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> Cable Systems CAN NOT hide behind an annual certification test on Signal
Leakage Compliance
> for not repairing a signal leak in excess of the FCC allowance of 20
microvolts/meter at a distance of 30 feet.
Nor can they hide behind the cumulative leakage test *or* the 20uV/m if a
smaller leak causes harmful interference.
If anyone is having problems with cable TVI, first download the articles at:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/catvi/index.html
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/catvi/index.html>
Then try to resolve the problem with your cable company. If that does not
work out, contact rfi@arrl.org <mailto:rfi@arrl.org> . John Phillips,
k2qai@arrl.org <mailto:k2qai@arrl.org> , will offer advice and if the cable
company appears to be not responding correctly, he will forward the case to
Ron Hranac, N0IVN. Ron serves on both the ARRL RFI Task Group and the
Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Board of Directors, so he is
known in the cable industry. Ron usually knows the senior level staff to
contact at each cable company to get some positive results.
73,
Ed Hare, W1RFI
ARRL Lab
225 Main St
Newington, CT 06111
Tel: 860-594-0318
Internet: w1rfi@arrl.org
Web: http://www.arrl.org/tis <http://www.arrl.org/tis>
-----Original Message-----
From: pringle50@home.com [mailto:pringle50@home.com]
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2001 9:56 AM
To: rfi@contesting.com
Cc: wb3fsr@home.com
Subject: [RFI] Cable TV Signal Leakage (Long but hopefully helpful)
There have been numerous posts on this reflector concerning signal leakage
from a Cable TV System some of which are not entirely accurate and some
contain assumptions. Perhaps this is a good time to clarify the situation
with regard to the FCC Rules.
Cable TV Systems in most cases use frequencies to transmit their programming
through their outside cable plant that are primarily assigned to other
entities, some of which are primarily assigned to amateur radio. The Cable
Companies are allowed to use these frequencies IF and ONLY IF they comply
with the FCC Rules relative to signal leakage. Briefly a cable TV systems
is suppose to be a closed loop system if properly engineered, installed and
maintained and signals should be able to be distributed to customers so that
they can enjoy the entertainment of cable TV and other users of the spectrum
that cable is using on a secondary basis can be utilized by the primary
licensed service.
The FCC rules relative to signal leakage are very, very clear and have no
room for ambiguity or misunderstanding by competent technical persons. A
small amount of leakage is allowed but basically 20 microvolts/meter at a
distance of 30 feet from the leakage point is the dividing line. Leakage in
excess of this amount is a violation of the FCC Rules and require that the
offending cable system correct in a very timely manner. Failure of the
Cable System to correct could very well lead to a citation by the FCC
ordering that the leakage be fixed or that the frequencies used that are
within the spectrum considered aeronautical could be shutoff until the Cable
Operator corrects the signal leakage problem.
The FCC requires that once per year and on an annual basis, each cable
system utilizing frequencies in the aeronautical spectrum must certify to
the FCC that the respective system complies with the FCC Rules relative to
signal leakage. The FCC allows the cable system to certify by (1)a flyover
were an aircraft equipped with suitable calibrated receiving equipment
flyover the entire system measuring the field intensity of the leakage or
(2) a rideout of the entire cable plant including the headend utilizing
calibrated receiving equipment. The system simply will not pass if there
are any substantial number of leaks which one would anticipate on a system
not maintained properly.
The cable system can develop a leak at anytime at anyplace and accordingly
must be repaired in a reasonable time (few days) and CAN NOT wait until the
next annual certification to perform the leak correction. In any good Cable
System the service technicians have leakage detection equipment in the
service trucks and as the technicians go about the performance of their
installation and maintenance duties on a daily basis, log the leaks they
detect on the signal leakage equipment as well as their mileage run that day
and report them to the responsible technical person. These logs must be
available for inspection at anytime by the FCC. Using this approach the FCC
expects that the mileage tested in this fashion must equal or exceed 100% of
the total outside plant cable mileage EVERY QUARTER of the year. This is in
addition to the annual certification which is a stand alone test.
Cable Systems CAN NOT hide behind an annual certification test on Signal
Leakage Compliance for not repairing a signal leak in excess of the FCC
allowance of 20 microvolts/meter at a distance of 30 feet.
Be persistent in dealing with the technical staff of the local cable
operator until you get results. If you don't after giving them a reasonable
time to solve your problem, contact the Engineer-In-Charge of the nearest
FCC Office for his assistance.
Rest assured that Cable Systems would rather hear from you than have a pilot
flying overhead on a large signal leak in a system which would break the
squelch of his aeronautical radio/navigational equipment and report it
directly to the FAA and FCC. That gets the cable operator a visit EVERYTIME
from an FCC representative and into potential trouble and perhaps fines.
