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Radio World

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Why Well-Dressed Towers May Wear Flared Skirts

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 02:00 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/show-news/nab-show/why-well-dressed-towers-may-wear-flared-skirts


Ben Dawson and Bobby Cox will talk about flared skirts at the NAB Show.

“A flared skirt is a set of symmetrically spaced cables around the tower, which attach electrically near the top of the tower, extend outward from
the tower along a path similar to the top guy cables, and then turn back in toward the tower base at a point roughly halfway down the tower,” said Cox, senior staff engineer at Kintronic Labs.

“Insulators at this midpoint insulate the cables from ground. The cables terminate on an insulated feed ring encircling the tower base above ground level, similarly to a conventional skirt feed. The antenna is driven
between this feed ring and RF ground. The resulting flared skirt takes the shape of a diamond, looking rather like umbrella spokes.”

These systems are used to provide a feed arrangement for grounded towers
that is mechanically simple but has certain attractive aspects. 

“The wide bandwidth characteristics of the flared skirt make these antenna designs extremely useful for multiplexing several AM stations onto a common antenna,” said Dawson, consultant engineer at Hatfield & Dawson.

“Many such systems are in use outside the United States for high-power AM broadcast, both in non-directional and in directional stations. Many of
these operations are also multiplexed and are fully compatible with digital modulation, such as DRM,” he said.



“When the flared skirt design is also used to function as the uppermost guy cables of the tower, the antenna can be built at relatively low cost,
saving the need for the base insulator of a series-fed tower and the
multiple standoff insulators of a traditional skirt-fed or ‘folded unipole’ tower.”

Cox said the result is a simple and low-cost antenna design that lends
itself well to multiplexed operations, digital operations or both. 

“It has been used widely at international sites for many years. With the growing demand for AM multiplexing in the United States and for placing
various other antennas onto AM towers, the flared skirt antenna is a tool
that can be useful to broadcasters in the U.S. as well.”

[Read More Tech Tips Here]

Grounded antenna towers, Cox and Dawson note, are economical and attractive
for mounting other antennas. 

“Any installation where there is multiple use of towers — other antennas or other AM frequencies — may benefit from the use of flared skirts,” Dawson said. “Multiplexed stations are particularly well-suited for flared skirt antennas. Often in multiplexed scenarios the tower height is shorter than desirable for the lowest frequency station involved. A flared skirt can
deliver usable bandwidth to the lowest frequency station when traditional series fed or conventional skirt fed configurations can’t.”

He added that a skirt should never be installed on a tower without a
structural analysis. Some older towers or very lightweight towers can’t support a skirt safely. 

Their presentation is “The Flared-Skirt or Umbrella-Spoke Feed for Grounded Medium-Wave Antenna Towers,” on Tuesday.
A temporary installation in which the flared skirt wire is visible.

The post Why Well-Dressed Towers May Wear Flared Skirts appeared first on
Radio World.


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WRMI at Heart of SW Broadcasts to Russia, Ukraine

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 02:00 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/global/wrmi-at-heart-of-sw-broadcasts-to-russia-ukraine


Once again, Russia has dropped an Iron Curtain across the flow of
independent news from the West. Add the millions of Ukrainian refugees on
the move and damage to the country’s infrastructure, and the need for reliable, objective information in this war zone is as pressing now as it
was at the height of the Cold War.

During the Cold War, long-distance shortwave radio broadcasts from the BBC, Voice of America, and Radio Free/Europe/Radio Liberty pierced the Iron
Curtain with trustworthy news programming. Today, this old medium is being revitalized through the efforts of volunteer groups and SW broadcasters to
get through the new Iron Curtain and privately owned-and-operated U.S. SW broadcaster WRMI is at the heart of these efforts. WRMI does its own
original programming, and sells airtime to third-party broadcasters to
reach Europe and the Americas.

