RF Shorts – Feb. 3, 2011

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  • •Remember the Cydle M7 Internet tablet with built in ATSC mobile DTV receiver that I was excited to see CES 2010? Last month Cydle filed for FCC equipment authorization, but the manuals I saw after doing an FCC Equipment Authorization Search using grantee code YXQ in the first search box made no mention of ATSC mobile DTV capability in the M7. The article Cydle M7 MultiPAD Android tablet hits the FCC notes that the company "actually promised to release the Cydle M7 for $199 during the second quarter of 2010 with an integrated ATSC TV tuner. That never happened, and now it looks like all mention of the TV tuner has been dropped from the product page and the user manual." Without the ATSC Mobile DTV tuner, there's little reason to recommend the device over a wide range of other tablets in the sub $200 price range with better specifications. (See Slatedroid.com and new low cost tablets with Android 2.3 like those shown by Coby at CES this year. It looks like we'll have to wait for ATSC Mobile DTV in new versions of the Samsung and Dell tablets.
  • •American Tower Corporation (ATC) announced this week that it has deployed and is now operating its first 700 MHz LTE MIMO in-building distributed antenna system network at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas. ATC has over 200 in-building and outdoor DAS. I look forward to testing mobile DTV signals on one of these systems.
  • •I seldom link to photos in this section, but I found one this week I had to include. A photograph in the Daily Mail article The curious phenomenon of the new Northern Lights: Optical illusion caused by ice crystals in the Yorkshire night sky shows pillars of light near the Emley Moor tower, the UK's tallest free-standing structure at 1,083 feet. I had a chance to visit the Emily Moor tower when visiting Varian-TVT more than 20 years ago. At antenna, transmitters and other equipment was still being installed in it. It was an impressive structure then (inside and out) and looks impressive now in this photo.
Doug Lung
Doug Lung
Contributor

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.