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This is a collection of tips for everyone.

  1. Digital Conversion
  2. E-mail lists
  3. Production services
  4. Who takes care of it
  5. Heating / Cooling
  6. OverHead Lights
  7. Doors and door bell

Digital Conversion

7/7/03 to 7/13/03 1: Intro Two major issues loom on KGNU's horizon.

By now you know that KGNU is looking into expanding in Denver.

But you may not know that KGNU is also looking into starting to broadcast digitally.

(I described this in a recent KGNU program guide.) This is a technically complex, politically charged issue, one that may strain KGNU's resources.

I'm going to devote the next several tips to it.

I'll start by introducing some general concept and a few terms.

In the 1970s, Philips introduced CDs as a digital alternative to the analog LPs.

Today, the FCC is trying to do the same, by coaxing the broadcast industry to convert to digital.

For FM broadcasters, the technology is called HD (High Definition) Radio (just as its TV counterpart is called HDTV).

Just as the color TV standard is backward compatible with black-and-white TVs, the HD Radio standard is backward compatible with the present FM receivers (at least for now).

And, just as you need a color TV to receive color transmissions, to receive digital radio you will need a special digital receiver.

IBOC.

There are at least 2 ways of implementing Digital Radio.

One is to leave the present FM band alone, and use a totally different band for Digital Radio.

Another way is for a station to squeeze the digital signal alongside its FM signal.

Using a separate band for digital works the best, and that's the way that Canada and Europe went.

The problem is that the US Military is already using that separate band, and it doesn't want to let go of it.

So the FCC has decided that in the US we'll have to use the squeezing method.

This method is called IBOC ("In Band, On Channel").

IBIQUITY.

Many companies have developed technologies to encode a stations' sound into digital.

To avoid what happened with the videotape recorder industry (VHS versus Beta, until until the market forces chose the arguably worse standard), the FCC decided to chose a standard up-front.

It chose the technology developed by a company called iBiquity.

iBiquity will recoup its development costs by charging a royalty to radio stations and to manufactures of transmitters and receivers.

HD In the future, the FCC will expect you to buy a digital receiver (called "HD").

Such receivers will receive normal AM and FM.

Additionally, if a station is also broadcasting digitally, these receivers will switch to either the HD (digital) or the standard (analog) signal, whichever gives the best sound.

2: KGNU's role in digital radio. The FCC is encouraging broadcasters to switch to digital (HD).

For the broadcasters, HD is a chicken and egg deal.

HD will cost a lot of money, and broadcasters don't want to spend it if HD if people won't buy HD receivers.

Listeners won't buy HD receivers (which cost at least $ 100 more than standard ones) if no broadcasters use HD.

Also, manufacturers have no incentive to develop HD receivers until they have reason to believe that HD will take off.

No one will embrace HD if it doesn't really improve the sound.

HD is meant to sound CD quality, but in reality it will sound like internet radio: low noise, but also digital artifacts.

This may not be seen as any improvement at all compared to standard FM.

(On the other side, it's going to be a great improvement in AM.) Two major examples of such conversions gone bad are AM-stereo and quadrophonic sound.

Both promised great improvements in sound quality, and neither succeeded.

Organizations and consumers who bought the equipment found themselves with white elephants.

But there are also major examples of conversions gone well; CDs and cellular phones come to mind.

Today there's also an ongoing conversion that may or may not be successful: HDTV (High Definition TV).

TV broadcasters and consumers are not eager to switch: an HDTV broadcast facility costs millions, and HDTV receivers cost thousands (and the programming content is still the same "quality").

So, FM broadcasters are like kids in swimsuits on the edge of a cold lake, telling each-other: "You go first".

The government wants to push a few of those kids into the lake, in the hope that the rest will jump-in as well.

To that purpose, it has given the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) $ 3.5 M for matching grants to stations in seed markets.

Denver is one such market, and KGNU qualifies as a Denver station.

So, the CPB is offering KGNU up to 70 % or up to $ 75,000 of its costs to convert to HD.

Also, iBiquity, the owner of the standard, will waive KGNU's royalty payments if it applies right now.

Should KGNU convert to HD (right away, or maybe later)? This will be a major decision, with significant consequences.

