I’m a broadcast systems technologist in radio. Before going into broadcasting, I was in a more IT centric role working as a systems and network admin for 12 years. There was always an interest in broadcasting for me, but I focused on IT and thought never the two shall meet. As it turns out, broadcasting has become highly computerized over the past 20 years!
On this channel, you’ll find compelling content about broadcast engineering, featuring interesting equipment I use in my job, tips for new or younger engineers, how-to videos, and equipment reviews.
My goal is to introduce broadcasting as a viable career path for IT professionals, amateur radio and electronics hobbyists, and sound technicians!
I am also a licensed amateur radio operator, which I initially achieved in 2011. Since 2014, I have held the Amateur Extra class license, which is the highest class issued by the FCC.
Hey, love the videos. I'm wondering how (or if) you deal with preprocessing audio (music or long form programs) before feeding to your processor. As in, Gain/Loudness, Normalization, RMS/LUFS. BBC and NPR are using some (imo ridiculously low) LUFS levels, and I see commercial broadcasters using everything from "Gain to -.1dB", "LUFS -16/14" or "Normalize at -3dB", to not touching the audio at all, just ripping and playing. With prerecorded audio all over the place, you can spin the dial and pick out the stations that aren't pre-processing from the folks that are, (the ones that are, aren't working their transmitter processor like a rented mule) . any thoughts or recommendations?
So the on-air talent sounds different on radio than on the phone...is this due to the audio processor...because the audio processor clears the junk and makes his voice on the air crisp and clear with clarity...am i correct
I remember the first time I replaced a 4CX7500A in a BE FM-10T when I removed the old one I noticed fingerprints all over the anode. It looks like that the previous engineer had uric acid issues or something. I decided to wear nitrile gloves while handling the new tube to avoid this.
I understood your info because of my ham radio licenses (all three licenses) . Your equipment is on a much bigger scale compared to my home shack!!! Enjoyed the video
11Kv anode voltage power output minimum 20KW 🤪😳😳 and filament is 10 volts at 140 amps. Thats not very QRP ... Thats a beast of an amplifier. The power supply must be hudge. If you got a worn tube love to have that. 73s from PD0ROH QTH EINDHOVEN Netherlands.
This was a very decent simplified description of processing but there is alot more to this. Most of the trouble lies within the pre emphasis curve vs the modulation control before the stereo generator receives the audio signal. Many "pirates" think they can buy a Chinese transmitter from ebay and throw a Behringer compressor before it and alls good when it does nothing for modulation control. Companies like Orban and Omnia have made good money engineering processors that combine all thats needed to tackle these issues perfectly.
Good evening we just got approved for LPFM station can you recommend the best antenna and transmitter for this class of LPFM to be able to maximize the coverage area. Thanks
CPI Data Sheet for the 4CX20,000C shows 13kV as Absolute Maximum for a Class C Amp, grid driven. So, Harris (Gates Air) is just under the Max with 12.7kV on the Factory Test Data sheet but doesn't leave any wiggle room for when the tube starts getting a little weak & needs a little more Plate & Screen Voltage. I have switched to all Nautel transmitters at the sites I maintain.
_”Jesus Stick”?_ Is that because if you don’t use it, you might *MEET* Him? Personally? At His place? Or just because you might scream His name when you get zapped? Also, what is in those gas cylinders I saw earlier? Nitrogen or argon, perhaps? And for what purpose? *73 de AF6AS*
Yes and yes. The worst part is, you don’t know which one until it’s too late! The gas bottles have nitrogen in them. We run the gas through a dehydrator and fill our transmission lines with it to keep moisture out and prevent the center conductor from arcing over to the outer shield.
So on those little Bluetooth fm transmitters you put in your car, why aren’t they able to take your stereo Bluetooth signal and create that combined signal with left and right, then your stereo fm receiver in your car can separate them? I’ve looked for stereo Bluetooth transmitters but it’s like they don’t exist
Hi, seems back in the 70’s night time AM radio was full of distant stations I could receive clearly. Now I can hardly hear the same stations, did solid state transmitters make that much difference? Did stations reduce their power? Just wondering.
