Chris Horne

Washington, DC – For the second time this year, the issue of co-locating wireless antennas on existing broadcast and non-broadcast structures took center stage in the nation’s capital with the Federal Communications Commission sponsoring an expert colocation workshop on May 1. LBA Group’s chief technical officer, Chris Horne, was among panelists dissecting the issue.

The upshot? “Workshop participants were all enthusiastic about colocation opportunities, but most agreed there are financial, political and cultural issues to overcome,” Horne said following the all-day meeting. “This was a step forward in advancing ideas to overcome these issues.”

The workshop opened with remarks by several FCC representatives, including Jane Jackson,
who is associate chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. The bureau’s deputy
chief of spectrum and competition, Jeffrey Steinberg, outlined the legal framework for colocation
before the first of three panels addressed the issue.

The panel in which Horne participated—Colocations on Non-Traditional Towers and Other
Structures—considered such applications as public safety and radio towers, utility infrastructure,
and rooftops. Horne specifically made the case for bringing wireless antennas to existing AM
radio towers. His essential message: Break down the AM-wireless wall!

LBA Technology long has been in the vanguard of AM tower colocation, which Horne reiterated
in his remarks. LBA offers the patented CoLoPole™ RF Isocoupler for single AM towers, the
CoLoCoil™ AM Isocoupler for isolating multiple coaxial cables on directional antenna systems,
and the CAMI microwave isocoupler for single coaxial AM isolation.

LBA founder and president Lawrence Behr is a recognized authority on colocation. The
company has engineered, patented, and successfully applied colocation technology. Behr chairs
a subcommittee of the Wireless Communications Association International that is working on
resolving issues between AM and broadband entities.

Behr testified in January at an FCC forum. He called for greater promotion of the colocation
solution to help meet the need for proliferation of wireless antenna sites. He also recommended
that the permitting process be streamlined at the state level and that financial inducements be
offered to encourage AM station owners to share their towers.

LBA has developed several industry-leading proprietary approaches to AM collocation.
Read more at http://www.lbagroup.com/associates/am-wireless-colocation.php. For colocation
assistance, contact Mike Britner at 252-757-0279 or mike.britner@lbagroup.com.

Javier Castillo Director of Broadcast Sales for LBA Technology was at the luncheon and he shares some pictures from the event and others taken at the NAB.

Previous to this event there was a presentation at Nautel Stand on DRM showing that Nautel supports the DRM format and the IBOC format.

Recently LBA Technology shipped 6 antenna tuning units of 20 kW ready to work with the DRM format and our antenna systems and tuning units can handle either DRM or IBOC.

A new data sheet is available in English (PDF) or Spanish (PDF). Full information on the CAMI is also at http://www.lbagroup.com/technology/cami-hot-am-tower-isocoupler.php.

To purchase a CAMI™ or request more information, contact Javier Castillo at jcastillo@lbagroup.com or 252-757-0279.

SD-1S by LBA Technology

The LBA SD-1S is a completely weather tight static drain system to mount right next to your AM tower – where it’s needed to keep charges out of your ATU! Very high impedance, and rated to 10 KV peak RF, the SD-1S will not significantly affect the base impedance of most AM towers. Ruggedly built, with high voltage ceramic feed through insulator, the SD-1S is ready for years of service.

You may have, or be considering, streamer retarding lightning protection for your tower. It is important to have a direct path to ground for these systems to function. The SD-1S is ideal to ensure the integrity of these systems.

Tower lightning protection from LBA

If you don’t have streamer retarding, or dissipation array, protection for your tower, LBA can supply the custom system you need. Just give us details of your tower, and Javier Castillo will get you an immediate quote. Contact him at jcastillo@lbagroup.com or 252-757-0279.

Controller/Business Manager Juliana Price

We are happy to say that Juliana Price is being promoted to controller/business manager. She joined LBA in 2009 as staff accountant. Juliana will oversee finance, accounting, and support functions in a new office of LBA Business Services. Her background includes a business administration degree from East Carolina University.

