Industry News

Frank Hertel’s project: three individually dimmable LED lights. (Frank is the master of recycling; the wooden mounting pedestals are the panels from a decommissioned ATI console!)

Thanks for your comments on the super-bright tri-panel LED light “bulb” described in the last column.

Workbench contributor Frank Hertel of Newman-Kees RF Measurements and Engineering described another approach to lighting your shop or workbench with LED bulbs — and this one is dimmable.

The dimmer selector means you won’t blind yourself with overly bright light unless you need to.

What started it

Frank needed to replace spot and floodlights on his tractor, and found the LED fixtures shown in the first two photos on the internet.

A wide-beam rectangular LED light, with a sharp cutoff on the edges. A small round LED floodlight.

Before installing them on the tractor, he tested them on the workbench. Frank was impressed with how much light both fixtures provided, exceeding the brightness of his more expensive 120V LED shop lamps.

However Frank felt there might be cases where the brightness was too much for the work at hand, so he decided to build a dimmer circuit.

In selecting a method of dimming the LED fixtures, Frank first considered the simplest method: varying the DC voltage. This will work, but because of the “avalanche” turn-on point — it’s not a smooth ramp-up or down — varying the DC voltage makes for a sloppy dimming control.

Enter the 555

Frank decided on the ever-so-handy 555 Timer IC, which was configured as an adjustable duty cycle square wave generator.

Seen in the accompanying schematic, the 555 square wave generator drives an MPF102 FET, which in turn drives a D718 power transistor that provides a “pulsed” 12V variable duty cycle driving the LED lamp fixture.

Frank’s LED dimming circuit is based on a 555 Timer chip.

The fixture is only pulsed long enough with the 12 volts to establish the desired brightness level. This method overrides the “avalanche” “on-off” effect that is noticed when a variable voltage is used to attempt control of the fixture’s brightness.

Stated another way, the LED fixture’s brightness can be viewed in relation to the length of time the 12V pulse is present. Therefore, the duty cycle of the 555 IC’s square wave is the determining factor for the LED fixture’s brightness. Pretty slick!

He used a widely available and inexpensive D718 power transistor that is rated for 8A at 120V. With a properly sized 15VDC supply and heatsink for the D718, you could power several LED fixtures with just one dimmer. Alternately, the circuit is small enough that you could mount several dimmers in one chassis, for individual control.

Frank realizes you can buy a pre-made dimmer but asked, “What fun is that?”

Besides, this dimmer circuit can handle a lot of current and is small enough that multiple dimmer circuits can be mounted inside one chassis.

After outfitting his tractor, Frank mounted three fixtures on wood pedestals so he could focus the light on what needed illuminating. Frank adds that if pointed at a white ceiling, the fixtures provide ample room illumination.

The completed project provides for three individually dimmed LED fixtures. You’ll note in the photo that Frank chose silicone jacketed wire to connect the fixtures to the dimmer. This wire is super-flexible, albeit expensive. The silicone helps avoid tangles. The 22 gauge wire had an almost immeasurable voltage drop over the 30 foot length that Frank chose.

Frank chose ultra-flexible silicone wire. Similar to “Zip” cord, it resists tangling.

Parts are listed at the end of this article. Keep in mind that when selecting the working voltage of the capacitors, good engineering practice dictates choosing a capacitor rated at twice the supply voltage. Since we’re talking about 15VDC in this circuit, choose capacitors rated at either 30 or 50 Working Volts DC (WVDC).

PS: If you’ve made it this far, you are definitely an engineer who likes to build and tinker. San Diego’s Marc Mann reminded me of a site that will occupy your interest for hours with the variety of parts for sale. It’s Marlin P. Jones and Associates at www.mpja.com. Their online catalog is fascinating, and the site features bargains and closeouts. You can sign up there for an email flier or access their online catalog.

John Bisset, CPBE, has spent more than 50 years in broadcasting and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance. He is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Shed a little light by sharing share your own Workbench submissions, which qualify for SBE recertification. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.

 

Dimmer Project Parts List

1 each 20K Pot (linear) (B20K or 20KB)

1 each 1k 1/4W Resistor

1 each 6.8k 1/4W Resistor

2 each 0.01MFD Capacitors

1 each 1MFD Electrolytic Capacitor

1 each 1MFD non-polarized Capacitor

1 each 100MFD Electrolytic Capacitor

2 each 1N4006 Diodes (non critical)

1 each MPF102 F.E.T.