These days, modern electronic devices introduce a lot of noise and interference. Switched mode power supplies are one of the biggest offenders. So it’s not a matter of transmit power or the type of power amplifier in the transmitter, it’s just that there are a lot of noisy things close to you!
This is a field I'm actively trying to learn the ins and outs of for my job; this video provided such a great reinforcement of the tiny bit of basics I know. I'm very excited to continue to explore your channel.
Hey, cool insight, thx. I found your video looking for a history of tv broadcast play out. I’m in non-broadcast media production, but have always been intrigued by broadcast playout and knowing that once upon a time it was essentially a human being cueing physical media for live playback. Still looking for a history of that here on the RU-vids.
Thanks for watching! Someone on the TikTok version of this video commented and said NexGen had a version once that was for TV and it didn’t work out so well. I’m not sure what software would be used these days.
I understand AM and FM a little better because I worked with analog music synthesizers in college. I also remember FM's ascendance in the 1970s, and how crisp and clear it was compared to AM stations.
Worked at a few am 1 kilowatt stations years ago…one at 1350 kcs. And the other 1590. This explains the 300 ft tower for 1350 and the shorter one at 1590. Great explanations. Thanks! Bob
Used to work on commercial AM,FM, and analog TV transmitters. What I see here is very familiar to me. For the past 35 yrs and ongoing work on 250kw and 500 kw SW transmitters for VOA and Radio Marti( they broadcast to Cuba) The site is the only remaining Greenville,NC.plants A site and C site are closed C plant building is used by ECU and is their property(state,county) B plant where I am now is Radio Marti. The hv for the tubes is actually similar to what this commercial transmitter has-but VOA tubes run at much higher current.25A 12kv 250kw 16kv 55A for 500kw. As I typed this “don’t bypass interlocks on transmitters” years ago an engineer was KILLED from the bypass. The tubes used at our plant are water and vapor cooled. In older 250kw GE SW transmitters the RF driver feeding the PA is 50kw. Newer transmitters here have 2 power stages-not 3 as the older GE uses. Also SW transmitters are variable frequency. At the SW plant you tune transmitters several times a shift-each frequency change. This does cause mechanical wear on components. And of course the ground hook is your friend! USE THEM! Filament voltage on one of the VOA tubes is 14v-but over2000A-rectified filament supply! Rectifier diodes mounted on water cooled heatsinks.
I missed part of the video and dont have time to go back and check what you said about the Diamond NR770 antenna. I just want to make sure that everyone knows that this particular antenna is ground independent and needs no ground plane to operate correctly.
I’ve been trying to get over the broad-strokes understanding of FM stereo radio hump for like 5 years and this video finally did it. I was just looking for something to watch while I made coffee. You’re making the internet a better place, thanks!
I was looking at how close the back of that transmitter was to the wall. They're usually installed so there's just enough space to swing the back door open. That causes a major problem; you will have one injury turn into three. If you're in back of the transmitter and touch something that's still slightly energized, you'll burn the tips of your fingers. When you do that, you'll jerk your arm back and slam your elbow into the wall behind you. Immediately after that, you'll pull your arm forward again sharply and slam your nuckles into something inside the transmitter. Thus, one injury turns quickly into three! Our station engineer told me this story one night when I was in my late teens and working my first job (weekends) in radio. He and I were at the transmitter one night while he was repairing something. We both had a good laugh at it, but in my experiences, it's turned out to be nearly true! That engineer is in his late 80's now and we still laugh about it.
