RF CURRENT

Welcome to RF Current, a weekly electronic newsletter focusing on Broadcast technical and F.C.C. related issues. This newsletter is part of The RF Page @ www.transmitter.com, a web site devoted to TV Broadcast RF engineering. For more information see the What is... guide to the R.F. Page site.

Issues are dated each Monday, although recently I've needed an extra day(week) or two to complete each issue. Articles may be posted earlier if time permits or if there is a major, breaking story.

<<< Back to October 16 - Issue 236

October 23, 2000 - Issue 237 Final Edition

FCC Seeks Public Comment on FCC Website Effectiveness (Oct. 19)

The FCC released a Public Notice stating it is "evaluating its Internet web site in an effort to make it easier and faster for its users to retrieve information." The Notice said, "Although the FCC's website was recently cited as one of the best in the government, the Commission is always interested in upgrading and improving it."

The evaluation is limited to the FCC web site at www.fcc.gov and associated pages. It excludes the FCC's electronic filing systems. The FCC said some of the areas the comments should address include: usability, navigability, format, content, interactivity and ease of contacting the Commission." Submit comments by November 10 to webeval@fcc.gov.

DTV - Broadcom Introduces End-to-End Chipset for Terrestrial HDTV (Oct. 17)

Broadcom has combined its new BCM3510 single chip ATSC receiver and its previously announced BCM7020 video graphics decoder and graphic system to offer what it claimed was "the industry's first end-to-end chipset for terrestrial HDTV."

Broadcom said the BCM3510 "has proven to be the highest performing VSB receiver available." The receiver has improved algorithms for handling dynamic multipath conditions with a full implementation, 46 msec equalizer. The chip also has a patented, high-performance notch filter to automatically eliminate NTSC co-channel and adjacent channel interference. In addition to the ATSC VSB receiver, the chip includes a ITU J.83 Annex A, B and C QAM receiver for a "cable-ready" DTV.

The BCM7020 decoder/graphics system supports both SDTV and HDTV standards for North America, Europe and Japan. It is capable of decoding multiple video streams simultaneously, supports all 18 ATSC formats and decodes worldwide analog TV formats.

Robert Graves, Chairman of the ATSC, commented on the announcement: "The ATSC is delighted to learn of the introduction of Broadcom's second-generation, high-performance VSB receiver. When the ATSC promotes the benefits and advantages of VSB systems worldwide, we include Broadcom VSB receivers because of their superior performance in diverse terrestrial television reception environments. This latest contribution from Broadcom epitomizes the kind of innovative improvements that manufacturers are making in ATSC receivers."

Rich Nelson, Broadcom's Senior Director of Marketing, Broadband Communications Business Unit, said, "Our chipset offers television and set-top box manufacturers a complete solution for receiving and displaying terrestrial HDTV. This will allow manufacturers to introduce next-generation products, with superior reception and user features, accelerating HDTV adoption in the market. This is right in line with FCC Chairman William Kennard's vision for the widespread availability of digital television to American consumers." (See October 16, 2000 RF Current for a report on FCC Chairman Kennard's urging Congress to adopt a mandatory date for including DTV tuners in all TV sets.)

Broadcom said the BCM3510 is available in sample quantities today, priced at $20 in 10,000 piece quantities. The BCM7020 is available now, priced at $50 in 10,000 piece quantities. To aid in HDTV system development, Broadcom offers BCM93510 and BCM97020 reference designs - a stand-alone HDTV receiver with an ATSC-compliant tuner, the BCM3510 VSB/QAM receiver, and the BCM7020 HDTV video graphics decoder. The reference designs come with software source code, schematics and Gerber files.

Refer to the press release Broadcom Introduces Industry's First End-to-End Chipset for Terrestrial HDTV for more information. Also see the BCM3510 feature sheet and the BCM7020 product sheet for technical details.

PEOPLE - Robert Plonka Awarded Matti S. Siukola Memorial Award for IEEE Technical Paper (Oct. 17)

At the 50th Annual IEEE Broadcast Symposium in Washington D.C., Robert J. Plonka, principal engineer for Harris Corporation's Broadcast Communications Division was awarded the Matti S. Siukola Memorial Award for his technical paper and presentation Determining EVM/SNR in DTV Coverage Areas as a Function of Antenna Type - End, Center or Branch-Fed delivered at last year's Symposium. The Siukola Award is based on overall technical quality, extent of original work, effectiveness of presentation and quality of visual aids as voted on by Symposium attendees.

