Just saw a post "over there" where someone asked why Part 15 stations are nothing more than jukeboxes, and why they don't sound like community radio.
Um, well, when you can't broadcast more than a few houses away, "community" radio really doesn't work. Hence, the reason for another class of very low power, community-only radio that only covers a small town.
Why people can't understand this, I don't know.
Lots of smaller stations are jukeboxes, whether hobbyist or commercial running satellite formats that require nothing but a stream to a repeater station.
I admit it, I'm guilty, just music rolling out, but at least for the sake of listeners' brains it's tunes that aren't commonly heard and more challenging than pop or oldise. I'd still like to move to a more community radio approach, even if it's doing a community calendar and a weather report and PSAs.
I don't think Small is bad, it may not be as great as Bigger, but it's better than nothing. I use small radio to learn, and stay in the game and keep my voice alert.
I might be coasting with my station right now, but I think you can do community radio if you desire it, and are willing to make the effort to do it, and to reach out and be flexible.
Taking the entire thread into context, I believe he was referring to stations that just run IDs and music. Stations that don't even have Voice Tracking or weather reports, literal jukeboxes.
Obviously some of us just do it for hobby reasons, while some of us take it more seriously and try to make an actual station out of part 15.
After just buying a SpitFire AM Transmitter, I start at 5 am. I play smooth jazz/sax music until 6am, then switch to Oldies. At 9am, I need a break. Any of you pros do a 4-6 hour airshift? Ha! So I let the Stanton CD player play Relay Mode. I have a 5 hour Wolfman Jack show I can play too.
I have an extensive music library, consisting of formats from several radio stations in my career. But music is not the only collection I have.
The Radio Lady supplied me with Old Time Radio shows like Fibber McGee & Molly, Lights Out!, X Minus One, The Great Gildersleeve and more. Hundreds of mp3s! You can browse her site:
Also, I have found YouTube to be useful for audio. Art Bell's Coast To Coast is there. 2 hour shows. I mean, there is no shortage of good programming. With two laptops, you could segue YouTube music videos! There is an almost unlimited music library there!
Right now, you might say I'm a jukebox. Bill D has a right to his opinion. But this is just me. A one man operation. Some Part 15 stations have a whole staff! I cannot imagine having an LPFM!
Doug
Sounds like you are having fun with your station Doug! Thats what part 15 is really all about. Just about all of my stations have been glorified jukeboxes as well, hard to staff up a station with literally no budget lol!
In recent years I've relied heavily on syndicated programming in an effort to keep my part 15 from sounding "jukeboxy" and now have the whole day voice-tracked. On the full power I have a daily 5 hour airshift which doesn't leave much time for programming my part 15, let alone a live airshift. Voice-Tracking and automation have been the perfect solution to make the station sound staffed and hosted all day.
All I'm saying is that I think it's silly that he wonders why people only do a jukebox when you can't transmit far in the first place, either AM or FM. If you want to talk real community radio and do it right (not just for 4 of your neighbors), there needs to be a way to get the FCC to allow a small-power community license. THEN you'll get the real community people to do the right kind of station.
All I'm saying is that I think it's silly that he wonders why people only do a jukebox when you can't transmit far in the first place, either AM or FM. ...
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True, if one actually/provably complies with Part 15.
Rich. Stop it.
Why should any of us object to posts referring to the legal use of Part 15?
You better not pout, you better not cry Donald trump makes Radio an even piece of pie, Donald trump is coming to town. He see we need more power, he knows that its a fake, he knows part 15 is no good so we get the 1 Watt steak, Oh you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling you why, The FCC got booted from town. Yea!!!
Merry Christmast and have dreams of High power transmitters lol.
Imagine if Trump increased the output to 1 watt, we'd see all of the transmitter manufacturers scramble like ants to increase the power of the circuits over the Legacy (get it?) units.
It would get a little more signal strength, but there would be a few mods to be made. The matching coil would need to be bigger, the standard epoxy inductors might overheat, and at a watt you can start to draw sparks and get minor shocks on the RF coil due to the signal, at least in someone I know's experience, so that would have to be dealt with.
Another idea is to change the rules for no antenna or ground restrictions, but keep the power at 100 mw. The signal would have a neighborhood range at a level of what you wanted or were able to do. It would take skill to get out, rather than just buying a high power rig and slapping it up.
Merry Christman's to you too.
Better not count your chickens ...
I just read an article which speculated that the Trump administration could ban ALL unlicensed broadcasting - they're already talking about reworking the FCC and potentially even eliminating it in its current form.
Perhaps, though, in exchange, they'll make it easier to get true community broadcast licenses. Maybe even follow the New Zealand model, and require licenses for low power stations, but make them free and self-regulated. I cold see something like this happening in the whitespace frequencies.
Speculation can be fun, but it's just that until the Trump administration is sworn in. And even that may be in doubt, given the potential for recounts in several of the swing states where there appear to be some statistical abnormalities in counties using voting machines (compared with counties using paper ballots). We all thought it was over ... but it may not be just quite yet.
If he eliminates the FCC who knows what will happen to all the rules regulations, sections, part 15 whatever!
Don't think part 15 will be eliminated though, this is insignificant in the whole array of issues he wants to deal with.
It would all just be looked after differently if no FCC. Privatized?
It wouldn't be as Thelegacy hopes, I don't think, unfortunately.
As for the "whitspaces" if peoples radios can't get it what good is it to have a New Zealand type system?
In New Zealand the reserved part of the band is in frequencies that still can be received on a normal radio.
Mark
87.9 CAN be eceived on most radio's and its not used. Still alot of Radio's receive 87.7 Mhz and a small number go down to 87.1 Mhz. So 87.1-87.9 should be where he hobby broadcaster can legally broadcast at one watt. at least.
As far as the transmitters you can already get 1-7 Watt CZH transmitters and you don't get shocked with them. Unless you really don't watch what you do.
Ya know, guys, I ran a 30 watt Veronica into a 3.4 Comet 5/8th vertical for five years straight in Florida. ERP of about a hundred watts, and it went ten miles or more in all directions. It was clean and not near any other stations at the time.
These Chinese boxes will get you in trouble. I could crank the Veronica back to 1 watt, and have a tidy little neighborhood station on FM. But I like the challenge of AM. However, the restrictions of Part 15 suck, like that stupid ground lead fiasco. And the 250uV at 3 meters is a joke for FM. Why bother?
But, if you insist on FM, and you are going to buy that Chinese crap, at least look at these:
Don't pollute the airwaves with questionable equipment! I paid $600 for my Veronica back in 2000. The aareff is pretty much the same. The 30 watt is plenty. Don't go nuts with the 100 and 200 watt systems! Not necessary! You'd just be asking for trouble. I don't suggest cranking the 30 watt full power.
What do you NEED to cover? And could you do better on AM? Set right, the Hamilton RangeMaster will cover the same area as a 1 watt FM!
Yeah, I ran 30 watts into a 3.4 for five years without trouble. I was lucky. I am not such a rebel today. I don't need such coverage. Plus I think Oldies and Old Time Radio sounds best on a good AM.
Doug