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Community broadcasters serving the public interest & the NAB.

R

RADIOBRANDY

In response to the post below:
Undocumented broadcasters came to New Orleans anyway providing real time information and truly performing a public service. While most of the NAB stations ran to Baton Rouge and other areas. The undocumented stations came and earned the support of local law enforcement and other agencies as well as the citizens of New Orleans and other areas that have come to depend on them.
The community needs to understand the NAB is behind the killing off their favorite local radio station. We demonstrate to the community that low power stations do not interfere with big corporate radio stations, are cause planes to crash or interfere with emergency radios. Radio Brandy does though public awareness campaigns and demonstrations at fairs, swap meets and other public events. The audience walks way understanding these are more than scare tactics used by the NAB.
We also educate the public about the risk to public safety because that local station they came to depend on for emergencies has moved to the big city to satisfy the greed of mega broadcasters and the NAB with the blessing of the FCC.
Our stations have won the hearts of the local communities they serve, just this week during major flash flooding and road closers in Southern California. It was our station that was up and running providing emergency information provided by law enforcement. The local full power station that is licensed to serve in the public interest during such emergencies moved 40 miles away and now runs a religious satellite program. For the record the electrical grid had failed hours earlier. Back up power kept the station on the air for 36 hours without recharge.
The NAB controls the FCC and congress when it comes to broadcasting rules and regulations. Most field agents want no part of it they just follow orders. It is up to us to change those orders. While we can't afford to place a new Mercedes in our senators garage for there support as the NAB can. We can undermine the NAB though education. The last thing the NAB needs is an informed public
We must work together to correct misinformation the NAB spews out with the facts and demonstrations in a way the general public understands.
Our stations do that everyday.

Steve
Radio Brandy
 
Hi Steve,

You wrote "We can undermine the NAB though education. The last
> thing the NAB needs is an informed public
> We must work together to correct misinformation the NAB
> spews out with the facts and demonstrations in a way the
> general public understands."

I live near a major city and what you say about lack of local programming is true. A blowtorch station here brags the it is an award winning news station. They produce local news and present it in about 3 minute bites every half hour. Almost nothing on weekends. The local NPR station has local news between 4 and 6 PM during NPR breaks and they run rings around the blowtorch. I am not aware of any other local AM radio news. All I hear is CNN, ABC, etc five minute feeds. It is not too hard to win an award when there is no competition and the award comes from the AP. Most of their self promotion is balony...such as "...most accurate and dependable forcast.". I was tempted, but did not waste my time calling them and asking them to document that. I know that they use a weather service located in New York. The forcaster is in New York reporting the weather in Ohio through an audio feed.

Some local AM stations nearby are up for sale, running carts and satellite feeds, and face bankrupty.

Why are folks not listening? I don't because they broadcast no information I need, because of obnoxious and frequent ads, and there are no real personalities on the air. The local talk shows are lousy.

I ramble a bit, but I agree that the conscious discouragement of local programming by NAB and NPR for example needs to be addressed.

So, finally, to the point, reference the quote above what do you suggest I do in addition to what your station does to spread the word? Letters to the editor? Letters to Congress? Any other suggestions?

Neil
 
> The NAB controls the FCC and congress when it comes to
> broadcasting rules and regulations. Most field agents want
> no part of it they just follow orders. It is up to us to
> change those orders. While we can't afford to place a new
> Mercedes in our senators garage for there support as the NAB
> can. We can undermine the NAB though education. The last
> thing the NAB needs is an informed public
> We must work together to correct misinformation the NAB
> spews out with the facts and demonstrations in a way the
> general public understands.
> Our stations do that everyday.

The fact that the NAB just hired a high powered lobbyist (from the National Beer Wholesaler's Association no less) to replace Eddie Fritts tells me that they are amping up their already over-active lobbying efforts.

