Carl Blare

We know and understand that the rules say NO to acting like a licensed station when all we are is a part 15 low power station. “Acting licensed” mostly means “don’t use call letters that seem licensed,” or especially don’t use an actual licensed station’s call letters or identification.”

Otherwise we have no requirements, not even to reveal where we are. Of course it’s technically obvious where a 50mW station is: nearbye.

But the audio jibber jabber is another matter. How about “This is Radio Antarctica broadcasting from the Ross Ice Cap near the south pole.” Hmm?

Earlier a reflection on part 15 experience was written in this space, but upon further reflection it was decided to withdraw the item from publication.

Is there a mechanism to do that?

Over on a thread titled “Different Kind of 3-Meter Antenna,” Ken Norris posted a link to a fascinating article “A Small Loop Antenna.”

http://www.antennex.com/hws/ws0201/nonmag.htm

Over on a thread titled “Different Kind of 3-Meter Antenna,” Ken Norris posted a link to a fascinating article “A Small Loop Antenna.”

http://www.antennex.com/hws/ws0201/nonmag.htm

But I am writing now about Figure 1 from that paper, which describes a “Coax Vertical Antenna.” This all by itself is a different kind of 3-meter antenna of a type I haven’t seen discussed.

The significant thing about it is how the RF signal, imposed on the outer shield of the coax, is fed at the top down through the center conductor to ground.

The physical arrangement of this antenna also, I would think, could be described as a form of “transformer.”

What thoughts might you have about the Coax Vertical Antenna?

Being on a boat sounds like a wonderful place to run a radio station. I once considered the idea of buying a railroad passenger car for a studio.

Being on a boat sounds like a wonderful place to run a radio station. I once considered the idea of buying a railroad passenger car for a studio.

In early 80s I became somehow aware of a magazine called Private Varnish, about people in this country who have refurbished old railroad cars for use as a home or office. The cars can be parked on sidings near downtown areas or anywhere there are sidings, and if kept up to standard, can be hitched to trains and taken wherever.

At that time Amtrak was mentioned in the paper as having a string of passenger cars for sale in a railroad yard so we went through them, they were asking $3k per car. Trouble is outfitting them to railroad standard would have required more like $250k, but before abandoning the idea we made one more stop, to a very fancy office in a train car parked downtown with a business that professionally restores train cars.

Also at that time I read in a trade journal that a radio station on a moving train was operating somewhere in Switzerland, so the idea was alive.

Last night a mystery sound got noticed, sounding like loud talking just on the other side of a wall or maybe in the basement. I ran through a mental picture of every radio in the house, but I knew they were all tuned to KDX and whatever I was noticing was something else. So I stepped outdoors and realized it was a highly amplified church service one block uphill from here. I started wondering how the congregation was tolerating so many dB and I wasn’t about to go there and subject myself to hazardous hearing, but I wondered what the all-fire sermon was about.

It was likely they were using a wireless mic, and just maybe I’d be able to listen to their frequency if I knew where to look. And I got to wondering, does anyone DX on the wireless mic frequencies? Seems like it could be fun.

If you were at a sporting event which was being broadcast, you could listen to director’s cues to camera operators.

Near a TV studio who knows what could be heard.

Time 1:36 PM CST, Thur. Mar. 10, 2011, reporting from KDX near St. Louis, MO., USA.

Time 1:36 PM CST, Thur. Mar. 10, 2011, reporting from KDX near St. Louis, MO., USA.

At 1:30 PM all the warning sirens from all directions turned on and are still sounding. Since it is not the first of the month it is not the monthly test.

NOAA Weather has no severe weather in their forecast for the region, nor was there any posting about what I learned a minute later (next paragraph).

I tried two local stations known to have live staff, and one was giving sports updates, the other a string of commercials, but once the commercials were fully played, there was a test of EAS, not federally, but locally, naming this The Annual Tornado Drill.

That’s odd. No one mentioned such a thing even though I’m in media and usually know things the public hasn’t heard about.

Summary: For 6-minutes I didn’t know which way was up or weather I should go down (several puns intended).

No announcement will be made on KDX because the people in other areas might not have tornado drills. How are we supposed to know?

OPINION: We don’t stand a chance in an actual emergency, but we’ll spend last minutes running around asking if it is an emergency.