends, MaxxKonnect Wireless … as usual, we bring you tons of great stuff in your new issue. And a special feature for history lovers: As the radio industry gets ready to celebrate stations that have been around for 100 years, John Schneider explains why KJR Seattle may deserve top billing.

Read it online here.

RADIO LISTENING
C. Crane Offers Up a Premium Portable

For less than $90, here’s a top-of-the-line radio receiver for that “special someone.”

TECHNOLOGY
Running a Radio Station Inside a Tesla 3

Soundware Norway offered an unusual demo using the car’s web browser.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

• How NOT to Repair Tower Fencing
• Buyer’s Guide: Antennas, Transmission Support, Power Protection
• You Can’t Fix Stoopid

The post Inside the Dec.18. Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.

Broadcast engineering personnel need to be aware of hazards associated with proximity to sources of RF energy such as pictured here.

COLUMBIA, Md. — By his own admission, Richard Tell has climbed lots of broadcast towers, gotten himself exposed to some really intense radio frequency fields, suffered RF burns and on occasion has even (accidentally) burned out “some fancy test equipment,” but “never to my knowledge experienced a health effect from my work in RF fields, except for the burns.”

Tell, now 75, and an industry expert in the effects of RF radiation on the human body, shared some of his experiences and deep knowledge of the subject at an RF safety seminar put together by the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore SBE chapters under the auspices of Fred Williard, an officer of the D.C. chapter, and hosted by Rohde & Schwarz at their North American headquarters and training facility.

Tell’s presentation—“Staying Safe in RF Fields”—was tailored to provide broadcast engineering personnel and others involved in RF work with the knowledge they need to stay safe and prevent injury. The free day-long course attracted transmitter operators, station and broadcast group personnel, consulting engineers, network employees, two-way radio service technicians, government and military employees, amateur radio operators and even a SiriusXM satellite radio representative from as far away as New York and Richmond, Va.

Richard Tell

Tell, an IEEE Life Fellow and chair of RF safety-related committees within IEEE, spent some 20 years with the federal government, working for the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and later serving as chief of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Electromagnetics Branch, and providing technical support to the FCC when that agency was setting new rules for human exposure to RF fields.

His 52-year-long career not only includes laboratory work and computer modeling, but also plenty of “hands-on” experience—including purposefully subjecting himself to RF currents—that makes him uniquely qualified to impart knowledge and field inquiries into this sometimes rather gray area of radio and TV station operations.

WHERE THE DANGER LIES

In setting the stage for the “practical” portion of his presentation, Tell provided a definition of “MPE,” or Maximum Permissible Exposure (“according to the FCC, this is the amount of field exposure outside the body that is considered safe”), and “SAR,” or Specific Absorption Rate (“the rate at which RF is absorbed in the body, and which is the basis for our safety standards”).

He also distinguished between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation—terms that confuse many lay people and even some professionals. Ionizing radiation occurs when there’s sufficient energy to remove electrons from an atom typically associated with very penetrating radiations, such as x-ray and gamma; non-ionizing refers to any other type of electromagnetic radiation, including the radio frequency spectrum.

“Radio waves do not have sufficient energy to ionize atoms,” said Tell, assuring course attendees that this was not something they had to worry about. “RF fields are not the same as ionizing radiation. They cannot ionize tissue, and unlike ionizing radiation, the biological effects are not cumulative.”

Tell explained that aside from burns suffered from contacting RF-energized conductors, the greatest effect of radio waves on living organisms was heating of tissues, noting that 60 years of research on the effects of RF exposure has established, among other things, that when RF levels fall below a certain threshold, there is no measurable effect on human bodies. Such research has also established a useful “threshold” for what constitutes an excessive RF level.

“The most sensitive and reliable indicator of an established and potentially adverse biological effect of RF radiation exposure has been behavioral disruption of a learned task in laboratory animals,” said Tell. “Their performance ‘slacks off’ because they are ‘warming up’ and less inclined to do what they were trained to do.”

[Strickland Taught the Industry About RF Safety]

He noted that the threshold for such behavior modification began at a SAR of about 4W per kilogram of body weight, and that this exposure level had been extrapolated to humans and adopted by the FCC in its regulations limiting exposure. Tell stated that a safety factor of 10 is used to constitute what is considered “safe,” with 50 times less exposure being “safer than safe.”

Tell said that in calculating what a “0.4W/kg safe” exposure would be for a 180-pound individual, it amounts to 33W distributed within the tissues. He noted that the normal metabolic rate for humans at rest is about 105W.

Some 40 individuals from radio and television operations, government agencies, consulting firms, and other enterprises involving exposure to RF radiation traveled from as far away as New York to the Washington, D.C./Baltimore suburb of Columbia, Md. to learn more about safeguarding themselves at transmitter sites.

“When RF energy is delivered to a lossy material such as body tissue, it produces heating of those tissues,” he said. “Elimination of heating of the body is the primary objective of most safety regulations today.”

Tell observed that the effects of RF on the body are not uniform, with some areas being heated more than others, and that this heating is frequency-dependent, as humans resonate at around 65 MHz.

