Tag Archives: newsletter

March 2023 News and Notes

Our March meeting will be on Tuesday, March 21st, at 11:30 AM (please note the earlier start time) at the Out-O-Town Club in Kaukauna. Our business meeting and lunch will be followed by a 1 PM tour of the Fox Energy Center natural gas power plant located in Wrightstown near the Out-O-Town Club. In order to attend the tour, you must pre-register by contacting John Pfankuch (contact info in the newsletter) no later than Friday, March 17th. The majority of the tour will be outdoors so dress appropriately. Due to the tour, the Zoom call will be limited to the business meeting. Zoom information is in the newsletter.

The March Newsletter is available now.

February 2023 News and Notes

Our February meeting will be on Tuesday, February 21st at Noon at the Out-O-Town Club or via Zoom. The program topic regards regulations and practices surrounding broadcast towers today. It was originally presented to Chapter 25. Presenters were Bill Harland and John Robinson, PE of ERI in Chandler, IN. One of the members, Doug Garlinger, stated “This presentation should be watched by every US broadcast engineer involved with a tower.” The Zoom link in is the newsletter.

Our Feburary Newsletter is available now.

July 2021 News and Notes

Our July meeting will be on Tuesday, July 20th. This meeting will be our summer picnic. We are doing this in conjunction with the Next Big Thing tour. Thanks to Steve for giving us a location to have the picnic and NBT tour. The location is Woodward Radio Group, 2800 East College Avenue, Appleton, WI 54915. You can check out their website and register in advance and to learn more about it. They have a series of displays from many different companies and the tour is sponsored by Broadcasters General Store and Second Opinion Communications. Their event will run 11-2 so you can take the tour before grabbing lunch or wait until after.

Our July newsletter is available below.

September 2020 Chapter News and Notes

Our September 15th, 2020 meeting and program is a special treat. The Next Best Thing – A Media Tour is making a stop in APPLETON. This stop, added to their schedule, means we have a chance to connect with manufacturers and vendors right here in our own back yard (figuratively
speaking) and see the latest in technology offerings from companies like Comrex, Enco, Dielectric, Shure, BGS, and many more. This OUTDOOR exhibit will be held on the grounds of Woodward Radio Group, 2800 East College Avenue, APPLETON. The hours are 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Did I mention this is in APPLETON!


Here are the ground rules for this outdoor event:

  1. You will need to wear a mask and practice safe social distancing.
  2. Please bring your own food and beverage or plan to purchase food at a local establishment. Cousins Subs and Perkins Family Restaurant are both nearby.
  3. You may also bring your own lawn chair.
  4. Restroom facilities are NOT available on site.
  5. The event will be held rain or shine so plan and dress accordingly.
  6. Please do not bring alcohol onto the property.
  7. Be respectful of the area and express your gratitude to Woodward for making this outdoor space available. This is very generous on their part.
  8. Please help us spread the word about this opportunity and invite your colleagues to attend.

Please register using the link located in the flyer below.

The September newsletter is available below.

July 2020 News And Notes

Our July meeting will be on Tuesday, July 21 at 12:00 PM. Our program will be an online presentation by Bob Orban titled “Maintaining Audio Quality in the Broadcast Facility”. Achieving excellent on-air and on-line quality audio is more important than ever because of the intensely competitive nature of available media. “Good enough” no longer works. Persuading audiences to listen and then return requires attention to quality at every stage of the production process, from program sources to audio processing. This presentation will help attendees achieve quality on-air and on-line audio broadcasting and netcasting goals.

In 2015 Orban introduced the Optimod PCn 1600, the first Optimod that runs natively on the host computer’s Intel x86 processor; the software does not use dedicated DSP chips. In 2016 Orban introduced the company’s new flagship FM audio processor, the OPTIMOD-FM 8700i, featuring versatile five-band and two-band processing for both analog FM transmission and digital media.

Chapter Chair, Bill Hubbard, will send an email to registered members of Chapter 80 with connection instructions, log-in information, and helpful hints. Watch your inbox for this message and check your spam filter in case it lands there. To minimize the risk of an outside party disrupting our session, only individuals known to the chapter in advance will be admitted to the meeting room. Make sure you log in with your real name. Our Thanks to John Lynch of BSW for providing the GoToMeeting online platform for our July meeting and serving as MC for the presentation.

Upcoming Events

  • July 21, 12:00 PM – Chapter 80 Meeting – Bob Orban via GoToMeeting
  • August 18 – Site Picnic Cancelled. Online meeting and speaker to be announced.
  • September 15 – Chapter 80 Online Meeting (Speaker TBA)
  • October 13-15 – Broadcasters Clinic. In person event cancelled. More info coming soon.
  • November 17 – Chapter 80 Online Meeting (Speaker TBA)
  • January 20, 2021 – Chapter 80 Holiday Party – hoping for an in-person event

The newsletter is available below.

June 2020 Chapter News and Notes

Our June meeting will be held online using Microsoft Teams on Tuesday, June 16th at Noon.

A short business meeting will be followed by a presentation from Michael Guthrie, Technology Specialist with Harmonic on ATSC 3.0 current status overview. Michael has over 20 years of experience serving Harmonic’s customers with the deployment of media processing and delivery solutions for broadcast, ATSC transmission and satellite distribution. He served previous roles with ABC, SSL, McCurdy Radio, Telex and Drake Automation.

Please see the newsletter for more information on connecting to the meeting.

Our use of Teams is through the courtesy of Heartland Video Systems and our Program Chair, John Pfankuch. If you plan to log in on a mobile device please consider downloading the Teams app. Chapter officers tested the platform on Friday afternoon using PCs and phones with good success.

The June Newsletter is available below.