RF Shorts - July, 29 2010


Galaxy 15 is passing through Galaxy 14's orbital location. Use the Intelsat Ephemeris to determine the exact location. Spaceflightnow.com has a good outline of what's happening with Galaxy 15 in the article Zombiesat has three more satellites in its crosshairs.

Stations cooperated to keeping programming on the air in Milwaukee after flooding knocked out some transmission sites. Duane Dudek in JSOnline has a piece on the flooding and local broadcasting -- Storms show local TV, radio can work for viewers, listeners. OnMilwaukee.com also covers the storm in Tim Cuprisin's article OnMedia: The deluge of 2010 on TV.

NPR ran a story on "do-it-yourself" satellites. The story DIY Satellites Let You Find Your Own Space describes an $8,000 kit Interorbital Systems is offering for "schools, hobbyists, and amateur engineers."

NAB President Gordon H. Smith outlined the broadcaster's position on future spectrum policy in a letter to Lawrence Summers, the director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. "We are convinced that a holistic approach to spectrum policy by the Administration can identify and repurpose spectrum suitable to achieve this goal without compromising broadcasting's ability to deliver free and local high-definition TV, additional niche programming on multicast channels and mobile TV to our viewers."

Your comments and news items are always welcome! Drop me a note at dlung@transmitter.com.

Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.