Satellite Update

By
published

With the short holiday week, the FCC International Bureau Policy Branch did not release a public notice listing any actions and FCC Report SAT-00492 listed only two applications accepted for filing, both for satellite radio terrestrial repeaters. Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. requested special temporary authority (STA) to operate 15 new satellite digital radio service (SDARS) terrestrial repeaters with power levels at or below 2 kW EIRP in Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Miami, New York, Bogota and Wayne, N.J., Philadelphia, Sacramento and Washington D.C. for a period of 180 days. In the application, Sirius stated it had identified these sites as necessary to the provision of its commercial SDARS. XM Radio Inc. requested STA for a very low power repeater with an EIRP not exceeding 0.5 W at its office building in Vienna, Va., for 180 days. XM stated the use of the repeaters is necessary to provide XM’s signal to its employees in the building.

Comments and news items are welcome. Email me at dlung@transmitter.com.

Doug Lung
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.