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Flying radio station broadcasts help to Haiti
Jan 27, 2010 
San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Sixty miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, an Air Force C-130 makes slow and lazy ovals over the Golfe de la Gonzave, a 264-foot weighted wire dangling from its belly like a plumb line.
This is Commando Solo, a radio station in the sky. The long wire, kept vertical by a 500-pound lead weight, is helping transmit an AM radio signal to the people of Haiti. Four other antenna on the wings and fuselage are sending FM signals.
The U.S. government is using Commando Solo to deliver news and information to the survivors of the January 12 earthquake. During much of the day, the plane relays live broadcasts of Voice of America news call-in shows in Creole, the native tongue of Haiti.
Read more from CNN |
Why TV Needs To Keep Its Spectrum
By Harry A. Jessell
TVNewsCheck, Jan 19 2010, 8:14 AM ET
Last October, FCC broadband czar Blair Levin set off alarm bells throughout the TV broadcasting industry by floating the idea of shifting some spectrum from broadcasting to providers of wireless broadband access. Although TV stations would be compensated for any spectrum they gave up under the Levin scheme, the industry quickly made it clear that it wasn't interested.
Others, notably the Consumer Electronics Association and the CTIA (the wireless lobby), have endorsed reallocating broadcast spectrum, affirming the FCC's assessment that the nation will soon run out of spectrum for wireless broadband and that the "inefficient" broadcast service was a good place to find more. READ MORE |
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