CTO Chris Horne welcomes new field engineering expert, Adam Carlson

Adam Carlson has joined the company as a field engineer, assisting LBA’s director of site services, Michael Hayden. He will be primarily providing Lawrence Behr Associates RF Compliance services like AM detuning and RF safety studies. Adam graduated from North Central College in Naperville, Ill., and during the last decade has provided technical services for broadcast stations in Illinois, Iowa, and Texas. He will be based in Minneapolis, Minn.

“We are entering an exciting time here at LBA and are pleased to have such capable people in positions to help us reach our goals,” says our president Jerry Brown.

The government of the world’s largest democracy has begun a massive digital upgrade of its All India Radio (AIR) facilities across the subcontinent. The upgrade will include converting all AIR broadcast facilities, AM/FM radio, shortwave, and television systems to handle digital transmission of program material.

The first six DRM digital-ready 20 kilowatt medium wave tuning unit systems went out the door this winter for air-freighting from Greenville to India. The units were to be installed at various locations as quickly as they arrived in India and be in operation by July.

Sendoff for the first All India Radio ATU-20F digital DRM antenna tuning units: (l-r) K. G. Vyan, Jerry Brown, Betty Perez, Lawrence Behr, Nitan Deodhar, and Chris Horne.

The LBA Technology unit of LBA Group became the preferred supplier for the system overhaul after discussions with 20-year-old, privately held Indian company; Arraycom, Ltd. Arraycom is a leading integrator in India of broadcast and telecommunications systems, and an upgrade prime contractor. LBA President Jerry Brown led those talks.

Two Arraycom executives traveled to LBA’s Greenville headquarters to personally meet with LBA executives and engineers to chart future deliveries and to view the completed antenna tuning units prior to shipment. K.G. Vyas, the company’s lead technical representative in the field, said he was “impressed with the measured performance of the systems.”

Following discussions with Brown, LBA CEO Lawrence Behr, and other project engineers, Arraycom Vice President Nitin R. Deodhar expressed delight “with the depth of experience and knowledge of the LBA Group.”

In India, it is common practice for multiple medium wave services to share one site, imposing difficult requirements on antenna tuning systems. The LBA antenna tuning units, however, are fitted with high performance, specialized filters to permit simultaneous operation with nearby transmission towers. As AIR India wanted to reuse existing open-wire transmission lines, LBA fabricated unique RF window insulators to let the output of each transmitter connect through its transmitter building wall to an open-wire transmission line carrying its signal to the LBA ATU at the transmission tower base.

Arraycom and LBA engineers checkout an ATU-20F digital DRM antenna tuning unit bound for Chenai, India.

Supplying foreign broadcast engineering projects is not something new for LBA. Its medium wave antenna systems for years have been shipped to sites on all continents around the world. As well, the company has a pervasive presence in the broadcast industry throughout Latin America.

All LBA Technology products are custom-designed, engineered, and manufactured, but product lines are standardized, so LBA can respond efficiently to individual project needs. Its engineers have decades of experience to draw upon in finding engineered solutions… wherever in the world they come to light.

“That’s awesome!” remarked one company training executive, a typical executive response when handed the new course management tool. It gives them more flexibility in monitoring coursework and awarding certificates of completion.

LBA introduced the online OSHA-compliant RF Awareness course in August 2011 and utilization by companies has grown steadily each month. Developed by Chris Horne, LBA’s chief technical officer, in cooperation with college educators, and overseen by course administrator Byron Johnson, the course is a response to the almost exponential growth of RF transmissions from cellular phones, radio and TV stations, and in-building distributed antenna systems.

It is a fully interactive learning experience that is economical, intuitive in its access, annually renewable, and readily available to workers after working hours. Low group rates encourage companies to enroll entire work crews so all team members are assured of being certifiably aware of the need to function alertly in an RF environment. The RF Awareness – Spanish version is fully interactive in Spanish to be sure that workers are trained in their most familiar language. Certificates are available either in English or Spanish, however.

