Wireless ISP Engineering with Patrick Parks

Many households are in rural areas not served by cable Internet or DSL. Radio engineer, Patrick Parks wanted better Internet service to his country abode well outside the Dallas metroplex. His efforts led to building a Wireless Internet Service Provider called SmartBurst. Pat joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack to us how it all works.

Quick! To the Fallout Shelter!

Ask anyone what they think of first when they hear “Las Vegas” and they’re likely to mention the retina-searing lights of the famous Vegas strip, the dazzling casinos, the over-the-top luxury hotels, the glitzy shows, and if they’re old enough, maybe even the Rat Pack at The Sands.

Stromberg Carlson and Sony clock radios

This installment of Found in the Attic is a twofer. It features a genre of consumer electronics that is rapidly disappearing from the store shelves: the clock radio. As millennials enter the consumer market in larger numbers, sales of clock radios decline. Why? They use the alarm function built into their smartphones, and have no need or interest in purchasing an additional item.

Alaskan War Stories with Rich Parker

Helicopters, high-speed boat ferries, and bridges to nowhere; they’re all part of Rich Parker’s radio engineering travel routine at Coast Alaska. Headquartered in Juneau, Alaska, Rich maintains transmitters in Sitka, Wrangell, Petersburg, and Ketchikan, and after being there for one year he already has some war stories to tell.

Excellent Engineer Emphasizes Education

Wayne Pecena is Director of Engineering at Texas A&M University, and 2014 recipient of Radio World's Excellence in Engineering Award. Wayne has spent his entire career as broadcast engineer at Texas A&M and KAMU Radio / TV - an impressive feat for someone in any industry - and has been recognized for his continuing education initiatives for broadcast engineers.

Tom Morris and Material Science

Broadcast Engineering these days seems more virtual at times than hands-on.  But Tom Morris, Engineer at WDNA-FM, prefers a hands-on approach. Indeed, material science - choosing the right materials for the application - is a favorite subject.

Topics: Broadcast Engineering

iQ a No Brainer for WMHX

Engineer Chris Tarr is no stranger to the industry – known to some as the “Ninjaneer” for his ability to swoop into a station and quickly get to the bottom of a problem at all hours of the day and night, Chris has been tackling the engineering challenges of Wisconsin radio stations in the Madison and Milwaukee markets (among others) for a number of years.

We had a chance to talk with Chris about a few of his past projects, and his most recent project installing an Axia iQ console and other hardware for WMHX at Entercom’s Madison station cluster.

Vintage Tech: McMartin TR-66 FM-SCA Receiver

Broadcasting, by its very definition, means using an RF signal to reach as large an audience as possible. So the opposite of broadcasting is narrowcasting, targeting a small, niche of the population. In the Internet age, with web streams and podcasts, it’s easy to reach out to a handful of people scattered across the globe. Just twenty short years ago, narrowcasting to a small audience was a much more involved affair. This month's Found in the Attic examines a 1960s-vintage McMartin TR-66 FM-SCA receiver, and the related technology of FM subcarriers.

StereoTool with Hans van Zutphen

What would you think of an audio processor designed by someone with little prior knowledge of audio processing? The very popular software audio processor, StereoTool, is designed and updated by Hans van Zutphen. Hans tells us how StereoTool got started, what portions of it are now in other major audio processors, and how radio enthusiasts are building their own audio processors for AM, FM, and Internet streaming.

Anthony Rudel: A Career Rooted in the Classics

I was honored to speak with Anthony Rudel, the station manager of WCRB/99.5 FM, the classical music station of the WGBH Foundation in Boston. Tony is not only a renowned figure within the classical music world and popular lecturer, but the author of several books including the wonderful "Hello, Everybody! The Dawn Of American Radio." You can order this and his other books, as well as get more information about Anthony's activity at anthonyrudel.com.

I spoke with him from the WGBH/WCRB studios in Boston.