Whatever happened to WIPE?

 

@buzzkobb asked over on Twitter "...when will WIPE go on the air." Recent photos show two SteppIR beams on a tower at the Armstrong site in Alpine, New Jersey. Turms Tech, part of Turms Holdings, a subsidiary of Emcor Securities of New York has a construction permit and claims to have built a 10 kW DRM station. Is this it? Not sure that those antennas can handle 10kW so I'm certainly curious! Previously discussed over on SWLing Post.

As the World ‘Turms’ by Benn Kobb

Reprinted here by permission of the author. Thanks Benn!

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Subject: As the World ‘Turms’

It would seem like 2021 would end with no FCC action on the three mysterious entities requesting licenses under the umbrella of International Broadcasting, but likely involved in sending private messages to trading clients in Europe and Asia.

In fact there has been action, of a sort.

Two of those applicants are still waiting to receive construction permits. The third — Turms Tech, part of Turms Holdings, a subsidiary of Emcor Securities of New York — already has a construction permit and says it has built a 10 kW DRM station in New Jersey.

Turms requested callsign WIPE. It is so listed with the FCC. Turms has no license to operate this station. Yet.

The FCC is apparently not clear about whether Turms intends to use WIPE for conventional broadcasting — you know, the only type of transmission permitted under the FCC rules for such HF stations.

Turms originally told the FCC that it will engage in “broadcast and data services” and “broadcast of financial, economic news and data through distribution of programs generally prepared on the basis of requests by clients.”

Clear as mud. If broadcasting business news on shortwave to DRM receivers is profitable, you’d think that WTWW, WRMI, WBCQ, WWRB etc. would have discovered that years ago.

And what’s that about “data”? The FCC rules are plain that HFBC stations are for broadcasting to the public. There is no exemption to that requirement whether the broadcast is audio for listening or data for decoding.

So to clarify the issues, on Dec. 3, 2021 five FCC staff members asked WIPE’s consulting engineer if he could answer a few questions.

He couldn’t, at the time. Quoting from a record of that online meeting: “The information being sought was clarification of certain general non-technical items that will be possibly proposed by the pending shortwave operation. These type of items or clarifications are not normally items that this [engineering] firm would be knowledgeable.”

Presumably after consulting with his client Turms, he later provided FCC with these answers:

– – –

Q: Clarification is requested regarding the audio and data content of the general service to be provided, if known?

A: Airtime will be sold to anyone interested in broadcasting his contents. Editorial line will focus on contemporary topics, no religious or political contents. More specifically the target we’re looking for is global news and financial information, CNBC style programs.

Q: Will encryption be used in the transmitted signal?

A: No encryption will be used, this is a general broadcast.

Q. Will there be a contract for reception of the signal required?

A. No contract will be required for the reception.

Q. Will a DRM receiver be required for either or both the audio or the data?

A. A DRM receiver will be required for both audio and data.

Q. Will the proposed transmitter site receive other international HF signals to be rebroadcast on the intended operation?

A. No.

– – –

The FCC’s question about contract is especially pertinent, as the FCC considers broadcasting to require no contract between transmitting and receiving parties. A private data operation would involve such a contract, usually for some kind of subscription or other fee for service.

So what should we believe? WIPE will not engage in private data communications, but will instead pursue a sketchy business plan?

On December 23, 2021, RF engineer Alex Pilosov submitted a detailed objection — his second — to the TURMS application. According to Pilosov, “the directors and officers of TURMS do not claim any broadcasting experience, but certainly have substantial business experience, and are aware of the business of trading and data transmission.

“What TURMS claims,” he told the FCC, “is that a company without any experience in broadcasting decides to construct the first International Broadcast station in 20 years dedicated to ‘financial news’ programming, and ‘data broadcast to the general public,’ foregoing any subscription revenues, but somehow able to recoup the setup costs by broadcast operations alone.

“The second possibility, apparent from digging into the facts and associated entities, is that TURMS instead lacked candor in its filings, and that its application for ‘International Broadcast’ is merely a pretext for private data transmission business.”

If and when WIPE goes on the air — on 9.65, 11.850, 13.720 and 15.450 MHz — DRM monitoring by the SWL community should help establish the facts about any possible encrypted or otherwise non-public, non-broadcast emissions from this station.

Benn Kobb

Radio Engineer Files Objection to WIPE

Story by Bennett Kobb:

On September 3, radio engineer Alex Pilosov of Shortwave Solutions filed with the FCC an objection to WIPE, the DRM-based HF station of Turms Tech of New York, presumed to be ready to broadcast from the Armstrong Tower in Alpine, NJ.

