If you have been listening to WSDL, 90.7 FM for the past week, you have most likely heard something like this:
Instead of “Broadcasting from the campus of Salisbury University”…..you hear.
“Broa---from---the camp---of—University”.
You are hearing what we call “drop- outs”. It is extremely annoying and frustrating; both for you the listener and us here at Delmarva Public Radio.
Why the Drop-Outs?
If you remember, when Delmarva Public Radio was housed in Caruthers Hall, we had a large tower located near the rear of the building . Contrary to popular belief, that was not our broadcast tower. What it did have on it were two large microwave dishes called “studio transmitter links” (STL’s). One STL beamed our signal to a radio tower in Seaford, Delaware (WSCL, 89.5) while the other beamed the signal to a radio tower in Roxana, Delaware (WSDL, 90.7). Reception equipment at both sites then took the signal, fed it into our transmitters, out the broadcast antenna, into your radio and ultimately your ears.
When Delmarva Public Radio moved to our temporary location on Salisbury University’s East Campus, we had a slight problem; no tower to carry the studio transmitter links. The only way to fix the problem was to carry the signal from studio to transmitter site via an internet device. You place one internet box (we call them “Barix Boxes”) at your studio, set the correct IP address, bit rate, encoding, etc. Next, you place another at the transmitter site and configure it to talk to the studio internet box. Viola! Through the magic and power of the internet, the signal goes to the tower, the transmitter, the broadcast antenna, your radio, and into your ears.
Yes, yes, yes, all well and good….but what about the drop outs?
That’s the problem. You know how aggravating it can be when you want to watch the latest kitten video on YouTube and it freezes or buffers halfway through? The same thing is happening with our internet connection to the transmitter site. For some reason, which we are trying very hard to discover, the internet link gets into a bit of a traffic jam and…drops out. You may have even noticed a little computer noise gleep sound from time to time after the drop out.
So what are you doing about it?
Having an annoying and recurring audio problem is no fun, for both you and us. Having an annoying and recurring audio problem the week of a membership drive, when our staff is already dashing madly about trying to get everything ready, is even worse.
That being said, we are doing everything possible to track down and hopefully remove whatever it is that is causing the internet traffic jam that in turn causes the drop outs you have been hearing.
It could be a problem with the Barix Box. It could be a problem with the modem at the transmitter site. It could be a problem with the particular network we are on, or the service provider, or some digital router somewhere between Salisbury University and Roxanna, Delaware. It might even be something going on inside our studio. As you can see, tracking down the source and finding a solution is no simple task.
Is there any good news?
Yes. The internet delivery method of our signal is only temporary. At some point in the not-too-distant future, we will be returning to the more-reliable STL method of delivery.
As always, thank you for your patience and understanding as we strive to deliver the best public radio service we can to you, our loyal listeners.
