As the LBA Antenna Turns

Did your tower crew arrive at the project only to be shut down by the owner until everyone had a personal RF monitor? This is an increasingly prevalent situation as tower owners rigorously enforce OSHA safety rules – including RF safety!

Now LBA has the solution for you – Crew on Ground Priority!

We are stocking SafeOne® personal RF monitors, and can priority ship the monitors you need, overnight, direct to your tower crew locations. At only $695 plus shipping and handling per RF monitor, this is a cost effective solution to a costly problem!

And, there is no learning curve problem. The SafeOne® is ready to operate right out of the box, complete with long life batteries, and a 5 minute CD training guide. The crews can be on the tower 15 minutes after opening the box!

Better still, order ahead! At this price, half the cost of the competition, you can equip all your crews and avoid shut downs. You save even more with volume discounts and free standard shipping and handling!

Call Dick Hansson at 252-757-0279 for your SafeOne® personal RF alarm needs.

Have you ever wondered how you could make a safe and secure wireless test setup for wireless access point configuration, wireless network interface card configuration, wireless network sniffing, WEP cracking, rogue access point detection, wireless-based DoS attacks, or other black hat exercises?

Under the direction of Dr. Lee Toderick, the School of Information and Technology at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC has had success with the adoption of an isolated, remotely-accessible LBA EMFaraCage® faraday cage to house student laboratory wireless equipment. This permits even the most invasive wireless projects to be performed in an area that also offers unrestricted campus WLAN wireless network access. Their EMFaraCage® lab isolation setup is optimized for IEEE 802.11b/g radio communication in the 2400-2483 MHz frequency band.

Topology of the ECU faraday cage lab

Many educational institutions that offer curriculum classes in wireless technologies include protocol investigation and security configuration. Wireless technology labs help to reinforce theory and concepts, and to provide educational experiences not available through classroom lecture. Secure, remote access to lab equipment enables students to perform experiments 24/7 from any location thus maximizing the utilization of the equipment and providing scheduling flexibility to the students. Student laboratories for wireless devices can be problematic in institutions that offer wireless network access. These production wireless environments can be disrupted or even disabled if a student improperly configures the laboratory equipment. The EMFaraCage® faraday cage gives instructors and administration the security to maximize instructional opportunities.

The LBA EMFaraCage® is not just for student labs. It can be a convenient, portable and economical accessory for any laboratory that needs to isolate ambient radio frequency environments from research and testing protocols.

To see complete implementation details on the ECU test setup, see Technical Note 127: Keeping Black Hat In The Box.

To discuss your EMFaraCage® requirements, contact Paulo Fernandez, pfernandes@lbagroup.com or 252-757-0279. Special discounts are available for educational institutions!

Testing transmission lines, antennas, and passive RF networks like filters just got much easier!

The Schomandl ANA-2700 wideband, full featured, network analyzer is at home both in the lab and at the antenna tower. It’s swept and fixed frequency range of 1 – 2700 MHz takes in most common broadcast, communications, and cellular frequencies; including the new WiMAX 4G band. AC, DC, and internal battery power and a weight of only 11 lbs let it go anywhere you need it.

The ANA-2700 – perfect for collocation sites

Measurement capabilities include VSWR, insertion loss, and reflection coefficient. Distance to fault cable diagnostics is standard. Built in cable compensation allows antenna characteristics to be measured from the ground, saving expensive and time consuming tower climber services.

A frequent problem with competitive RF analyzers is measurement interference at broadcast and collocation antenna sites. Environmental RF can even burn out competitor’s front ends. Advanced interference canceling systems in the ANA-2700 virtually eliminate measurement interference effects for true and safe readings under the most hostile RF conditions – up to 50 watts coupled power!

There are many more features the RF engineer will appreciate. The ANA-2700 is fully remote controllable, with full Windows interface, and advanced LOG600 analytical software application.

The ANA-2700 is supplied with a carry case, software, power charger, terminations, 50 watt load, various adapters and documentation. Additional amplifiers, reference and calibration devices are available.

