Found the stuff from '72
http://174.122.4.235/~antiquer/forums/viewtopic.php?t=154073&highlight=
Rob Veld
Hey guys, and Rob - that's great you
found the 1972 article. Really good.
I'm doing some long wave Part 15 research.
I'll be back.
Best Wishes,
Dog Radio Studio 2
My contribution to a name for LP broadcasting in the long wave bands ... 😉
"Let's talk about how each of us can supply a chunk of network programming.
On second thought, the network feed will come from KDX and we welcome each LW affiliate to link up!"
I think a better way would be for all affiliates to chip in for a central server set up so that it is secured and not a public server, only for the networking of the stations. This is where the stations get the programs from.
For example, programs are uploaded to the central server from network affiliates. These programs could be specially produced for the network, or programs aired in other venues such as an affiliate's internet stream, or community station. This will provide a very wide and diverse range of program material and content for the entire network. It could also help introduce shows not heard of before to new audiences everywhere.
Since everyone's station has their own program lineups and schedules, having a co-located central server will allow each station to integrate the network into their existing operations easily.
For example, I intend to run quite a bit of my current program schedule on the LW frequency along with the AM/FM/Net programs. I can then insert the programs from the central LW network server into the automation program where they would be best for my stations genre of programming.
RFB
Thats a good idea RFB,
I plan on making my LW station Musically Focused, while inserting NLN Programming during certain Times.
For Example We Could have a Network Lineup as such
(All In Central Time)
5am-9am NET/LOCAL (Net/Local Morning Show)
9am-11am LOCAL (Local Mid Morning Show)
11am-1pm NET (Network Afternoon Show)
1pm-5pm NET/LOCAL (Net/Local Afternoon Show)
5pm-10pm LOCAL (Local Drive Show/Night Programming)
10pm-5am NET (Network Overnight Lineup)
This allows up to 16 hours of Local Programming.
And a minimum of 8 Hours of Network Programming.
or 7 Hours Local and 17 hours max of Network.
This talk about resurrecting LW in north america is very inspiring. It is excellent that so many are joining the cause. The network has been named, programming strategies have been put forward, and we are ready to invent the technology to make it go.
Never mind that some believe that LW is long gone. Obviously we don't think it's dead. In fact, I see a resurgence.
For one thing there are many folks from Europe and south america/Mexico where LW is well known. I have a German neighbor who is ready for programming on her European radio, both LW and SW.
And with our technically savvy population it won't take much to "sell" a few people on finding the "inner circle of radio" hidden on LW.
Word of mouth. Model by example. There are a few radio manufacturers who will love us for causing this revival. LONG LIVE LONG WAVE.
Well After Some Searching I Found THIS
http://northcountryradio.com/Kitpages/am88.htm
and it looks like THIS
http://northcountryradio.com/Kitpages/pam88.htm
It can be used on the LW Band with an output of
1 watt!
it sounds like it's customizable and can be ordered assembled or in kit form. It costs about the same as an assembled SSTran. I might get this one to use.
Now Heres an Idea of How To Distribute NLN, and how to classify Affiliates.
I believe we should have a Central Feed (Webstream) in addition to an FTP Server.
Full-Time Affiliate:
Carries National Feed (Off Stream) with 17 hours NET. Daily.
Carries National Feed (Off Stream) with 08 hours NET.
Cherry Picks Programming via FTP with 8 or more hours NET Daily.
Carries Full NLN Line-up, but programs according to local needs. (Different Times, days, ect.)
Part-Time Affiliate
Carries National Feed (Off Stream) with less than 8 hours NET.
Cherry Picks NLN Programming off FTP with less than 8 hours NET.
Of Course anything at this point can be changed, We're all open to any suggestions!
But now for the fun part, Who all plans to be an affiliate, and how should we program weekends?
I sign myself up to be an affiliate, I think I'll Call mine The Big LW.
So theres one, I believe RFB says he'll Do it, Carl has signed up, so theres 3 right off the bat! with Bruce and MRAM being possibilities. (I think Bruce will do it too, considering he started the whole thing, but it was RFB who got the network idea)
For Network cues we could use DTMF tones and Zara Radio to trigger local events, such as Network Disconnect and Local ID's.
What about the transmitter? Is there anything around we can start with? North Country Radio has a thing called the AM88 but I don't know if it's perfectly right for 1W LW.
I have skimmed the search engine and found some old not up-to-date LW sites with a lot of dead links. It was so poorly kept that I didn't bother to link it here.
Sometimes America seems big, but when it comes to special interests like low power LW it seems like we are very alone.
It would seem that Carl's Big Talker could be scaled to operate on LW. My simulations of this at 13.5 MHz showed that it can operate in the 1 W range given the right transistors and heat sinks.
If there is interest I am willing to scale the RF stage down to LW and run a simulation.
The oscillator may need revision since crystals for this range may be hard to find. The best approach might be to use a higher frequency oscillator and divide it down digitally. Any thoughts?
Neil
The AM-88 unit would be a very good choice for those on a budget. I have also seen other fine designs across the web that would be good.
I am going to build a LW TX. It will use a PLL circuit with reference crystal controlling an oscillator, probably a Colpits design, followed by a two stage buffer. Then flow into a balanced modulator chip with selectable carrier or carrier null to facilitate AM and SSB. For the FM, there will be the typical direct FM configuration via the infamous varactor diode. When not operating in FM mode, the varactor circuit will simply be bypassed with a DIP package relay.
