HobbyBroadcaster.net Community Moves to Subscription Access
HobbyBroadcaster.net has been serving the Part 15 radio broadcasting enthusiast for more than 12 years. During this time HobbyBroadcaster.net has made a number of firsts for the hobby broadcast community, from featured broadcasters and station profiles, the broadcasters audio showcase, product reviews, comprehensive equipment evaluations, technical and legal resources as well as the first side-by-side Part 15 AM broadcast transmitter comparison, The AM Transmitter Challenge.
Copycats have failed to compete, let alone gain the national recognition enjoyed by HobbyBroadcaster.net. Organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Consumer Technology Association (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Association), broadcast industry engineering trade paper Radio World, general interest radio publications such as CQ Amateur Radio, Monitoring Times and Popular Communications in addition to broadcast equipment manufacturers like Wheatstone / Audioarts, Inovonics, Radio Systems and International Station Specialists recognize your webmaster and HobbyBroadcaster.net as the reference for license free, legal low power radio broadcasting in accordance with FCC Part 15 regulations.
HobbyBroadcaster.net has the unique distinction of being operated by a broadcast engineer with more than 45 years in the industry. Community membership includes current or former employees directly involved in the broadcast industry, ranging from audio production specialists, station owners / operators, technical / engineering personnel and manufacturers of equipment for licensed broadcasters, offering knowledgeable feedback to questions which encompass the entire world of Part 15 radio.
To defray the continuing operating costs of the site, time constraints placed on the operators and support personnel as well as to allow future growth it's been determined that the forum community must move to subscription-based access at this time. Placing a real value on the knowledge offered within the forum community, additional member-only features and member first-view of upcoming new features will allow expansion of value-added exclusive features to the forum community membership.
Information and resources available on the main portion of HobbyBroadcaster.net will continue to be available to the general public with no membership or subscription required. Subscribers in good standing, however, will continue to enjoy access to extra and bonus resources which are available via the main website.
https://www.hobbybroadcaster.net/community/index.php?topic=11469.msg56044;topicseen#msg56044
Wonder what the fee will be and how many members will pay.
<p>Goodbye Hobbybroadcaster. I personally didn't see the value even when it was free to join.</p><p>That being said, I hope that it survives. Reading between the lines in the announcement, I suspect that the change was forced upon them by the tough economic (and health) times.</p>
wrong topic
I only see this as an opportunity for him to cash in on a bad situation such as this. If this is the case shame on him for doing that.
now the big question is since he's going off subscriptions is he still going to require you to have to use a ISP given email address? if so that would be redundant because as a subscriber only I fail to see how anyone would use a subscription service to post bunch of spam on to it.
Is II is he going to turn certain people down because for whatever reason he doesn't like their personality or the fact that they might post things on other websites that are contrary to what he believes them? As a subscriber 2A closed site you should have more freedom of expression.
is a subscriber to such a service I feel that one should at least be able to get big discounts on equipment. Baby be the first in line to be able to buy a new equipment or beta test new equipment before the general public. But if not I don't see somebody subscribing to a service like that.
Let's just hope that the majority of the folks are not fooled into being scammed into this idea.
<p>It's useless to speculate on why that site is going to a subscription model.</p><p>It's also not productive to speculate what that model will look like until the details are released. I personally doubt that they're going to decrease the security of the site, such as the e-mail address restrictions.</p><p>In these times, it's probably better to be kind, even if that kindness isn't reciprocated. Work is drying up, many people are losing their jobs and money is tight all over.</p><p>I really do hope that this doesn't mean the end of the site, even if I don't see the value in joining.</p>
Agreed Artisan.