Jeff White is General Manager of WRMI, and Secretary-Treasurer of the
National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters. He spoke with Radio World recently to tell us about WRMI’s pivotal role in transmitting much-needed content to Eastern Europe via shortwave radio.

Radio World: Let’s start with WRMI. Who are you, and when did you enter the shortwave radio market?
Jeff White, General Manager of WRMI

Jeff White: WRMI is a commercial shortwave station that went on the air in
1994 with one 50-kilowatt shortwave transmitter and one corner reflector antenna directed to Latin America.  The site was Hialeah, Florida (a suburb
of Miami).  We operated there until December of 2013, when we had the opportunity to take over the large site of Family Radio (WYFR) in
Okeechobee, about three hours north of Miami, on the north side of Lake Okeechobee, one of the largest freshwater lakes in North America.  

WYFR was located on a one-square-mile cattle ranch leased from a local
farmer, and it had 14 transmitters (12 of them were 100,000 watts) and 23 antennas beamed in 11 different azimuths to most of the world. When we took over WYFRs site, we closed down the site in Miami. But we still use the
name Radio Miami International and the call letters WRMI.

RW: How has your station ended up playing a pivotal role in delivering
content to Eastern Europe via shortwave? 

White: For many years, we have aired relays of some Eastern European former shortwave stations, namely Radio Prague International, Radio Slovakia International, Radio Tirana and Radio Ukraine International. These are in English, Spanish, French and Slovak, and beamed to different target areas
in the Americas and Europe.  

A few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the English program of
Radio Ukraine International was replaced by the domestic service in
Ukrainian. We continued to air that service, which was especially important since many domestic radio stations in Ukraine were being destroyed, and
because many Ukrainians were emigrating to various parts of Europe. 

Then an organization called Shortwaves for Freedom contacted us and asked
if we would have airtime available to transmit the Voice of America, Radio
Free Europe and Radio Liberty to Eastern Europe. I said, “of course we
would do so”. Shortwaves for Freedom is a crowdfunding group (www.fundrazr.com/radiowaves) and they wanted to get VOA and RFE/RL
programs on shortwave, which were only on the Internet at the time. So we
were happy to oblige.

In addition, we have had other organizations such as Radio for Peace International and some religious programs that have come to us for airtime since the war began.

RW: What programs are you broadcasting, and what equipment are you using to deliver it? And where does Radio Ukraine fit into this mix?

Jeff White: Here’s a list of what WRMI to broadcasting to Eastern Europe today.

VOA Flashpoint Ukraine in English Monday-Friday 1930-2000 UTC on 15770 kHz Radio Liberty in Russian daily (7 days per week) at 0200-0300 and 0400-0500
UTC on 7730 kHz
Radio Ukraine International daily (7 days per week) in Ukrainian (with a
short newscast in English) at 0500-0600 UTC on 7730 kHz and various shorter weekly programs on 7730 and 15770 kHz. Both of these frequencies are from 100-kilowatt transmitters.  7730 is a rhombic antenna, and 15770 is a
curtain array.  Both are using an azimuth of 44 degrees.


Radio World: Who is paying for these broadcasts? 

White: Shortwave for Freedom is paying for the VOA and RFE/RL relays. We
are paying for Ukrainian Radio broadcasts ourselves. And some of the
religious programs and others are paying for their own airtime.

RW: Why have you decided to do this?

White: Well, we were broadcasting Radio Ukraine International for some
years before the war as a result of some personal contacts we made with
them. We had actually lost contact with them for a while, but we renewed contacts through an intermediary in Germany, and we started airing them
again as the war began. But we really wanted to do anything we could to
help the information vacuum in the region and to help the cause of the Ukrainian people. Were not doing it for the money, but because it just
needs to be done.

RW: What sort of listenership are you getting in Eastern Europe? 

White: We receive a lot of listener reports from the region. That includes Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, as well as Poland, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe.  

A lot of listener reports dont make comments on the war exactly, but many
of them thank us for transmitting this programming. The day after we
resumed airing Ukrainian Radio, we got a message on our Facebook page
saying: Thank you, from Kharkiv, Ukraine.  We got a similar message from a listener in Sumy, Ukraine.  