First order of business, get the ownership caps relaxed, next make sure the 3rd adjacent channel requirement remains in place then gut or effectively cripple any pending legislation having to do with LPFM (like Rep. Slaughter's LPFM Expansion Bill). In essence, kill off radio by protecting it for a small handful of people.

Too the bad the NAB just can't content itself with organizing trade shows.

db
 
I work at a small AM station in Wisconsin. With the way the rules are now..there really is no way to make it. We have to power down to 50 watts at night because some big station in some part of the country needs to have the channel clear. Ive seen on this board how people want local programming..well our station would love to provide that, things like high school sports, city council meetings, other local events. Many of those events are at night..and with 50 watts, either people cant get the station, or the advertisers wont sponsor the programs. We tried to get a power upgrade, but the Friends of Clear Channel denied our request.

I understand that there might be engineering issues, but does a station in "God Knows Where" USA really need to broadcast cross country? People in our town could care less about the spanish station in New York, or Chicago. Not only that, but with all the electrical interfearance, are these big AM stations still having that coverage area anyway? If we could even get 250-500 watts, that would cover our primary listening area. If they let other stations do that too..how could we interfear with each other(yes I know in the fringes, but again I dont think my 250-500watts is going to mess up the 50,000 watt AM.

Oh well..I know you cant fight the Friends of Clear Channel.
 
I feel for you with your nighttime power, the last legal station I did time for dropped down to 94 watts at night. Lets just say there is nothing worse than when the station next to you on the dial 500 miles away has a better signal in your station parking lot than you do. Solution is turning the night time signal over to the local high school or college. Let them put on the football games or other school function, let them DJ and help sell airtime, I can promise you people will put up with allot of interference to hear their little Buffy DJ on the radio or hear there Biff score a touch down. Selling nighttime advertising becomes more like taking orders. Make sure the kid of the local car dealership owner works for your station too. I know allot of part 15 broadcaster who would give their left nut to broadcast with 50 watts day or night. A friend of mine had a 40-watt AM pirate station that did very well catering to the youth. For years he never had to buy a thing. If he wanted pizza all he had to say is he wanted pizza on the air, within 45 minutes two pizzas and a case of beer would show up at the door. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

The NAB really does suck
Steve
www.Radiobrandy.com

> I work at a small AM station in Wisconsin. With the way the
> rules are now..there really is no way to make it. We have
> to power down to 50 watts at night because some big station
> in some part of the country needs to have the channel clear.
> Ive seen on this board how people want local
> programming..well our station would love to provide that,
> things like high school sports, city council meetings, other
> local events. Many of those events are at night..and with
> 50 watts, either people cant get the station, or the
> advertisers wont sponsor the programs. We tried to get a
> power upgrade, but the Friends of Clear Channel denied our
> request.
>
> I understand that there might be engineering issues, but
> does a station in "God Knows Where" USA really need to
> broadcast cross country? People in our town could care less
> about the spanish station in New York, or Chicago. Not only
> that, but with all the electrical interfearance, are these
> big AM stations still having that coverage area anyway? If
> we could even get 250-500 watts, that would cover our
> primary listening area. If they let other stations do that
> too..how could we interfear with each other(yes I know in
> the fringes, but again I dont think my 250-500watts is going
> to mess up the 50,000 watt AM.
>
> Oh well..I know you cant fight the Friends of Clear Channel.
>
 
Improving your night coverage (Re: Community broadcasters serving the public interest & the NAB.)