About 40 people from radio and television operations, government agencies, consulting firms, and other enterprises working in RF attended the day-long seminar.

About 40 people from radio and television operations, government agencies, consulting firms, and other enterprises working in RF attended the day-long seminar.

“FCC exposure limits are based on limiting the rate at which RF energy is absorbed in terms of watts per kilogram of body mass so that you don’t warm up,” said Tell. “A hazardous level of exposure is reached when you begin to warm up from the RF energy impinging on your body.

“The ‘take-home’ here is that if you feel warmer than you suspect would be normal, back off and ensure that your exposure is within the accepted limits.”

PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Tell noted that portable “clip-on” RF monitors, while not necessarily precise indicators, do provide “early warning” information that is useful in flagging what may lead to excessive exposure in RF environments. He also provided some tips for proper use of such monitoring devices, as well as suggestions for mitigating one’s exposure.

“Always wear an RF monitor on the front of your shirt; it should face the antennas generating the radiation you’ll be exposed to,” said Tell. “The difference between front and back can amount to a factor of 16 at 100 MHz. If the monitor sounds only occasionally that’s not a problem. If it’s steady, then it’s time to get out of the area.

“If you have to work close to a high-power antenna, use a personal monitor to determine if the area is below the exposure level; if not, the transmitter must be shut down and locked/tagged out, especially if it’s remotely operated. Take the lockout key with you until all work is completed and the system can be returned to normal operation.”

Other tips include staying behind directional antennas when doing tower work and exercising care when working around non-directional radiators.

“You cannot hide behind an omnidirectional antenna like you can a dish, a Yagi or a panel antenna,” Tell said.

He observed that there were some cases where broadcast operations could not be interrupted and doing work around such transmission sites called for operating with reduced power or wearing a protective body suit and hood designed to attenuate RF exposure to the body.

“Such a suit greatly reduces RF exposure,” said Tell. “But always remember that the suit does not make you into Superman.”

The post Staying Safe Around RF: An Industry Expert Tells All appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau and the Office of Economics and Analytics have released more details about Auction 106. The upcoming sell-off will offer 130 construction permits in the FM broadcast service, including 34 that were available from previous auctions. 

Bidding will begin April 28, the commission says. The auction will be conducted in “a simultaneous multiple round format,” meaning all CPs will be available for bidding in the first stage, and the FCC may or may not decide to transition to Stage Two based on bidding activity. A minimum of 80% of activity will be required in Stage One, and it will jump to 95% if the auction progresses to Stage Two.  

In Auction 106, the commission will calculate an initial minimum acceptable bid, and once a provisional bid is placed for a CP, that amount will become the new minimum acceptable bid. Then, the FCC bidding system will determine the eight additional bid amounts by multiplying the minimum acceptable bid amount by the additional bid increment percentage of 5%. 

In order to break any potential ties, the FCC says its system will assign a pseudo-random number to each bid submitted, and in case of a draw, the assigned numbers will break the tie by making the highest the winner the tiebreaker. 

The simultaneous stopping rule will be in place during Auction 106; therefore all CPs will be available to bid on until the auction is complete. The Media Bureau listed five different ways that this rule could play out; they can be found on page 38.

[New FM Construction Permit Auction Set for April 2020]

The commission cautions that “Failure to maintain the requisite activity level will result in the use of an activity rule waiver, if any remain, or a reduction in the bidder’s eligibility.” Each bidder will begin the auction with three activity waivers. However, participants should be confident that they can actually pay for that CP. The FCC says it will not allow bid withdrawals in Auction 106.

Whether or not broadcasters plan to bid, all should be aware that the Media Bureau says it will not accept FM commercial and noncommercial educational minor change applications from Jan. 29 at noon through Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. (ET), which is the period when prospective bidders must file the Auction 106 Form 175. According to Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, the freeze will be enacted in order to “protect the reference coordinates of each of the allotments” to be sold in Auction 106. 

Another important date to note is March 20, which is the deadline to wire the upfront payments required to participate in Auction 106. In this announcement, the FCC called attention to the fact that seven allotments will have reduced upfront payments of only $750. However, “An applicant that is a former defaulter … must pay an upfront payments 50% greater than that required” of other applicants; current defaulters may not participate.

The commission says it will notify qualified bidders of their status 10 days before the April 24 mock auction in order to prepare bidders for the real deal. For those who want even more information, an auction tutorial will be available online no later than Jan. 22. 

Read the full document (DA 19-1256) and attachments to refresh your memory on auction procedures.

The post FCC Announces Dates for Auction 106 appeared first on Radio World.

Calling it unfinished business from seven years ago, the NAB and NPR joined Xperi, parent company of HD Radio, in asking the FCC to allow FM stations to operate with asymmetric sideband power levels without going through the hoops of asking for experimental authority.

They have asked the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to that end, saying it would advance the nation’s voluntary deployment of digital radio and improve digital FM service for listeners.

Though HD Radio is on the rise across the nation, more can be achieved if the FCC is willing to revise its technical rules when it comes to standard use of asymmetric sideband operation, according to the NAB, NPR and Xperi in a recent filing.

