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Part 15 Roll Call

RFCCRadioAudio

RFCCRadioAudio

After testing a half dozen open frequencies, I just soft launched a Part 15 AM station on 1330 here in Lebanon. The station operate each day from 8 AM to 8 PM and will air instrumental music from independent artists most of the day, a couple of morning headlines aired after sign-on and re-aired at various times during the day, and a few weekly live programs (mainly sports, but the flagship program will also have brief news comments and updates on the operation of the station). There will also be some live youth sports as well. All of the weekly shows and the ball games will be
available via podcast. The podcasts will be on the podcast hosting sites for around two weeks, some may be re-aired on the AM.

Are there any other Part 15 broadcasters in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, what's your frequency, location and format?
 
RadioFreeCedarCity said:
After testing a half dozen open frequencies, I just soft launched a Part 15 AM station on 1330 here in Lebanon. The station operate each day from 8 AM to 8 PM and will air instrumental music from independent artists most of the day, a couple of morning headlines aired after sign-on and re-aired at various times during the day, and a few weekly live programs (mainly sports, but the flagship program will also have brief news comments and updates on the operation of the station). There will also be some live youth sports as well. All of the weekly shows and the ball games will be
available via podcast. The podcasts will be on the podcast hosting sites for around two weeks, some may be re-aired on the AM.

Are there any other Part 15 broadcasters in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, what's your frequency, location and format?
Click to expand...

UPDATE: The hours will now be 7 AM to 7 PM Central (8 AM to 8 PM Eastern) after my latest field strength test.
 
RadioFreeCedarCity said:
UPDATE: The hours will now be 7 AM to 7 PM Central (8 AM to 8 PM Eastern) after my latest field strength test.
Click to expand...

UPDATE PART 2: Still getting killed by an Evansville, Indiana station as the sun goes down, so 1330 will now run from 7 AM to 6 PM Central.
 
Still getting killed by an Evansville, Indiana station as the sun goes down, so 1330 will now run from 7 AM to 6 PM Central.
Click to expand...

You'd be better off in the extended band. Less noise from flea power stations (there are none) and fewer stations on that part of the band. Not only that, but you'll get a better match for your antenna with Part 15 regs.

I have considered throwing up a P15AM, but the soil conductivity is super poor at the Highland Rim and points immediately north. I experimented with around 10 mW of power and it never made it past my front porch. The amount of noise is extreme. I can't get a clean signal in my own apartment. I would need at least 2.5 watts with 3 meters of transmission line to do anything in my own place, let alone in my neighborhood. The max is 100 mW input.

Not worth wasting my time, sadly. Perhaps, when I move to a area with better soil conductivity, like the Nashville Basin or even Central Texas (which is much better). Noise from unintentional radiators will be your enemy and it will only get worse. Don't wait for the Commission to do anything about it in the near term.
 
Last edited:
kc4rae said:
You'd be better off in the extended band. Less noise from flea power stations (there are none) and fewer stations on that part of the band. Not only that, but you'll get a better match for your antenna with Part 15 regs.

I have considered throwing up a P15AM, but the soil conductivity is super poor at the Highland Rim and points immediately north. I experimented with around 10 mW of power and it never made it past my front porch. The amount of noise is extreme. I can't get a clean signal in my own apartment. I would need at least 2.5 watts with 3 meters of transmission line to do anything in my own place, let alone in my neighborhood. The max is 100 mW input.

Not worth wasting my time, sadly. Perhaps, when I move to a area with better soil conductivity, like the Nashville Basin or even Central Texas (which is much better). Noise from unintentional radiators will be your enemy and it will only get worse. Don't wait for the Commission to do anything about it in the near term.
Click to expand...

There's a few reasons why I'm not using anything from 1610 to 1700:

1. Even in the X-Band, there's a station on each frequency waiting to huff, puff and blow my house down at or before sunset. The worst offenders are 1670 in Macon, GA and 1700 in Huntsville, AL

2. Any radio ever made can tune to 1330. Some people may still own radios (portable, home stereos, and cars made before 2000) that only go up to 1600.

3. 1330 is a "believable" frequency. There are some people that probably don't know there's any stations past 1600 on the AM band, even if they own a radio that can tune 1610 to 1700. I've podcasted various local high school/youth sports and when the next elementary basketball season starts here in late October, I can finally answer the age old question "What station are you on?" that I've gotten since 2011 instead of just handing over a slip of paper or an index card with the web address for the podcasts. Now I can put the station first on my makeshift business cards!
 
I wish you the best on that. Hopefully, someone will receive the signal. Stations on the medium wave band are having a tough go at it. Even within the 1 V/m area of a radiator, I still get interference. While WHIN will be replacing their transmitter soon, I still get a lot of buzzing from somewhere within sight of the antenna two miles away. Both CEMC and Tri-County has noisy lines and CEMC finally started replacing those terrible insulators that were either too short or were broken. There were a lot of them. I've been investigating the TWACS system they use. LED street lights have been known to emit extreme amounts of noise as well.
 
WHIN transmitter update should be coming along soon, kc4RAE. Do you listen to WHIN 100.7 at all? It is a very interesting signal at this stage. It skips over Sumner County and manages to land pretty well in the Davidson County basin. You can faintly pick it up into Williamson County. Not that that means much inn the scheme of what matters. Amazing what a couple hundred watts can do on a tower with so much HAANashville.
 
I stopped by yesterday to see the progress of the new transmitter for the AM.

I noticed a while ago that the FM doesn't do good in Gallatin all that much until I get to Hendersonville. By the time I get to Trousdale County, the signal is gone under WKLX. To the north toward Westmoreland, it is hit and miss.

I live in Lafayette, so the FM is almost non-existent.
 
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