I'm curious about FM range under Part 15. I know of no one who can get more than 200 ft. at the outside. After that it goes away right quick.
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I Personally get about 300 feet or so.
62 houses 186 people (if each house has 3 living in it)
Sure ... but I think you've missed the point. Here, the local engineers and proponents of Wi-Fi have said it will take maybe $10K to build a WiFi system that will cover all Friday Harbor, and most everyone who would use it will also have internet on simultaneously, thus it becomes internet anyway, and so the point of having it becomes strictly academic ... no practical value = no support.
OTOH, if we could build a gutsy enough one atop the water tower, which would be the highest point in town, it might have great coverage. But it doesn't make sense to put that much effort an $$ into it if it won't put users onto the internet. IOW, the attempt would be to give town users coverage anywhere in town, rather than hotspots from several IPs, and at lower cost. We could build and operate it for a year for maybe a $50 buy-in membership and $10 or $15 /month maintenance fees from then on.
That's cheap access for broadband in anyone's book.
I think there's some confusion here.
First, not all Part 15 stations stream over the Internet. If you have the Internet already, or are in a hotspot that does allow Internet access, then yes, you can receive those particular stations that do.
But a lot don't stream. Streaming over the internet, at least, has its own particular set of issues, including being able to support limited numbers of listeners (unless you have a dedicated T1 line or something similar - most traditional ISP's severely restrict upload speeds to 1 Mbit or less; from actual use, Artisan Radio with its 40Kbit mono stream can support roughly 15 simultaneous listeners).
I'm looking at a WiFi intranet as replacing the radio portion of Part 15 for local listeners. With a good gain antenna mounted high, and a 1 watt outdoor amplifier mounted at its base, you could easily exceed Part 15 AM broadacast band range (particularly with the restrictive interpretations increasingly being applied). And if 1/2 to 1 km range with a digital (i.e. clear and listenable) signal isn't enough, then you can add bridges (linked by directional antennas) and get far more. Plus there's no legal grey area here as there is with synchronized transmitters on the AM band. As a side note - synchronized transmitters are NOT allowed in Canada, as there is a restriction that multiple unlicensed transmitters on either the AM or FM band cannot use the same programming source.
A wireless intranet also has the capability of supporting much higher bitrates if desired, and depending on the number of simultaneous listeners you want to support.
So anyone with a wireless network card within your hotspot radius will abe able to pick up your signal. Yes, they may be using the Internet already, but who cares? All they have to do is to switch to your wireless network and access your intranet home page. Or continue to use their Internet connection if you do stream over the internet and access the station that way. You probably don't want to go through all the hassles and expense of maintaining and policing internet access through your Intranet in any event - that's way outside the boundaries of running a Part 15 radio station.
Of course, if you're in the Part 15 hobby just to fool around with HF radio equipment and the like, then this solution may not be for you. But if you're there for the broadcasting, then I believe it deserves consideration.
I've just gone ahead and purchased the pieces necessary to start experimenting with such an intranet - RF Linx outdoor amplifier, Cicso access point and Cushcraft gain antenna came to under $250. I already have the cabling and connectors from my amateur radio hobby.
What I like about this solution is that it almost effectively removes the FCC (and Industry Canada) from the issue - yes, they are still responsible for unlicensed wireless network standards, but these solutions are commonplace. Plus there are no complaining radio stations in the mix. And if we're all honest, the days of analogue radio, AM and FM, are already numbered.
Anyway, one more project to add to my overloaded schedule. If I can get the coverage that's advertised, then the only remaining problem will be where to locate the antenna in Snug Cove (the 'downtown' of Bowen Island).
OK, I've thought more about the potential users of a Radio hotspot.
The hotspot solution is ideal for dedicated devices, such as Internet radios. You just configure the radio for the hotspot network (within the coverage area, of course), enter in the stream URL and you're done.
You're also not likely to be surfing the Internet while listening to the radio from your webphone or other such mobile device, so it's also ideal for those types of devices.