Plonka has been with Harris for 24 years and is currently working on various research and development projects for VHF and UHF transmitter products. He holds two patents on high power stripline combiners, one on a digital transmitter linearity system and has over 12 patents pending on various DTV transmitter and antenna products.

From the Harris Corporation press release Harris Engineer Honored at IEEE Broadcast Symposium With Prestigious Matti S. Siukola Award.

FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making to Modify DTV Table of Allotments in Portsmouth, Virgina (Oct. 17)

Viacom Broadcasting of Seattle, Inc. (Viacom), licensee of station WGNT-TV, NTSC Channel 27 in Portsmouth, Virgina has requested the substitution of DTV Channel 50 for its assigned DTV Channel 19. Viacom stated that, "adoption of its proposal would result in significantly less interference to other stations. Viacom claims that the channel change would eliminate the potential for interference between the first-adjacent channel allotments of stations WGNT-DT at Portsmouth, Virginia, and WUND-DT at Columbia, North Carolina. In addition to this adjacent channel interference problem, Viacom states that any future power increases by either WGNT-DT or WUND-DT will be constrained by the need to protect the service area of the other station."

The FCC has found this channel change would meet its requirements and warrants consideration. The technical parameters of the modified allotment on Channel 50 would specify an effective radiated power of 800 kW at a height above average terrain of 296 meters.

Interested parties may file comments on or before December 8, 2000. Reply comments are due on or before December 26, 2000. Refer to the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (MM Docket 00-201) for details on the request and information on filing comments.

FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making to Modify DTV Table of Allotments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Oct. 16)

Midwest Broadcasting Company (Midwest), licensee of station KAUN, NTSC Channel 36 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota has requested the substitution of DTV Channel 51 for its assigned DTV Channel 40. Midwest states, "since the original paired allotment of DTV Channel 40 was made, Station KAUN(TV) has been authorized to operate from a new site which is approximately 40.3 kilometers southeast of its original site. Due to this site change, Midwest submits that DTV Channel 40 would create unacceptable interference to DTV Channel 41 at Sioux City, Iowa. Midwest states that DTV Channel 51 will provide coverage to 100% of the community of Sioux Falls and is within the Commission's core spectrum."

The FCC has found this channel change would meet its requirements and warrants consideration. The technical parameters of the modified allotment on Channel 51 would specify an effective radiated power of 93 kW at a height above average terrain of 230 meters.

Interested parties may file comments on or before December 8, 2000. Reply comments are due on or before December 26, 2000. Refer to the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (MM Docket 00-200) for details on the request and information on filing comments.

OTHER Items of Interest

FCC Auction of Licenses for the 700 MHz Guard Bands Scheduled For February 13, 2001 - Public Notice - Auction includes licenses that remained unsold in Auction 33, which closed September 21. Markets include Pittsburgh, PA and Columbus, OH.
ADC Selected to Get Moscow TV Back on the Air - ADC Broadcast Equipment Being Used by COMCOR to Overcome Ostankino Tower Outage - Press Release - COMCOR will deploy ADC's DV6000 digital and optiworx analog fiber transmission systems to restore video services in Moscow. Tatiana Bulanova, general director of COMCOR said, "COMCOR covers the largest distribution network in the greater Moscow area by maintaining a robust 2000 km long fiber network, and we anticipate resuming television program distribution very quickly. This incident was unfortunate but has enabled us to accelerate our planned deployment schedule. The arrival of the ADC equipment will enable signal transmission to several hundred distribution hubs."
PanAmSat, ABC Cable Networks Group, ABC and the ESPN Networks Sign Long-Term Global Agreement - Press Release - Deal addes ABC Television network to PanAmSat Worldwide Network. PanAmSat will provide "thousands of Multi-Beam-Feed upgrade kits (which can be installed on existing Galaxy V or Galaxy IX antennas) or antennas free-of-charge to large and small cable affiliates" to "allow cable systems to receive programming from PanAmSat's orbital locations of 127, 125 and 123 degrees via a single antenna." Multi-Beam-Feed kits or antennas will also be provided to affiliates to allow cable systems to receive PanAmSat's 95-degree orbital location.
EE Times article - Sampling shift spurs digital receiver gains - story by Nicolas Mokhoff examines new sampling technique developed by Efim and George Poberezhskiy that uses internal antialiasing filtering to overcome obstacles in conventional digital receivers. Poberezhskiy said the procedure changes the whole concept of sampling band-limited signals.

>>>>Next October 30 - Issue 238

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