Just a thought--you could judiciously locate a few RangeMaster Part 15 AM transmitters in your station's desired night-time coverage areas and synchronize them with your 50 watt AM night-time transmitter. The RangeMaster has built-in provision for synchronizing several of them on the same frequency so that there is no 'beat' in the audio. -- Jason

> I work at a small AM station in Wisconsin. With the way the
> rules are now..there really is no way to make it. We have
> to power down to 50 watts at night because some big station
> in some part of the country needs to have the channel clear.
> Ive seen on this board how people want local
> programming..well our station would love to provide that,
> things like high school sports, city council meetings, other
> local events. Many of those events are at night..and with
> 50 watts, either people cant get the station, or the
> advertisers wont sponsor the programs. We tried to get a
> power upgrade, but the Friends of Clear Channel denied our
> request.
>
> I understand that there might be engineering issues, but
> does a station in "God Knows Where" USA really need to
> broadcast cross country? People in our town could care less
> about the spanish station in New York, or Chicago. Not only
> that, but with all the electrical interfearance, are these
> big AM stations still having that coverage area anyway? If
> we could even get 250-500 watts, that would cover our
> primary listening area. If they let other stations do that
> too..how could we interfear with each other(yes I know in
> the fringes, but again I dont think my 250-500watts is going
> to mess up the 50,000 watt AM.
>
> Oh well..I know you cant fight the Friends of Clear Channel.
>
 
> I work at a small AM station in Wisconsin. With the way the
> rules are now..there really is no way to make it. We have
> to power down to 50 watts at night because some big station
> in some part of the country needs to have the channel clear.
> Ive seen on this board how people want local
> programming..well our station would love to provide that,
> things like high school sports, city council meetings, other
> local events. Many of those events are at night..and with
> 50 watts, either people cant get the station, or the
> advertisers wont sponsor the programs. We tried to get a
> power upgrade, but the Friends of Clear Channel denied our
> request.
>
> I understand that there might be engineering issues, but
> does a station in "God Knows Where" USA really need to
> broadcast cross country? People in our town could care less
> about the spanish station in New York, or Chicago. Not only
> that, but with all the electrical interfearance, are these
> big AM stations still having that coverage area anyway? If
> we could even get 250-500 watts, that would cover our
> primary listening area. If they let other stations do that
> too..how could we interfear with each other(yes I know in
> the fringes, but again I dont think my 250-500watts is going
> to mess up the 50,000 watt AM.
>
> Oh well..I know you cant fight the Friends of Clear Channel.
>

Your points are well taken here. In effect, the FCC is saying that your community does not need local programming when the sun is down.

One of the failing stations I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread has the same problem. I don't know what dark power they run, but I used to listen to them mobile on my way home from work. Their signal was barely readable 10 miles from the tower. I quit listening because I could only hear them for about 10 drive minutes, and not at all at my home.

I don't belive this is a technical issue. If it were, the solution is LPFM but look where that is going. I think the same forces are at work to limit stations such as yours as are blocking community LPFM.
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

I thought about the same thing, I don't know the stations frequency. Had I known about Rangemaster back when I worked at the 94 watt station they would have been used. Our frequency of 1550 would have worked well with Rangemaster.
The 50-watt station could also move the nighttime transmitter closer to town.
We were looking into moving our nighttime transmitter closer to town before I left do to a lack of a paycheck without rubber impregnated into it. The station owner was a poster boy for the NAB rubber checks in all.

Exposing the NAB

Steve
Radio Brandy

> Just a thought--you could judiciously locate a few
> RangeMaster Part 15 AM transmitters in your station's
> desired night-time coverage areas and synchronize them with
> your 50 watt AM night-time transmitter. The RangeMaster has
> built-in provision for synchronizing several of them on the
> same frequency so that there is no 'beat' in the audio. --
> Jason
 
> Many of those events are at night..and with
> 50 watts, either people cant get the station, or the
> advertisers wont sponsor the programs.

50 watts...consider yourself lucky! There is a station (WAMW-AM, licensed to Washington, Indiana) that powers down to *5* watts overnight. Their tower is in the nearby town of Bicknell (about 6 miles), so there is no chance of getting the station in Washington. Luckily they have an FM sister station, WAMW-FM, but it is still ridiculus. Might as well just shut down at 6PM.
 