KGNU hasn't even begun to discuss this issue.

Yet, July 11th '03 is the deadline for applying for a CPB grant to cover part of the conversion costs.

So, just in case, on behalf of KGNU, I am filing a grant application with the CPB (we can always turn it down if we get it, but we decide not to convert).

Towards that debate, I'd like to list some pros and cons of HD (I'll try to be as balanced as possible - I myself haven't made-up my mind yet).

PROS: First, let me quote KUVO's engineer and his reasons to switch to HD: 1) KUVO is serving the public, which includes offering it the best possible technology; 2) KUVO wants to distinguish itself from other stations, and can do so by being first off the mark; 3) KUVO's listeners are likely to think (wrongly) that KUVO's regular FM signal sounds better.

From KGNU's stand-point, digital may offer: 1) a chance to replace our old transmitter 2) a solution to KGNU's fuzzy signal (HD receivers only) 3) a potential way of covering Denver (HD receivers only) 4) a way of steam-rolling over those pesky translators CONS: 1) The conversion process will take away KGNU resources at a time when it is focusing on covering Denver; 2) HD may not work-out; 3) other station's HD signal may steam-roll over KGNU's in outlying areas.

In the next 2 tips I will give you details on these Pros and Cons.

3: Pros

TRANSMITTER

The present transmitter works fine for FM, but it's not good enough for HD.

While the transmitter is quite old (1974) it still runs fine.

It does breakdown now and then, but it's easy to fix.

It uses tubes that only last only so long, and are no longer made in the US (we buy them from Russia).

It would be very nice to get a tube-less transmitter, which would be far more reliable.

We could get a used one for a few thousand dollars, but it would still not be HD compatible.

A new, HD compatible transmitter would cost close to $ 50,000.

If we get a grant from CPB to go digital, the transmitter would cost us only about 15,000 $, and CPB would pay the rest.

While it would be cheaper for KGNU to just go and buy a transmitter, and forget about HD, if KGNU *does* go HD, then a new transmitter would be a side benefit.

"BETTER" FM SIGNAL

Psychologically, listeners of the same-old FM signal may think that it sounds better, just because they hear us say: "Now in Digital!".

In reality, the FM signal will be the same, or maybe even slightly worse.

HD BETTER THAN FM

Are you familiar with holographic images? Do you know that if you cut a holographic picture in half, you can still see the whole image? That's because all the image is contained in each little bit of the picture.

Having the complete picture doesn't give you a bigger image; instead, it gives you better quality.

Similarly, a CD player will play a CD even if it has a big scratch, because the CD carries redundant data, from which the CD player can reconstruct the missing parts.

Think of cellular phones.

With the old analog phones, the worse the signal, the more hiss and drop-outs you would get.

With the new digital phones, if you get in areas of poor signals, you still get the entire words; however, words start sounding more and more like Darth Vader.

Digital cellular phones have built in redundancies, that allow it to reconstruct speech if part of the data is lost.

The more data, the better it can reconstruct it.

The same is true with radio.

With the present FM technology, you get hiss and drop-outs.

With the new Digital Radio, no matter how little signal gets through, you hear the entire program, and no noise.

Good reception reception results in better sound quality.

Worse reception results in more digital artifacts.

Digital radio has built in redundancies, that allow the receiver to reconstruct the signal if part of it is lost.

The transmitter sends portion of a given signal at various frequencies and various times.

If a portion of the signal is lost because of interference at a given frequency or at a given time, that's OK, because part of the same information was also sent at a different frequency and at a different time, so not much is lost.

How does that help KGNU? KGNU has a notoriously bad signal.

It is weak, and other stations are so strong, so radio receivers have a hard time picking it up among the giants nearby.

Thanks to its ability to reconstruct the signal from whatever little gets through, a digital receiver may be able to let listeners receive KGNU (on digital receivers) with less interference.

KGNU's transmitter is poorly placed.

Its signal is reflected by the Flatirons, and radio receivers get confused between the direct signal they receive from the transmitter, and the delayed signal reflected by the Flatirons.

This effect, called "multi-path", results in a fuzzy sound during sound peaks.

