Rattan's comments on Part 15 Radio

[Rattan]

I'll start off by saying I agree with Audioguy that part 15 on the broadcast bands is a great hobby! When you're in the mood for tech/theory, there's always more to learn. Whether you're in the mood to build anything from an on-air light to an audio circuit, you can pretty much always put it right to use. For the music/program side of it, any time is a good time to go looking for new stuff that'll be entertaining and interesting (maybe even educational). Then you get to enjoy the programs you've put together and the sound of your station. Maybe you have some neighbors that like to listen in, maybe not, but there's a certain feeling of accomplishment from putting together good shows and having a good sounding signal anyway.

Some of us just aren't pleased with the directions media and radio have taken over the years.. But with the part 15 hobby, at least at OUR houses it can be different. Maybe some neighbor's houses as well. We can be an alternative without a program director somewhere having to decide if it's worth the risk to try something different when a failure for the big stations can mean people taking pay cuts or losing jobs or their station going under.

I'm not sure as I know how realistic it is for most of us to say we do it "for the community". Unless you do it on a scale like Terry Brown at the Wellsville Ohio station, realistically I think it's more likely to be a small fragment of your community. Like the near part of your own neighborhood. Nothing wrong with that, though.

I do find it interesting how many people talk about it as "community" radio, but all they ever seem to post about is range and technical points. On these boards you see only brief mentions of what sort of programs or what music their listeners like or how to get someone to react positively if they *are* listening. No offense intended folks, but if someone new reads these boards they could likely get the idea that it's all about who can piddle the furthest and who has the most expensive toys rather than catching and firing their imagination for what it'd actually be like to run one of these tiny stations.

I don't think that the deep tech talk when folks like Rich get going harms the hobby. I think most newbies would get glazed eyes about the time the first set of charts and equations get posted and they'll just hop to the next post. So long as we keep it civil and act like reasonable ladies and gentlemen, I think the average newcomer probably expects some of the tech talk to be a bit over their heads sometimes. And I think it's is *good* that there's some real depth to the technical and legal discussions, because even if they don't understand it all at first, that beginner can sense that there's a whole lot that can be learned about how and why things work.

I agree with Audioguy that people not understanding that part 15 stations are not "pirates" is one of the BIG problems we face as hobbyists. One of my neighbors when I first started my station really got into living right next door to a station. He'd listen any time he knew I was on the air and would come over and *ask* me to put it on the air sometimes if he was having friends over for a cookout in the backyard. Very positive attention. But it took over a year before he actually understood that I wasn't running a pirate station. It's funny and I laugh about it now.. But it wouldn't have been so funny if he hadn't liked my station and had thought I was a pirate. That could have meant an unfriendly visit from the FCC as being MUCH more likely than anything anybody has ever said in any online forum during a technical or legal debate about part 15. One thing we could really use would be some brainstorming on ways to educate the public about the difference between pirates and legal part 15 stations.

Another place where I feel there is a real threat to the continued existence of part 15 is likely to upset some folks in the hobby. I do not feel it is good to try to compete with licensed stations, *especially* when it comes to selling ad time. Firstly, why do we need to be "commercial" anyway? Yes, I am aware that there isn't any rule against being commercial and selling ads, but why should we need to? We're hobbyists serving usually a very small fragment of the community at best, and the licensed stations are businesses with employees that need the paychecks that come from ad money to survive. If we run ads, then it's not unreasonably for them to see it as us taking food right out of their kids' mouths.. If they see us as that sort of threat, even on a small scale, they'll do everything they can to get part 15 on the broadcast bands shut down for good.

Besides, aren't there enough advertisements/commercials on the radio already? Why should we want to add to that? I don't understand the impulse to take an enjoyable hobby and treat it like it *has* to make money before it's worthwhile or "serious" enough. Maybe I'm just weird or slow-witted or something because I don't see it. But I personally think it is one of the things that can put the hobby at risk.

Another thing I see as putting the hobby at risk is the endless talk in the gear ads and on the forums about "range". It ends up being a contest for who says they can piddle the furthest and gear ads implying that you too can be running your own radio station that can be heard from miles away if you'll just shell out the shekels to buy their product. Sure, it's ego food, it's a point of pride, it's bragging rights.. But "range" is always a meaningless number unless you know the quality of the receiver and it's antenna that was used to get that number. It boils down to being hype. Useful mostly for selling gear or maybe for selling ad-time and in both those cases the range reported will be as optimistic as can be gotten away with. But you want to keep bragging up the range of your product or your station? I can't think of a surer way to get the licensed stations yelling even louder about part 15 devices all the way down to the smallest "FM modulator" that actually barely has enough range to make it from the front seat to the car radio that's maybe 3 ft away when you're using it to listen to your CD player or mp3 player in the car. They already complain about even the bitsy little Belkins and etc. But hey, keep going on about "amazing range" and they'll want *all* part 15 taken off the broadcast bands.

