FM Micropower- ON THE AIR!!!

[terrydec]

The darned thing worked!! Building this kit was a LONG way from building a Heathkit. Serious dedication and concentration, plus lots of good coffee, was required. After tweaking the test point voltage to 9 V, I turned on the radio. There I was, right in the middle of 104.5. Of course, this is a kit, and I'm never going to sound like a commercial station, but it kicks on the 'Stereo" light, and the sound isn't too bad. Just fine for what I have in mind. This is where my background as a former radio personality, audio engineer, AND technician, will all come together to operate a nice local community radio station.
Because I'm using my "home-brew" ground plane, I'm going to do some serious testing on the multiband for any spurious radiation. Can't have that!
Tomorrow I'll cruise the neighborhood for distance.
Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. I know that at times I seemed to advocate unorthodox operation. Please understand that was just for discussion, and did promote a lively forum. Also, sometimes the most critical comments are the best advice.

"OLD LOUISVILLE COMMUNITY RADIO- CAN YOU HEAR IT?"

Thanks again-
Terry

[Kevin Kuehn]

Hi Terry-

Congrats on the kit working. I'm just curious...are you going to keep scheduled hours of operation with this community station? It sounds like a lot of work maintaining something like that single-handed.

Kevin

[terrydec]

In a way. I'm going to operate it like a real radio staion, but with limited hours of operation. If I wind up with the coverage I expect, I will have a potential audience of about 1,000 people. This is a close community with 4 different neighborhood associations. I've had calls all afternoon, and I only told about 10 people. My main goal was entertainment, like old radio shows and my own original humor. However, today I was approached to feature the plight of a local artist trying to save his collection, while being evicted. There is a Christmas tour of houses coming up, (some of these old one's are architectual history, ) and that committee wants to make announcements. There will be no donations accepted, except programing content, and NO advertising.
As I already stated, this will be a perfect hobby for me.
All station content will be pre-recorded, transfered to CD and played on a CD changer. There will be no live broadcasts. That is one way that I hope to avoid overmodulation problems. The secret, of course, will be the 25 watt amplifier- (JUST KIDDING!!)
The secret will be in the antenna. My search for the most efficient radiating device should provide some interesting comments. I'm going to clone the TM100, and build a "J" pipe.
So, wish me luck, I'll keep ya posted.
Now back to my favorite movie- "Pump up the Volume".
Terry

[Johnnysan]

Keep a camcorder handy. We would like to see a Youtube video of your 'radio station' being confiscated by the FCC.

[35Z5]

[Kevin Kuehn]

Tom- That’s a nice little setup you have there. You guys take this home broadcasting stuff pretty seriously. I guess I’m lucky to still have one local station that plays a variety of music throughout the day. The only other local station just recently converted to sports talk. Probably won't be long and there will be nothing for music.

You guys should put your stations on line so we can all listen via streaming audio.

Kevin

[35Z5]

Hi Kevin, I've found a little careful and patient shopping on C'list will net computers CHEAP... There's a $20 2.80Ghz Dell setting here on the floor behind me that has a DVD burner, and a $40 Compaq out in the garage(CD burner DVD/ROM in that one, as well as the one in the stereo)... That was the first one I bought, was yet to learn the patients part... Still it's feeding the 6888 and is presently on the air... Plus I gave my mom and older daughter computers to up grade their suffering '01-'02ish boxes...

Tom

[boogieman]

My "studio" is currently gutted to the bare studs. I'm going to redo it completely. It's only about a 4' by 5' closet in the corner of my shop that previously held paint, tile, and other "home improvement" stuff. I'm going to insulate it with multiple layers of styrofoam insulation, then put up foam over that for soundproofing.

When I'm finished, it'll hold studio and processing equipment for three stations. All three will be automated but can go live with the turn of a knob. I'll run the 2 FM's off my homebrew 4 pot, 2-buss console and the AM off my Altec 1592a remote mixer.

96.7 FM - "Basement Radio" - Classic Hits from the 60's - 90's

97.7 FM "Chill FM" - "Beautiful Music" from the 90's thru today

XXX AM - "Radio Boogie" Solid Gold Hits from 50's thru 80's

I'll post some pics when I get it done.

[terrydec]

I live at 4th and Hill, on the Northeast corner Johnny. Bring your friends around back to see the antenna- then come on upstairs for some coffee. I have a friend who makes movies for YouTube, so, yeah, I'll be posting some vids of how much fun I'm having.

Seriously, everythings nice and legal, and professional, around here. I duct-taped the "home-brew" ground plane to the fire escape and my friend in the next courtyard heard me loud and clear. I figure that a real antenna, up on the roof, which would be above every other building, should reach the 5 square blocks I'm trying for.

By the way, photos of my studio, my bench, dog and cat, my other hobby- photography, and the ground plane I threw together, can be seen at

www.myspace.com/terrydec
Click on "view my photos" and choose the appropriate album.

I would love to see someone start a forum, or thread or whatever- about broadcasting and the ways for low- power and even micro-power to EM-power people. There seems to be A LOT of interest-just from the comments generated by these posts-about this subject.

By a strange coincidence, I was contacted today about being the station manager for the LPFM station I've mentioned before, WXBH. Apparently they're tired of being run by a bunch of kids wanting to cuss on the air, and would like to be a REAL community station. Of course the whole thing has been run into the ground, and they're up to the top of their tower in debt, but it still shows that there ARE alternatives.
But for now, I'm gonna use my $600 microphone to record some promos and drop-ins for my new 1/4 watt radio station.
Cheers-
Terry

[terrydec]

Alternative???

www.terrydectyl.com

[boogieman]

Nice bench!! I used to have a similar setup back in the day but due to bad luck, it now consists of a pocket VOM, old Gates "gain set", soldering and desoldering irons and a PA amp and speaker. Somehow I lost some gear in a series of moves, and most got destroyed by fire while in storage at a friends house. So now I have to start over from scratch, and with no money, that's going to be nearly impossible.