They cite the number of radio stations that have been converted to digital broadcasts — some 2,500 stations offering more than 2,190 additional multicast channels HD Radio. By authorizing asymmetric sideband operation on a routine basis, stations would be able to maximize HD Radio service coverage areas to replicate their analog as much as possible within existing digital power limits, the organizations told the FCC.

In the FCC’s First Report and Order in the digital radio proceeding, the commission authorized FM stations to operate with digital effective radiated power equal to 1% of analog power (or -20 dBc). That was modified in 2010 when all FM IBOC stations received authority to operate at -14 dBc. Today, the accepted current formula uses symmetric sidebands for all calculations, which the filers said eliminates a viable path for many stations to increase power on at least one sideband.

[Read: Xperi Seeks Bigger Role in Alerting]

Even though there was little opposition to permanent authorization of asymmetric digital sideband operation in a previous comment cycle in 2012, the FCC has taken no further action on the matter, the filers said.

“As the commission considers the next steps toward its goal of creating an all- digital radio broadcast environment, it can strengthen the existing digital radio ecosystem and facilitate the continued growth of digital radio by addressing an important matter left unresolved in the prior rulemaking,” the three said.

“Authorization of asymmetric sidebands will help stations improve reception of HD Radio services at minimal cost to them or to the commission.”

 

 

The post NAB and NPR Press FCC to Allow Asymmetric Sidebands appeared first on Radio World.

Podcasts continue to be a hot commodity, and analytics company Podtrac is keeping score of the most popular U.S. podcasts. The November 2019 numbers are out now — take a look to see if your favorite podcast made the top 20.

News podcasts feature heavily on this list with “The Daily” (produced by the New York Times) and “Up First” from NPR regularly ranked #1 and #2, respectively. Additionally, “Us Weekly’s Hot Hollywood,” a celebrity news podcast, debuted on the list this month at #5, pushing “The Ben Shapiro Show” down one slot.

Many of the podcasts on the list could be described accurately as “radio on demand” because they are repurposed versions of programs that also air on broadcast FM, including “This American Life” (#4), “The Ben Shapiro Show” (#6, )“Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” (#9), and “Fresh Air” (#14).

Note that broadcasters also dominate the publishers on the list, with eight of the 20 from NPR alone. iHeartMedia produces the #3 ranked “Stuff You Should Know;” WNYC Radio produces “RadioLab” (#15); PRX produces “TED Talks Daily” (#18); and NBC News produces “Dateline NBC” (#20).

The Podtrac Top 20 Podcasts ranking is based on unique monthly audience.

 

The post News Podcasts Maintain Podcast Popularity appeared first on Radio World.

Fig. 1: Searching for warmth, this critter met its end inside a transmitter.

Jim Leedham’s Broadcast Electronics FM35T transmitter was down, although the station air signal was protected by a backup. As he drove to the site, Jim ran through the scenarios of what he might find, as most engineers do. 

Once on site, Jim killed the breakers, shorted the components and with a strong trouble lamp looked inside. It didn’t take long to find something that didn’t belong, as you will see in Fig. 1. He quickly removed the intruder and restored the rig to the air. 

The rest of Jim’s time was spent seeking to improve his rodent prevention. He plugged a couple of cable pass-throughs at the base of the transmitter. He also inspected the floor and racks for droppings, which would indicate a larger infestation. None found, he spread mothballs and mouse bait to guard against future intruders. 

This is the season when rodents seek the comfort of a building. A few steps now can ensure they don’t choose your transmitter building.

*** Fig. 2: Mice “Walk the Plank” in this commercially available mouse trap.

While we’re on the subject of rodent infestation: Wolfram Engineering principal engineer Greg Muir read about the DIY rat trap we described in October. He says he recently discovered a similar “trap” for rodents at one of the sites he maintains. 

As pictured in Fig. 2, a “plank” is mounted on a pivot shaft near the edge of a bucket. This plank is held in a horizontal position by a weak magnet, placed underneath, just before the pivot shaft. The unsuspecting mouse heads up the ramp (Fig. 3) and walks out onto the plank to get to the peanut butter. The magnet separates from its keeper, and the plank gives way, dumping the mouse into the water in the bottom of the bucket. 

Fig. 3: The plank tips as the mouse approaches the peanut butter bait.

The assembly appears to be a commercially-made item; the Home Depot bucket may suggest the source. Greg says that this rig was in place for a few months and never did dunk a mouse (even though the traditional mouse bait, located in other parts of the room, effectively did its job). 

Greg theorizes that the local mice may have served on board ships at some point, and knew full well what a mutiny meant! Arrrrrr, matey.

For sites where traps can be checked daily, Radio World editor Paul McLane prefers humane traps and recommends you Google “humane mouse trap.” 

***

From Monday Morning Coffee and Technical Notes — a free e-newsletter from the Alabama Association of Broadcasters, authored by Larry Wilkins, past recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award — comes this reminder: By now, all stations should have updated their EAS equipment to handle IPAWS messages correctly. 

