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tregonsee writes “I noticed that ABFree is defunct, supposedly, a guy named Barry Brown is thinking of resurrecting AB Free…

tregonsee writes “I noticed that ABFree is defunct, supposedly, a guy named Barry Brown is thinking of resurrecting AB Free…

I just checked www.abfreeradio.org and saw that
only a black background is displayed on the page, and the HTML source indicates this is the only content.



I was wondering when ABFree was gone, or if anyone knows when it actually died?”



WILW responds



“I read the story online just a couple of weeks ago. In addition someone affiliated with AB Free Radio posted a message about the demise of the station.”



“The station was said to be a non profit, non commercial LPAM and apparently it could simply not get enough sponsors to sustain the station.”



“It’s rumored that AB Free had financial trouble and finally over the course of the last year it apparently got to be too much for them.”

Well guys, the new lease finally arrived yesterday, and I was especially looking for the clause about “antennas”…

Well guys, the new lease finally arrived yesterday, and I was especially looking for the clause about “antennas”…

Sure enough, there was one.

This is where it gets interesting; back in the summer when this fight began, (the park provides cable tv) I asked them what would happen if
either local tv was not on cable anymore, or if cable rates skyrocketed.

They didn’t have an answer.

Two days ago, two of the four local stations (UHF) decided to charge for allowing their signal on cable, or wants off.

What will happen is; things revert to the old, and people will be forced to put up antennas.

The clause reads, ” NO OUTSIDE ANTENNAS.
Dig the word, ‘outside”.

My design is specifically for inside, in my case I have chosen to place
it inside a wooden shed.

I guess according to this, it will be acceptable. I did not think they
would write a clause in there saying “no radio station”…..the lawyer,
if told to put that in, probably omitted it as being silly.

I may also erect a much smaller shed closer to the studio, and on the
ground; I’m thinking about it. If so, this will perform even
better!!!!!

I’ll keep you posted.
Carl

Thank You for Emailing WCRV. You may call us and leave a message at
253-0848. We welcome your requests and dedications.
Please support WCRV as your own community radio station by listening
and
sponsoring us.

Thank you!

Carl and Joyce Van Orden
WCRV Cherry Ridge Radio
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE!
http://wcrv1540am.tripod.com/wcrv.html

WCRV Cherry Ridge Radio writes: Hi everyone!

Fortunately for me, I’ve gotten a lot of advice about what to do with the WCRV antenna, and how to put it on the air in this restrictive environment…

WCRV Cherry Ridge Radio writes: Hi everyone!

Fortunately for me, I’ve gotten a lot of advice about what to do with the WCRV antenna, and how to put it on the air in this restrictive environment…

There were a ton! of great ideas that I simply could not use, some of which were emailed, some I found, some of which I developed.

First, the shed is actually 8 foot tall, not 10, but a suggestion was to use a PVC pipe as “smokestack or flue”. Great idea, something I didn’t come up with.

I think I can use the antenna at 8 foot tall, including pvc and metal pipe (as the antenna is essentially a copper pipe); by installing a top hat, or making it a uni-pole.

I could easily make the coil much longer and more involved.

The shed sits on a concrete slab which I thought was the biggest problem. But a great contributor suggested with an article that; I could lay tin foil down on the slab, or run the radials out between the wood shed and the slab. Both are great suggestions, and I’m told this works.

Truth be told, this particular antenna at the legal height is excellent, but this past summer I had it “boned out” at over 20 feet and it was just killer.

The trick is to make it “think” it is 20 foot tall, and then to go from there. That is either by coil, making it into a uni-pole, or both. Anyway, working in a shed 150 feet from the studio makes it tough, anyway, and it has to be done in the dark.

The most difficult aspect of this is: how do I mount it? Well there is no digging this concrete up, so I thought about using a Christmas tree stand; either metal or plastic, both of which I own, running the radials or tin foil off the metal piece at the bottom, attaching the coil to a small piece of PVC which is on top of the radial, and adjusting the copper pipe down to fit inside, the rest will have to depend on the coil being very efficient.

In this way, the antenna can not be seen, it will sit at about the same footage off the road as the original did, but it won’t sit in a wet/damp area.

For you engineers, a long time ago, I experimented with a CB unit and tried to convert it to AM use. I now have two new CB units with CB antennas; is there any use in trying to use these for either AM or FM use in broadcasting?

Keep sending your suggestions: they are realy helping. All I want to do is relocate my antenna and keep my station on air without the antenna being seen.

Thanks for all your help! Carl

Thank You for Emailing WCRV – Carl and Joyce,
WCRV Cherry Ridge Radio

http://wcrv1540am.tripod.com/wcrv.html

Automation experimenter Randy writes: “A friend of mine wrote a small freeware program called WeatherGrabber…”

Automation experimenter Randy writes: “A friend of mine wrote a small freeware program called WeatherGrabber…”

Download WeatherGrabber here: WeatherGrabber

I use it to automatically have the local weather read every half hour. It’s very easy to configure.

It will go to any internet web page (URL) and use the data it finds to generate a text file on your hard drive in the location of your choice.

Place a shortcut in your start folder to run it automatically every time you boot your PC.

I use a Winamp plugin to read the text file it generates. The plugin is named Text Speech / in_txt v1.01 (free) located 3/4 of the way down the page at http://support.xmplay.com/Plugins_input.html, here is a direct link: http://support.xmplay.com/Plugins_Files/in_txt.exe.

The plugin requires Microsoft Text-to-Speech Engines for SAPI5 (free): http://www.bytecool.com/voices.htm

I use the Winamp Radio Scheduler plugin (free) to schedule the reading of the text file every half hour: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138768 Radio Scheduler only works with version 2 of Winamp. Version 2.95 (free) can be found at: http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=winamp

My next step will be to get the AT&T natural voices to replace the Microsoft voices. These sound so real, you almost think you are listening to a real person. I use the online demo of the Crystal voice to generate my station IDs and jingles http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html . Other voices can be found at http://www.rhetorical.com/cgi-bin/demo.cgi, check out the Valley Girl!

I use the Audacity audio editor (free) to add background audio to her voice, found here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/windows.php?lang=en, and midi background music is here: http://www.lynnemusic.com/midi.html

Free Voiceover Exchange Service
Have you ever wished that you had more variety? Spots, liners and bumpers!

Free Voiceover Exchange Service
Have you ever wished that you had more variety? Spots, liners and bumpers!

Have you ever wished that you had more variety when it comes to voices on your radio station?

Visit RadioDaddy.com

Most LPFM and small NCE stations don’t have the budget to keep a full staff of people. So it usually comes down to one or two people doing all the spots, liners and bumpers.

Well – no more! With our new service and your assistance, we can all come together through this new free service and share our voices!

The concept is simple – you need a spot or liner read? Just log into the website, upload the copy and one of our
other members will read the copy and upload the spot back to the site for you to download – Voila! A new voice for your station.

We only ask that you offer the same in return to our members.

Visit RadioDaddy.com

I stumbled across these sites while wandering around the web today. Enjoy!
Transmitter reviews
http://www.vintage-radio.com/reviews/transmitters.shtml

Previously unknown (to me) MWA Archive
http://www.geocities.com/raiu_harrison/mwa/

I stumbled across these sites while wandering around the web today. Enjoy!
Transmitter reviews
http://www.vintage-radio.com/reviews/transmitters.shtml

Previously unknown (to me) MWA Archive
http://www.geocities.com/raiu_harrison/mwa/