Wonderful mikes! I had a Sennheiser MD 423 that also got lost. Now I have a bass drum mike (think it's a Behringer) and a beat up old EV nail pounder news mic. I also used to have an old chrome Stromberg Carlson that was a Shure 55 clone... I think someone waltzed off with that one.

So, I've got a tough road ahead of me getting my bench back to working order. What is sad is that people throw out gear I'd happily own every day. I've done the same myself, I could kick myself for some of the things I've discarded over the years.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Sounds like radio stations would have been a great place to do some dumpster diving back in the day The previous owner of WJMC 1240 AM here actually was a collector of old radios and broadcast gear. I doubt much was thrown out. He also took great care in assuring the audio quality of his stations while he owned them, he was a real radio guy. Then the evil empire showed up and everything became extremely over modulated. The previous owner retired in his 40’s.

Kevin

[terrydec]

I got my bench on eBay for about $300. I had sold some old radios I got working, so my friend suggested that I get into that a little more seriously. I keep an eye on eBay, visit thrift stores, etc. It’s a lot of fun. Of course, some of the equipt. needed repair, but that’s the joy of Heathkit. The manuals are available, and the stuff’s easy to fix.

I was talking to this guy from Ramsey this morning. By the way, the BIG FEDERAL BUST wasn’t about illegal transmitters at all. It was about covet surveillance devices.
Anyway- he said that there have been some significant changes in Part 15 in the past year or so. The main difference concerns field strength. There is a subsection, and you’d have to know where to look, that deals with “area” instead of “micro-volts per meter”.
After all of the usual ‘non-interference, lack of rights over commercial broadcasters, don’t bring airplanes out of the sky stuff’ it states that an area of “…several hundred acres could be covered”.
The main point is that your responsibility is to not interfere, cause disturbance or interruption, over a certain area, including houses and apartments. Inversely, according to him, that also infers that you can legally cover that area if you do NOT cause interference. Also, and this applies directly to what I’ve been saying- There ARE special circumstances, such as scout campgrounds, college campuses, and NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS, where, if a legitimate legal need can be provided, variances and waivers can be obtained for legal 1 watt and even 6 watt transmitters

The antenna goes up in a few minutes. It’s top-heavy. It’s windy, and I’m excited. Good combination. I’ll probably have to go get a heavier piece of PVC before the day’s over, if I don't go over the balcony first.
Wish me luck-
terry

“Old Louisville Community Radio- Can You Hear It?”

Check my link www.terrydectyl.com for some REAL alternative
entertainment. Also, I do have a bunch of vids on YouTube- search terrydec. Most of them are about Viacom and copyright. Now THAT's a whole other can of worms.
Cheers-
t.

[wrnewton]

Terry, I think you need a flashing red aircraft warning light on top of your antenna to make it real.

Reece

[terrydec]

NEVER ASSUME!!!!!

So, I spent all this time putting up poles, tieing in stringers and whipping around in the wind. Of course I'd duct-taped everything, which is good in the building, but not in the un-building.
TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT!!
The darned thing went further on the whip!
WHAT??? Last night it worked great!!!

Angry, frustrated. wind-burned- I tore it all down.
As I pulled off the last piece of duct tape that I'd sealed the base connections with, the center conductor pulled out of the feed line. All of the twisting in the wind had stressed the copper center wire.
AARRGGHH!!
Back to start-
Don't worry, I'm sticking the little transmitter modulation LED at the end of the mast. Shouldn't be hard to miss.
More of one man's journey to conquer the ether after this short pause-
t.

[35Z5]

[terrydec]

*YES*YES*YES*YES*YES*YES*YES*YES*-you get the idea.....
" A mistake not learned from, is time wasted twice"

I found about 20' of some Beldon RG 59 that has a copper braid, and a stranded copper center wire. I hooked it up to the antenna, draped it over some towels spread out on my fire escape, which of course is a couple of tons of iron, and fired it up.
Perfect signal for two solid blocks each way down the courtyard!!!
Now of course that's line of site, and I just did it to make my day a little better, but at least my little "Kaintucky-Plane", (available now for only $14.99 at Wal-Marts everywhere- buy USA- lol)) actually works.
Now, it's Miller time!
Actually homemade cookies, but a celebration is in order!!

I hope some of you are having as much fun reading these reports as I am sharing them.
Tomorrow- The Pole, (again)!

"Old Louisville Community Radio- Can you Hear it?"

Cheers-
t.

[terrydec]

My landlord sent me this link to an article about pending legislation concerning LPFM radio stations-

http://www.truthout.org/110709E

If this link doesn't work-
Copy and paste in your URL address line.

I intend to do my chores today listening to my own radio station.
Pretty cool, huh?
Terry

[owen.morgan]

I've read that FCC licensed LPFM stations still need to obtain music licenses for broadcast of copyright material.

http://www.nfcb.org/projects/l ... tions.html

Does anyone know of the requirements for part 15 broadcasters?

Regards,

Owen.
_________________
The person who knows how to laugh at himself
will never cease to be amused.

[terrydec]

For some interesting, and I hope creative videos about copyright laws and on -going litigation, watch some of my videos on YouTube- especially
"Viacom thugs torture pet".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WI4e0lB9pQ

The answer is that, due to the archaic copyright laws, you could be held liable.
Now, that only applies if, like me, you want to influence a neighborhood. I am VERY aware that I will be in the spot light, and I only intend to re-broadcast content that is in the public domain. Mostly old radio shows from CD's where any applicable fees have been paid.
However, for the exception that proves the rule- read my new topic.
T.