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The eight-channel Moseley formula supports HD radio and provides peace of mind
The eight-channel Moseley formula supports HD radio and provides peace of mind
He’s president of Tom Ray Broadcast Consulting.
In 2018, it was time for a major new transmitter on WJMJ (FM) radio in Hartford, Connecticut, owned by the Archdiocese of Hartford.
Father John Gatzak then sought to advance WJMJ’s message to the network and sought to transfer it to HD radio. Looking at the situation, we looked to see if we could move the WJMJ transmitter because the sign traveled as sensible as Avon Mountain, causing a shadow in the authorized city, and HD policy would have been mediocre at best.
We found that we can only move the transmitter to Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut, but we can move from a B1 to a Class B.
Although it is good news, we have now been presented with a problem. We had to send 3 channels of stereo audio to Rattlesnake, preferably via STL microwave. And I sought to have an IP backup in case of interruption of the RF appearance. We knew we had the chance to Rattlesnake because we had a Moseley Starlink STL repeater on site because we couldn’t see the old main site of Prospect Studios, Connecticut.
Linear stereo
As for the available systems, we chose to pass with the Moseley Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN. There were many reasons, the least of which was Moseley’s reputation for making rock-solid products.
WJMJ, while a station, broadcasts a format of the 70s, 80s and 90s, with many other music genres combined adding a classic block, in addition to Sunday programming. Therefore, the main analog channel and HD1 audio quality were at the center of the worries.
The Starlink would allow us to have a linear stereo channel knowledge compression for the main, perfect audio channel.
This would allow the other two stereo channels to operate at a knowledge rate of 192 kHz, AAC audio. From experience, I know that the AAC rule set works well with the HD Radio codec. The plan would be to put Eternal World Network in Spanish on HD2, which would be a local Hispanic channel in the near future, and put Eternal World Radio Network on HD3.
Although both are mainly conversation-oriented, HD submarines work lately in mono; However, Starlink’s stereo capability would allow us to bring those channels to stereo in the future. Even at 192 stC AAC ko, the HD subchannels, which run at 32kk each, sound strangely good.
The Starlink is capable of using 4 channels of stereo audio on the RF channel (or 8 channels of mono audio) and 4 stereo IP channels from one end to the other.
At the factory, the Starlink was configured here with the RF channels as you sought them. The most difficult component to configure IP channels.
One caveat: Be sure to place the IP aspect of the Starlink on a smart firewall router and only open the required ports. Initially I was given an IP link to the global exterior – naked – which worked for about 20 minutes, then the whole drive in the transmission aspect began to restart, adding the RF look.
Working with Moseley’s technical support team showed that our connection was being attacked by other people looking to get in. The resulting overhead on the IP aspect caused the drive to reboot; we communicate every 30 seconds. Once he was behind a firewall, everything went well.
The audio aspect of the Starlink is based on Moseley Rincon technology.
What bothers me most with the formula is that you have to read several manuals, adding the Rincón manual, to be informed about how to correctly configure IP flows. Each flow requires a profile that describes the codec and knowledge flow to be used, so you want to perceive its IP bandwidth before you begin. Each transmission requires its own separate IP port from the broadcast side to the receive side, so you want to open the required ports from your router to the receiver; in our case, we’ve opened three.
Robust
Once the drive was well configured, and a bit of testing and error was needed to do so, IP flows were falsified. In fact, I put them on the air recently when we readjusted the antennas after repackaging the TV, because there are five TV channels in the tower where we are and there was a lot of activity near our antenna. The flows were forged and sounded intelligent with realignment.
The RF aspect of the Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN provides a five W output, at 1 W output presented in earlier versions of the Starlink system. This adds robustness to the receiver’s virtual sign; in our case, the take is about 16 miles.
It’s been in the air for almost two years and I can tell the knowledge mistakes on the one hand. This is due to thunderstorms, ice storms, snow and heavy rains. I have still won this panic call where the virtual SOUND STL stops.
The Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN is available through an Internet browser and SNMP. The disappointing component of this is that you can only access the Rincon (audio) component of the system. You cannot control the appearance of RF or view RF settings. Moseley wants to solve this problem, because having this data through an Internet browser would be very useful in case of a problem.
It would also be great if Starlink allowed automatic transfer to IP transmissions, but unfortunately that is not the case, so we have an external transfer in a position to do so.
An attractive feature of Starlink is that you can configure any output to be the audio of your selection: IP or radio. We use AES outputs for analog /HD1, HD2 and HD3 and transmit the main AES audio channel to the Starlink transmitter forcing the backup site. I have configured analog audio ports for audio on the main channel to force a backup audio processor, and HD submarines force analog access ports on HD subchannel processors as backup.
Overall, the price and quality we earned for the money we paid, as well as Moseley’s product reputation and support, gave us a reliable STL that does precisely what we need. Now, if Moseley gives us a complete manual with all the answers in one place, I will be a very satisfied camper.
The Moseley Starlink SL9003QHP-8SLAN is a wonderful choice for your multi-channel HD operation or simply for transmitting audio to stations.
Radio World user reports are testimonial articles designed for readers to see why a colleague chose a specific product to solve a technical situation.
For more information, contact Bill Gould at 805-968-9621 ext. 785, send an email to [email protected] or www.moseleysb.com.
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The eight-channel Moseley formula supports HD radio and provides peace of mind
The eight-channel Moseley formula supports HD radio and provides peace of mind