We have received messages from listeners in various parts of Russia who
have also thanked us for our programming and expressed their disdain for
the war. And we have also received a few reports from Russia and Belarus
who have criticized the broadcasts of Radio Liberty and who said they
believe that what Russia is doing in Ukraine is necessary.

RW: Are more people coming to WRMI to broadcast content to Eastern Europe? 

White: Yes, for example Radio for Peace International from France, which is
now doing Russian-language news updates during the week. We have also had religious organizations who wanted to buy airtime to transmit to Ukraine
and Eastern Europe. I think it is still increasing and there will be more organizations that are looking to reach this region in the coming weeks and months.

RW: Are you concerned about the Russians reaction to your broadcasts? Might they try to jam you, or worse? 

White: As far as I know, the former Russian jamming transmitters are very
much shut down, so I doubt they would be able to reactivate them although
you never know. But look, our broadcasts to Cuba on 9955 kHz have been
jammed by the Cuban government since they went on the air in 1994, but
people still hear us in Cuba. Jamming on shortwave is not very effective; a
lot of it skips over the intended target. So Im not too worried about
jamming.

RW: What are your future plans in this area?

White: Well, as long as this unfortunate conflict persists, were in it for
the long-haul. We will continue what were doing, and we will probably
expand the transmissions. We have had calls from companies that want to
help us expand broadcasts and even offers to help upgrade our equipment.
Its amazing, really. It seems that everyone wants to help out however they
can, and we will do all we can also.



Tomorrow: A Look Inside WRMI

The post WRMI at Heart of SW Broadcasts to Russia, Ukraine appeared first
on Radio World.


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Orban, Burk Partner to Offer Processor Control "Virtually Anywhere"

Posted: 04 Apr 2022 02:00 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/products/orban-burk-partner-to-offer-processor-control-virtually-anywhere


Burk Technology has partnered with the audio processing company Orban to
offer direct control of a processor from a Burk product.  An API offered by Burk for the ARC Plus Touch allows users to monitor an Orban Optimod XPN-AM processor and make selected changes.

Per a joint press release between Burk and Orban, the Optimod XPN-AM
maximizes the reach and intelligibility of AM transmissions while lowering distortion and reducing listener fatigue.

It is designed to work in conjunction with MDCL-equipped transmitters,
bringing significant power savings to broadcasters along with ultra-clean
audio and loudness, read the release. The Optimod XPN-AM also offers
Nielsen PPM encoding.

The ARC Plus Touch from Burk Technology provides distributed management of remote broadcast facilities. Secure web access from remote sites is
delivered via Burk’s cloud-based Arcadia system. 

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The new ARC API allows the ARC Plus to interact with API-enabled equipment
and retrieve data from readily available web services. Additionally, the
Burk API integration, embedded in the Optimod XPN-AM, enables users to make quick changes on presets and other parameters, according to Burk and Orban.
A screengrab of the Burk screen with XPN-AM

David Day, Orban president, said he is pleased to have partnered with Burk
on this product.

“The ability to access Orban processing from virtually anywhere using Burk’s ARC Plus Touch brings a new level of flexibility to AM broadcasters, allowing them to change processing at a single touch to accommodate
dayparting, power changes and other functions, he said. Our customers will
find this highly useful.”

Chuck Alexander, executive vice president at Burk, said ARC API expands ARC Plus I/O options beyond traditional parallel wiring and SNMP interfaces.

“Integration with the API on the Optimod XPN-AM is a great demonstration of the flexibility and effectiveness of API control and monitoring,” said Alexander.

Control of the Optimod XPN-AM will be demonstrated at NAB 2022 in the Burk booth, W6014. More information can be found on both the Orban and Burk websites. 

The post Orban, Burk Partner to Offer Processor Control Virtually Anywhere appeared first on Radio World.

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