WIPE is suspected to be intended mainly for secret, non-broadcast message transmission for private trading clients while broadcasting financial and economic news for the public.

WIPE is not yet operational. The station is waiting on its FCC license, but Pilosov took aim at possible glitches in its license application. He also raises the issue of whether U.S. shortwave stations can legally conduct non-public telecommunications in the broadcast bands in a service limited to broadcasting.

Pilosov is a consultant to HF stations in the Experimental Radio Service, which are not constrained by the broadcast rules; thus he or his clients are prospective competitors to WIPE. This is Pilosov's second FCC objection. He also filed against the application of Parable Broadcasting for WPBC, a DRM HF station proposed for Batavia, IL.

As mentioned in our previous story on WIPE, Turms Tech submitted to the FCC two different locations for its transmitter site, one in New Jersey and one in New York City. The company apparently did not supply an antenna registration for this site, which would have helped resolve the inconsistency.

He identified further possible problems with the station's technical parameters. "Every component of transmission system proposed by Turms (coaxial line, amplifier and antenna) is under-rated and inadequate to meet the minimum power requirements," he found, leading to possible violations of safety codes and hazards from overheating and arcing.

Where Turms specified a six-element antenna, the manufacturer described a four-element antenna; where the company depicted two antennas, its other exhibits apparently show a single antenna. Pilosov added that the company's claimed antenna gain is less than indicated by the antenna manufacturer, and the antenna is rated for less power than the minimum power the FCC requires of these stations.

"Due to location and orientation of antenna, it appears that Turms is planning to transmit financial data using 'datacasting' feature of DRM, like recent application by Parable Broadcasting in Illinois," Pilosov wrote. "Turms does not explicitly describe whether such programming is 'broadcast to general public' or effectively a point-to-point service as a 'multiplex' carrier of other programming. It is well-established that 'broadcasting' only includes transmissions intended to, and received by, the general public."

He cited the FCC's description of DRM datacasting as a "wide-area" service, which would not describe point-to-point communication to specific receivers at fixed locations. In a TV-related proceeding, the FCC defined non-broadcast services as requiring special equipment to receive and decode, and  including a contractual relationship between provider and receiver.

The three filings against Turms/WIPE and Parable/WPBC -- two from Pilosov, and one, submitted by the High-Frequency Parties (Christopher Rumbaugh, Kim Elliot and Bennett Kobb) against Parable -- raise substantive issues. We have no indication yet, however, that the FCC will address them, or do anything but routinely grant the licenses and carry on with the U.S. HF broadcasting service as it has for the more than half-century it has existed.

Questions Remain as New HF Stations Wait for Licenses

Here is the story by Bennett Kobb:

As previously reported here at DRMNA.info, the New York company Turms Tech LLC has applied to the FCC for a license for International Broadcast Station WIPE in New Jersey. The license would cover a station already built under a FCC Construction Permit, and would allow it to begin regular operations.

The FCC announced on August 13, 2020 that this license application was accepted for filing, a routine stage at which the FCC examines the application, and might even visit the station, and if everything is in order it will be licensed.

We're not sure everything is in order. The application for Construction Permit placed the transmitter site at N 40° 57' 40.38", W 73° 55' 23.97", the broadcast and communications center surrounding the famous Armstrong Tower at Alpine NJ. Its Application for License, however, specifies N 40° 51' 40", W 73° 55' 23". (Hat tip to Alex P for noting this discrepancy. More about him below.)

While the substitution of 51 for 57 in the coordinates might seem a simple typo, the FCC typically has no sense of humor about coordinate errors. Commission examiners may wonder why a station intended for a historic radio-TV facility ended up among some Manhattan apartments.

The deeper question with WIPE and another, apparently similar station WPBC, is what these stations are really for and what that means for the FCC Rules. WIPE was extremely vague about its program plans, but told the FCC that it will transmit data obtained from third parties using Digital Radio Mondiale. Putting that tidbit together with exposures in a series of public articles in the media and tech blogs, it would seem that audio programming will not be the central mission of this peculiarly named station, whose principal is a financial executive and forestry entrepreneur without any broadcast experience we could find.

We suspect instead that the WIPE data stream will be used not for broadcasting to the public -- the only function permitted to International Broadcast Stations under FCC Rules -- but instead will be used for private communication with foreign exchanges for high-speed trading.