In offering a “facilitator” account to enterprise-level users, LBA lets safety managers follow the progress of individual employees via an “instructor grade book.” Before this access module was created, safety management had to contact LBA for information, an unproductive process for everyone involved. Managers now can stay on top of the program without hassle and delay.

For individual course-takers, the ability to log in and out of the program as needed lets each participant proceed at a sustainable speed. Knowledgeable workers can skim and review as needed, while rookies can explore and learn at a more fundamental pace.

The popularity of the training program does not surprise LBA’s course administrator. “What I think we are hearing is that the course is neither too much nor too little and the price is right,” says Johnson, who continues to fine-tune the program. “Our Spanish offering recognizes the need of RF workers in Latin America to be protected, as well as the Latino worker population in the US”.

The RF Awareness training course was created through LBA’s Wireless University®, a compilation of expertise and industry knowledge that is regularly updated through white papers and other technical publications, along with interactions with technical academia. LBA is a leader in providing RF safety management and RF safety training. LBA Group has provided RF services to the wireless industry since 1963.

For more information, contact Byron Johnson at 252-757-0279 or byron.johnson@lbagroup.com.

Passive intermodulation distortion exists at some level in all passive systems. But when inferior parts are used or incorrect installation of equipment occurs, the distortion can result in degraded system performance. Therefore, RF engineers should pay particular attention to avoiding errors in installation procedures and inferior materials.

Cell sites crowded with antennas and coaxial cables pose PIM dangers.

The first step in assessing the vulnerability of a system is the intermodulation study. As performed by LBA, this study encompasses all radiators in the area, on all frequencies likely to interact. Highly computation-intensive, a massive number of frequency combinations are evaluated to determine those combinations capable of interfering within the pass bands of the system receivers. These intermodulation interferences are determined to the 5^th or 7^th order, as desired by the client.

Third-order PIM gives the highest level of self-interference, followed by 5th and 7th order. The third-order products can spread by three times the channel bandwidth; thus, a 10 MHz LTE signal would interfere over at least 30 MHz. Not too long ago, careful frequency planning could eliminate concerns about PIM. Unfortunately, in LTE and 4G networks, the probability of interference is enhanced—making PIM a larger concern.

PIM is caused by a myriad of things, most of them sitting in plain view: site guy wires, rusty materials, poor quality plating on connectors, and contaminated conducting and dielectric materials.  In today’s systems, there are more components than ever in the RF transmission path, including cables, antennas, and amplifiers. Each additional component is another potential source of signal degradation. This multiplicity of components contributes to increasing loss and liabilities in system performance.

Components of antenna systems should be a PIM focus during installation. Installers should look for poor quality and damaged jumpers, adapters, and connectors. Furthermore, while analyzing the overall system performance of a cluster of cell sites, engineers can help reduce the threat of PIM by carefully and methodically testing base station equipment.

Find an FAQ on Interference at http://www.lbagroup.com/associates/intfaq.php.

Monitoring and field testing of PIM has changed through the years. Historically, PIM of components was measured and evaluated within a properly isolated anechoic chamber.  Various ad hoc field tests were used to attempt to isolate egregious local problems. However, new test equipment and procedures allow detailed on-site antenna measurements with portable PIM generators / test analyzers. However, where PIM is emanating from non-system components, the old field tests and engineering experience may still be needed to find the offending generator!

Typical PIM field test system by Kaelus

Some other suggestions for avoiding PIM include properly installing coaxial cable connectors. A clean, square, properly deburred, and debris-free cable is required for low PIM. Corroded joints that radiate intermodulation distortion products obviously should not pass muster. Even rust on a tower itself can be problematic in respect to PIM. For antennas to operate as designed for maximum RF propagation, no internal or external corrosion or unwanted mechanical stresses should be acceptable.  Rooftop and stealth environments have their own problems like loose air handler panels, signage, supports, and stealth materials themselves.

