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Event Radio Service

C

Carmine5

Many of you may have noticed this item in the November Graham Brock newsletter.

It seems that a Petition for Rule Making has been submitted seeking to create an “Event Radio Service”. This service is intended to be used at short term live events, such as sporting events, concerts, etc.

The service is to be located in the FM band, but will have power and height limitations. The petition indicates that the current unlicensed power levels for FM operation are too low to allow for complete coverage of most events. No comment date has been set for this request.

Given that local live radio for covering these kinds of events has all but disappeared in most communities this could be a viable alternative.

C5
 
It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere, but I wonder what the true likelihood of something like this coming to light really is. With the way the majority of corporately operated radio goes this could be a shot in the arm as many folks seemed to have abandoned radio for the likes of ipods and the internet.
 
Many students of the Radio Brandy broadcast workshop, have made a business out of special event broadcasting like: high school sports, equestrian shows and fairs. The Procaster, so far makes for the best transmitter for on the go broadcasting; since it's easiest to tune in the field, and has basic processing built end.

Radio Brandy's About page has been updated, with new information on our early days, and our mission. The inspiration for Radio Brandy, has been thinking about getting more involved in the operation; perhaps with an east coast campus.


Steve
www.Radio Brandy.com
 
The FCC has been allowing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to do this for several years. They
are on 100.1 MHz during the race. I believe it's an experimental license for the hearing impaired.
They rebroadcast the PA system.
 
Timewarp said:
The FCC has been allowing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to do this for several years. They
are on 100.1 MHz during the race. I believe it's an experimental license for the hearing impaired.
They rebroadcast the PA system.
Click to expand...

I think the FCC does this on a case by case basis professionally (again, money helps.)

Many non-profit community theatres have similar set ups. But I believe if you are providing a service for the hearing impaired*, you are qualified for an exemption of some kind. I think it's something to do with compliance with the American With Disabilities Act. Probably carrier current.

Just park your car near one and scan the dial during a play or movie. You might be surprised.....

*Some have probably tried to explain their way out of their booming gangsta rap pirates with this. It doesn't work......
 
Is the "event radio" joined at the hip with the issue over wireless mics?

Is there any intent in what is being done and what is proposed, to actually provide community coverage beyond the venue itself?

I have been following the discussion elsewhere where the church folks are all upset over the white space issue and these "event radios" were mentioned in those discussions. Seems that the production companies for sporting events and concerts sometimes come to town with their devices on some other frequencies that blow churches, night clubs, hotel conference facilities and other "out of the water" in trying to use their wireless mics.

Picture this scene. Old line, Protestant or Catholic cathedral, slow, dignified pastor in black robe and white collar: "Now ... Let . us .. pray . together....." And then the roar of a car engine and an excited announcer yelling "Look at that sucker go!"

It's going to be an interesting time at the FCC in the coming months.
 
This is the kind of service that would make sense.

As an example, my community (Downers Grove, Illinois) hosts the US Pro-criterium bike race every year. We have been trying, with out great success to use the local radio station, Part 15 and GRS (we know its a misuse) to rebroadcast the PA announcements of the races throughout the weekend. An event radio service would be a superb way of serving the race area and the immediate community surrounding the race. Many of the homes along the course host parties and they have difficulty knowing the exact circumstances as each race progresses.

We also have an annual charity run/walk on Thanksgiving morning that cover roughly the same area...wow!

I wonder how much this would cost and how powerful would the transmitter need to be to cover, say, a one mile diameter @ 97.5.
 
Is this all that much different from the transmitters that broadcast networks [especially sports networks] already use?
Except for the power? And the "officialness?"

Like somebody else already said, you can pick up A LOT of games like college sports around the arena with a Walkman already on the frequencies they use instead of the cords they used to use.
 
My only thought is that this would hardly be allowed to operate as an unregulated service.

When I was involved with the New York chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers they had a group that did frequency coordination of frequencies for remote pickups and STL usage. I have a hunch that the feds would want some sort of control on the use of event service radio to prevent interference to licensed services.
 
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