Digital radio is multi-path proof, because it can reconstruct the data from either the direct signal or from the reflected signal equally well.

So, listeners using HD receivers would hear a clearer sound.

When listening to KGNU in a car, you often hear a "picket-fencing" effect, as the car travels through nulls created by the beat between the direct and the reflected signal.

At any given moment there may be a null at one frequency, but not at another one.

Again, a digital radio comes to the rescue, because it uses many different frequencies at the same time.

The digital radio receiver would be able to pick-up the entire program, because it can reconstruct the data missing at the frequency that now has a null, from the data that was sent earlier at the same frequency (when there was no null) and from the data sent now, but at a different frequency.

COVERING DENVER

In theory, KGNU could place additional FM transmitters in Denver, at 88.5 FM, and cover Denver.

Such transmitters are called "boosters" (as opposed to "translators", which change from 88.5 MHz to some other frequency).

In reality, FM receivers that could "see" two or more KGNU transmitters would get confused, and KGNU would sound terrible.

For the same reason that a Digital Radio receiver is not affected by multi-path, it can also handle "seeing" multiple digital transmitters at the same frequency.

This may open the possibility of placing various digital-only boosters in Denver.

Listeners could then buy digital receivers, and pick-up KGNU all over Denver.

While this is probably technically feasible, the FCC hasn't yet considered this possibility, as only KGNU has brought it up so far.

Should KGNU decide to try this out, they would be at the forefront, and iBiquity has indicated that they would help us testing it and help us push the FCC to approve of this method.

Also, it is not clear how many potential listeners would bother to buy digital receivers.

STEAMROLLING TRANSLATORS

Translators allow local stations to extend their coverage.

They have very few rights (that's how we lost the signal in Fort Collins).

Various national religious organizations are very effective in applying and getting permission to place translators in the educational band.

It is debatable if the content of these stations qualifies as "educational", and if they can be considered "local" given that their programming is generated far away.

Regardless, the fact is that such translators have encroached on KGNU's signal in all directions, and it would take a lot of resources to keep them at bay.

With IBOC Digital Radio, KGNU would broadcast the digital signal at the edges of its band (88.4 and 88.6 MHz).

A radio receiver tuned to 88.5 MHz will be fine, because the signal at 88.5 MHz is so much stronger that the digital signal at 88.4 and 88.6 MHz.

But a radio receiver trying to receive a weak translator's signal at 88.3 MHz, may very well be overwhelmed by KGNU's digital signal at 88.4 MHz.

The owner of a translator at 88.3 MHz may decide that it's not worth to keep it on, and, by turning it off, may allow listeners in the border areas to again pick-up KGNU.

4: Cons In the previous tip I described some of the possible advantages that KGNU may receive from going digital.

Here I describe some of the possible disadvantages.

Let me explain.

RESOURCES

Converting to digital will take away resources and money at a time when KGNU is focusing on covering Denver.

KGNU may actually find itself in the position of having to choose between paying for the conversion to digital, or making a down-payment for a Denver radio station.

Both activities will require quite a bit of engineering and managerial resources, and the time-frame for both projects coincide.

KGNU may not be able to succeed on both fronts simultaneously.

I estimate that the digital conversion will cost KGNU about $ 60,000, and 200 hours of Marty's, the board's, consultants' and my time.

UNSUCCESS

Digital Radio may simply not work.

KGNU (and the rest of the broadcast industry) may find itself having wasted a lot of time and money.

1) Listeners may balk at buying expensive HD receivers (an HD-ready car receiver costs at least $ 300).

2) KGNU's power may be too low, and the Digital coverage may be too limited, to have a significant impact.

3) The quality of the digital signal may be unacceptable to the listener, who may prefer the artifacts of FM radio to the ones of digital radio (Darth Vader sound).

4) Studies show that adding the digital signal doesn't affect the present FM signal appreciably.

However, those studies were done with high power stations.

For a low-power station such as KGNU the loss of the FM signal may be significant.

5) There's a remote possibility that KGNU may not get the digital system to work at all.

INTERFERENCE

In the previous tip I explained how a radio station's digital signal may interfere with an adjacent station's FM signal, and how that may be to KGNU's advantage.