Trust me that antenna is nothing like a "turnstile" antenna. Turnstile antennas are horizontally polarized "slot" antennas usually with broad-banding wings. The slots are between the mounting pole and the bar of the wing that is closest to the pole, this at the feedpoint. Ron W4BIN (retired broadcast engineer)
Hello. I just found your channel and subscribed. I have a question please. There is a FM station a few miles from me that the local university operates. I looked up the specs, and it says its running at 250 watts. The antenna it is broadcasting from is a few hundred feet and I noticed the radiators are placed halfway up the antenna. Why not mount them at the top for better coverage? Thank you
In many countries, radio station licenses are also categorized into classes. In the United States, for example, a station of a certain license class is given exclusive use of their channel to a defined geographic area, generally a number of kilometers from the transmitter where the signal strength must be a certain value. Since FM uses VHF and is typically line-of-sight, it’s possible that using more power or mounting the antenna higher on the tower will cause the station’s signal to be too strong outside their defined contour area, so lots of stations cannot use the maximum antenna height or transmit power for their license class! Stations can trade antenna height for transmit power or vice versa, but what remains the same is the signal strength contour distance. Hope that helps!
@@BroadcastBlueprint Thank you! That helps a lot! Although I never got into the field, I have always had a love of radio. I got into short-wave back in the early 1980's and wanted to know the in's and out's of how radio waves propagate, etc.
Since TV stations frequently use UHF (higher frequency) signals, their antenna elements are smaller and the propagation isn’t as good. Thanks to that, they also use many more antenna elements to increase the gain of their antenna arrays, resulting in an effective radiated power (ERP) approaching or exceeding 1000 kW.
Wow you are me of the past cool engineers. I miss those guys. I am a radio personality retired. I'm in a community and started a cheap LpFM community radio station. 15 watts with a ground plain antenna. I'm no engineer but did help over the years when they did work. I had no idea what was going on they usually used me to do DJing... like a day timer AM at night after midnight old army surplus tx and almost 700' antenna with transmission line going across the field like 5 copper wires on small telephone poles. I've seen ready kilowatt several times back then especially when it iced over. It was awesome so much respect fur you guys. My room mate was chief engineer back in the 70's at two radio stations he got me my job at several different stations across the country back in my day. Big stations 50,000 watt AM and 100,000 FM and one in Ciudad Juárez Chihuahua licensed to operate with a power of 150,000 watts on a carrier frequency of 800 kHz at night in 1979. I lived in El Paso was 18 years old. Man I was in heaven. 50,000 day 150,000 at night. Clear channel. I think it was CKLW in Canada that fought back and forth in between. Lol:) But ended up on FM after that AM was over for us rocking jocks. I have stories. My roommates were Mr. Leonard, Bg Brad Edwards (KISs Fm LA. Lee master ls WNBC well yes I was big time at one time. Lee just retired as CEO at NPR. Great guy. Back then anyway. We cooked. Anyway enough about me. I am listening to as an engineer. I know there are SWRs and lengths of coaxial cable and going through my limiter and compressor... lol:) nit much. But it sounds good not much noise n the carrier FM 102.7. Can you give sone pointers? I only have the antenna on side of house clearing the top of roof. I get out about a mile and a half but I go further and it comes back at 3 miles then gone. Antenna about 20' high. Hardly any wind load on it. So light. I should get out a little further with 15 watts. I know something is wrong. There are like 3 communities I want you to serve just announcements another HOA the Pool the club house the lake the skiing trail, list dogs, cats, yard sales the whole community takes part in. A lot of fun. And I play a lot of music you don't hear on the radio anymore. I rock it, I country it, I worked every format so knowledgeable music, songs to play fur our age group demographics. I'm 64 now. Old. lol:) so can you give me some pointers? I mean I just gave the small transmitter and it a few electronic equipment. I do have a radio station a board all that but won't fit where so am. I divorced after 30 years moved from Connecticut back to Alabama. All my engineers I worked with are dead or long retired and gone. I been gone from Birmingham 30 years. Anyway no more 1st class licensed engineers... if I understand it's a general class license now. I have my 3rd class elements 1,2 & 9 and can read plate current, plate voltage and amps lol:) ship to shore. I had a provisional when I was 17. I go way back they took thus very seri auxiliary back then so did FCC. Which we got visited a little until my friend came in cleaned it up. He was like you a real engineer. Liked what he did. Like me a radio personality I liked what I did. I'm having fun with this. I want to automate it and go live when I want. 24/7 but yet to come. Thanks & subscribed....