> > Many of those events are at night..and with
> > 50 watts, either people cant get the station, or the
> > advertisers wont sponsor the programs.
>
> 50 watts...consider yourself lucky! There is a station
> (WAMW-AM, licensed to Washington, Indiana) that powers down
> to *5* watts overnight. Their tower is in the nearby town
> of Bicknell (about 6 miles), so there is no chance of
> getting the station in Washington. Luckily they have an FM
> sister station, WAMW-FM, but it is still ridiculus. Might
> as well just shut down at 6PM.

I don't think there are any transmitters that can actually put out 5w. Probably closer to 30 or 40.
 
> I don't think there are any transmitters that can actually
> put out 5w. Probably closer to 30 or 40.

LPB makes two or three AM transmitters than can put out 1 - 60 watts. There are a few AM stations that are limited to 1 - 5 watts at night, and they use the LPB units. -- Jason
 
> > The NAB controls the FCC and congress when it comes to
> > broadcasting rules and regulations. Most field agents want
>
> > no part of it they just follow orders. It is up to us to
> > change those orders. While we can't afford to place a new
> > Mercedes in our senators garage for there support as the
> NAB
> > can. We can undermine the NAB though education. The last
> > thing the NAB needs is an informed public
> > We must work together to correct misinformation the NAB
> > spews out with the facts and demonstrations in a way the
> > general public understands.
> > Our stations do that everyday.
>
> The fact that the NAB just hired a high powered lobbyist
> (from the National Beer Wholesaler's Association no less) to
> replace Eddie Fritts tells me that they are amping up their
> already over-active lobbying efforts.
>
> First order of business, get the ownership caps relaxed,
> next make sure the 3rd adjacent channel requirement remains
> in place then gut or effectively cripple any pending
> legislation having to do with LPFM (like Rep. Slaughter's
> LPFM Expansion Bill). In essence, kill off radio by
> protecting it for a small handful of people.
>
> Too the bad the NAB just can't content itself with
> organizing trade shows.
>
> db
>
Ok. Db digital is absolutely correct. There is a WAR going on and it isn't in Iraq. It's a battle royal going on inside your radio. Here's Rep. Slaughter's bill, which I believe hasn't gone to the floor of The House yet:

http://www.prometheusradio.org/local_community_radio_act.pdf

This bill complements Senate Bill 312, which removes the 3rd adjacency restriction and it, more importantly, protects against encroachment from other broadcasters to LPFM's. The NAB is desperate, and they will do anything. It's war, baby, and you better wake up.
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

while thats a good idea..the school district we have covers about 20 square miles, so that would require a boatload of part15 transmitters, which would be cost prohibitive.

i just dont understand how the government can continue to enforce an antiquated rule like this, but then complain that there is no community radio and have to start all these low power fm's. if they just let us smaller am's have a chance and give us some decent nighttime power, im betting there would be community radio not just with our station, but with other stations across the country...then again..clear channel would never allow that to happen.
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

> while thats a good idea..the school district we have covers
> about 20 square miles, so that would require a boatload of
> part15 transmitters, which would be cost prohibitive.

You wouldn't need that many. The RangeMaster can easily achieve a 1 mile radius if mounted 20' or higher (which covers a little over 3 square miles), so six of them scattered through your 20 square mile listening area should blanket it.

Actually, since the RangeMasters can be phase-locked so that the individual units' signals reinforce each other, you might be able to cover your area with only 4 or 5 transmitters. -- JasonW
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

> Actually, since the RangeMasters can be phase-locked so that
> the individual units' signals reinforce each other, you
> might be able to cover your area with only 4 or 5
> transmitters. -- JasonW
_____________

Even though the separate tx sites are phase locked, in order for radiation from them to reinforce each other in some direction(s), they must cancel each other in some other direction(s). So the net coverage pattern produced by 4 or 5 phase-locked transmitters located where two or more of them can be received at once can be better than a single tx at some locations, and worse at others. The more tx sites, the more unpredictable the coverage -- unless the areas covered by the separate tx sites do not overlap each other.
The reason for this is related to the number of wavelengths in each propagation path. If the radio waves arrive in phase, they reinforce. If they arrive out of phase, they cancel. The r-f phase they have at each receiving site depends on the distance back to each tx antenna. NOTE this effect is totally independent of whether or not all the txs are phase-locked in the first place.

