RF Shorts - Sept. 10, 2010


I reported on "Free TV Week" in last week's RF Short. Ft. Smith, Arkansas's KFSM-TV reported that hundreds of people showed up at the parking lot of the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville for the antenna giveaway there. Video of the event is available on the KFSM-TV Web site.

Reuters correspondent Cynthia Barrera Diaz reports Mexico is looking to auction 700 MHz TV spectrum to wireless services in her article Mexico digitalizes TV for wireless space. The goal is to have the spectrum cleared by 2012. This should make it easier for communities near the Mexican border to coordinate wireless services in the spectrum above Channel 51 reallocated from broadcasting after the U.S. DTV transition last year.

At IFA 2010, Hauppauge showed a new miniature USB tuner for DTV-T. WeGotServed has details and a picture in IFA 2010: Hauppauge Brings Tiny to TV With the PCTV picoStick Gold. The device appears to be slightly smaller than the ATSC PCTV HD mini Stick.

Your comments and news items are always appreciated. E-mail me 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.