But that goes both ways! The real danger is that KCME (88.7 MHz, Colorado Springs) may go digital as well.

If and when that happens, our listeners in South Denver may hear an obnoxious buzz (KCME's digital signal) instead of KGNU.

At that point it would be hypocritical of KGNU to ask KCME to turn off their digital signal, if KGNU itself is broadcasting digitally.

The transition to digital is likely to be an all or none proposition.

If no stations take the plunge, KGNU's signal will not be threatened by another station's digital signal.

But if KGNU does take the plunge, it may help convince other stations to go digital.

Therefore, going digital may actually harm our Denver listeners.

RECEIVER AVAILABILITY

As of this writing, you simply can't buy an HD receiver.

No vendor I contacted had plans to buy any.

An expert at Listen-up say that the industry is not moving in the direction of manufacturing such radios for home use, but that, if it did, it would do so in high end tuners (> $ 1000!).

Soundtrack is aware of "HD ready" (whatever that means) car receivers (from Sony, Alpine and Kenwood) in the high end models (> $ 300).

The fact is that CPB wants us to complete the project in 1 year, but no listeners will have HD receivers within that year.

SATELLITE RADIO

Satellite radio (which is *totally* unrelated to HD radio) already delivers digital radio.

The consumer may not see the difference between the two technologies: they both provide better quality sound.

The fact is that satellite receivers are already available, yet they are not flying off the shelves.

Can we gather from that that the consumer won't be interested in HD radio either? (A satellite radio subscription does cost money, while HD radio will be free.) COST I estimate the cost of going digital at $ 100,000 for the equipment, and $ 20,000 for professional services.

If KGNU gets a CPB grant (which is quite likely), it would pay about 45,000 $ of that.

As you see, there are pros and cons to going digital, and those are only the ones that I could think of.

If we waited until we could learn from other stations' experience, we'd lose the matching funds from the CBP and the royalty waiver from iBiquity.

E-mail lists

6/26/03 KGNU has various e-mail lists, such as this one volunteers at kgnu.org.

A list uses a single word (such as "volunteers") that is translated to the e-mail addresses of all the people who are subscribed to that list.

Other examples of lists are staff at kgnu.org or board at kgnu.org.

Each list is managed by a person who takes care of adding, removing and correcting e-mail addresses.

For the volunteers list, that person is EC music at kgnu.org.

So, if you want to be removed from this list, or you're changing your e-mail address, talk to EC.

(While the person who actually does all the changes for all the lists is Neil Parker, you must go through EC first).

(Managing a list this big is a painful, thankless job; so please be nice to EC.) Other people manage the other lists.

OLM is the company that translates a list's name to the actual e-mail addresses.

This is the company that hosts our web site, kgnu.org.

We chose that company because it's all set-up for secure web-based sales.

We use that to let our members join KGNU securely, over the net, using a credit card.

The way that OLM handles lists is a bit quirky (maybe they're anti-SPAM measures).

When you send an e-mail to a list: 1) the name of the list must be in the "TO" field (not in the "CC" or "BCC" field); 2) the name of the list must be the first item in the "TO" field; 3) you can't add attachments; 4) the e-mail can't be bigger than 75 K (for text that's plenty*) When sending an e-mail you usually have the option to send it as plain text or as HTML.

HTML is the language of web pages.

It lets you add color, style, fonts, sizes, etc to the message.

However, HTML may bog down some recipient's slower computers, or appear illegibly small to some users.

When you send an e-mail to a list, some of the people on the list may not appreciate receiving an HTML message.

So, please, make sure you select "plain text" when writing to a list.

For example, in Outlook, use the "Format" menu and de-select "HTML".

Production services

5/12/03 KGNU offers production services (such as ISDN feeds) to the non-commercial broadcast industry.

For example, if the BBC wants to interview a scientist from NCAR, they'll have the scientist come to KGNU at a pre-established time.

The BBC will call KGNU using an ISDN line (a digital telephone line) and conduct the interview.

The quality of an ISDN phone call is so good, that the BBC listeners will assume that the scientist is in London! KGNU then will charge the BBC for that service.