Visit the ANA-2700 webpage and learn more about this highly cost effective, precision German engineered antenna analyser. The ANA-2700 is exclusively distributed in the Americas by LBA Technology and its authorized resellers.

For a price quote, contact Paulo Fernandes, pfernandes@lbagroup.com or 252-757-0279

As the most experienced firm offering AM detuning services, LBA gets some complicated requests. LBA’s professionals are mostly unsung when they accomplish these missions.

Kathryn Tesh and the LBA team recently set straight a cellular tower detuning project in the Pacific Northwest, saving the cellular customer considerable money in the process. So it was a bit of a Holiday gift to receive kudos from both the station consulting engineer and the wireless carrier project manager. Here’s what they said (slightly edited for privacy):

From the consulting engineer:

“The ownership of K*** has asked me to respond to the engineering study performed to determine re-radiation potential.

I see no problems and I appreciate this careful work.  We have a history of concern expressed by the (on channel) station in Seattle and consequently have been careful to maintain our night-time directional.

LBA has done excellent, careful engineering.  Please proceed.”

From the client carrier manager:

“Thanks I have the reports and believe this closes out the projects.  I hope you have already invoiced for everything and I have approved what has come my way.

I agree with the K*** engineer.  These projects were somewhat complicated with the three sites and our early construction of one of the towers.  I am very pleased with how LBA handled the whole thing. My compliments to yourself, Mike and the LBA team.”

And, as we write this, here’s a thank you just in on another project!

A carrier construction contractor needed really fast response involving the dispatch of an LBA engineer to a remote California location over Christmas week. Unfortunately, an LBA competitor had walked away from the project, leaving the contractor stranded with a deadline. The LBA report was on the client’s desk this morning!

Here’s what the Program Director said to Kathryn:

“Excellent work.

I have reviewed the report and I appreciate the completed analysis.

I may have questions later today but for now this report as delivered is much appreciated.”

We very much appreciate the customer feedback. LBA has been performing consulting services since 1963, always with customer satisfaction as the #1 priority. Please contact Mike Britner to enjoy LBA superior professional services in AM and EME wireless compliance services.

Providing an AC feed to strobe lighting systems on high power AM towers can be problematical. The ring-type chokes often used for tower light feeds on high voltage towers often do not function well under the low pulse loads of stroboscopic lighting systems. These problems can cause overheating and burn out of seemingly adequately rated ring transformers!

Traditional lighting chokes, such as the LBA TC-300, typically do not have a sufficiently high RF voltage rating to be an alternate to ring transformers at RF voltages encountered at 50,000 watts and above.

To solve these problems, LBA developed the BALC-20 lighting choke specifically for the low power drain, peak pulse needs of tower mounted strobe light systems. Rated at 30 KV peak RF, it is particularly suited for broadcast systems of 50KW and above. It provides a three wire 110/230 volt AC feed at a nominal maximum 1000 V/A.

The photo shows a typical installation of the BALC-20 in a 747 kHz 100,000 watt antenna tuning unit. It is powering a Flash Technology strobe system on a 400 foot tower. The BALC-20 is withstanding a peak RF base voltage at 125% modulation of about 22 KV!

More about the LBA RF & lighting choke line can be found at LBA’s RF lighting and chokes page.

LBA has partnered with Balboa Capital Corp. to provide lease financing plans for LBA Technology RF and test equipment resellers and customers.

Recognizing the needs of our customers for financing flexibility, LBA has made available leasing services from one of the preeminent business oriented finance groups in the US.  Balboa Capital is a national leader in equipment leasing and financing that was twice named to Inc. 500’s list of Fastest Growing Companies.

Featuring a fast application, approval, and funding process, the new leasing program applies to most higher value RF and test equipment.  Typical covered equipment includes LBA EMFaraCages®, antenna tuning systems, diplexers, directional antenna systems, Schomandl-Kathrein MSK-200 and MSK-125 digital TV analyzers, frequency generators, antenna analyzers and more.  The program is applicable to direct purchases, as well as purchases through our US dealer network.

For details and immediate application, Contact LBA!

Check out the new LBA Technology Index page.  We would appreciate your comments and suggestions on the new design!

