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SCA question #1

J

johnbasalla

In my market, their used to be a number of SCA stations on-air, and accessible with their special receivers. After the two long-time FM Ethnic stations changed owners and formats, some of the Ethnic broadcasters set up shop on an SCA, while others hooked up with other non-comms or paid for brokered time on commercial AMs on Sunday morning. There also was a station running programming for Doctors at hospitals, and there was the Radio Reading Service for blind and print impaired individuals. Today, only the Radio Reading service survives. What are things like in your market?

The next SCA questions will be more directly linked to the engineering aspect. Radio-info indicated that this would be the best place SCA questions.
 
The one service you referenced was the now-defunct Physician's Radio Network which was based in Stamford, Connecticut. I had a couple of friends who worked there and I myself even interviewed for a position there ... until the President told me that they were on shaky financial ground. I stood were I was and they went belly up some time later.

I don't even have my SCA box anymore so I can't tell you what's out there, but I would assume that unless a station was making good money that they would not have one on their signal.
 
In another post elsewhere on the R-I boards I mentioned this site:

http://www.htradio.net

This appears to be an SCA station that began after the area's local station was sold to new owners and went through a format change.

I don't know how viable SCA broadcasting is, because I can't seem to find any information such as
what a reasonable lease rate would be, or even how to set one up, for that matter.

But I hope others who may be familiar with SCA will chime in, because I'm out in a pasture, and Part 15 doesn't get near the business district at all.

HT Radio, referenced above, is somewhat similar to the vision I have for a local radio service.
After 6 years of running a "tribute station," I need to find a way of creating some type of viable business this fall. SCA may or may not be "it," but $395k for an AM daytimer is too far beyond my reach to ever pull off in this lifetime. That's the only thing locally I've seen.
 
When I came to SW Florida there were at least three stations with SCA programing all of it Haitian. The two in Fort Myers went belly up about a year or two later but the guy in Naples continues, about five years now. I do some of the CE work at main station and have helped him keep going ,,I don't charge him much if at all. He uses one of those SCA generater/processor boxes,,can't remember who makes it,,and a 300-3300 hz dry pair to his studio. Sounds awfull and I've been trying to get him to stream it to the site rather than use the line because he's already streaming at his web site but he still doesn't get what I'm suggesting.

When he first started he had an 8kc equalized line and the station actually sounded good on converted boom boxes.

He sells converted radios for about $50 and gets most of his programing from his computer but also picks up Haitian news off the internet and rebroadcasts it. He has some people who do an hour or two of local talk a day. I'm sure he doesn't make any money on it but it does help keep the local Haitian community in touch, true community radio.

The other station on SCA here is the usual reading for the blind on the local university station. These are the only two carriers left in the Fort Myers/Naples market
 
A suggestion for anyone who wants to tune around the local FM dial to learn if SCA services are still offered above 53 kHz (other than RDS):

Many HF ham transceivers and general coverage receivers made in the past 15-20 years include an NBFM demodulator and can tune down to 30 kHz. If fed from the discriminator output of an FM tuner, you'll be able to hear analog broadcasts at 67 or 92 kHz and also detect the presence of data transmissions. I've used a Kenwood TS-50 and it did a nice job, but a receiver like Icom's PCR-1000 should also work well.

A few words of caution:

1) If you use a transceiver, be careful not to accidentally "transmit" into the discriminator circuit.

2) The ECPA prohibits unauthorized interception of SCA programming, as well as STL and RPU transmissions.
 
Bruce Elving used to sell an SCA board and modified portable radios with SCA. The board could be inserted into hi-fi tuners.

Can't find any info whether he still does, though.
 
TomT said:
Bruce Elving used to sell an SCA board and modified portable radios with SCA. The board could be inserted into hi-fi tuners.

Can't find any info whether he still does, though.
Click to expand...

Yes, he still does.

FM Atlas
241 Anderson Road
Esko, MN 55733

(218) 879-7676
(800) 605-2219
 
It's not illegal to decode SCA in a private home. Back when Muzak was delivered via SCA, it was illegal for a business to decode it without paying.

HD multicasting is a better alternative to SCA for stations that are in HD. But I think SCA should have become mainstream, and every radio should be able to decode subcarriers. Then we wouldn't need HD just for multicasting.
 
Nick said:
It's not illegal to decode SCA in a private home. Back when Muzak was delivered via SCA, it was illegal for a business to decode it without paying.
Click to expand...

Here's Title 18, Chapter 119 of the US Code, which is a result of the ECPA:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_119.html

Of course it's OK to intercept radio transmissions “readily accessible to the general public” -- but as you'll see in §2510(16)(C), this definition excludes communications "carried on a subcarrier or other signal subsidiary to a radio transmission", or (E) "transmitted on frequencies allocated under part 25, subpart D, E, or F of part 74, or part 94 of the Rules of the Federal Communications Commission, unless, in the case of a communication transmitted on a frequency allocated under part 74 that is not exclusively allocated to broadcast auxiliary services, the communication is a two-way voice communication by radio".

Therefore, unauthorized interception of subcarriers (as well as RPUs and STLs) is illegal.

Personally, I think this part of the law is ridiculous (not to mention, practically unenforceable) -- but that's what it says.
 
Whe the ECPA was set to go into effect I bought a second Icom R-7000 shorthly before they stopped shipping the full coverage receivers to the U.S.. Found out later I could buy the full coverage ones through a local two-way radio shop.

There is also a way to trick an Icom R-71A to tune down to 0.000 Hz
http://www.kb2ljj.com/data/icom/ic-71a.txt
To tune DOWN in this "mode" put it back to VFO A/B mode and hit "SCAN".

With the FM option you can listen to SCA's from the "MPX" jack on any FM tuner.
 
So technically, listening to HD2 and HD3 stations is illegal according to the letter of that law. HD radios aren't accessible to the general public, if a member of the general public walks into a Best Buy asking for an HD radio, no one will know where to find them. If the chief engineer of a station wants an HD radio in his car, no one at the dealership would have even heard of HD.
 
Isn't it bad that HD radios further delay analog reception? One time when the headphones in the studio were broken I tried monitoring myself while I was on the air on my Insignia HD radio. I messed up my mic break because the HD radio delayed the analog audio by a second. I was better off not listening to the air output when I spoke on the mic.
 
In the case of the Insignia it does. Have a JVC car radio with the DSP that delays the audio also.
A DSP will delay the audio but some do it faster than others making it nearly inaudible. Just adding some color or hollowness to the sound if you were using it as an off-air monitor while talking on-air.
 
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