RF Shorts: Other Items of Interest - Dec. 18, 2009

The FCC said last week that it supports enhanced United States-Mexican coordination and cooperation on communications issues between the two countries [PDF]. Recent actions include a "Joint Statement" in support of continued coordination and cooperation on communications issues; the "Directory of Bilateral Issues"—a two-year work plan for the United States and Mexico on communications issues; and a new bilateral communications protocol with Mexico to govern public safety use in the 4940-4990 MHz band in border areas.

The FCC last week reminded licensees, frequency coordinators, and equipment manufacturers of narrow-band migration deadlines in the 150-174 MHz and 421-512 MHz bands [PDF]. Starting Jan. 1, 2011, the FCC will no longer accept applications for new wideband 25 kHz (i.e. operating with only one voice path per 25 kHz of spectrum) operations and will expand the authorized interference contour of existing wideband stations. Additional requirements must be met by Jan. 1, 2013.

FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell issued remarks celebrating the centenary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Guglielmo Marconi [PDF]. McDowell compared the early days of wireless with wireless broadband today and observed, that "just as in Marconi's time, today's marketplace is all the more exciting because of the real and ongoing opportunities for entrepreneurial brilliance—producing new devices and new applications that are as yet unimaginable. The wonderful news is that hundreds of millions of lives will be improved due to these new uses of spectrum. In less than a decade, our focus has shifted away from a concern that half of the world's population had never even made a phone call, to now knowing that more than half of the world's 6.8 billion people own their own phone."

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.