KGNU charges for those services, in order to: a) pay for the initial cost of the equipment, for its maintenance, and for monthly fees b) pay the producers for providing these services.

Those rates are cheapest for community radio stations (such as KHEN), and average for Public radio Stations (such as KCFR), and are the highest for major organizations (such as NPR).

If you want to do an ISDN feed to do a great sounding interview for a program you're producing, KGNU won't charge you, but the radio station at the other end, where your interviewee is, probably will! This page has info on the services.

http://www.kgnu.net/help/General/ProdServices.html In a later tip I'll talk about ISDN and how KGNU uses it.

Who takes care of it

4/25/03 One reason KGNU functions so well is that so many volunteers are eager to roll-up their sleeves and fix a problem when they see it, instead of just expecting "them" to do it.

If you see something that needs to be fixed, or could be improved, I strongly encourage you to take care of it yourself! EMERGENCIES: Check out the emergency info on KGNU's help page: http://www.kgnu.net/help/ It lists things such as water main breaks, being off the air, FCC visits.

Marty's number is: 443-9208

There's a list of engineering helpers on the lab door (main hallway).

Some are volunteers.

Others are consultants or engineers from other stations, available at a (HIGH) price for emergencies.

Staff members who do especially well with technical issues:

KGNU is blessed with various carpenters and other hands-on people.

Heating / Cooling

4/22/03 - KGNU has 4 cooling / heating units: - East offices: thermostat by the refrigerator - North offices, phone hall, library: thermostat in News office - Studios: thermostat in Engineering lab, but the sensor is in the Red Studio - Kabaret: thermostat in Kabaret - The staff decided the setting for the studios.

Please don't ask me to change it.

- The equipment in the Red Studio produces so much heat, that it almost never needs heating.

Unfortunately, that means that the other studios, exposed to windows and with less heat-generating equipment, are cooler (not much we can do about it, sorry).

To help this, please reduce the lighting in the Red studio to the minimum required, and turn off all equipment when not in use.

- The equipment in the tech room produces lots of heat, and must always be cooled.

The tech room uses the same system as the studios, so it's a real problem if the studios need heating, as that will also heat the tech room.

- Please remember to turn-on the bathroom fan when you go do number 2.

OverHead Lights

3/13/03 - The track lights in the Red Studio are on dimmers.

If you look at the light switches by the door, you'll see tiny sliders just to the right of them; that's how you adjust the light level.

- The bulbs in the hall spot lights are expensive, use much more electricity than fluorescent bulbs, and only last some 2500 hours (that's 3-1/2 months if left On 24/7).

Please turn-off the hall lights first thing in the morning.

Same thing with the Kabaret lights: please turn them off when not in use.

- The lights in the bathrooms and the tech room are controlled by motion sensors.

Please leave the sensor in the "auto" position.

If you find that they go off before you're 'done', let me know and I'll increase the timer's setting.

- Spare light bulbs are in the Engineering Lab, in the metal cabinet.

- If you need to adjust or replace the Red Studio's cable lights, do not touch the actual bulb, as your finger's oil damages it.

Doors and door bell

2/28/03 - Keep the two outside doors locked when all staff members are gone.

Otherwise you may end up with uninvited people - loitering, helping themselves in the CD library, walking into the air studio, using our facilities...

At best, it can be awkward, at worse it can be damaging or even dangerous.

- It takes a key to lock and unlock the South door.

If you use a key to come in that way, make sure you re-lock it.

The North door takes a tool, which is tied to the crash bar.

- Don't prop the doors open for longer than a few minutes.

The air conditioning relies on the doors being closed.

And, the last time the doors were left open, we had mice move in (the proof is inside the Green Studio board)! - After hours, visitors can ring the door bell.

Outside, to the right of each entry door, there's a door-bell button.

The bell chimes in the hallway.

In the Red Studio it chimes (unless a mike is on) and turns on a yellow light.

- If you hear the door bell, please do go and see who it is (the DJ may too busy).

If you don't recognize them, politely ask them "What's up?", and, if they aren't volunteers nor expected visitors, be prepared to ask them to come back during regular business hours.

TipsForAll (last edited 2006-08-26 17:19:05 by DavideAndrea)