73,
J. Leon Pringle, Jr W 5 N A
E-Mail: w5na@mdxa.org <mailto:w5na@mdxa.org>
w5na@megagate.com <mailto:w5na@megagate.com>
pringle50@home.com <mailto:pringle50@home.com>
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<DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001>> </SPAN>Cable Systems CAN NOT hide
behind an annual certification test on Signal Leakage Compliance </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001>> </SPAN>for not repairing a signal leak
in excess of the FCC allowance of 20 microvolts/meter at a distance of 30
feet.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>Nor can
they hide behind the cumulative leakage test *or* the 20uV/m if a smaller leak
causes harmful interference.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>If
anyone is having problems with cable TVI, first download the articles
at:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><A
href="http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/catvi/index.html";>http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/catvi/index.html</A></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=4></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=540573618-17122001><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>Then
try
to resolve the problem with your cable company. If that does not work out,
contact <A href="mailto:rfi@arrl.org";>rfi@arrl.org</A>. John Phillips, <A
href="mailto:k2qai@arrl.org";>k2qai@arrl.org</A>, will offer advice and if the
cable company appears to be not responding correctly, he will forward the case
to Ron Hranac, N0IVN. Ron serves on both the ARRL RFI Task Group and the
Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Board of Directors, so he is
known
in the cable industry. Ron usually knows the senior level staff to contact at
each cable company to get some positive results.</FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>73,<BR>Ed Hare, W1RFI<BR>ARRL Lab<BR>225 Main
St<BR>Newington,
CT 06111<BR>Tel: 860-594-0318<BR>Internet: w1rfi@arrl.org<BR>Web: <A
target=_blank
href="http://www.arrl.org/tis";>http://www.arrl.org/tis</A><BR><BR></DIV></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid;
MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> pringle50@home.com
[mailto:pringle50@home.com]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, December 10, 2001 9:56
AM<BR><B>To:</B> rfi@contesting.com<BR><B>Cc:</B>
wb3fsr@home.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [RFI] Cable TV Signal Leakage (Long but
hopefully helpful)<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>There have been numerous posts on this reflector concerning signal
leakage from a Cable TV System some of which are not entirely accurate and
some contain assumptions. Perhaps this is a good time to clarify the
situation with regard to the FCC Rules.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cable TV Systems in most cases use frequencies to transmit their
programming through their outside cable plant that are primarily assigned to
other entities, some of which are primarily assigned to amateur radio.
The Cable Companies are allowed to use these frequencies IF and ONLY IF they
comply with the FCC Rules relative to signal leakage. Briefly a cable
TV
systems is suppose to be a closed loop system if properly engineered,
installed and maintained and signals should be able to be distributed to
customers so that they can enjoy the entertainment of cable TV and other
users
of the spectrum that cable is using on a secondary basis can be utilized by
the primary licensed service.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The FCC rules relative to signal leakage are very, very clear and have
no
room for ambiguity or misunderstanding by competent technical persons.
A
small amount of leakage is allowed but basically 20 microvolts/meter at a
distance of 30 feet from the leakage point is the dividing line.
Leakage
in excess of this amount is a violation of the FCC Rules and require that the
offending cable system correct in a very timely manner. Failure of the
Cable System to correct could very well lead to a citation by the FCC
ordering
that the leakage be fixed or that the frequencies used that are within the
spectrum considered aeronautical could be shutoff until the Cable Operator
corrects the signal leakage problem.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The FCC requires that once per year and on an annual basis, each cable
system utilizing frequencies in the aeronautical spectrum must certify to the
FCC that the respective system complies with the FCC Rules relative to signal
leakage. The FCC allows the cable system to certify by (1)a flyover
were
an aircraft equipped with suitable calibrated receiving equipment flyover the
entire system measuring the field intensity of the leakage or (2) a rideout
of
the entire cable plant including the headend utilizing calibrated receiving
equipment. The system simply will not pass if there are any substantial
number of leaks which one would anticipate on a system not maintained
properly. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The cable system can develop a leak at anytime at anyplace and
accordingly must be repaired in a reasonable time (few days) and CAN NOT wait
until the next annual certification to perform the leak correction. In
any good Cable System the service technicians have leakage detection
equipment
in the service trucks and as the technicians go about the performance of
their
installation and maintenance duties on a daily basis, log the leaks they
detect on the signal leakage equipment as well as their mileage run that day
and report them to the responsible technical person. These logs must be
available for inspection at anytime by the FCC. Using this approach the
FCC expects that the mileage tested in this fashion must equal or exceed 100%
of the total outside plant cable mileage EVERY QUARTER of the year.
This
is in addition to the annual certification which is a stand alone test.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cable Systems CAN NOT hide behind an annual certification test on Signal
Leakage Compliance for not repairing a signal leak in excess of the FCC
allowance of 20 microvolts/meter at a distance of 30 feet.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Be persistent in dealing with the technical staff of the local cable
operator until you get results. If you don't after giving them a
reasonable time to solve your problem, contact the Engineer-In-Charge of the
nearest FCC Office for his assistance. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Rest assured that Cable Systems would rather hear from you than have a
pilot flying overhead on a large signal leak in a system which would break
the
squelch of his aeronautical radio/navigational equipment and report it
directly to the FAA and FCC. That gets the cable operator a visit
EVERYTIME from an FCC representative and into potential trouble and perhaps
fines. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>73,</DIV>
<DIV>J. Leon Pringle, Jr W 5 N A </DIV>
<DIV>E-Mail: <A
href="mailto:w5na@mdxa.org";>w5na@mdxa.org</A></DIV>
<DIV>
<A href="mailto:w5na@megagate.com";>w5na@megagate.com</A></DIV>
<DIV>
<A href="mailto:pringle50@home.com";>pringle50@home.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
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