Carl Blare

Out of the old blue I received an e-mail offering a 3-hour oldies show for my stream/part 15 station. I sent back a “thank you, but” reply based on the fact that I am only authorized to broadcast “with permission” or “public domain” material, but not copyrighted oldies. There was no reply to my reply.

Was this a “feeler” from the royalty gestapo? Where they trying to lure me into illegal activity in a deal too good to refuse?

Beware anything that’s too good to be…, you know what I mean.

Back in the 70s a friend who operated a TV repair shop gave me a homemade FM transmitter with three stages, each tunable by a slug coil. I put an FM antenna in the attic and tuned it up for peak output, probably 1-watt, and a couple I knew tuned in every Friday night for the latest comedy recordings together with my banter, then they’d call on the telephone and we’d laugh ourselves silly. Meanwhile, in between, the other households had no idea this was going on. No victims, no interference to licensed stations, no homeland insecurity.

In some ways the Part 15 hobby resembles the model train hobby, because both amount to a miniature replication of the larger world. Combining the hobbies makes perfect sense for train modelers and would open a new target market for Part 15 manufacturers. Imagine a miniature town in a railroad layout. Somewhere in the town would be the radio station with its own transmitter shack and tower. The tower would extend from floor to ceiling and pierce right through the table. The section below the table would be painted flat black so it would not be noticed, and the section from the table to the ceiling would feature red & white FAA design with flashing tower lights at “night.” For that matter the town might have several stations just as it has several trains.

Not all Part 15ers stream and vice-versa, but the two are complementary. Part 15 AM can reach thousands of people, assuming they’re real close by, and streaming can reach only a few people depending on bandwidth, anywhere on earth and probably on the space station.

This wonderful Part 15 web site has the most professional and generous sharing of knowledge, there’s no jealousy or secrecy about discoveries and experience, which is why the website is possible.

To the best of my awareness there is no similar website for audio streamers, although it sure would be helpful, but the game is probably more competitive since there are tens-of-thousands of on-line stations whereas the Part 15s are few and far.

Possible neuron damage makes it difficult for me to comprehend the difference between “blog” and “forum” on this website. I’m sure its obvious to everyone else, but I’m not sure which to choose when posting. For example, is this a blog that I’m doing now, or should it be a forum?

Welcome me to Part15.us! I’ve been checking in for about a year after returning to LPAM Part 15, having been one of those with Allied & Knight kits in the ’50s. Now a webcaster, an AM signal in the house is perfect for monitoring the days programs. But I found that a 3-meter indoor antenna had very poor coverage outdoors, where I spend time gardening. Building an outdoor rig is a large construction project and it’s something for next year. In the meantime I found a solution which I’ll share.

I placed our SSTran3000 on a cut-to-size laminated board under the edge of my desk at a front window, ran 2.5ft. antenna wire up to and underneath the window, attached it to bottom of the aluminum storm-window frame with a self-tapping screw. The vertical size of the window frame is about 5ft. Outside on the front porch I used an existing screw at the top of the window, cleaned and treated with “DeoxIt,” and added 2.5ft. wire up to underside of porch-roof and secured it in an available crack where I wedged the tip of the wire.

Result: Strong coverage (1640KHz) everywhere inside the house, outdoors all the way to the street (100ft.), and here’s a magical part: the signal is equally strong in the backyard all the way to the mulch-pile (100+ft.). There must be a “skin-effect” where the signal wraps around the surface of the house (I made up that term). It seems the signal goes into phase with the front wall inside and out because reflection is not possible since antenna is part of the wall.

What could go wrong?