Someone with a laptop who only wants to listen to the radio could connect to the Radio hotspot. But if they simultaneously want to access the Internet AND listen (via the intranet, not the internet), then there's an issue. One potential solution is to use a 2nd wireless adapter (such as a USB adapter) that would allow you to access the Intranet, while you use your primary adapter for the internet - there may be configuration issues that need to be investigated.
For a desktop computer, you would more than likely also need that 2nd wireless adapter to connect to the Intranet.
The KENC website says that the station will be back on the air December 7, 2009, although their problem with the FCC has not been resolved yet. The announcement only mentions a three-hour broadcast on December 7. I don't know if they got the permission of the FCC to do this. or they have decided to fight.
Good for Him. Since the FCC engineer had no problems with the other 2 transmitters, hopefully the problematic transmitter has been configured the same.
I am listening now to his web stream. Very professional. Too bad the local LPFM is a hobby station. Not what the FCC intended. Lot's of that going on. I am amazed the FCC does not go after LPFM hobby broadcasters. Music only, no locally originated programming, you get the idea.
This guy is doing what his local LPFM should be doing. But guess who gets busted?
I listened to most of Ken Cartwright's return to the air today. He only briefly mentioned his problem with the FCC; but, despite his quiet demeanor, he was defiant. You could almost compare Ken to Travis at the Alamo, answering the demand to surrender with a cannon shot. He says, in effect, that the rules are vague, and he requires clarification of the rules from the FCC to show that he is, in fact, violating Part 15. His next scheduled live broadcast will be tomorrow morning. We'll have to see how this all turns out.
You might say, "He is Standing his GROUND."
Yep... "Stayton broadcaster to go back on air"
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20091207/NEWS/912070320/1001/news
Compared to previous coverage in the press, this article seems more credible. I do wonder what the remaining technical issue is.
It's interesting to consider what is happening to the credibility of the broadcast industry, which is increasingly coming under fire for its stewardship of the public airwaves. There is a distinct possibility that some or all of the television spectrum may go away, to be replaced by wireless broadband and other mobile services. The same could happen to radio spectrum, or it could just become redundant on its own if wireless Internet takes off.
A few enterprising individuals like Ken are bearing the brunt of cold war era policies that were put in place largely at the insistence of the NAB. Yet the FCC allows high powered stations to jam other frequencies for literally thousands of miles by transmitting IBOC sidebands that support a digital radio system that nobody listens to. That is just dumb! It will certainly be interesting to see where this all ends.
The 800 foot range mentioned in the article can be obtained by a Part 15 AM transmitter operating at the level of the earth. Maybe the problem is that the transmitter is still on the tower, and the "ground lead" issue remains because of that. The 200 foot range limit mentioned in the article is not actually in the rules. Section 15.219 has no range or field strength limits.
I would like to know who told those people that 200 feet is the limit...
I say he should just take the transmitter off the pole... and put it at ground level. It should do half decent there.
A funny book I once read said that people rise to their highest level of incompetence. If they are good at their job, they get promoted, if they are good at their second job they get promoted again. This goes on until they're promoted to a level of responsibility they can't handle. To say that the FCC inspector in this grounding dispute has risen to his highest level would be politically dangerous to say, and so that's not what I'm saying.
So anyone with a wireless network card within your hotspot radius will abe able to pick up your signal.</cite
... and therein lies a great deal of the problem. No listeners. I think I would have to spend an unreasonable amount of time and energy developing such a listener base.
From another message;
You're also not likely to be surfing the Internet while listening to the radio from your webphone or other such mobile device, so it's also ideal for those types of devices.>/cite>
AFAIK, 'webphones' go through the service provider's cellular system to get onto the internet, i.e., they aren't configured to communicate directly with WiFi hotspots as Internet Radio devices can.
Also, I know of no one around here who has an Internet Radio. There are a prescious few with Satellite Radios. Again, there is no listener base ... I think it will take years of convincing education arguments to develop it ... and starve to death in the mean time. I wouldn't mind leading that battle if I could afford to, but that's not how it is.
So the viable digital solution is to deal with what I can ... and that means the internet.