SBE CHAPTER 40 NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2003
San Francisco
Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@msn.com
Bill Dempster - Artist
Advertisers for this month's newsletter are:

Projection Systems Inc. - Marci Mearns - (510) 259-2469
Santucci Video Systems - Sandra Santucci - (818) 704-6324
Belden - Steve Lampen - (415) 440-8393
Media Technical Consulting - Paul T. Black - (925) 827-9511
MARCOM - Martin Jackson - (408) 768-8668
William F. Ruck, Jr. Broadcast Engineer - (415) 564-1450
Ross Marketing Associates - Kevin Frost - (408) 988-8111
Kathrein (Scala Division) - Michael Wm. Bach - (541) 779-6500
Hammett & Edison, Inc. - Dane E. Ericksen, P.E. - (707) 996-5200
Howell Communications - Mike Howell - (559) 674-8989
Econco - George Badger - 650-327-7599
Improbable Missions Fource - Mike Schweizer - (888) 4-ISDN4U
West Penn Wire/CDT - Michael J. La Porte - (650) 652-9080

Babes/SBE Luncheon on Wednesday April 30th

This month we'll do an NAB wrap-up plus Larry Bloomfield will join us with his roadshow "A Taste of NAB" that will feature products that were on display at this year's show.

As usual, our luncheon will be at Sinbad's just south of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero near the foot of Mission St. We meet at 11:30 and are seated at 12:30. To make reservations call Paul Black at 925-827-9511 and leave a message on his machine.

The End of Ink and Paper
In checking with Tim Pozar recently, I found that we have 90 people signed up for the electronic edition of this newsletter that goes directly to your home email box (along with various ads to extend parts of the anatomy or to trade your fiscal woes to a loan shark who collects more vigorously than your existing creditors). If you haven't signed up for the email newsletter, please do so. The June newsletter will be the last printed newsletter. - RT

Rusty Draper Dies
Rusty Draper, a singer who had a string of hits in the 1950s, died at the age of 80 in Bellevue, Washington. He also acted in musicals and TV westerns. He sometimes subbed for Ronald Reagan on a radio station in Des Moines, IA.. In San Francisco he did his turn as a TV cartoon show host before his singing career took off.

TEMPORARY STAY GRANTED IN BROADCAST AUXILIARY MATTER
"In this Order, we grant a Request for Temporary Stay (Request) filed by the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) to delay the effective date of prior coordination procedures adopted by the Report and Order in the above-captioned proceeding for most fixed point-to-point Aural and TV Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) stations. SBE requests the stay to allow BAS licensees time to provide and to correct BAS receive site information in our licensing database, the Universal Licensing System (ULS), to ensure that the new procedures effectively avert interference to existing systems. We grant the requested relief for six months, delaying the effective date to October 16, 2003...." - FCC

SIGN UP FOR NO CALL
"Californians can now pre-register here for the nationwide Do Not Call list that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to launch this summer. California is joining in the national Do Not Call registry which is FREE to consumers. If you sign up today, you can stop unwanted telemarketing calls beginning in October under the nationwide program.... Business telephone numbers are excluded...." For further information and to list your home and cell phone numbers via a secure web site, see:

http://nocall.doj.state.ca.us/

The preceding two stories were courtesy of the CGC Communicator.

American Graffiti

Someone inquired as to where the Wolfman Jack segment in the above titled movie was shot and Chairman Art and others responded that it was KRE in Berkeley, which is correct. While I was long gone from KRE (In my day, KPAT.), I did once visit the station in Baja that broadcast the program. There were a number of stations with transmitters in Baja but studios in San Diego. They carried the Mexican National Program once a week and broadcast in Spanish in the middle of the night for 3 hours one morning a week. The rest of the time the broadcasts were in English. This particular transmitter site had a three tower directional and you can bet the pattern didn't go south. I forget the make of the transmitter but it was a cast off from up north that had seen better days. Some of the front panel meters had been replaced by extending the meter leads to meters that rested on wooden fruit crates out in front of the transmitter. The transmission line was bare copper tubing and it passed through the wall. The insulator was a water bottle with the bottom knocked out. It had been plastered into the wall and the copper tubing went thru the neck of the bottle.

SMPTE Meeting at Napa Valley College
Saturday April 26th at 10AM there will be a meeting in the TV studio at Napa Valley College. The speakers will be John Hartwell and MT Silvia. John will talk about the present state of System Integration and MT Silvia will talk about her film Picardy Drive. MT's film is an hour long documentary about an East Oakland neighborhood. The film has achieved critical acclaim. It was made using all the latest equipment and came in on budget. There aren't too many people who can manage such a project for less than $10,000 but she and her crew did. Total cost was under $7000.

Details at: http://members.aol.com/ Also check out http://www.smartgirlproductions.com

Subscribe to the online version of the newsletter
The electronic copy version of this newsletter is now availible via a mailling list. You can subscribe by going to http://www.lns.com/mailman/listinfo/sbe-announce and filling out the form there.

Web Page
Webmeister Tim Pozar has the current newsletter plus newsletters all the way back to 1996 at: http://www.lns.com/sbe

Roy also posts the current newsletter at home.earthlink.net/~rhtrumbull but the posting is without links.