Dave Supplee on Radio Studio Wisdom

Dave Supplee is the market engineer for the Cumulus radio stations in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He’s also a key go-to guy when new studios need to be built or refurbished. From studio design to wiring techniques, Dave shares his years of studio-building wisdom, plus transmitter site advice on this episode of This Week in Radio Tech.

Connecting Two Z/IP ONEs on a Closed IP Network

Sim Johnson of Broadcast Bionics wrote us posing this question: "What is the best way to establish a call between two Z/IP ONE codecs over a private network with no access to the Internet? Would you suggest using SIP, or is there a way to make a direct connection without a ZIP Server?"

Updating your Axia Driver

Axia support guru Bryan Jones says "When updating the Axia IP Driver, make sure you have your license code and license key on hand". From there, Bryan explains the process is rather straightforward. The update process for the Axia driver requires the existing driver to be uninstalled before the new version can be installed. In doing so, the License Key and Code are removed from the computer. When you re-install the updated version it will ask you for the License Code and Key again and you cannot complete the installation without it.

Vintage Audio: HP 5512A Electronic Counter

A frequency counter is an essential tool on the electronic technician's test bench. For most of us, a reliable 1 Ghz counter is something that we take for granted. Early frequency counters however, were large, expensive, and their frequency range was only a few hundred kilohertz. But it was a start.

This month's attic discovery is an early 1970s HP 5512A Electronic Counter, a 300 Khz, 5-digit device that uses Nixie tubes for the display.

3 Reasons Piloting a Plane is Like Radio Engineering

Most of my friends in the industry know that I’ve flown small airplanes for a number of years. As I’ve learned, I share this passion with a lot of folks in the industry. This got me thinking a bit. I asked myself, “Why are so many radio technical types also involved in aviation.” I have a few ideas about what those who excel in both fields have in common:

Tejas Broadcasting Pours on the Hot Sauce

Processing by Omnia spices up the airwaves

Tejas Broadcasting Ltd. is committed to Omnia audio processors. The guy behind it all is Director of Engineering Mark Earle. Working from company HQ (located in the Corpus Christi, Texas area), Mark manages engineering for all of Tejas’ stations in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana.

Radio Engineering Hacks

hack  n.  An inelegant but effective solution to a problem.

Often there’s more than one way to solve an engineering problem. There is usually the normal approach, and then there are one or more “hacks”. Some hacks are elegant and others – not so much.

Easy Connections for Non-Networked Audio Gear

As engineers exchange the world of single- and two-pair shielded cable for CAT5/6, finding a simpler way to interconnect non-networked gear becomes more important. Of course, you can buy adaptor cables pre-made, but what do you do with the excess cable?

Radio for Defense: Down the Rabbit Hole with White Alice

Back in the days of the Cold War, the world powers came up with some very interesting ways to monitor one another’s activities. Chief among these for North America was the DEW Line, a system of early-warning radar stations that stretched across Canada’s Arctic Circle territories, through Alaska and into the Aleutians as well as Greenland and Iceland. It operated into the 1990s prior to shutdown (although some of the DEW Line installations were converted for use with the modern North Warning System operated by NORAD).

But not without the help of White Alice.

Cordell Loken: Radio Career a Mission of Love

Following a visit last month by Telos’ Broadcast Audio Fanatics, veteran radio engineer Cordell Loken of KBNJ in Corpus Christi, TX sent us a note expressing how impressed he was with the meeting.