For mobile wireless networks to perform properly and reach their full operating potential, each included antenna must also comply with its design standard. When an overall antenna system does not operate to its standard in conjunction with the base station equipment, several detrimental outcomes can occur: lost revenue, customer complaints resulting in churn, and increased infrastructure cost, as well as a reduction in cell site coverage area. For these reasons, PIM is a growing concern among wireless operators.

LBA Group Inc. offers RF engineering design and performance consulting that can assist with the process of producing and maintaining clear signals. These solutions include distributed antenna systems (DAS), RF safety compliance and training modules, and PIM evaluations. For more information contact Mike Britner at 252-757-0279 or mike.britner@lbagroup.com.

Your experience with intermodulation is important. Please feel free to share it in the “COMMENTS” window below!

From the FCC archives comes this proof of performance done by one of the early and well-known broadcast engineers – Harold Rothrock. Active from the earliest days of radio, Rothrock was a broadcast pioneer.

Cover page – WJPR, Greenville, Mississippi

The cover shot is from the FCC file copy – notice the manual typewriter, onionskin paper, and crooked text. That’s how it was done back then. How old is this? All FCC to station correspondence was by telegraph!

Map for measurement point locations

Today we take finding AM proof measurement points for granted. Between GPS and high quality, up-to-date maps, its relatively quick and easy! In 1951, not so much. There was no electronic navigation and the sole source of “good” detail maps was the US Geological Survey 15’ quadrangles. If you were lucky there were more modern 71/2’ maps for your location Hundreds of locations had to be hand-plotted on maps that had to be ordered weeks before.

Getting around was miles of dirt roads and farm lanes. Interstate highway construction hadn’t started yet, and there were a few miles of four lane near cities. Aside from the occasional pay telephone, there were no communications with the site. A few broadcast consultants were experimenting with two-way radio, and others used primitive mobile amateur sets to clandestinely stay in touch.

Measurements went to about 20 miles in eight or more directions, two sets, or more, depending on day/night directional patterns. In our era, these measurements undertakings are measured in days. In Rothrock’s time, weeks or months! In fact, Harold’s wife Mary often traveled with him and set up temporary housekeeping at these sites. Many consultants took wives to measurement projects to assist.

Groundwave conductivity charts for WJPR

The results of the measurement activities, hundreds of values, were analyzed and hand-plotted on groundwave conductivity charts. These revealed the RF radiation of the antenna system along different radials or bearings. No Excel spreadsheets or graphing assistance here. What is done in the office today in a few hours took days of work with a calculator and slide rule. Just in case you’ve never seen these relics, see them below. By the way, all figures had to be copied off these devices onto paper. You were the working memory!

The radio engineer’s tools – 1950: Calculator and slide rule

When adjusting an AM directional antenna system, the radiation pattern predicted for the particular tower arrangement didn’t always emerge. That meant this whole, tortuous process often was repeated time and time again until the FCC pattern specifications were proven. Today, method of moments computer calculations allow the RF engineer to model electrical details of the towers and site, and AM reradiation objects, often achieving success on the first try.

“Proven” pattern of WJPS – end of the engineer’s rainbow

Many directional stations are still operating under the same licenses and configurations as they had many years ago. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, LBA engineered, supervised installation, and did FCC proofs for hundreds of stations. Because many of the station which must be considered in cellular AM detuning and AM collocation today, are of the old type, we are uniquely positioned to understand and help wireless operators deal with their idiosyncrasies.

If you would like to look at the whole 60 page, handcrafted 1950 WJPS proof, you can download the PDF HERE.

For assistance in AM colocation or AM detuning, contact Mike Britner at 252-757-0279 or mike.britner@lbagroup.com.

Since 1963, LBA has also supplied innovative AM and medium wave antenna systems to broadcasters around the world.

Verizon responded by looking for an AM partner with an existing tower on which it could colocate its equipment. There’s the happy ending to the story.

Radio station KMVI-AM had a 450-foot-high tower in the perfect location. There was one problem: The structure couldn’t support the Verizon equipment. Happily, that was not a fatal problem. Verizon and the station owners concluded it was in their mutual best financial interest to build the new tower.