It's maybe comforting to think that folks like Rich "put part 15 at risk" by asking questions, and to think that's "the only problem".. But I think there's more putting us at risk than those few questions. And some of it worries me considerably more than Rich's talks about "whip and mast installations with excessive ground lead length" and etc.

Ok, so there's my 2 cents worth of gasoline on this fire. I figure some of it probably will annoy some folks, but having given it a lot of thought over my 2 yrs of running a station, those are my thoughts on these matters.

It's still a fascinating hobby and a lot of fun though.

Daniel

 

[WCWalker]

The FCC does not shut down commercial Part 15 operations. I know of several that ran for years or are still on the air and the FCC will not touch them.

I take issue with Fry's heavy handed approach to "teaching" us morons the finer points of the technical aspects of Part 15 broadcasting. He shows a lot of chutzpah when he tells people their set up is illegal despite the fact many of these stations have passed FCC inspections.

It is up to each individual to decide whether or not his or her station is a hobby, professional non profit or for profit entity. The FCC is not in the business of dictating program content or the business end of Part 15 broadcasting.

My station when it was on the air (and will return again to the air once I relocate to a suitable community) offered real community programming. Local public affairs shows produced by the President of the local Health Care Association, local news, local weather provided by a meteorological service in Rochester, NY and a slew of short features on health care, computer help, business etc. We even spoke live twice a week with the local Animal shelter in an effort to help find homes for their dogs and cats.

My Rangemaster website, while primarly devoted to Rangemaster customers and other users of Type Accepted Part 15 AM transmitters also dabbles in subjects outside of the technical arena. Visit it at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rangemaster-Transmitters/

 

[Rattan]

To clarify a point..

The FCC does not shut down commercial Part 15 operations.

I didn't say that they do. What I said is that I personally feel that competing with licensed commercial radio stations for what they consider to be "their" ad market is something that may be likely to result in them lobbying the FCC more strongly to "do something about the part 15 threat to our market". They have a large and powerful lobby group and they collectively pay a huge amount in licensing and other fees. Which side would you say the bread is buttered on there?

My station when it was on the air (and will return again to the air once I relocate to a suitable community) offered real community programming. Local public affairs shows produced by the President of the local Health Care Association, local news, local weather provided by a meteorological service in Rochester, NY and a slew of short features on health care, computer help, business etc. We even spoke live twice a week with the local Animal shelter in an effort to help find homes for their dogs and cats.

Now there ya go! That's great! A person thinking maybe they are interested in part 15 who read that would be likely to see it as really cool and want to do something like that!

But stuff like that gets said rarely in these forums, and it's maybe one paragraph. How likely is a new person to see it compared to some week long argument over whether a wall-wart power supply lets enough RF back into house wiring through it's transformer that one should worry if it might result in 6 inches more of "range"?

I don't know as we can actually (or should) cut back on the technical talk.. But if we talked more about what to do with that transmitter when it is on the air, we could increase the chances of a beginner finding the motivation to learn and get involved with part 15 in legal and positive ways.

Daniel

 

[Tom Wells]

True enough, there is very little discussion about what we put on the air as part 15 operators.
I replace what I see as a missing format in Chicago. There is no station that mixes obscure oldies, "common" oldies,
rock with a wider view than "classic", country, and old commercials. I simply play a lot of what I like.
My recordings span 1925 to the present, if I like it, it's on the air.

As a very crowded market with lots of everything else, and LOTS of foreign language service, there are no
stations anymore that have variety in music, or on AM much music, period.
When I travel, I do hear stations that have some aspects of what I like to hear.
But not at home, so I have been putting more and more music into the computer, most of it off my own tapes and records.

There are already lots of community service programs on elsewhere, so I fill a missing gap in music radio.
Many of the people in my neighborhood are immigrants, and have never heard many of the songs.
We have 91 languages spoken in my neighborhood at last count, so trying to serve them in their language is next to impossible.
Music is a universal language.
I do record airchecks and post them as podcasts. There are usually 4 or 5 available at any time, and I try to update every week or two.
They are recorded directly off the detector of a 1982 Sony table radio, not from the board.

http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com

 

[Rattan]

For music I run mostly indie from around the globe. I hunt every week to find new bands to play because I feel that mainstream media only offers listeners a very limited amount of choice on what to hear and possibly like. Ones that we especially like end up in the "hot" folder and there's also the "new" folder and I use the Zara playlist options to automatically play selections from those folders and also from some of the assorted genre folders maybe once an hour so the playlist doesn't feel like a rut to me. Mostly pop/rock, but country, folk, assorted ethnic, blues, jazz, neoclassical, techno, goth.. almost anything so long as it's good and either public domain, creative commons, or I have the specific permission of the artists. Mostly in English, but we sometimes spin Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese or whatever so long as it feels good to listen to.

