Carl Blare

About ten people in the world are familiar with the Low Power Hour and so far my grocer has never heard of it, but is a nice person. But did you know there is a very popular show called The Power Hour?

The host of the Power Hour is Joyce Riley, a name that rang a bell with me when she recently appeared as one of two guests on George Nory’s Coast-to-Coast, talking about the wholesale disregard of Gulf War Veterans by their government.

The reason the name “Joyce Riley” sounded familiar to me was because of a news blurb from several years ago that questioned the wealth compiled through the radio ministry of a woman named Joyce Riley located in Missouri. Money from Christian broadcasting was also my province back when I was a practicing hypocrite, so I understood her wealth situation.

Upon hearing Ms. Riley in person on Coast I was impressed by her intelligence and well informed stand for veteran’s rights. So I checked the Power Hour website.

http://www.thepowerhour.com/welcome.htm

The Low Power Hour also comes from Missouri.

Oh, oh, oh, and one of Joyce Riley’s shortwave frequencies on WWCR is 13.845, a neighbor of KDX at 13.560.

The audio players include Windows Media Player and Winamp, plus many lesser known players.

Does anyone know a player called Neptune?

In these modern times, a radio station residing on a computer has got to more-or-less re-invent or re-discover the audio science from the past, for maximizing the quality of AM, FM or streaming.

In these modern times, a radio station residing on a computer has got to more-or-less re-invent or re-discover the audio science from the past, for maximizing the quality of AM, FM or streaming.

That sounds like the opening for a book, and I only meant to write a paragraph, regarding the fact that today I changed the bit-rate and sampling rate of my streaming station.

Some good blogs are written all the time about stereo AM and mono FM and the component devices like Innovonics 222, and this goes to the diversity of methods for achieving good sound.

Here in the KDX toolshed it’s all very simple. We do mono because the human voice is monaural, and we are mostly talk. But the music we have is important so it pays to enhance the quality.

When I say “enhance,” I’m not talking about torture, and I hope our programming doesn’t torture anyone.

For awhile we’ve been set for 24-kbps 22.05kHz, and that’s not bad. But I did some sampling to learn what big radio stations do with their streams.

KCAA 24 22
WKXW 32 22
WICC 50 44
WTMJ VBR 44
WARP 32 22
WJOL VBR 44
WJOB 24 22

VBR stands for “Variable Bit Rate”, and I like the way that sounds, but I don’t think my SAM Encoder Plugin can do VBR. It does CBR, “Constant Bit Rate.”

All in all, I liked the way 32-kbps 22kHz sounded, so that’s what I’m using now.

It seems smoother. Silkier. Just a tad more “present.”

Oh, and a very important chunk of the recipe is Hans van Zutphen’s Stereo Tool Plugin, an exceptionally professional toe-to-toe head-to-head match for Innovonics or any other processor.

What say you?

From the Center of North America, only a few yardsticks from the Missississippi River, it got cold and snow fell, water underneath turning to ice.

From the Center of North America, only a few yardsticks from the Missississippi River, it got cold and snow fell, water underneath turning to ice.

This blanket of snow ice probably makes a wonderful ski-slide for the part 15 AM signals being sent from here in the tool shed.

But there’s no way I’m going to drive around listening to the radio.

Unsponsered weather, not paid for by free listeners.

The Part 15 community is not alone in the search for perfection.

The Part 15 community is not alone in the search for perfection.

Imagine being given $17-billion dollars and 15-years to design a perfect radio. Would you be honest and say, “It can’t be done?” Or would you take the money and the 15-years after which you would announce, “It can’t be done.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/army-perfect-radio/

Here is a quote from the article:

“The desire to use a single antenna for many different wavelengths bumps up against laws of physics, which make it difficult to pull in strong signals across the spectrum,”

This is a theoretical question in which I am wondering about the difference between daytime AM operation, and nighttime operation.

This is a theoretical question in which I am wondering about the difference between daytime AM operation, and nighttime operation.

At high noon, when your groundwave signal is most prominent, a calibrated Potomac field strength meter is set at 30-meters from your antenna, and the field strength reading is a perfect 24,000-microvolts / meter, in exact compliance with 15.209.

Everything continues without a change for the rest of the day, the sun goes down and darkness comes. Now what would the field strength reading be?