[SBE] In Need of Mentoring

[Stu Casteel]

I'll add my two cents here, although I've not been involved in the day to
day operation of a broadcast facility for some time and other than some
post flood repair a few years ago haven't been in a radio facility in a
few decades I still consider myself a broadcast engineer (one of my labs
is in a Tx manufacturing facility and I still drive a 4wd with a winch -
chainsaw, boots and gloves in the back)

but stop to consider the current state of the world, besides call letter
stations with a stick in the backyard or on the hill, there is
"broadcasting" via satellite, there is content distribution through cable
and IPTV systems and of course YouTube - Hulu and now cell phones

with rare exception these days component level repair is a thing of the
past (except for those working at PBS stations ;->) although you would be
surprised at the number of automated functions in state of the art MPEG
systems that depend on GPI/O and diode 'OR' circuits for interface

to survive as something useful engineering wise these days consider the
depth and breadth of what we deal with

Frequency range from DC to beyond daylight
power levels from Pico to Mega Watts
general purpose computers forced in to broadcast usage to purpose built
number crunchers, operating systems that span the history of 'puters that
range from 'user indifferent' to 'user hostile'
modulation schemes from simple AM and FM to 8VSB, COFDM. QPSK/8PSK, QAM
(32 to 256) DVB-S2 to name a few

Baseband Audio and Video in all their nuanced glory - despite what some
folks tell you the real world and our basic interface to sights and sounds
is ANALOG - then, when you really mess it up there is Digital - oh, once
its 'bits' TCP/IP is the easiest way to move it about - except when it
comes to audio and video in realtime - something the bit packers &
shippers of the world have been learning - Oh, and once its bits they take
up way too much 'space' so, here comes compression in an ever growing
number of methods and standards along with multiplexing and all the other
bits (SI/PSI/PSIP) that allow you to find the audio and video bits (deep
breath) and that doesn't touch on interfacing to automation, traffic and
billing

and all I've noted above just reflects my path through the years

"Broadcast engineering" is a very broad brush

Stu