1 each D718 NPN Power Transistor

1 each Heatsink for above transistor

1 each 15VDC Power Supply, sized for LED fixture demands

1 each Enclosure of your choice

1 each Knob for pot

1 each perf board and hookup wire

 

The post Workbench: Build an LED Fixture Dimmer Circuit   appeared first on Radio World.

We continue our Microphone Month coverage by checking in with Anabella Poland, general manager of WMSC(FM).

The Montclair State University station in New Jersey keeps its microphone cage stocked with various models for specific purposes.

In the studio, it’s the reliable EV RE20. “They do a great job for broadcast radio even though they are not condenser microphones,” Poland said.

“For remote work most of my students primarily have Blue Snowball mics. They are fairly priced and do a decent job.”

They might pull out a Blue Bluebird for live performance recording applications such as over a drumset. For red carpet events the station uses Shure SM58 mics with its two Yellowtec iXM and one Zoom recorders.

At home Poland, shown, uses a Marantz Professional MPM-1000U. She said it “delivers high-quality audio recording directly into the computer as it is a USB microphone, and sometimes you just need that quick access for live shows and streaming.”

Read more of our Microphone Month coverage.

 

The post Our Favorite Mics: Anabella Poland, WMSC(FM) appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page: El Dorado Broadcasters chose RadioFX Inc. as its mobile app partner.

El Dorado owns 10 radio stations in Victor Valley, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz., and has launched a mobile app platform for all of its station brands. Apps are available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store both under individual brands and aggregated under the El Dorado Broadcasters banner.

The announcement was made by Mark Mitchell, VP of programming, who said listeners will be able to access station streams, while the stations will be able to do in-app contesting, audience polling and a chat function with on-air staff.

In the announcement, EVP/GM Chris Fleming was quoted: “Mobile is of primary importance as it is ubiquitous. Of almost equal importance is having the interface with Android Auto and Apple Car Play, making our brands part of the in dash experience.”

Submit news to Who’s Buying What at radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post RadioFX Provides Apps to El Dorado appeared first on Radio World.

An FM station is facing a $3,000 forfeiture for allegedly failing to file a license renewal application on time.

The Audio Division of the Media Bureau issued the forfeiture to Jones Communications, licensee of WVFG(FM) in Uniontown, Ala. Federal Communications Commission rules say that license renewal applications must be filed by the first day of the fourth full calendar month prior to the expiration of the license. In WVFG’s case, that means that the renewal application should have been filed by Dec. 2, 2019, since the station’s license expired on April 1, 2020. The FCC said that the application was not filed until Feb. 10, 2020 and the licensee provided no explanation for the delay.

[Read: Four Stations Receive Forfeitures for Same Alleged Violation: Late Filings]

The bureau reached out to Jones in February with an initial notice and gave the licensee 30 days to pay the full amount or file a written statement seeking reduction or cancellation of the proposed forfeiture. As of June 11, the bureau said the licensee has neither paid the proposed forfeiture or filed a written statement in response to the notice.

In assessing forfeitures, the FCC looks at the Communications Act of 1934 to determine the nature, circumstances and gravity of the violation. As a result, the commission said that the licensee owed $3,000.

 

The post FCC Says FM Station Willfully Violated Rules appeared first on Radio World.

In a world … full … of microphones …

When I type that sentence I hear famed voice-over guy Don LaFontaine saying the words with his golden tones.

Although the world seems full of mics — and new ones coming all the time in the age of the podcast — not all mics are created equal. One size rarely fits all.

With podcasts flourishing and home studios proliferating, a lot of new mics are marketed as “voice mics” or as intended for “podcasting and broadcasting.” Some are very good, others may disappoint radio people who have come to expect certain quality.

[Related: “Today’s Microphones Offer a Buffet of Choices”]

In recent decades radio, or at least commercial U.S. radio, has tended to gravitate to a few very good models for studio work. For instance, the Electro-Voice RE20 (and its siblings the RE27ND and RE320) are common, as is the Shure SM7 and its variants, Sennheiser MD421-II, Heil Sound PR40 and a few others. You sometimes see Neumanns in radio studios and production rooms as well.

For voice work, it’s not uncommon to see a shotgun mic like Sennheiser’s MKH 416 being used, despite the original intention of that style for capturing distant sound. A user must know what they’re doing to use it for proximity voiceover situations.

Recently, decent USB microphones have hit the streets, and some are variations of mics we know and like, such as the USB version of the Shure SM7, called the MV7.