The deadline was Nov. 8; however, some stations may have taken advantage of what they consider a “60-day extension.” The FCC did not issue an extension, but Part 11 of the rules has always contained a paragraph noting that if an EAS device is not operating normally, the station could operate for up to 60 days while correcting the problem. Larry warns that this is not a reason for delaying your upgrade.

***

Special project engineer and Radio World colleague Dan Slentz is a wealth of broadcast solutions, many of them at low- or no-cost. Dan found a radio news service that provides news content to stations at no charge, while encouraging financial support donations.

Public News Service delivers one newscast per  day, updating it if something is breaking. The six-minute newscast has a three- minute “clean out point” with the cue, “This is PNS.” 

They also offer both state and regional stories and actualities. The best part, they stay “content neutral,” meaning no “pro” or “anti” anyone. Find it at www.publicnewsservice.org.

*** Fig. 4: The Tempest, supported by crowdfunding, promises “AI-powered weather forecasting” in an easy-to-use package for your home or facility.

Modern advances allow ordinary folks to install weather stations on their own property. With the advent of smart technology, a company named Weatherflow plans soon to ship its latest weather system, called Tempest. 

The Tempest promises to use artificial intelligence to provide accurate, up-to-date weather information and may be helpful at operations where conditions can “turn on a dime.” Two things that set this instrument apart are that it is solar-powered and that it is compact, about the size of a camping lantern. It’s also wireless, so no cabling is necessary. 

Google “Weatherflow Tempest.” It is scheduled to be available in retail in April, with early crowdfunding backers seeing theirs sooner. (If you haven’t yet participated in a crowdfunding venture, read up on how they work first.) 

See other interesting products (like a tiny wind meter you plug into your smartphone) at weatherflow.com. Current products from the company are available on Amazon.

***

The Society of Broadcast Engineers is promoting a mentoring program for new engineers. Radio World and Workbench heartily support that goal. If you haven’t already, please consider joining SBE, and then inquire about how you can help.

Also, you can mentor others and earn SBE recertification credit by sharing tips here in the pages of Workbench. Send tips and high-resolution photos to johnpbisset@gmail.com.

John Bisset has spent 50 years in the broadcasting industry and is still learning. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He holds CPBE certification with the SBE and is a past recipient of the society’s Educator of the Year Award.

The post Don’t Let Mice Kill Your Transmitter appeared first on Radio World.

Michael McEwen addresses the crowd.

The North American Broadcasters Association wants radio stations to “strongly consider” adopting HD Radio hybrid IBOC mode and to participate in national and international discussions about how migrations to all-digital transmission could work. 

The association further hopes that the radio industry will support internet-based content for use by the other type of “hybrid” receivers coming to the market — those that can tune over-the-air broadcasts while also interfacing with the internet.

As Radio World has reported, a paper published this year titled “The Value Proposition of Radio in a Connected World” by a working group of the NABA Radio Committee assessed the North American radio industry and explored major issues facing practitioners in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Topics included IP delivery, connected cars, the role of metadata and issues surrounding digital transmission.

A session at the recent IBC Show in Amsterdam discussed the report further.

ALL DIGITAL

NABA Director-General Michael McEwen said, “We recommend all radio broadcasters implement a hybrid IBOC broadcast mode and offer station and network content through as many paths as possible, while emphasizing over-the-air content.” 

McEwen called on the entire industry to jointly define criteria for all-digital migration decisions and to promote regular licenses, rather than experimental ones, for all-digital radio transmission.

In the session, he reviewed recent market research about U.S. listener habits, describing the popularity and healthy status of radio, and momentum for early adopters of a hybrid approach. 

A recent Infinite Dial report from Edison Research and Triton Digital, he said, confirms that broadcast radio is by far the favorite audio source in the car, with 81% of U.S. drivers age 18+ listening to “linear” radio emissions, while “owned” digital music scores 45%, CDs 43%, online radio 28%, podcasts 26% and satellite radio 22%.

Looking at listening trends, over three years linear radio usage is almost stable, as are owned digital music and satellite radio.

The decline of CD players is evident in that report, with CDs losing about 9 points over two years (from 52% in 2017 to 43% in 2019). Online radio is advancing, if not at an irresistible pace (26% in 2017 to 28% in 2019), as are podcasts, which jumped from 19% two years ago to 26% this year.

SOLID FOUNDATION

The strength of radio’s appeal, specifically in cars, is suggested by another report, “Techsurvey 2019” from Jacobs Media. In 2019, 91% of respondents were listening to AM/FM radio for more than 1 hour per day. (Techsurvey gathers data from a pool of radio listeners, so its results should be read as providing insight into behaviors among radio listeners rather than consumers at large.)

FM radio leads the list of can’t-do-without features when buying a new car: 80% of the respondents indicated FM radio as their top priority, followed by Bluetooth and aux-in. Smart speakers are experiencing a dramatic popularity rise, gaining 6 points from 21% in 2018 to 27% in 2019. 

Listening to AM/FM stations is the most popular activity people ask their smart speakers for. The graphic is from Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” via Westwood One.

The radio industry plays a noticeable role in this success, McEwen said, since AM/FM radio scores the best result among the smart speaker audience share: 18%, followed by Amazon Music (17%) and Pandora (13%), according to the “Share of Ear” report from Edison Research. 