An engineering team was assembled. SkyJack Communications would demolish the tower and erect its replacement. KMVI would provide a new ATU. Lawrence Behr Associates—represented by director of site services Michael Hayden—would design and supervise installation of AM collocation technology. Finally, Verizon Wireless would install its antenna system.

Skyjack expertly demolished the tower without damaging the adjacent KMVI studio building or cluttering nearby roadways. The new steel tower began to rise. Watch the old tower come down below.

Configuring the new structure for AM broadcasts was challenging. The original tower’s 450-foot height translated to 90.6 electrical degrees, which is usual and customary for this class of facility.  The new tower would top out at just 180 feet, or 46 electrical degrees.  The electrically short tower presented several serious engineering issues for Hayden in the areas of impedance and base voltage.

AM ColoCoils going to Maui - Betty Perez, Mike Britner, and Chris Horne of LBA checking them out.

Hayden recommended using the LBA Technology product CoLoCoil^®. This was a logical choice because the design uses tuned resonant circuits instead of “capacitive coupling” as seen in standard “iso-coupler” devices.  Tuned resonant circuits present a lower capacitive footprint to the tower’s lump base capacitance. It also allows a DC path for the Verizon signal and control systems as well as any tower-mounted amplifier systems.

Because of the higher than normal tower base voltages, a high-voltage model of the CoLoCoil^® was designed, manufactured, tested, and sent off to Hawaii, where Verizon and KMVI now happily co-exist.

Colocation provides many happy endings. They each feature an AM radio station with a new revenue stream, a wireless carrier with a place to hang its antenna, and a happy community devoid of raucous public hearings.

The Maui KMVI-AM/Verizon colocation ready for service!

Erection of a new tower on a new plot of land sometimes is the only way to get an antenna in the air. But where mating a wireless antenna to an AM structure is an option, colocation is the best—and happiest—answer.

Contact Mike Britner, VP-Sales at mike.britner@lbagroup.com to discuss your AM collocation opportunities.

Other AM colocation blogs to check out:

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LBA believes that the ProHD™ series of fieldSENSE personal monitors offers the RF safety manager the best bang-for-the-buck in protecting his field forces. At only $495 for the complete ProHD™ kit, and free shipping, it costs far less than other available monitors. Yet, the monitor contains all the features needed to perform in the cellular/4G RF environment. Here is a comparison of some important features for wireless work as found on the ProHD™ and another popular competitor.

As you can see, the ProHD™ offers worker convenience and a significant budget assist for crew outfitting, without OSHA compliance or safety sacrifice. You can find more information on our personal monitors and ordering help at http://www.lbagroup.com/technology/fieldsense-personal-rf-monitor.php.

LBA also offers a high value, low cost online RF Awareness certification. This professional training is offered by LBA’s Wireless University, and includes group management features for safety managers and administrators. Check it out at http://www.lbagroup.com/associates/rftraining.php.

LBA congratulates our friends at VOA for 70 years of radio service

LBA is proud to be a Greenville neighbor of these facilities. The transmitter sites, Sites A and B, are located some 15 miles (24 km) north and south, respectively of the LBA offices.

VOA Director David Ensor says the international broadcast agency is aggressively moving forward with new programs that ensure it remains an “information lifeline to people in closed societies like Iran.” Ensor said the one-time cold war broadcaster is “as relevant today as it was February 1^st, 1942,” the date of the first shortwave radio broadcast to Germany.”

Greenville, NC VOA Site A – 3000 acres (7500 ha) of antennas

Created by the U.S. government in the opening days of World War Two, the Voice of America has evolved into a global multi-media organization, broadcasting balanced and comprehensive news in 43 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 141 million.

The first shortwave radio transmission, spoken in German just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, began with the words “Here speaks a voice from America.”  The broadcast went on to promise, “The news may be good.  The news may be bad.  We shall tell you the truth.”

Today, shortwave broadcasting remains a critical means of delivering information and entertainment around the world. A number of private shortwave broadcasters also operate from the United States, and many more around the world. The NASB, National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters, is the trade association for shortwave radio stations in the United States.