I’ve used a few other USB mics along the way for traveling (when a last-minute voice job comes in), and they work well in a pinch. Examples are Samson mics like the Satellite, the numerous Blue mic models and Audio-Technica’s 2020 USB.

Though it’s not common, a few manufacturers have combined USB and XLR connections into one microphone such as Audio-Technica’s ATR-2100 handheld.

The Audio-Technica ATR2100 is a dual USB/XLR microphone.

As I’ve explored these mics for my own voiceover work, I tend to go back to two mics depending on the job: the EV RE320 and the Sennheiser MKE 600 shotgun, which is more affordable than its cousin the MKH 416.

These are not USB, they have standard XLR connections. If you are married to XLR favorites, carry a XLR/USB adapter with you.

One important consideration is that USB connections are not nearly as durable or “repairable” as an XLR connection.

A different approach is to use a utility XLR-input mixer with a USB port, such as a Mackie ProFX, to get audio into your computer. The biggest advantage of this over an adapter or cable is the ability to take multiple mics (or outboard equipment) into the computer over one connection. The disadvantage is that this system is far less portable if your idea is to make the system portable and/or very simple to connect.

Rode Podcaster Pro

If you have the budget, there are excellent feature-packed dedicated mixers designed to be USB interfaces. A notable example is the Rode Podcaster Pro with multiple XLR inputs, mic processing, built-in recorder, quick-player pad and multiple headset jacks.

Not to be forgotten are the desktop audio interfaces for getting XLR-sourced audio into a computer. As with microphones, there has been a wave of desktop digital audio converters at all sorts of price and feature points on the retail market. An examination of those would be an article in of itself.

Making Choices

As always, it’s advisable to demo a mic before buying. To narrow prospects, the internet can provide a wealth of information and helpful videos.

The website Podcastage, for example, has a video in which the host compares no fewer than 14 dynamic broadcast mics from EV, Shure, Rode, Audio-Technica, MXL, Golden Age, Heil, Neumann, Aston, Telefunken and ART.

It’s comprehensive (though the way he stacks the mics in his arms at the beginning made me cringe).

Keep in mind that asking someone which mic is best is a pretty subjective question. Voices, rooms, hardware and any processing vary so if you are tailoring the mic for one particular person or situation, that will have an impact on which one to choose.

[Read more of our Microphone Month coverage.]

>>>

Mic Sampler

Here’s a list of mics on the market for podcasting and radio work; by no means is this a complete list. Prices are MSRP. Important: Veteran shoppers know that most popular mic models are usually sold at a good discount from dealers, so shop around.

ART D7 — $269

Aston Stealth — $379

Audio-Technica AT2020 — $99

Audio-Technica AT2020USB+ — $149

Audio-Technica BP40 — $349

Blue BluebirdSL — $299

Blue Snowball iCE — $49.99

Blue Yeti — $129.99

Electro-Voice RE20 — $609

Electro-Voice RE27N/D — $700

Electro-Voice RE320 — $337

Golden Age Project D2 — $150

Heil Sound PR40 — $329

M-Audio Nova — $35

MXL V87 — $199.95

MXL 990 — $99.95

MXL BCD-1 — $149.95

Neumann BCM 705 — $849

Neumann TLM 103 — $1,349

Neumann U 87 Ai — $3,999

PreSonus PD-70 — $169.95

Rode PodMic — $150

Rode Procaster — $369

Rode NT1 Kit — $395

Samson Satellite — $148.99

SE Electronics V7 — $129

Sennheiser MD 421-II — $399.95

Sennheiser MD 441-U — $999

Shure SM58 — $124

Shure SM7B — $499

Shure MV7 USB — $311

Telefunken M82 — $459

Zoom ZDM-1 — $79.99

>>>

XLR to USB XLR-to-USB adapters from Polsen, Shure, Roland and Senai.

If you just can’t leave your XLR microphone behind try an XLR-to-USB adapter:

Polsen XLR-USB-48 XLR to SUB adapter — $51.95

Roland Black Series USB to XLR Cable — $35.99

Senal XU-1648 XLR to USB adapter — $123.95

Shure X2u XLR to USB adapter — $99

 

The post Pondering Microphone Choices in 2021 appeared first on Radio World.

I’m tired of thinking about hackers. I’m tired of maintaining a sophisticated stateful proxy firewall at home. This is almost surely on top of whatever threat mitigation is employed by my internet service provider Comcast.