While the most common use of smart speakers is answering general questions (28%), a quarter of smart speaker owners listen to music from AM/FM radio on their devices, and a remarkable 15% listen to news or talk from AM/FM stations.

HYBRID APPROACH

McEwen discussed the presence and possible future scenarios for radio in dashboards. “The radio tuner is less prominent in the car,” he said. “The question I have is: Where is the radio button on the car dashboard? It’s a huge issue for us.” 

Broadcast radio remains the most popular audio source in U.S. cars. The slide is from the “Infinite Dial” report by Edison Research and Triton Digital.

He said NABA is studying “strategies on how to get radio’s prominence back to the car and how to re-engage North American in-car listeners.”

In his opinion, internet-based content created with hybrid (over-the-air plus internet) receivers encourages automakers to add the technology; so, he said, the time has come to step on the throttle of hybrid adoption for both linear and non-linear consumption. 

He also emphasized the importance of metadata in any hybrid scenario. NABA recommends stations adopt at least static metadata, but preferably dynamic metadata, and then assess their audiences’ behavior to fully understand the potential benefit of the technology. 

DYNAMIC METADATA

Making metadata visible to listeners requires work for station personnel and technology investment for the station. So why do it? 

McEwen said data analytics show that enhanced content means more listening. Emmis Broadcasting has publicly shared information about monthly listener minutes compared with station use of metadata. (The data was gathered from millions of listening hours by users of the NextRadio mobile app before the company ended support for that initiative.) 

Comparison of monthly listening figures between radio stations using static vs. dynamic metadata as gathered by NextRadio in 2016 and 2017.

According to the data, listeners spent more time with stations that supplied at least a static logo than those that did not. Listeners spent even more time with stations supplying dynamic metadata than those that only supplied static metadata: from 52% to 64% extra minutes.

McEwen also recommend resources from NAB, found at www.nab.org/innovation/digitalDashboard.asp, as a valuable source for best practices around metadata and in-car listening.

He concluded by saying a key purpose of NABA will be seeking consensus among the North America broadcast community about how to preserve radio’s prominence in the automotive dashboard. Its goals include defining technical requisites for radio and audio in the car dashboard as well as common requisites for hybrid radio and metadata. 

“Those three projects are ongoing,” McEwen explained “and we will share the results at the NAB Show next April at our Future of Radio and Audio Symposium.”

Davide Moro reports on the industry for Radio World from Bergamo, Italy.

The post NABA Urges North American Radio to Look Ahead appeared first on Radio World.

Bob Crane

In the history of affordable AM/FM portable radios, there have been few that combine sensitivity (the ability to reliably receive distant stations) with selectivity (the ability to separate them for clear, intelligible listening). Even fewer AM/FM portables have combined those characteristics with great sound, the most notable being the legendary GE Superadio/Superadio II series of the 1980s and early 1990s. (Many used Superadios are selling above their original list prices on eBay today.)

The new $89.99 CCRadio-EP PRO belongs to this exclusive club. Created by Bob Crane, long-time radio innovator/retailer and owner of the C. Crane Co., the CCRadio-EP PRO combines AM/FM sensitivity, selectivity and great sound in a large, analog-style radio receiver, complete with a large illuminated “slide rule” tuning dial. 

The CCRadio-EP PRO retails for $89.99.

Although the CCRadio-EP PRO looks like old-tech analog, it is anything but. Inside this 20th century-style case is the brain of a very 21st century digital radio.

A DECEPTIVE SIMPLICITY

At first glance, the CCRadio-EP PRO doesn’t look like a premium AM/FM portable. There’s a lot of unused space on its main front panel, like the blank dashboard of a economy car whose owner wouldn’t spring for an AM radio.

This uncluttered simplicity is misleading because the CCRadio-EP PRO is a sophisticated receiver. The deceptive appearance was a deliberate choice, driven by Crane’s core market for this radio: “It is somewhat embarrassing, but the original CCRadio-EP was made for my mother,” he said. “She painted with watercolors and drove until she was 90, but a digital radio was one thing she did not want to invest her valuable time in to learn.”

Now one mother is not enough to base a product launch on. However, when it came to the CCRadio-EP PRO, “We presumed there were a modest amount of radio listeners in the same boat,” Crane said.

“This radio was designed as a gift to radio lovers who want radio listening to be easy or uncomplicated or simple,” he added. In this way, “it has a similar position in the market as the older models of the GE Superadio.”

THE NITTY-GRITTY Internal componentry

Built as an enhanced version of C. Crane’s CCRadio-EP analog AM/FM radio, the CCRadio-EP PRO is contained inside a grey plastic case (with black trim) measuring 11.4 inches wide by 7.3 high and 2.75 wide. It comes with a 5-inch speaker and high-fidelity amplifier. Sound can be heard in mono through the front speaker, or stereo (for FM only) through earbuds or headsets.

Because he prefers analog technology, Bob Crane didn’t want to go digital with this new mode. But he had no choice.

