December 2020 - Clay’s Corner Providing news and views from a broadcast engineers perspective since September 1986 As the old-saying goes…"It’s all over but the shouting". I’m, of course, talking about the elections. A couple of observations: My email address was used by both political parties to the extent that about 50% of my incoming email was political (almost worse than robo- calls). One more time the Pollsters are being questioned regarding their methods and accuracy in predicting the future. The system in the U.S., whereby States control their election mechanisms, and the system that lets the States determine who gets their votes for President is still poorly understood. Many, apparently, feel who gets elected is determined by the ‘Decision- Desk’ at the major networks. In many cases, lawyers will be the ones still making money from the process. Regardless of the outcome, we still have COVID-19 to deal with. Meanwhile….the COVID situation has gone from bad to worse with new cases setting records. The timing was interesting. First we heard good news about a new Vaccine that got our hopes up. We thought, ‘The light at the end of the tunnel’ was real, just to discover that it was the Governor, with a flashlight, telling us to go back to hunkering down a while longer. For reasons that will likely entertain professionals who deal with human behavior, rumors that we might be in for more restrictions, once again set off a ‘Toilet Paper Frenzy’. Pretty much proves the theory that if you have to stay at home and hunker down, it’s OK to run out of food…but NOT TP! On the 16th came the good news, as the second firm announced that their Corona virus vaccine is about 95% effective. While I was driving through Port Angeles recently, I spotted this item on a ‘reader-board’ which I thought was good enough to share: ‘WEARING A MASK IS NOT A POLITICAL STATEMENT, ITS AN I.Q. TEST’ Many are likely to believe that this situation we find ourselves in is the first time in history. As we all like to do this time of year, look ahead into the new year. Whereas it appears that 2021 will be the year that we will be able to be vaccinated against this horrible virus. Here are some things that I’ve been thinking about. Whereas I’m an ‘Old-Duffer’, perhaps I will be close behind Healthcare Workers and others on the front lines and be eligible fairly soon? How will we identify those who have been ‘poked’ from those that have not? Will we have ID cards issued by some authority that we will carry? I suspect that Airlines etc. will be coming out with a policy that requires evidence that you have been vaccinated, called a ‘Health Passport’. What about sporting events? Will we be able to go to a game? Will they, somehow, screen those who wish to attend, to make sure that only the vaccinated get in. Will broadcasters who are heavy into sports (ESPN etc.) be able to make a comeback? I suspect there is a lot of pent-up demand here. Broadcast Stations and Print Media have been running tons of items encouraging us to ‘Mask-Up’. Will they start encouraging us to get vaccinated? What are we to do with those who refuse to get it? Will they be excluded from certain locations and activities? Will these people be the same as those who refused to wear a mask and were rejecting the idea of government, at any level, telling them what to do? What will you do if a co-worker refuses? What will your employer do? What about those businesses, including broadcasters? Will they permit those who have had their shots to come back to their former place of employment? I suspect, these are just a few of the questions that we will all be asking early in the New Year. The list of cancellations is long. I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that this year there will not be an Apple Cup because some Cougars tested positive. Every organization is anxious to get back to normal. As we get deeper into the year, and (hopefully) vaccinations ramp up, we will start to see organizers announce their event – will – be held. I could not help but notice that the gathering of Hams in Seaside Oregon has their fingers crossed that they will be able to gather the first weekend in June…SEA-PAC. Note their Convention Theme. "Out of the Darkness; Into the Light" We can hope! NAB in Vegas in 2021? Every once in a while there is a bit of good news in these days of gloom. On the 18th the FAA announced that the 737 Max, built right here in Renton, can fly again. Now, if we can just whip this virus and get everyone vaccinated so the airlines will have passengers and will want new airplanes. I noted that Alaska just announced they will be one of the first to fly the Max by leasing a number of them. They also said they would be eliminating a number of the Airbus aircraft that came with their purchase of Virgin Atlantic. All good news for the folks in Renton. We are now, apparently, in WWBWD Mode. Translation, "Wonder What Biden Will Do". Broadcasters will do, as they have historically done in times like these, is wonder what the new administration will do that will impact broadcasting. I doubt the Government could inflict more harm that is being experienced at the hands of COVID-19. Topics like, Net Neutrality and Media Ownership could be areas where changes might be made. We will see…. It’s always great to see a national publication do a story about a facility in your home-town, especially when it’s a station that you have been associated with for many years. In this case it’s Radio World and KING-FM. Take a look: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headline/king-fm-studios-hit- the-high-notes Should also mention Radio World did a write up about KARR using a cellular pole as an AM Radiator, giving credit to Jim Dalke and Hatfield and Dawson. In other local happenings: If you look up at West Tiger you will notice that the Twin Tower ATC site is now sporting LED Lighting. Easy to spot as those beacons quickly go on and off. Joe Harrington and crew have been wrapping up that project. KIRO-FM just completed conversion to an Accel Net provided IP network to connect their transmitters on Cougar and West Tiger at the same time they upgraded to a new Remote Control system. Work is being done that may lead to the return to the air of KMIA in Auburn. Recently a wrote about how I suspected that many firms would discover that having their employees work from home was – now – a good idea. In the past, requests to work from home were often met with a rejection of the idea. After all, the boss wants to make sure that you are working, etc. Just recently, State Farm, who built a very nice regional office facility in DuPont, announced that they were going to close the place and make working from home a permanent situation. Not good news for the little town of DuPont, I’m sure. Hafta think that the price of commercial office space is coming down. Meanwhile, house prices in Washington and BC continue to climb. One way to look at it, that for some, the money they were spending on gas to commute can go to housing. A strange new world for sure. I suspect that a year from now, a lot of what was ‘normal’ will be gone forever. You are not alone if you were wondering why in the world we set our clocks back a hour when we all voted to stay on Daylight Time. The fact is, the whole West Coast (BC through California) are in agreement here. There is one piece of the puzzle left to get this to happen. The U.S. Congress needs to put this on the President's desk. Something that they, apparently, have been unable, or unwilling, to do. Perhaps considering the dysfunction in the ‘other Washington’ this is not surprising. We can only hope that this issue will be dealt with by the time that we are asked to set our clocks forward in the Spring. It's that time of the year. Local stations are gleefully showing snow in the passes on their news programs. Ralph Sims from AccelNet posted this picture from one of their Tiger Mountain Web Cams on November 10th. Come to think of it, didn’t we have snow in the Seattle area last November? As happens at this time of year, the weather warmed and this early snow melted away. Proving that November is indeed one of our ‘stormy months’, I encountered this at Cougar Mt. on the morning of the 13th. Nice day for a walk to my destination. I received an email, with attached picture from long-time friend Pete Policani: “Hello Clay, just came across this the other day. Brings back a lot of memories. Probably aren’t too many in existence’. Pete was my predecessor at KMO when I went to work there in May of 1966. I was happy to inform him that I have one of these. As predicted in my last column, on Oct.