Probably operate on 25 volts DC and I am going to dedicate one of my LPB TCU-30 units modified for the LW band to be the antenna tuning unit outdoors in what I have called the "Puppy Hut 2" box. Puppy Hut 1 is the current stand-by MW 3 meter stick.
I had a thought on the distribution ideas. As to a dedicated full time streaming server, there would need to be someone who can feed that on a full time basis, and the server would need to be secured so that it is dedicated to the network for source of programs.
I believe it should not be public accessible on the web. After all, this whole effort is to create a LW network and not a string of web streams. The web can serve the LW network as the program sourcing as well as an ftp server.
For reliability, I highly recommend to not use any of those "freebie" stream services as those are shared servers and during heavy load times, which could be at ANY time, may and most likely will cause buffering and drop out issues to the network. This, as well as the ftp server, CANNOT be ran from someone's home connection. It MUST be a co-located server on a data center and its high speed net connection! It must also take into account the natural delay time of the web.
I recommend a bit rate of no less than 128kps. This gives roughly about a 20 second delay. A 192kps will give about a 15 second delay. Anything lower than 128 will give too much delay.
There can also be "LW LIVE" where some or all of the affiliates partaking in a live program, can all get together with the use of "Team Speak". This is a real time two way internet communications program that many gamers use for communications during a multi player game. I have used it for my station's "Z-FILES" program, where 3 hosts are in 3 different locations across the US and Canada, and it performs as if all 3 hosts were in the same room on mics. It is bitrate settable so that voices or voice over audio/music bumpers will sound full fidelity.
All kinds of ways to do this. It is just the beginning!
RFB
"For Network cues we could use DTMF tones and Zara Radio to trigger local events"
Not a bad idea. However I would recommend something more compatible like a sub-audio tone. Not all stations use Zara and those who do not must create a way to decypher that net cue into their existing systems without breaking things or breaking the bank account.
Sub-audio tones were used in older two way communications to 'unmute' a repeater receiver and fire up its transmitter. Two way radio operations would use these sub audio tone reeds to allow for accessing the repeater while at the same time protecting it from unauthorized use.
Creating sub audio generators and decoders is no more complicated than making a one or two stage transistor amplifier. And instead of using crystal reeds, an audio generator circuit controlled by a PLL circuit can provide a means to send down different net cue sub-tones for different functions...such as triggering local station ID or image carts versus triggering a regular break.
Back in my day as chief engineer at KOSA Ch 7 in Odessa Texas, I used a Ramsey DTMF tone decoder kit at the ICR relay which sat on top of a 30 story building. In the ENG truck was a salvaged DTMF tone board from an old phone. The operator would point the ENG truck's microwave cone at the bank building, fire up the microwave transmitter, and then punch in a 4 digit DTMF sequence which would fire up the ICR microwave link back to the studio. Using the microwave's audio sub-carrier capability made this method incredibly easy to implement to control the IRC relay system from the ENG truck. There was even another sub carrier decoder and DTMF decoder at the studio so that if news reporters needed to send back spot video or other and needed them to be recorded, the ENG truck could trigger a remote located video recorder back in the news room specifically tied in for that purpose. Was mostly just a bells and whistles thing, but came in very handy because sometimes a news reporter needed to send something back to the studio and all the rest of the crews back at the station were too busy running around getting ready for the next newscast.
I even had it set up so that I could remotely control the main Ch 7 transmitter via the ENG truck, bypassing the studio completely and feeding the IRC receiver directly into the STL microwave link, and we could feed the Ch 7 transmitter from the ENG truck to serve as a backup feed source in case something happened at the main studio.
Here is a link to Ramesy's latest DTMF decoder kit.
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=DCI2
Fairly inexpensive and if a salvaged DTMF pad off a telephone cannot be found, Radio Shack as a hand held battery operated DTMF keypad with a pizo element speaker that is placed next to a telephone mic to control those old DTMF triggered answering machines.
Or DTMF encoders can be made with junk parts lying around in the shop. Plenty of good schematics on DTMF encoders and decoders on the web.
RFB
Agreed, we should NOT use a free server for the FTP, nor a free shoutcast server.
I have an excellent host that can accommodate both an FTP and Stream, the stream can be dirt cheap since there won't be many connecting to it at one time.
I'll get with my host and see what kind of deal I can get.
Proposing a name for the transmitters designed and built for NLN (North American Longwave Network), what about "Deep Voice?" That kind of goes with low frequency long wave deep voiced.
Puppy Hut 2 and Dog Radio Studio 2 sound like a family matter.
Neil, the mention that "Big Talker" could be re-designed for LW is something worth pursuing. Yes, please draft a circuit that would down-tune a common crystal to the LW frequency, the frequency proposed by The Crow is 162kHz with secondary (backup channel) being 180kHz.
Just for the record, it is only partially "Carl's Big Talker," since I built the prototypes, but it is Radio8Z's, PhilB's, Ermi Roos's, Bruce Dog Studio 2's and Wilcom Labs and all the names who contributed directions leading to the final result.
RFBurn's LW transmitter will enrich the pool of available choices, and at least here at KDX I'd like to have both of these transmitters, with one being backup for the other.