“The analog chipset we used in the first model was not available anymore,” Crane told Radio World. “Analog chips are generally not manufactured anymore. We also lost our ferrite antenna manufacturer at same time. Changing chipsets is sometimes challenging but finding a new ferrite manufacturer was positively chilling.”

This knob allows for directionally tweaking the Twin Coil Ferrite AM Antenna. “We actually have a total of five coils on the ferrite devoted to AM reception,” said Bob Crane.

The top of the CCRadio-EP PRO has an extendable FM whip antenna plus power and display light buttons. (Being able to turn off the display light saves battery power and keeps from disturbing others at night.) There is also a flip-up handle that locks in place for easy carrying. The CCRadio-EP PRO is powered by an included 6V AC adaptor, or four D batteries.

The CCRadio-EP PRO’s speaker is on the left side of the front panel; the audio controls on the lower right side. These controls are the FM stereo/FM/AM switch for selecting bands, bass and treble knobs for adjusting audio quality and the wide/narrow bandwidth switch for the AM band. (This last switch is central to the CCRadio-EP PRO’s outstanding AM sensitivity. The narrow setting filters out adjacent AM stations to improve selectivity.) The large horizontal tuning display is at the top right side of the front panel.

[Read:  Windup Radio Inventor Trevor Baylis Changed Life for Many]

On the right side end of the CCRadio-EP PRO is the large tuning knob, the AM Fine Tuning knob (for directionally tweaking the built-in C. Crane-patented Twin Coil Ferrite AM Antenna) and the volume knob. 

“We actually have a total of five coils on the ferrite devoted to AM reception,” said Crane. “Four coils take advantage of the magnetic north/south axis of ferrite for a 3 dB boost over a typical AM antenna with one coil. The fifth coil is for the external AM antenna interface.”

On the left side end are located a headphone jack, a line input jack that allows the CCRadio-EP PRO to serve as an amplified speaker for a connected music player/smartphone, and the AC adaptor power jack. 

Finally, the back panel of the CCRadio-EP PRO contains ports to attach a two-wire AM and/or coaxial-style FM external antenna, an Internal/external antenna switch, a 9 kHz/10 kHz tuning step switch (for using this radio in countries with 9 kHz spacing between AM stations rather than the 10 kHz gaps of the United States), and the battery compartment door. 

The company estimates that the CCRadio-EP PRO will run for up to 300 hours on D cell batteries, if the display light is kept off.

AM TV-STYLE PERFORMANCE

Back in 2010, I measured the crowded nighttime AM radio landscape in my hometown of Ottawa, Canada, using the stock AM/FM receiver inside my 2006 Mazda MPV minivan (which is still on the road today). Available at https://tinyurl.com/rw-am-dx, the test showed that U.S. AM stations such as WSB-750 Atlanta (935 miles away) can be received in Ottawa at night, when AM signals propagate over the horizon due to bouncing off the ionosphere.

I certainly expected the CCRadio-EP PRO to be even more sensitive than the Mazda’s AM radio, and it did not disappoint. The AM band on the CCRadio-EP PRO was jammed at night. But thanks to this radio’s wide/narrow filter set to the narrow setting (you lose a bit of audio range using the Narrow filter in exchange for eliminating adjacent channel overlap), the CCRadio-EP PRO was never overloaded. Scanning across the AM band in narrow mode was like flipping channels on a television set. The selectivity was that good.

Meanwhile, the AM fine tuning knob allowed me to boost a selected AM station’s power and clarity (as did rotating the radio on its horizontal axis to improve directional reception). In cases where two radio stations were on the same channel, I was able to tune one out in favor of the other. (Granted, AM signals did fade in and out, which is due to the nature of AM propagation at night.)

The most impressive proof of the CCRadio-EP PRO’s selectivity was its ability to separate New York’s WCBS(AM) on 880 from Chicago’s WLS(AM) on 890. WCBS is a powerhouse in Ottawa at night, even coming in occasionally during the day if the atmospheric conditions are right. On other radios, WLS would be drowned out by WCBS. On the CCRadio-EP PRO, WLS punched through.

FM STEREO SURPRISE

I assumed that the CCRadio-EP PRO’s FM performance would be excellent, and again this radio did not disappoint. It received and separated lots of FM stations effortlessly, even without the whip antenna extended.

The big surprise was how different each FM music station sounded on the ear buds. Depending on the era that the song was recorded in, the frequency separations varied widely. Some songs in stereo had the highs and lows congregated together. Others had the bass guitar on the far side of the left channel (or so it seemed to this listener), and the drums far on the right.

The CCRadio-EP PRO is what it promises to be, and more. For $89.99, C. Crane Co. has created a top-of-the-line AM/FM receiver that makes radio listening fun again, all driven by Bob Crane’s undying love for this medium, and for his mother.

Comment on this or any story to radioworld@futurenet.com.

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BRUSSELS — The second edition of Digital Radio Week took place Nov. 4–8, hosting a number of events and special broadcasts. The now nationwide gathering is designed to promote and inform Belgians about the benefits of DAB+, and digital radio.