Since 1963, LBA Group, Inc., and its LBA Technology and Lawrence Behr Associates units, has supported the medium wave and shortwave broadcast industry with systems, components, and services. See our offerings HERE.

The LBA Group Inc. president was attending the National Association of Broadcasters annual get-together three years ago in Las Vegas when he struck up a conversation with the general director of a leading Indian broadcast and telecommunications integration company, Arraycom (India) Ltd. Over several hours of talk that ensued, Brown learned of the engineering and product needs of Arraycom and its customers, including state broadcaster AIR India.

“It is fascinating dealing with language barriers, in this case American English versus proper colonial British English,” Brown says of the original encounter as well as subsequent conversations that led to the current order from Arraycom.

After deciphering the King’s English, Brown came away a couple of years onward with an LBA contract to supply digital-ready 20-kilowatt medium wave (AM) antenna tuning unit systems for installation at broadcast tower sites in six Indian cities. Several of the ATU units contain specialized filters to permit operation simultaneously with nearby transmission towers. Also included in the deal are a group of unique RF window insulators, by which the output of each transmitter is connected through the transmitter building wall to a transmission line carrying the radio signal to the LBA antenna tuning unit at the tower base.

Bikaner, India – where AIR India will install an LBA ATU for 1395 kHz.

The end user of this sophisticated equipment is the government of India—specifically, All India Radio (AIR), the broadcast and information department of New Delhi’s governing authorities. AIR is upgrading all its broadcast facilities to the digital standard.

On the loading dock, the ATU units appear to be just huge wood boxes, albeit strong and neatly crafted containers. However, inside the metal ATU cabinets, they bristle with the coiled copper and finely tuned electronic gear that characterizes LBA engineering. While all LBA products are custom designed, engineered, and manufactured, and after nearly 50 years of AM broadcast engineering experience, not many situations arise that haven’t been encountered and solved by LBA experts at least once before.

The rest of the story is what the Arraycom deal might mean down the road. In his conversations, Brown confirmed that similar broadcast upgrades and build-outs are coming to India and other developing countries in Africa and Asia. This suggests Brown will have additional opportunities to puzzle though conversations with executives for whom American English is a second language.

“It is always a new and exciting experience to provide products and services to faraway places with strange sounding names,” Brown says.

LBA has a track record of delivering quality products internationally. Its broadcast systems have been shipped to sites on continents around the world, as well as across the U.S. The company has a longstanding presence in the broadcast industry of Latin America and the Middle East.

Two air conditioning units attached to exterior walls had been ripped open and left dangling, with wires, electric motors, and fan housings rendered useless and exposed to the elements. Why? The answer is in what was missing from the units: all of their copper tubing.

“I’ve seen it before,” Hayden says. The veteran engineer has discovered similar thefts at both radio and cell tower sites.

“As long as copper prices continue to rise and the economy continues to plummet, this will continue to be a problem, especially in poorer areas,” Hayden says. Copper has tripled in price in the last three years from $1.50 a pound, though it has fallen back to about $3.50 a pound at the moment. Some market analysts expect the price to reach $5 this year.

Many tower sites have a basic security problem that makes them attractive to thieves: They are relatively isolated. Observes Hayden, philosophically: “If the thieves want the copper, they are going to get it. All you can do is minimize your risk.”

He suggests tower site owners and carriers take two actions to protect their investment: (1) Put razor wire atop the surrounding fence to discourage would-be thieves from scrambling over it; and (2) visit sites more frequently to increase the odds of interrupting thieves’ planning.

The LBA executive contacted American Tower personnel after finding the damaged AC units. American Tower in turn called Sprint and a second carrier to inform them of their losses. Hayden may be called to testify about his discovery.

LBA Group looks after its clients. It offers solutions in the planning of engineering projects, in execution of them—and in helping keep bad guys from ruining up-and-running facilities.

A tip of the hat to Mike.

One of two shelter AC units gutted of copper