This is sad.
In the U.S., I believe that the Pirate Radio Act (which presumes guilt and you have to prove innocence) has had exactly the opposite effect it was meant to. It hasn't discouraged any pirates, who by their continued existence show that they don't give a damn. But it has concerned those who wish to operate legally, particularly newcomers, in the event that they may get mistakenly sucked into an untenable situation.
I know I'd think twice before doing what I do if I were located in the U.S. All it would take would be one complaint, and one miserable FCC agent.
Add to that the current political situations virtually everywhere. Freedom of expression is going down the toilet, the crazies are out, and you have to wonder, why bother? Because even if your station is only music, it represents something. All content is political, in a sense. And if you're talk, well, you're guaranteed to offend someone these days.
Finally, economics. Ironically, it costs far less to be a pirate and have a good long range than to operate legally and barely get out. Things are only going to get worse (imo), with incomes and jobs disappearing, and costs rising. Who's going to be able to afford Part 15 broadcasting?
I know I sound like a broken record, but I believe that Part 15 needs a technological 'boost in the arm' to survive. Amateur radio was dying back decades ago, but the advent of digital modes, SDR's, APRS, inexpensive transceivers, etc. has revived it. The impetus for SDR's (and the software that drives them ) has largely come from amateur radio operators.
I do like analog radio. There will always be a place for it, however small. But we also have to move forward if we want to continue to exist.
@artisan-radio All good points but the pirate situation is actually no different than it's consistently been for the last 80 years, it's not some new thing related to current situation.
Also agree that an updated Part 15 AM transmitter is needed that incorporates the newer technologies that are more efficient.
I disagree that things are going to get worse for part 15 hobbiest (it can't get much worse than it is now, if the forums are any indication about the health of the hobby). But at the same time in some ways things are a lot better than it was 10 or 20 years ago.. One prime example is that AM NOUOs have completely ceased ever since the FM Translator for AM stations had gone into effect, there have been no NOUOs in nearly a decade.. There was one AM NAL, but it was in connection with the station previous citations going decades back.
I still tend believe a kind of part 15 AM revival will occur, maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I believe a new wave will occur, might take a few more years.
It's kind of eerie.
Just hours after I posted about free speech disappearing, ABC announced it was suspending the Jimmy Kimmel show indefinitely, after threats by FCC boss Brendan Carr.
Scary too.
It does appear that the FCC is now concerned about broadcasting content.
Here's an example of an FCC (and government) approved show - the new episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
This getting way off topic of the original subject of an end to Proccaster production! Please, so I don't have to end the thread start a new topic for talking about media censorship/free speech in broadcasting.
It's sad, but not surprising, if participation here is any gauge. There are just not a lot of people doing it. Most of us already have our transmitters and once you have one, it lasts for many years.
I think the bigger part of the market is probably for the cheaper FM transmitters, such as the one from C Crane. Very few people are serious enough about this pursuit to drop hundreds of dollars on equipment. Nowadays, the internet is the main distribution platform for a wide variety of content. It's hard to admit, and saying it in this forum might come across as a bit blunt, but the shine came off radio a long time ago for most folk. Many of the people I know who listen to "radio" stations do so by accessing their online feed. I imagine many folk still listen to radio in the car, but they are hardly going to go to the trouble of tuning in a Part 15 station whose signal will be gone in a flash!
Luckily for me, I do it because I enjoy playing radio, from creating the programming to engineering the whole installation and keeping it running. I don't do it for the audience. Heck, if I did, I'd have stopped a long time ago.
I have a lifelong fascination with radio transmission and reception, but I get most of my jollies by building and operating amateur radio gear. There is a strong tradition of designing and building gear in the ham radio world, which continues to this day. I get to build little transmitters, put them on the air, and get almost instant feedback on where the signal is landing and being heard, via a network of online receivers and automatic reporting systems and, of course, other hams to give signal reports. Building receivers is even more fun.