Radio executives celebrate the launch of DAB+. Pictured from left are Francis Goffin, maRadio.be; Stéphane Gilbert, Radio Contact; Xavier Huberland, RTBF; Emmanuel Mesdag, Bel RTL; Jacques Galloy, 1RCF; Natacha Delvallée, Sud Radio; Marc Vossen,N-Group; Maria-Eva Jauregui, Antipode; Philippe Deraymaeker, Dh Radio; Gregory Finn, Fun Radio; and Eric Adelbrecht, Maximum FM. Credit: mmpress

“This year, for the very first time, DAB+ platforms (Digitale Radio Vlaanderen and maRadio.be), radio stations and governments team-up to add a national dynamic to the Digital Radio Week,” explained Eric Adelbrecht, president of maRadio.be, grouping RTBF and the commercial stations in Wallonia.

Public broadcaster Radio 2 offered free DAB+ receivers in a competition during the week. Credit: VRT

After one year of thorough testing, Karim Ibourki, Conseil Supérieur de L’Audiovisuel president, announced the launch of DAB+ in the southern Belgium

RADIO IS NOT DEAD

“Contrary to what some people think, radio is not dead,” Ibourki said. “Recent figures reveal that 85% of the European population listens to radio. Last summer, we assigned 123 radio frequencies, including four DAB+ only networks and eight DAB+ only independent stations. The audience will benefit from the transition to DAB+, resulting in a bigger diversity with more stations broadcasting.”

The new Nostalgie+ logo.

With the French-language public broadcaster RTBF acting as network operator, 23 stations are broadcasting in DAB+, covering between 98% (car) and 75% (indoor) of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Region. The region’s commercial networks and stations each pay RTBF some €100,000 per year for their DAB+ transmission.

Manufacturers joined the event with a DAB+ receiver campaign.

“We’re probably the biggest beneficiary of DAB+,” said Maria-Eva Jauregui, managing director of Antipode. “As a regional FM broadcaster covering the Walloon Brabant region, DAB+ now gives us access to the Brussels area, and some 1.4 million listeners.”

In Flanders, DAB+ is gaining momentum — during Digital Radio Week, Digitale Radio Vlaanderen published the results of a survey issued by market research company Ipsos, revealing that the DAB+ audience tripled (from 3 to 9%).

MORE DIGITAL STATIONS

The study also showed that 55% of the Flemish population is familiar with DAB+ technology. “Media is in full transition,” said newly appointed Flemish Media Minister Benjamin Dalle. “It’s my intention to continue supporting Digitale Radio Vlaanderen, both substantively and financially.”

DPG has just added the digital Q-Moose Bar channel offering “après-ski” ambiance. Credit: DPG Media

DPG Media, parent of Joe and Qmusic, used the occasion of the Digital Radio Week to announce the launch of three new channels. “Digital has become the new normal, and we evolve with our audience,” commented DPG Media Radio Director An Caers.

“After the recent launch of Willy, we have now gone ahead with Joe 60s & 70s and Joe Christmas on DAB+ as well as the digital ‘après-ski’ channel ‘Q-Moose Bar’.”

Both maRadio.be and Digitale Radio Vlaanderen promoted DAB+ listening during Digital Radio Week with radio and TV-commercials, educational videos, free DAB+ receiver sets and information on social media. The Digital Radio Week was also embraced by leading retailers nationwide.

In the French speaking part of the country, maRadio.be set up a seven-week commercial radio campaign with between 112 and 154 DAB+ spots per station, promoting the launch of DAB+ for a total investment value of some €1.2 million.

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While it hardly qualifies as cutting-edge technology, the project described here did provide a solution to an annoying problem I have faced several times: How do you get a decent off-air signal from an AM station, where the studio is in a modern curtain-wall office building and is located at or beyond the 5 mV/m contour of the station?

I saw evidence that several engineers had explored solutions in the past. The hardware was still around when I arrived. A very nice (and pricey!) commercially-made shielded loop was installed on the roof with inside phantom power for its preamp in the studio racks seven floors down. That didn’t really work. A better antenna signal could be had from the coax shield than from the actual loop antenna and preamp output.

Another iteration was the installation of pre-amplified loopstick antennas, taped to the window glass in one of the studios with coax routed back to the rack-mounted receivers. This, too, yielded a marginal signal — enough to tell if we were on the air, but not useful for critical evaluation at all.

Yet the stations both had very usable, listenable signals on my car radio parked in the building driveway.

A COMMON PROBLEM

As is always the problem with metal-skinned buildings, the openings in the exterior walls behave like sections of waveguide at frequencies below cutoff — virtually all of the field is cancelled. I concluded that no inside solution would ever work satisfactorily. Long runs of coax also weren’t working.

How could the car radio result be replicated in the building? To do that, I borrowed old technology and married it with some moderately-priced new technology to build what I believe is a solid solution.

Fig. 1: Home-brew shielded loop antennas.

I fabricated two shielded loop antennas from home center components as shown in Fig. 1. Inside the tubing is 10 turns of ordinary hookup wire. I used some multi-conductor wire and joined the ends to make one long wire length (see Fig. 2). Recall that the purpose of a shielded loop is to make the antenna responsive to only the magnetic component of the transmitted signal.

