That Beeping? It’s a Tower Worker’s Wake-up Call

Help! That plea is the gist of calls that come to Betty Perez, director of logistics and resources for LBA Technology. Perez is an old hand at fielding hurry-up requests from LBA customers, but the telephone calls she receives about the fieldSENSE ProHD™ Heavy Duty Pack are in a special emergency category all their own. [...]

fieldSENSE ProHD™ Affordable Personal RF Monitor Introduced By LBA

All of this for just $495!

It is not health scare talk to say that personnel working around wireless antenna sites need to be RF alert. That is common sense, and OSHA dictates it. Now LBA brings the wireless industry a new personal safety monitor at a great price. LBA Technology is exclusively offering wireless tower and site workers the fieldSENSE [...]

Tech Talk: Coax Isolation on Shared AM Towers

Traditional AM isocoupler installation

Most people think of an isocoupler as a capacitor or loop pair inserted in a coax line of sufficiently low impedance at the coax frequency to pass that signal without undo loss and VSWR, while looking like a high impedance at the AM frequency so as to not disturb the base impedance too much. There [...]

How to Kick Up Broadband Deployment – Use AM Radio!

FCC Broadband Acceleration Panel - Lawrence Behr, second from right.

The Federal Communications Commission held its Broadband Acceleration Conference in Washington, D.C. on February 9th, 2011. The FCC thus took another step to further the goal of connecting all parts of America to the digital age by convening leaders from federal, state and local governments, broadband providers, telecommunications carriers, tower companies, equipment suppliers, and utility [...]

What’s All This FemtoCell Stuff, Anyhow?

Figure 1: Logical Architecture of a 3G FemtoCell and its connectivity to the network

You have heard the old saying “splitting hairs” referring to arguing about very small differences or unimportant details. There is splitting hairs and then there is splitting cells – cell splitting to be exact and it is occurring all over the world as wireless service providers attempt to add ubiquitous coverage and more traffic capacity. [...]

LBA Brings A Louder Voice To Vietnam

Modern HoChiMinh City, home of VOHCM

Once known as Saigon, and now Ho Chi Minh City, the city at the heart of the southern part of Vietnam is now a bustling metropolis. Among multiple medium wave AM stations there, the Voice of Ho Chi Minh City (VOHCM) has been a local voice for almost 50 years. Now that voice is about [...]

Stay tuned: More about LBA Power Line Detuning

Power Line Detuning

Like a re-radiating RF signal, positive feedback about a Lawrence Behr Associates engineering job keeps bouncing around cyberspace. Components of LBA Group helped clear the way for an electric power distribution project in New York state, a job that finally wrapped up earlier this year after more than two years of work. The project required [...]

Tower Job in Trouble for Lack of Crew RF Monitors?

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 [...]

Keeping Spooky Black Hat RF In The Box!

Topology of the ECU faraday cage lab

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 [...]

New LBA Lighting Choke Feeds Tower Strobe Lights

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 [...]

LBA Group Partners with Balboa Capital to Provide Customer Leasing Solutions

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 [...]

AM Detuning Powers Up New York High Voltage Line

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

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 analyzes, LBA engineers determined that 8 of [...]

MSK-200 TV Signal Analyzer Steals the Show!

LBA Technology’s presentation of Kathrein / Schomandl RF Test Equipment generates overwhelming interest from South American visitors at the LABS’09 (Latin American Broadcast Show) going on now in Miami, FL. The MSK-200 TV signal analyzer can be seen in the center of the photo above. LBA’s latest Authorized RF Instrument Reseller, 305 Broadcast, was also [...]

COMET Vacuums Now on Sale at the LBA Capacitor Store!

Comet Vacuum Capacitors on Sale!

All the capacitors on the attached PDF list are in stock and on sale for a limited time! If you see any of interest, communicate with LBA immediately. All are subject to prior sale. The list contains both new and old part numbers. Many are most familiar with the “Old Type” numbers. Those numbers that [...]

Join Our New Linked-In Groups

LBA sponsors these groups to assist our user communities in exchanging information, tips, and opinions. Please visit www.linkedin.com, join up and check in – it’s [...]

FIT-70 Antenna Tester a Winner!

FIT-70 Antenna Tester a Winner!

John George here – As an old time broadcaster, I’ve run into a bunch of antenna testers and power meters over the years! Now, the LBA Technology Test Equipment Group has a whole new bag of goodies for me. Case in point is the FIT-70 RF wattmeter. The FIT-70 tester, is manufactured by Schomandl, a [...]

FCC Authorizes Distributed TV Transmission Systems

In a breakthrough action, the Federal Communications Commission today authorized digital television stations to use DTS technology. In a move aimed to remedy coverage problems in the analog to digital transition, the FCC has now permitted DTV stations to supplement their tall tower transmissions with low power outliers, or abandon the tall towers for a [...]

Latest LBA Antenna Systems Feature New RF Switch Technology

John George showing KEYS 50 KW ATU with VC-1 RF Contactors.

Among recent AM antenna systems to use the new LBA VC-1 Vacuum RF Relay is a seven tower 50 KW directional at KYES in St. Cloud, Minnesota. KYES is a new Catholic community talk radio service of The Throw Fire Project. In addition to two phasor cabinets, the complex system includes two open panel ATU’s [...]