RF products

In making my way across the convention floor this year, the common line I heard from many vendors was they didn't have anything new that they were showing this year. While the quantity of new products this year may not have been as high as in previous years, the quality of these products and concepts was certainly equal to or better than in previous years.

Beginning with transmitters, I had never heard of a company called Astre Systems, and you probably haven't either, but I suspect in the years to come this will all change. If you didn't get by to see their new DIGITALplus transmitter, you missed out on one of the better products at the show. At the heart of this transmitter is the new CEA tube from Northrop Grumman (formerly Litton), which varies both voltage and current, resulting in efficiencies twice that of IOTs or klystrons. The Astre design approaches the crowbar differently and, as a result, does not have the long periods of downtime associated with a trip. These features are combined with a multilingual sound-enhanced GUI.

A new low-power transmitter named Ranger was introduced by Harris this year. This platform is of the low-power solid-state type, which will allow broadcasters to migrate to high power while minimizing their initial investment. The Ranger contains many components utilized in its bigger brothers, and is available in 460 W or 900 W ratings.

Thales had a similar new product on display this year, the Affinity. Available in six power levels ranging from 50 W to 1 kW, this new solid-state transmitter has a decent efficiency, and a small footprint. Because of its low cost, it provides an effective interim solution for DTV conversion, or can serve as a standby.

Acrodyne, now known as Ai, has undergone a significant face-lift in recent years. On display this year were the Quantum series IOT transmitters for both analog and digital applications. These transmitters provide full legal power outputs and come with an integrated remote control system. They also had available the Rohde & Schwarz solid-state transmitter line, which has the ability to migrate to a high-powered quantum series at a later date.

NEC was displaying its Versatile series transmitter, which combines broadband solid-state amplification with a frequency agile exciter. One transmitter can operate at a range of frequencies in either the UHF or VHF band. Their DTU and DTV series of transmitters were also shown. These are available in six configurations ranging from 500 W to 9 kW for COFDM or 8-VSB service.

Axcera had on display this year an updated version of its VHF Innovator DT solid-state transmitter, and is introducing this year a low-power DTV transmitter system designed with future upgrades in mind. This low-power system uses LDMOS power amps and the Axcera DT25B broadband exciter. Finally from Axcera, their DTValue product was on display. This transmission system occupies a single rack, and is available in power levels from 250 W to 3 kW.

Andrew has two new solutions for DTV or auxiliary NTSC uses. The first, the AL8 series antenna, is a cost-effective, lightweight and low maintenance solution for meeting the Commission's minimal DTV facility requirements, and for use by low-power NTSC operators. The antennas in this series are horizontally polarized UHF antennas designed to handle 10 kW digital or 23 kW analog. With this antenna, ERP levels of up to 450 kW digital and 1 MW analog can be achieved. Multichannel and directional versions of this particular antenna are also available.

The second antenna from Andrew is the Trasar LT which, depending on patterns and gain, can be up to 80 percent lighter and reduce wind load by up to 52 percent over standard antennas. It has a shorter delivery time.

In my wrap-up of the show last year, I mentioned the TUV-H antenna from Dielectric. Well, the boys in Maine did it again this year. Dielectric has rounded out the product line with the introduction of the TUV-M and TUV-H antennas, which allow users to operate VHF and UHF in the same aperture with one antenna, and either directional or omnidirectional patterns for the UHF band. The TUV-L antenna allows operation of Channel 2 or 3 with a UHF channel, while the TUV-M antenna is designed for use by channels 4 through 6 and a UHF channel. With Dielectric's other transmission line products, it is also possible to eliminate the second transmission line run.

New this year from Electronics Research (ERI) is a side-mount TV antenna. ERI's new antenna is designed for low- and medium-power applications and is intended for use on a single, user-specified channel. The antenna is designed with lightweight aluminum construction, and has a single-piece radome for effective weatherproofing. ERI will also provide pattern studies for on-structure pattern effects.

MYAT has introduced a number of filters this year, among them the Mercury series for low-power UHF and VHF use, the Double Barrel DTV mask filter and single-tube DTV mask filters for medium-power use, and the multiple tube DTV mask for high-power applications. All are available in mild or sharp tuned rejection requirements, and have small footprints to conserve transmitter room space.

Dielectric had on display their version of the UHF low-power DTV mask filter, which has input ratings of up to 4 kW average, and 1 5/8-inch EIA I/O connectors. Also from Dielectric is the UHF triple-mode constant impedance DTV mask filter. Through their design, two square waveguide cavities provide for the implementation of a six-section filter. Dielectric also had on display their Unitized UHF DTV coaxial RF system, which includes the filter, patch panel, directional couplers and station load on a single frame for either floor- or ceiling-mount configurations.

Andrew augmented their line of filters this year by introducing a low-power UHF harmonic filter. Their version features 60 dB rejection at the second and third harmonics, has 1 5/8 inputs, and handles power ratings of up to 5 kW average. Other new offerings include a DTV triple-mode filter and a low-power tunable filter. The triple-mode filter is Andrew's compact, medium-power filter. The low-power tunable filter preserves capital investment of the broadcaster by providing frequency agility. The filter can be retuned to any channel in the UHF band should the allocation of the station change in the future.

There were other notable products that didn't fit in the transmitter or RF systems areas. MRC had some new products on display, one of which is the REPORTER, a wireless camera-mounted transmitter with inboard COFDM and MPEG with remote control software. Also from MRC this year is the STRATA portable microwave radio. STRATA is user-configurable and remote-controllable.

CPI's Eimac division had on display a new IOT, the K2D150, which achieves 150 kW peak and 37 kW average power in DTV service. On the analog side of things, they are rolling out the K2100W, which has 100 kW peak-of-sync output for visual-only use.

So while I heard many times “we don't have anything new this year,” those vendors and manufacturers who did have something new offered some innovative products that will continue to revolutionize our industry as we move forward with the transition to digital.

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