Fig. 2: Multi-conductor wire with the ends connected together was used to make the actual loop conductors. Note the variable capacitor used to resonate the loop.

The shield is there to prevent successful capacitive coupling with electrostatic fields. Since the electrostatic fields from AM stations (and from most sources of interference) are vertically polarized, the electrostatic field induces voltage in only the vertical pieces of conduit. That same electric field exists inside the tubing as well and induces a voltage on the wire turns inside.

So how does this shielding help? Because the electric field in the vertical tubing sections induces voltage in the wire turns in opposite directions on either side of the loop. Thus the electrostatic contribution (in a perfect world) cancels. The gap in the conduit at the top of the loop (Fig. 3) is to avoid having the shield look like a shorted transformer turn, thus cancelling the magnetic component as well.

Fig. 3: A gap in the top of the loop creates the necessary electrostatic break, just like on your FIM.

This is how your field intensity meter works. Regardless that the meter scale is calibrated in volts per meter, it is a magnetic device. The relationship between the electric field and the associated magnetic field is a known constant (120π)t  and the Potomac folks figure you won’t be using the meter in other than an air environment, a pretty safe bet. Loop orientation works just like your field meter as well, with distinct nulls and maxima as you rotate it.

To provide just a bit of pre-selection to the loop, I added a small transistor-radio-style variable capacitor bought from an eBay seller. I calculated my ten turns to have about 200 microhenries, but with the capacitance contributed by the tubing and other unquantifiables, who knows?

My variable cap has two sections, each about 220 picofarads. I paralleled the sections and wired loop and capacitor as a tank circuit — the miracle of adjustable components. Just turn the dial until it works! Tune for maximum smoke. The result is a broad resonance, but helpful for me, since my location is in the 50+ mV/m field of two other AM stations.

To couple each loop to a receiver, I used some randomly chosen ferrites found in a drawer and made a small ferrite loaded transformer for each loop antenna. I figured the impedance of the loop would be low. I guessed maybe an ohm or two. So, a 1:5 turns ratio would get me somewhere in the 50-ohm neighborhood.

NON-CRITICAL DESIGN

As you’ve probably guessed by now, nothing in this design is particularly critical. The radios are ordinary Panasonic in-dash models bought on eBay for about $20 each. This, too, is anything but critical.

Now, with two steerable antennas, I have a decent signal from both stations. But how to get that RF down seven floors to the studio? The answer is not to try. Instead, I installed my two car radio receivers in a weatherproof box (see below) and clamped the whole business to a railing on the roof.

The signals from two AM stations, as well as power, are carried on a piece of Cat-6 cable following the telephone riser path down the seven floors and into our leased space. Power comes up on two paralleled pairs, and baseband audio is coupled from the radio speaker outputs on the other two pairs.

The radios I used are bridge amplifier designs, meaning that the speakers are driven in a balanced, differential way, but I used small audio transformers for isolation anyway. Preserving balance yields undiminished audio quality downstairs. I also added a local headphone jack for each, allowing confirmation of proper operation before leaving the roof.

The whole business was installed into what Amazon calls a “black, tactical, weatherproof case” as shown in Fig. 4. We’ve all seen these used for sensitive electronics that must be shipped. They have snap locks and gasketed lids. I just ordered a generously sized one and installed the shelves you see. The loop antennas attach using ordinary 3/4-inch plumbing components with the antenna coax fished through. I added reinforcement where the pipe flanges attach. Finally, the whole assembly is U-bolted to the railing.

Fig. 4: The Panasonic receivers were mounted in a black, tactical, weatherproof case.

WHAT ABOUT POWER?

Powering the system remotely involved a little I-squared-R thinking. The Cat-6 run overall was about 250 feet. Paralleled Cat-6 conductors at that distance worked out to be about 5 ohms overall. I had no idea what current the radios drew and, barely visible in the pictures, is a small lead-acid battery also in the enclosure. It’s there to hold up the radios’ channel memory if the downstairs power needs to be disconnected for some reason. It needs to remain charged.

Finally, there’s a small 12-volt fan in the box as well. I guessed 2 amps for the radios which, with 5 ohms on the way, means my 12 volts will be 2 volts on the roof. I could have done some bench measurements and built a supply, but when I can buy a 30-volt 3-amp adjustable supply with metering and overcurrent protection on Amazon for $60, why bother? The supply is pictured in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5: This $60 variable supply was perfect for powering the receivers and keeping the battery trickle-charged.

With the battery disconnected, the supply voltage was gradually raised until the receivers saw about 13 volts. I then noted the current. When the battery was connected, the voltage came down to about 12.8 and the current increased by about 50 milliamperes. That seemed a reasonable amount for trickle charging one of the 7 amp-hour batteries commonly used in UPS devices. We’ll see.

Anyway, the completed project, which is shown in Fig. 6, was simple, straightforward, not too terribly expensive, and solved a long-standing and annoying problem. For engineers it doesn’t get any better than that.

Fig. 6: The completed rooftop installation.

Frank McCoy is chief engineer of Salem Communications’ Chicago cluster. Got an idea for a hands-on engineering article? Email rweetech@gmail.com.

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