Latest articles by DON MARKLEY
So, you need to pick a new tower
Many broadcasters go through their entire careers without having the joy of building a new tower. For many others, this particular activity only occurs
Transmission & Distribution: Now less is more popular
As no real surprise to anyone who has not been asleep for the past five years, broadcasters have been having trouble meeting the FCC deadlines for DTV operation.
Taming the RF system
The tuning of combiner or diplexer assemblies is a job for the factory representatives. As is well-known and often discussed in laborious detail, most
Digital encoders
Be very reluctant to purchase a unit that is specifically designed for a narrow set of input parameters with no expansion capability. The encoder that
Tower lighting
Dual lighting systems avoid the necessity of painting the tower but are much better neighbors at night. Tower lights are a lot like air conditioners in
Antennas: The necessary evil
Old towers have a tendency to be fully loaded based on their original design criteria. No realistic engineer can argue that panel antennas don't work
Transmission lines revisited
Elbows are like people. They don't mind working together, just not too close. Don't even think of applying power to a new system without having it carefully
When the thunder dies away
The standby power plant is expected to stay in its own little room, be ignored and still spring to life to save the day. Sounds like the chief engineer,
So many stations, so few antennas
Find out the best way to combine your analog and DTV signals and transmit them from one antenna.
Avoiding the RF hazard
Take a tour through the history of RF hazard regulations and find out how to keep your facility up to snuff.
Television antenna systems
In the past few months, this column has discussed many issues involved with propagation. But it might be helpful to look at a broad overview of television
TV transmitter control systems
Given that a well-maintained transmitter should show such stability, many transmitters receive scant attention during the broadcast day.
Selecting a transmission site
Learn how to conduct a site study to select the best transmission site for your station.
Another visit to antenna measurements
This article offers a review of vector network analyzer basics for testing transmission lines, antennas and other RF components, along with some dos and don’ts.
Digital STLs
Learn the ups and downs of getting your digital signal from the studio to the transmitter
RF at NAB2004
At the last few NAB shows, the most interesting RF products exhibited were all closely grouped around digital broadcasting. Well, they were this year
High-power antennas
High-power antennas come in a variety of flavors. Which is right for you?