We know of no other justification for investing millions in a new U.S. shortwave radio station when several already exist and would probably appreciate new customers. Unfortunately for the putative DRM broadcaster, the FCC Rules have never permitted anything but open, transparent HF broadcast operations. While one FCC rule does allow shortwave "datacasting", it is only in the context of broadcasting. An example of broadcast datacasting would be Shortwave Radiogram, the successor program to VOA Radiogram which has been experimenting with data modes over AM transmitters for several years.

International data messaging under contract to private clients with receivers at specific fixed locations, on the other hand, is not broadcasting to the public under any reasonable interpretation of the rules. There was an International Fixed Service years ago, but the FCC closed it for lack of interest, probably supplanted by undersea cable and satellites. Thus both the prospective licensee and the FCC have a problem.

As suggested in previous FCC filings by Christopher Rumbaugh, Kim Elliott and Bennett Kobb -- the "High-Frequency Parties" -- the FCC could start to resolve the dilemma with a public inquiry into U.S. HF broadcasting, or actions to update the rules to permit non-broadcast operations in shortwave broadcast bands. Those rules could surely use a fresh look. They've seen little change since the 1930s when the U.S. first permitted private parties to broadcast to foreign audiences.

But those would be public FCC actions. Very little about WIPE has been public. The principal of Turms Tech declined to answer questions about the station, as did his engineer and the company that operates the Alpine tower site. While we wait for FCC action, and sit by our receivers anticipating Wonderful WIPE, more curious developments surround the similar, but as yet unbuilt station WPBC at Batavia IL, proposed by Parable Broadcasting of Norfolk VA.

After the High-Frequency Parties argued that Parable provided insufficient information to the FCC about its possible non-broadcast operations -- whatever audible radio shows WPBC may transmit on top --another party has filed an objection to the WPBC application for Construction Permit. Alexander Pilosov of Shortwave Solutions is an engineer involved in high-frequency trading by radio in the Experimental Radio Service. The ERS is not a public broadcast service and is not limited by the HF broadcast rules.

Pilosov told the FCC, "Parable submitted no evidence how the data it plans to transmit can be decoded by the general public, without use of special equipment." Nor did it submit any evidence as to the kind of data it intends to transmit, he argued.

He wrote that Parable appears to read a previous FCC ruling permitting datacasting "as a permission to offer non-broadcast, private, point-to-point services over the HF broadcast bands." If the FCC intended to permit non-broadcast use, he contends, it would have stated so in a far more explicit manner such as altering the Table of Frequency Allocations.

Will these concerns give the FCC pause, and delay or even deny licenses to Turms Tech and Parable Broadcasting? Will it inquire further into private HF datacomms and decide that these don't really qualify as broadcasts?

On the other hand, maybe the FCC will snooze through the matter and allow the two newest shortwave stations on the air as is, leaving listeners to wonder what goes on beneath the surface. Whatever the outcome, shortwave radio is about to get a lot more interesting.

Turms Tech station in NJ completed

The Turms Tech project (not yet licensed but to be known as WIPE) appears on track with construction having been completed 21 June 2020. 

They will be using Italian made VTE s.r.l. DRM Icon amplifiers operating at 10 kW. They list the antenna as SteppIR DB36 (rated at 3kW). Frequencies are stated to be 9650 kHz, 11850 kHz, 13720 kHz and 15450 kHz. Mode is listed as DRM with emission designator 10K0G7W (which is consistent with 10kHz DRM).

As we have previously reported, it will be interesting to see if there is latency arbitrage payload. Previous calls and emails to this organization were not returned. Your admin will again be attempting contact for clarification.

Again with the DRM and a "bonus" arbitrage payload

Yet again, another arbitrage shortwave plan, this one from Batavia Illinois.

Brother Zyg says this smells like what we have already seen with WINB and the never-developed Turms Tech project. Brother Benn says "Arbitrage shortwave transmission is not broadcasting as defined in Part 73F for International Broadcast Stations."

Religious investment? I like the TCI wire Log. They can divert that to my acreage!

FCC issues Turms Tech LLC construction permit

Inquiries to Turms Tech LLC headquarters go un-returned. Permit here. See previous report about this station.

FCC construction application for DRM transmitter in New Jersey

Turms Tech LLC has applied for a license for a 10 kW DRM transmitter to be located in Alpine, New Jersey with the antenna on an existing radar tower. We will report further on this as information is available, but at this point it looks like their target is Europe and the Middle East with "broadcast and data".

This tower is adjacent to the famous "Armstrong Tower" used by Edwin Armstrong during the early days of modern FM radio. Thanks to our astute DRM Brother Benn for this historic tidbit!

The complete application can be found here.