Lawrence Behr Associates cleared the path for a new electricity transmission line in New York that that could not be energized until interference problems with a Rensselaer, N.Y., AM radio station were resolved to the satisfaction of the New York Public Utility Commission.

After extensive onsite and computer analyses, LBA engineers determined that 8 of 33 tall power towers on this line in the proximate area of station WGDJ-AM would disrupt the stations licensed coverage pattern and require installation of detuning systems.

Utility constructors installing AM detuning system on East Greenbush 345 KV transmission tower.

The transmission towers carry a 345 kV electrical power line from a 635-megawatt natural gas fired power plant constructed in Rensselaer by Empire Generation Co. LLC. The distribution system has 70 towers in all, the last of which were erected last summer. The question was how many of them near East Greenbush, N.Y., would cause signal interference with broadcasts of the AM station. The interference would have created a violation of FCC rules governing the integrity of broadcast signals.

Transmission towers often are a height that makes for efficient radiation of medium wave AM signals. The broadcast AM signal is intercepted from the environment by the power tower and “reradiated”. This reradiated AM signal interferes with the designed coverage and interference of the AM broadcast antenna system. The Federal Communications Commission licenses AM station antenna systems to very tight tolerances, and only a few percent reradiated powerline signal can seriously impact the licensed pattern performance.

The proper evaluation and remediation of power line reradiation can be complex. The multiple transmission towers and the coupling between them through lightning shield wires can be a challenging analysis, but also spread the impact much more broadly than would a single tower. These interconnections form conductive loops which have vastly different electrical properties than single towers. Normally, a technique called “detuning” is applied, along with modifications of lightning shield wires. The recent practice of embedding fiber optic cable in these wires has made these mechanical modifications quite a bit more complicated.

To evaluate and resolve the New York problem, Lawrence Behr Associates was called in by CH2M Hill, an international consulting engineering firm based in Colorado. The eight disruptive transmission structures were subsequently identified through field measurements and software modeling. Their negative impacts were remediated by an AM protection detuning process, allowing the project to proceed. The offending structures were detuned using custom-engineered LBA Technology hardware along with modifications to the new power line. Modifications were carefully designed for safety and usability in conjunction with CH2M Hill and the owners, and implemented by LG Constructors. Necessarily, all detuning hardware was constructed, installed, and documented to rigorous utility standards.

LBA engineer Mike Hayden adjusting AM detuning system control box.

LBA has employed a similar process hundreds of times to detune cellular industry towers with AM radio interference problems of their own. While technological applications vary in each case, they are rooted in the same family of engineered solutions. This was an important design consideration, as renting transmission tower space to wireless carriers is an important revenue source for utilities. In the event the detuned towers were to be rented to a carrier to support their antennas, the AM dutuning documentation would also support the carrier’s FCC AM protection requirements.

Interactions between high voltage transmission systems and AM stations are expected to grow in future years. Thousands of miles of powerlines are planned to support the smart grid, wind turbine, and photovoltaic power generation. Many of these will pass near AM broadcast antennas. It is vitally important for utility planners to have proposed routes reviewed by an RF engineer, like Lawrence Behr Associates, early in that process. If lines can’t be rerouted, then detuning can be incorporated in the design process, at great savings over construction stage delays or modifications.

For more information, contact Mike Britner.

LBA Technology is offering the top-of-the-line Kathrein MSK-200 TV Signal Analyzer for hands-on demonstrations at the following October events:

October 6-7 in Verona, NY at the SBE22 Broadcast Technology Expo presented by LBA Reseller Broadcasters General Store in booth# A18

October 13-15 in Madison, WI at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association “Broadcasters Clinic“, presented by LBA Reseller Broadcasters General Store.

October 14-16 in Alexandria, VA at the IEEE 2009 Broadcast Symposium http://www.ieee.org/organizations/society/bt/abs09/abs09program.html

October 14-15 in New York City at SATCON, presented by LBA Reseller Satellite Engineering Group in booth# 705 www.satconexpo.com

October 27-30 in Denver, CO at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, presenteed by LBA Reseller Mega Hertz Company in booth# 5065 http://expo.scte.org/

If you are in the area of these events, please stop by to experience yourself the quality and functionality of the Schomandl/Kathrein line of RF Test Instruments.