Our point with that is that there's a world's worth of talented artists and good music out there and mostly you'll never hear it on any other radio station.

But music is actually only maybe half of the airtime. The rest is live reads from classic literature and folklore mixed in with selections from librivox. So a lot of our program amounts to listening to stories or being read to. We run book chapters from classics as basically serials with a chapter a night and music, weather, news and talk in between. Special focus sometimes on technological issues and developments that we don't feel standard media is giving enough coverage to.

Basically we try to be a cool station to listen to that is a *huge* change of pace from anything else in the area. Very small "listener base" other than our own household, since we mostly are on FM and the "range" of FM part 15.. Well, the way I usually describe it to non-tech people is "We call it rock range.. Because it's about as far as you can throw a rock." But if you happen to live in a quiet part of town where there are a lot of houses, that's a couple houses in each direction and across the street. So the "community" for us is what I'd describe as "near neighbors". I figure some people would consider that too small to be actually "serving a community" but it's what we can do and we do it.

Our highest "listener peak" ever was 8 people outside our own household all listening almost every evening one holiday season when we were running almost only holiday stories and music every evening. On winter mornings we run weather every half hour and automatic time announcements are scheduled for when we know some of our neighbors need to be getting the kids up or out the door for school or need to be heading off to work. We also are not above doing things like "cookie giveaways" or a cup of cocoa for each and every listener to find out if anybody is listening, especially near the holidays. LOL To be honest, that sort of thing is only possible *because* our range is about as far as you can throw a rock.

When we do voice or even reading, often it isn't particularly slick or professional. There's background noise and sometimes talking or kids playing in the background and it sounds a lot like the "station studio" is in a sometimes rather busy kitchen of a home. Which only makes sense, because it is.

Not that we don't like mainstream music sometimes. But when we're in the mood for that we listen to the local oldies or classic rock/pop stations. When we're on the air though, we try to be something good, but very different.

Daniel

 

[Hamilton]

Wow, These are great posts from veteran station operators. I love to hear people are having fun with Part 15 radio! I have old roots in the radio area, but my career took a turn into engineering. And that is what engineers do, build toys, that work better then other toys, so we tend to tout (our toy is better, more range) because we like to take pride in our work.

But seriously, years ago, I wanted to start a small station for my neighbors, and there was nothing, I mean nothing out there to do it, maybe a MR. microphone, so I certified the RangeMaster.

I think there is a revolution happing, a small town radio revolution. Big Town radio has virtually eliminated small town community oriented radio with diversified programming.

It is in the public good to serve these small communities to allow some sort of expanded Part 15 AM service, license free radio for small towns / communities / neighborhoods.

Maybe something like the old CB radio license, you fill out a simple form and mail it in, follow some simple rules.

Something that doesn’t tie up limited FCC resources.

 

[DJ Alan]

I agree with Hamilton...
A simple license solution is the way to go. Just as in CB land, complaints could be launched for interference issues. There could be a simple power limit of... say 5 watts output at the transmitter (just like 'ol CB), with a limit of something along the lines of 'attached to an antenna with radiating elements totaling no more than 1 wavelength in length'--- yada, yada.... but not toooo much YADA, or we end up with sometimes mean spirited and long blogs to sift through.

Thankfully this post area is labeled as 'Community Radio' and not 'Part 15' radio, or I would feel a little guilty for posting here. I run what I call a 'part 14 and three quarters operation' as part 15 doesn't really have the impact that my community station needs. My community needs a diverse voice and has a musical niche that is not served by the commercial broadcasters in my market (Seattle)...and hardly anywhere in North America for that matter. The community service that my station promotes, the niche that I fill both in issues and music programming, will be my angle at attempting to go commercial with my station (and my only defense should I run into problems beforehand).