Even basic firewalls (including the one on your computer) limit the connectivity to a handful of well-known ports and protocols for inbound traffic. That’s a lot of barbed wire fences to climb over.

My firewall (pfSense — free for non-com use, runs on Berkeley Linux) even blocks DNS resolution from URLs on several lists like www.spamhaus.org, feds.dshield.org and a list of lists at www.iblocklist.com. Makes loading exploit code harder. I presume most consolidated IT departments employ similar tools.

Still, stuff happens.

Easy pickings

The reason this keeps happening is that the rewards for successful hacking and the ease with which thousands of exposed attack surfaces can be scanned quickly makes it trivial to pick the low-hanging fruit of misconfiguration. If only 2% of victims pay the ransom, so what? It’s still a bonanza.

Users at home might pay a hundred bucks or so to restore their files. A hospital might be good for a hundred thousand. Meanwhile the software tools to make this mischief are available for sale or rent.

Literally, there’s malware software as a service. Bitcoin makes collecting ransom anonymous.

So, lacking any true bulletproof software solution, I’m now exploring the kinds of firewall hardware that no amount of probing can circumvent. I’ve arrived at a solution that I think gets the job done, at least as far as the truly malicious software offerings are concerned.

For online banking, where I do not enjoy the protection of the $50 limit on credit card fraud, it’s now a machine that is connected only when I am online. Literally, the first order of business is to enable the wired IP interface. It gets disabled when I’m done. Any old hunk of junk will do for this application.

This strategy relies on the presumption that network mapping is a prerequisite to successful attacks, and a machine they can’t see is unlikely to be vulnerable.

Elsewhere, whole machine backups made to a USB-connected drive pass through an external USB hub. One of my Raspberry Pi timers (described in an earlier column) connects and disconnects the USB hub power on a schedule.

Yes, exploring the machine that is backed up using this scheme will reveal a Windows backup schedule and the path to the actual backup but no access. Let ’em wonder how that can be.

K.I.S.S.

And so that’s where I’m headed for low-cost, low-tech solutions for the automation network at the radio station.

Like most places, we require internet connectivity to pull down paid content, news, weather and such. There’s no avoiding exposure. But I think a custom “jump box” will solve the problem.

It’ll be built as an FTP device, reaching out via scripting to harvest needed files, placing them in a quarantine, running them through anti-whatever, then dropping them into an “outbox” for pickup by the automation system’s loading tools.

Finally, once the key features are up and working, I’ll burn the entire boot partition to a DVD and boot from that. Reboot every 24 hours.

For script storage and the anti-whatever database, a thumb drive with an external write protect switch seems obvious; maybe something like this. You get the idea.

Think like a hacker. Create impenetrable physical barriers for him. Presume you’ll be infected and flush their effort before it is productive. Given the target-rich environment, I believe it’ll work like those alarm company stickers on your window. The bad guys will just move on.

Finally, I am no longer a fan of unified, company-wide systems for authentication like Active Directory.

The recent zerologon attack put a lot of AD users in the ditch. Essentially, one try in 256 would authenticate a password of all zeros. A glitch in the code, it seems.

These systems are robust until they aren’t and, unfortunately, can be bought and set up by anybody. De-compilers allow a view into the binaries, and any vulnerabilities will be found by bad guys.

Sadly, response from software vendors to even hacks they’ve been made aware of can be slow. Understandable, I suppose, since hundreds of supposed vulnerabilities are reported for every one that is actually viable. Everybody wants to be a hero. But sorting the real problem from all the chaff reported is time consuming.

Often, posting actual exploit code as a proof of concept is the only way to get a vendor’s attention. That’s what it took for the zerologon hack. And the bad guys have plenty of money to buy a version of every software product and every appliance out there, then reverse engineer it all. So it’s a losing battle.

On the other hand, a machine that is unplugged is a pretty tough hacking target. And a machine that boots fresh daily from read only media is going to be pretty challenging for a hacker, too.

Finally, when machines need updates, let ’em access the public internet for only the time required, then cut them off.

Turns out old ideas can apply to new environments. Want to prevent a mishap? Turn off the power, disengage, disconnect.

The author is chief engineer of Salem Communications’ Chicago cluster and president of the consultancy FM and Co.

The post Old Ideas for a New Threat Environment appeared first on Radio World.

The National Association of Broadcasters has presented its 2021 Radio Engineering Achievement Award to David Hershberger. The veteran engineer retired as senior scientist with Continental Electronics in 2017.