New and improved MSK-200 Analyzers have arrived!
(LBA Sales Executive Paulo Fernandes)

Since LBA introduced the Kathrein MSK-200 TV Signal Analyzer to the Americas last year, it has been enthusiastically welcomed by TV engineers. As an economical portable or fixed 6 ‘n 1 digital signal test solution it was without compare. And we have had extensive wish list feedback.

Now the German engineering wizards at Kathrein have added a whole galaxy of new features, as you requested, shipping immediately – Same old price!

• ATSC/8VSB analysis for new USA DTV signal standards
• MPEG-4 decoding and transport stream information
• Dolby AC-3 audio decoding/demodulation
• SMPTE-310 HD video analysis
• Automatic loop testing
• DVB-S2 satellite standard analysis capability
• Automatic channel scanning
• MER/BER/Signal-to-Noise automatic measurements
• And more…..

Here is an overview of the major new features and how they will make your engineering life easier. Please contact the LBA Helpline or your authorized dealer to order or for more information.

ATSC/8VSB Decoding:
The MSK-200 has recently been updated to support and analyze the new USA DTV ATSC signal standard as well as measure and analyze 8VSB sideband modulation in real time.  Broadcasters and Cable operators can now diagnose and repair issues in multi-path transmission.  In addition, the MSK-200 can scan and find transport stream information for this new standard and allow broadcasters to find issues in PID, PMT-PID, PCR, CA and elementary stream ID’s as well as decode video images and demodulate audio including Dolby AC-3.  This is essential for installing, maintaining and repairing our new DTV signal standards.

MPEG-4 Decoding and Viewing:
The MSK-200 has always supported MPEG-2 streams. Now it does MPEG-4 decoding! MPEG-4 is especially important as it is used for compressing different formats (audio/video/speech).  Key features of MPEG-4 are improved coding efficiency, robust transmission, enhanced bit rate usage and compressed services.  MPEG-4 is also playing a large role in new HD technologies such as blue-ray.  Now the MSK-200 can decode and view video and audio for picture and audio quality analysis.

Dolby AC-3 Audio Demodulation:
New digital audio formats can now be demodulated and listened to while viewing the image. The MSK-200 becomes a major aid in real-time transmission quality control.  The AC-3 audio format is prominent on HD TV and MPEG-4.

SMPTE-310 HD Analysis:
The MSK-200 now allows viewing and analysis of transport streams using SMPTE-310 for HD video.  It can display video and decode audio to measure HD streams and signals and provide transport stream information.

Automatic CATV Loop Testing:
This new feature will help Cable engineers to measure ingress from headend to subscriber for signal quality issues.  CATV systems need to test nodes for proper distribution of signals to customers and loop testing will allow for these measurements to be made and ensure functionality from headend to customer and provide RF information.

DVB-S2 Satellite Standard Monitoring:
The MSK-200 now supports the new generation of the older DVB-S broadcast standard for high definition via satellite.  This is especially helpful in transmitting HDTV satellite news gathering content back to the station.  When compression is added, DVB-S2 allows for MPEG-4 services to be delivered.  DVB-S2 performs about 30% better than the previous DVB-S standard.  Now you can analyze and monitor these streams in real time.

Automatic Channel Scanning:
Automatic channel scanning enhances a user’s ability to customize their own channel plan in the MSK-200 for quick access to each carrier, channel and frequency of interest.  Users can program modulation symbol rates, frequencies, associated channels, satellites and transponders, so each can be accessed quickly eliminating the need for repetitive manual parameter entry. This is a real time saver- even better, you can download and select multiple channel programs!

MER/BER/Signal-to-Noise Automatic Measurements:
Now signal quality measurements are automatically displayed during measurements to show MER, BER Pre and Post Viterbi and Signal-to-Noise levels.  This allows for users to monitor essential quality levels while making using most measurements in the MSK-200.