The phase of audio modulation at each tx also has a bearing on how this system will play.

These are engineering realities, and hopefully this post might help to avoid some unreasonable expectations.
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

That's true about the signal cancellation, but the sites can be selected so that the nulls will fall outside of the desired reception area.

As an alternative, each transmitter could be set to a different frequency. -- JasonW

> > Actually, since the RangeMasters can be phase-locked so
> that
> > the individual units' signals reinforce each other, you
> > might be able to cover your area with only 4 or 5
> > transmitters. -- JasonW
> _____________
>
> Even though the separate tx sites are phase locked, in order
> for radiation from them to reinforce each other in some
> direction(s), they must cancel each other in some other
> direction(s). So the net coverage pattern produced by 4 or
> 5 phase-locked transmitters located where two or more of
> them can be received at once can be better than a single tx
> at some locations, and worse at others. The more tx sites,
> the more unpredictable the coverage -- unless the areas
> covered by the separate tx sites do not overlap each other.
> The reason for this is related to the number of wavelengths
> in each propagation path. If the radio waves arrive in
> phase, they reinforce. If they arrive out of phase, they
> cancel. The r-f phase they have at each receiving site
> depends on the distance back to each tx antenna. NOTE this
> effect is totally independent of whether or not all the txs
> are phase-locked in the first place.
>
> The phase of audio modulation at each tx also has a bearing
> on how this system will play.
>
> These are engineering realities, and hopefully this post
> might help to avoid some unreasonable expectations.
>
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

> > Actually, since the RangeMasters can be phase-locked so
> that
> > the individual units' signals reinforce each other, you
> > might be able to cover your area with only 4 or 5
> > transmitters. -- JasonW
> _____________
>
> Even though the separate tx sites are phase locked, in order
> for radiation from them to reinforce each other in some
> direction(s), they must cancel each other in some other
> direction(s). So the net coverage pattern produced by 4 or
> 5 phase-locked transmitters located where two or more of
> them can be received at once can be better than a single tx
> at some locations, and worse at others. The more tx sites,
> the more unpredictable the coverage -- unless the areas
> covered by the separate tx sites do not overlap each other.
> The reason for this is related to the number of wavelengths
> in each propagation path. If the radio waves arrive in
> phase, they reinforce. If they arrive out of phase, they
> cancel. The r-f phase they have at each receiving site
> depends on the distance back to each tx antenna. NOTE this
> effect is totally independent of whether or not all the txs
> are phase-locked in the first place.
>
> The phase of audio modulation at each tx also has a bearing
> on how this system will play.
>
> These are engineering realities, and hopefully this post
> might help to avoid some unreasonable expectations.
>

Hello all,

rfry is right about phase enhancement and cancellation. What about staggering the TX frequencies, say up or down 20 or 30 KHz. for adjacent transmitters?
"This is radio part15 broadcasting on 1540, 1570, and 1590 KHz." Eliminates the need for synchronizing.

Neil
 
Re: Improving your night coverage with Rangemaster.

> Hello all,
>
> rfry is right about phase enhancement and cancellation.
> What about staggering the TX frequencies, say up or down 20
> or 30 KHz. for adjacent transmitters?
> "This is radio part15 broadcasting on 1540, 1570, and 1590
> KHz." Eliminates the need for synchronizing.
>
> Neil

I suggested that, too. In most communities the AM band has enough open frequencies to do this. Also, if two or more transmitters happen to be spaced far enough apart that their patterns don't overlap, they could be operated on the same frequency without needing to be synchronized. The "fill" transmitter(s) covering the area(s) between these non-overlapping transmitters could be operated on a different frequency or frequencies. -- Jason
 
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