If I were in Canada, I'd do what @mark is doing - stock up so that my AM station can continue. As he observes, there are plenty of Decade transmitters on the market. I have a fondness for AM (the mode as well as the band) due mainly to my age. The kids (and many of the adults) don't care though, and I can't say I blame them. It's a brave new world out there.
@rugster The problem is all the illegal ones from China readily available from Amazon and Ebay and you just have to go on Amazon and see how many were sold in the last month alone. If you can spend under $100 for a 1 watt Chinese one you aren't going to spend $400 on a certified one that's legal but gets you down the street a couple of houses. Gerry at Procaster just was frustrated that the new Procaster FM which was a year in the making and a lot of time and money was spent on the lab and getting it certified and making a quality item and then no sales and you see all the illegal ones and this is what you are up against. Even the Procaster AM only sells a couple a year. Procaster is right near me in Toronto and we keep in touch with each other. Some of my input went into the making of the Procaster FM.
But when I asked him seriously if you are going to end the Procaster when the current parts runs out I need to get extra boards at least to "stock up" but he then told me he isn't going to discontinue the transmitters and at the rate of sales and the stock he has on hand parts will be here for as long as you and I will be. That was reassuring. The Procaster is the only AM certified for use in Canada. The Decade MS-100 FM is the only one that is certified here as broadcast equipment (BETS), along with the Procaster FM and is made in Canada also but if Decade goes out of business there's lots of those on the used market on ebay so always available. But have you ever seen a Procaster AM on the used market?
I grew up with AM like you and my stuff(programming) is for AM. Making AM radio great again is my slogan.
I do it for myself first but I like getting a few listeners which I have.
Yes @mark - a big +1 to what you said about the cheap illegal Chinese FM transmitters. I purposely didn't mention them, because I consider the people who use them as "different" from us, in that they are not what I would call "hobbyists in good faith". They're not real Part 15'ers! What do you call Part 15'ers in Canada - BETS-er's? 😆 Anyway, you get my point. They're just folk who want to broadcast, and who are either not familiar with the laws, or don't care.
You're right to mention them though. It must be frustrating for Gerry to know that all these cheap illegal transmitters are being sold by companies who didn't care about manufacturing a legal product, and getting the certification. He went to a great deal of effort to do things the right way, only to see companies who didn't go to that time and expense outsell him.
The new, lower price for the FM Procaster is quite tempting. However, there are two features I'd really like to see in a certified FM transmitter that it lacks -
1) A weatherproof enclosure for outdoor mounting. Given that the coverage of legal unlicensed FM is so small, I'd be interested in mounting the transmitter outdoors to increase the coverage a bit.
2) The ability to accept a balanced audio feed. Outdoor mounting would very likely require a longer audio cable, so balanced audio would be advantageous. Of course, all it takes implement is an isolation transformer and a bit of wiring, but it would be nice to have it already incorporated into the unit.
However, I accept that at this point, the market for an outdoor-mountable FM transmitter with balanced audio feed would probably be even smaller than for the indoor version with unbalanced audio - and the demand for those transmitters already appears to be very low. It's disappointing.
@rugster He was going to do the FM like the AM at first with the water tight enclosure and indoor studio like the AM with balanced input from indoor via the 4 conductor cable to get the audio and power to it but then changed his mind and did it like the other competing ones. It was my suggestion that he certified it BETS for the Canadian version to get the longer range allowed here. It was extra time and money to do that for the two countries. So understandably not happy no sales.
@mark If it had been in a weatherproof enclosure with provision for balanced audio feed, with the 4-conductor cable to provide both power and audio, I would have bought one - even if it had cost as much as the AM Procaster. It would have been a truly unique product, being the only certified FM transmitter designed for outdoor mounting.
Having said that, I might have been one of the very few who would have purchased. There just doesn't seem to be much of a market for this type of product any more. I imagine the tariff situation doesn't help with US sales either. I have refrained from buying products direct from overseas suppliers because they weren't able to tell me what the extra tariff imposed by US Customs would be.