Monday Morning Coffee and Technical Notes

September 15, 2025 View as Webpage

ETRS Form One

The Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has issued a reminder that Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants must submit their Form One identifying information into the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) no later than October 3, 2025.

Each year, the FCC requires EAS participants to provide information regarding their EAS equipment and monitoring assignments, facility location, contact information and other information.



The FCC reported that filers can access ETRS by visiting the ETRS page of the Commission’s website at https://www.fcc.gov/general/eas-test-reporting-system.

ABA Engineering Academy Classes

We still have a few seats left for the ABA Engineering Academy’s Radio Class. This class is not only for beginners but seasoned engineers as well. It covers basic electronics, analog and digital audio, AM and FM transmitter theory, and basic station technical operation (FCC Rules, EAS, IP for broadcast operations, good engineering practices, etc.).

The Radio Class is scheduled the week of September 22^nd – 26^th. Classes are held at the ABA Training Center, 2180 Parkway Lake Drive in Hoover (Birmingham) AL. Class outlines, hotel information, and online registration are available at the Engineering Academy website.

Our Television Engineering Class will be held November 3rd – 7th.



 Remember these classes are offered to anyone around the country and at no cost, as a service to the engineering community by the Alabama Broadcaster Association’s Engineering Services. 

National Weather Service Issues

As reported earlier, the National Weather Service (NWS) had been experiencing technical difficulties that affected the successful broadcast of tests and alerts to broadcast stations.

NWS has now reported that the issue has been corrected, and broadcast EAS equipment should now be able to decode and relay tests and alerts properly.

Reviewing the Basics

From time to time, we like to review some of the basics of broadcast engineering. This serves as a refresher for seasoned engineers and a knowledge base for newcomers.

Although ATSC 3.0 is rolling out, all stations are still operating ATSC 1.0 systems until the FCC settles on a “sunset” date, which is still several years away.

Therefore, a quick review of the present MPEG packet stream is in order.

Each packet contains 188 bytes of data and is sent at a rate of 19.39 megabits per second (MPS}. Once we add extra data for forward error correction coding and sync insertion, we are sending a total of 32.28 MPS.

This data is then used to modulate the transmitter using what is known as 8VSB. The 8 means there is 8 different levels of AM modulation (remember a television transmitter is AM not FM). These different levels are called symbols. Each symbol can only handle 3 bits.

Since we are sending around 32 MPS and each symbol can only handle 3 bits it will take 10.76 million symbols per second to send the data. This is known as the symbol rate.

The VSB is vestigial sideband. Remember AM modulation is double sideband, we only need one of the sideband, thus we remove the lower sideband which make the signal fit in the 6 mHz allotted to each station by the FCC.

There is plenty more going on under the hood, but hopefully this will let you see how one’s and zero’s modulate an AM television transmitter.

EAS Reminder

When you as chief operator Review the Station Log each week, take time to check the two required sources on your EAS equipment…not just on the log, but actually listen to the audio on the device. Make sure the quality and levels are correct, plus they are the correct sources.

I have seen many units where the indication on the log or level meters looks ok, but when you listen to the audio it was nothing but noise.

Pro Audio – Starting a Mix

How do you start a mix session? Mix engineers most often have various ways to get started, however they normally include the following steps.

If you received a first mix from the tracking engineer it’s a good idea to listen to their rough mix. That way you can get some idea of what the producer was going after.

Then comes the job of preparing the tracks for the mix. This includes grouping tracks, color coding, cleaning the tracks, creating sub groups, etc.

Most engineers will do this part on a different day than starting the mix.

On mix day, create a rough mix balancing the levels and panning. Then follow up by removing any distractions (offending frequency’s).

Now you have a clean slate to start adding anything that will make the mix come together and sparkle.

Above all don’t try to complete the mix in one session, give your ears a rest. The great thing about “mixing in box” is you can save your mix and recall it later. 

Memories of days gone by