I use an EDM FM transmitter (LCD model)... http://www.edmdesign.com/, and amp it with a 1.5W booster from the Free Radio Berkley folks. The EDM was mostly assembled, is frequency stable, has freakin' GREAT FAT SOUND. The amp kit from Free Radio Berkley needed to be built but if you can handle that task swiftly- it works great too. I have a 5/4 wave dipole hooked to it and do not seem to have any spurious signal issues that extend beyond 20' from the antenna. This is the minimal power I would suggest to serve a community though this does not conform to part 15 in any sense at all. It tosses the signal a bit farther than I need it to but the hilly contour that I cover needs that UMPH to cover the local area well. I am not braggin' about that either, at least I don't mean to sound as if I am braggin'- and it isn't even part 15 anyway so I am OUT as a contender in the 'how far can I piddle' contest.

I have had problems before, problems that I did not wish or plan for. Back when I was 14 or 15 years old I ran an AM/FM station on Mercer Island, Washington. I had an AM transmitter that interfered with CB in my immediate neighborhood... making matters worse was the fact that it interfered with channel 14 CB and that was the areas 'local channel' at the time. I knew nothing of engineering at the time but yanked the transmitter off the air when I received a phone call from a concerned friend that was a CB enthusiast... AT THE VERY SAME MOMENT I SAW AN FCC VAN CRUISING VERY SLOWLY PAST MY HOUSE! I knew enough to know that it was the AM transmitter (not the FM) that was the problem and yanked it off the air in a hurry! I replaced that problematic transmitter with a brand new (at the time) Graymark AM transmitter kit sold by Lafayette Radio Electronics (a part 15 radio geek TREASURE), and had no future problems with interference or FCC drive bys. The AM's antenna didn't conform to part 15 but again... I had no problems. The FM was a part 15 transmitter originally- but I beefed the input power up and got decent coverage from what (I know now) was approximately a 1/4 wave length piece of wire. That was around 1974 or '75. I have operated stations since and have NEVER had any problems- and I believe that this is solely due to the fact that I am very careful to assure that I am not interfering with other signals, and I keep the language VERY CLEAN and upbeat and generally avoid songs that are patently offensive. I have been in the biz for years as well, DJ'd on KZAM/KJZZ, KLSY AM/FM, KJR AM in Seattle for eons, first taste in commercial radio was at KORK AM in Las Vegas while I was in High School, so ya... my station sounds slick and I do keep it as professional sounding as possible. When I get my website with streaming up, I'll share the link here with everyone.

To the new out there reading these posts: GO FOR IT! Share your voice and talents for programming and service. Be inspired to understand the technical stuff too. Most importantly; Be a good neighbor on the dial!

DJ Alan

 

[Rattan]

Keith: Well, pride in your Rangemaster is certainly justified. By all accounts it's a good unit.

Do you run a station as well? What format? Do any of your kids get involved?

I don't see much likelihood of an expanded part15 AM. It'd be an enforcement nightmare, and there's little in history to indicate a tendency on the part of the FCC to hand over a very public piece of the spectrum for people to just say and play whatever they want. A nice idea, but a licensing structure like they used for CB would just be impractical, I think. Oh, easy enough to take fees and hand out pieces of paper, but the enforcement issues if it actually caught on as a "fad"? Imagine what happened on the CB band in the 70s happening on the broadcast bands. LOL I don't think the corporations that have sunk so much money into basically owning the broadcast bands would think much of it, and it would be almost a certainty that a bunch of people in every single city would be messing up their protected contours. They represent a large source of revenue and we would represent what.. a few minor filing fees? Easy to see which side of the bread the butter is in, there.

A fun idea to contemplate in some ways, but realistically my opinion of the possibility of it ever happening would fall under "Dream on.."


DJ Alan: Yeah, it just says 'community radio' so I'd say you qualify, as would any LPFM or small licensed station that feels it has a community focus.

Glad to hear you try and do cool stuff for your community. I agree that the big commercial media just doesn't have an interest in what's good for the community. They look at it mostly from the viewpoint of profit and the listeners aren't their community so much as just part of their ad revenues.

I have a family to take care of and couldn't afford the fines, so I'm not up for trying things at the level you're talking about. I've heard reviews saying the EDM has a really great sound, though!

Daniel

 

[Hamilton]

Funny, since I got into the transmitter business I haven’t been able to keep a station up. Before I got into the business, I had a station for the neighbors, they would comment how much they liked it. I mostly broadcasted weather information.

I tried a few times to get one going, but I would wind up needing to ship the unit I was using! I do have a good location for one, I need to get it going again.

I have had nieces/nephews on the air, one nephew had a regular program for a while and was getting regular requests from the neighborhood. My daughter is still to young.

My idea is to try to promote something that may actually fly. I talk to these guys a lot, my idea is to come up with something that promotes public good, but doesn’t add to their plate.

I have heard agent voices get shrill speaking of “mayhem in the airwaves”, it is their greatest fear.