NAB describes Hershberger as a “true renaissance broadcast engineer” with over four decades of experience.

Hershberger, a graduate of University of Illinois with a master’s in electrical engineering, joined the broadcast group at Harris Broadcast in 1975 designing and refining broadcast transmission products. In addition, he served in various engineering roles at Grass Valley Group and Axcera.

[Read: NAB Foundation Will Honor Lin-Manuel Miranda]

Hershberger focused primarily on exciters and modulators for FM transmitters, and low-level signal processing, and is credited with co-developing the world’s first digital FM exciter as an experimental prototype, according to a NAB press release announcing the award. He holds 21 U.S. patents.

“Among many people who have helped me along the way I want to thank Geoff Mendenhall (a former co-worker at Harris), who showed me how to turn ideas in products. And Dan Dickey (president of Continental Electronics) gave me the best advice of my career, and that was to learn math lab. I’m glad I did,” Hershberger said during today’s online awards presentation.

NAB engineering award winners are nominated by their peers for significant contributions for advancing the state of the art in broadcast engineering. Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer of NAB, hosted the NAB Amplify streaming event, which also featured keynote conversation with Mike Chapman, a partner and Americas Media Lead at Kearney, a management consulting firm specializing in corporate and growth strategy and business transformation.

NAB presents two engineering achievement awards each year — one for achievements in radio and the other for television. Dave Folsom of Pearl TV was named recipient of the 2021 NAB Engineering Achievement Award for Television.

The NAB Service to Broadcast Engineering Award is presented periodically to individuals who have provided extraordinary service to the industry. Today NAB announced Grady Dreasler, corporate director of engineering and technology at Quincy Media, as recipient of its 2021 service award recipient.

In addition, the broadcaster association also presented its Digital Leadership Award during today’s Amplify presentation to Adam Wiener, executive VP and GM of CBS Local Digital Media.

 

The post Hershberger Honored With 2021 NAB Engineering Award appeared first on Radio World.

Want to take your coaching game to the next level?

This column from expert sales trainer Barrett Riddleberger is worth six minutes of your time.

Here, he provides a list of “proven” techniques that effective sales managers use to improve sales performance.

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When it comes to long-term investments, the company’s stock is still a big winner. Still, Urban One shares trading as “UONE” have been as up and down of late as a rollercoaster at Kings Dominion.

On heavier-than-average volume, Urban One stock was down sharply in midday trading on Friday — continuing a plunge that began on Tuesday (6/15). Why are shares down, following a sharp rise at the start of June?

Some are pointing to the registration of 2,928,906 Class A shares — a $58,373,097 offering for Urban One — made this week by the African American-centric media company and casino gaming operator.

The move allows Urban One to sell, from time to time, up to that amount of stock. There’s no guarantee that Urban One will execute a sale anytime soon. But, the mere possibility spooked those looking for a quick payout from a stock that shot up in value after months of tepid, uninspiring activity in the wake of social justice protests and a newly stated commitment from big companies to invest in Black-owned media with their advertising budgets.

That was exactly 12 months ago, when Urban One soared from prices in the $1.30 range to $36.30 as of June 15, 2020. By September 7, UONE was down to the mid-$3 range. For long-term investors, gains were threefold. For day traders, the pain was severe.

Then came mid-May. In the last month, UONE moved from $5.43 to $9.56 on May 20, only to dip to $7.35 on May 28. Then came a big burst of buying activity, as investors learned of Urban One’s coming casino operation in Richmond. Shares shot up to $18.57 by June 8 and climbed to $20.95 on Monday, June 14.

That finish was the best for UONE since that June 2020 rise-and-recede activity.

But, another rise-and-recede story is underway. At 1:40pm Eastern, UONE was priced at $10.81. This reflects a 48.5% share value slide for the week, should UONE close June 18’s trading session at that level.

Urban One’s “UONEK” shares are also down, but not as significantly, and were trading at $4.64 in midday trading Friday. On June 7, a $6.45 closing price was seen; UONEK was trading in the mid-$1 range through late April 2021.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. — With 100 watts from a small broadcast tower on city-owned property, Morro Bay, Calif.-based KEBF-FM serves this bucolic Central Coast community as low-power locally focused “The Rock.” It simulcasts on a 9-watt signal overlooking Paso Robles, famed for its vineyars.

It’s just one of many LPFMs that could benefit from a rule change brought forth by the FCC this week.

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