Does the FCC even open up the filing window for LPFM anymore these days? Thought that window was locked and bolted and welded shut for good.
If not, best of luck with it and hope it goes through and allows you to be commercial...from what I understood, LPFM was only for non-commercial and not licensed to individuals.
RFB
Not sure about the filing window, maybe it's been bricked over, there has always seemed to be a reluctance to let it happen....
But the requirement of being a not-for-profit organization can be satisfied by having a certain number of very trusted friends who sign on to the paperwork needed to legally incorporate, allowing you as an "individual" to operate the station.
But if one or more members turns against the "individual operator" he can end up being voted out.
The statutory responsibilities imposed by corporate law impose a lot of time consuming paper work, meetings, reports, which can detract from running a radio station. Activist members of the public can also become nuisances if someone smells blood and decides to attempt a hostile takeover.
The dream of creative artistry in the medium of radio is just about smothered.
It appears that the FCC will open another LPFM filing window sometime late in 2012.
I did incorporate Delta Star Radio of Florida, Inc. as a nonprofit in 2001, which is a plus in my favor. Most LPFMs seem to have been licensed to churches and such, but there are a few gems, such as WLNT-LP in Loudon, TN.
The FCC appears to be tossing out applications if the nonprofit is two years old or less. They seem to be looking for some sort of established local presence. You do NOT have to be a 501(c)3, just a chartered nonprofit.
I'm still live on the air so have to cut this short..more later.
Interesting. I know about the processes of rounding up people to incorporate and the risks of being voted out at some point. The real surprise to me is the FCC opening up filing for LPFM.
Stranger things have happened.
RFB
Frankly I have been judging the DX situation from indoors and assuming what I was hearing was what there was to hear on the AM band.
Not so.
Listening on an auto radio is a whole other DX world, not attenuated by the walls of a building.
But I have had an auto radio for a hundred years.
Ya but, I have always set the dial on a station for listening and paid attention to the road.
Now I've found a new game. I set the auto radio on a "frequency of interest" and then drive around. Wow. There is life on there that never gets heard indoors.
Yesterday I listened to WMAY 970 AM Springfield, Illinois. Can't get that inside the house.
Some people might have long wire outdoor antennas connected to an indoor radio, says one member. Not around here. No sir.
Hi Carl!
I DX on the Car radio all the time.
I was able to hear the BBC on the
AM broadcast band because I took my
Sony 2010 outside. 693 Khz. Clear
as a bell. (Although conditions are
everything.)
Most of my longwave BCB DXing is done
with the radio outside, away from the
house RF noise. In both the medium wave
and long wave cases, you can turn the
receiver to null the noise out.
You can do this kind of thing with a long
wire too, but it has to be set up so it
doesn't get RF interference from your house
or whatever. I have a very bad RF noise
problem here which is interMITTent. (wups)
So things have to be just right for a long
wire to work here. Other people who do not
have bad noise trouble would not need that.
I have antenna phasing units for the AM BCB
and shortwave. The shortwave one is broken
and I haven't gotten around to fixing it.
The AM one works great. I was able to
hear "Virgin Radio," a rock station on 1215 kHz
from the UK some years ago. I have the ID
sitting on a tape around here somewhere.
It was not a strong signal, but the phasing
unit pulled it up out of the noise.
Carl, did you say you are putting down ground radials
for an outside 3 meter stick? Did I get that
right?
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGRADIO STUDIO 2
I do not mean that you need to correct your memory. What I mean is, your memory is correct.
Indeed those ground radials will be going down and 3-meters will be going up.
Today it is 34 so I may not be out there today. If it was a 34-year old woman, I wouldn't be here typing this, but it's only the temperature.
The stick will be set on 1680 using the forthcoming AMT5000 in a custom outdoor box.
I will also continue to maintain the AMT5000 on the Wintenna as a backup, since it works so well.
That will make comparison very easy.
Carl, the range of that outside set-up is going
to blow your mind.
Well, actually, I hope not.
Bruce, DOGRADIO STUDIO 2
Long wires are not the only way to pull in AM DX'ing.
Amplified loop antennas can do some amazing things even inside a metal building.
Heck..hooking up a simple wire to a rain gutter can yield some impressive results.
Want to run a long wire without running a long wire?
Try that TCU in the opposite direction...ie instead of a transmitter connected to it's input, try a radio receiver.
Hint hint. :p
RFB
Here's part of the skinny on this subject ...
The new legislation passed and was signed into law by President Obama a little over a year ago ... relaxes the requirement for third adjacent channel interference. The FCC has always known that wasn't an issue in modern communications engineering standards anyway, The bill was put together by Prometheus, the long-standing LPFM promotion and help programs for community radio. I've been on the Stubblefield group list for years.
It was meant to widen the service for more communities, especially those in more densely populated areas, to have local programming and education, so there is a mandate for the FCC to allow for more Construction Permit applications.
However, here's the crux of the confusion and controversy: Commercial FM translators are to be handled on the same level, equal opportunity, as LPFM stations. As of the last filing window fro translators, IIRC there are some 30,000 applications for translators.
How is the FCC to interpret the new LPFM law with the aforementioned mandate and modify the regulations to meet the equal level translator situation? Well, it's not going to be easy ... is it? Sort of a Catch-22 thing. They are still a ways from resolving this issue, so, even tho' they hope to open a filing window late this year, it could take longer ...
There is quite a bit of discussion on the topic in the FCC published files online.
One way to resolve the problem is to open up the old TV VHF band a few Mhz instead of it sitting there idle wasting away.
But for now, it's more of playing the waiting game. They may open up a filing window but that don't mean squat. Be prepared to pick a number and have a seat. 30,000?....I wonder who is 30,001 and what number is being called next. Bet its still in the single digit row.
"No one has time for those who only stand and wait"..Kirk..ST TSFS.
RFB
Actually the number of translator applications is "only" around 3,000.
Still too many!
I've said before that on some Friday nights I get loud clear signals from stations that should be on their low nighttime power, and it always happens during big sporting broadcasts.
I got another one tonight coming in on my frequency of 1550 kHz(B. Must accept all interference).
There are stations all around me on 1550, in Cape Girardeau, Springfield and Kansas City, Missouri, and several Illinois towns.
The lowest nighttime power is Northbrook, Illinois, at 1 Watt, and the highest nighttime power is St. Joseph, Missouri, near Kansas City, at 500 Watts.
On most nights I just hear a garble of all the stations way off in the tumble-sphere, but tonight there was a good strong game being played right up until near midnight, then it faded way out.
Caught another last night on 1710. "The Nightwatchman Radio Program"
Brian
1710 around here is completely silent..day and night. 1700 has very faint signals that come through now and then. at 1690 and below...BAM!!! Just as crowded and just as noisy as 1600 and below. Ironically the lower third...ie 530 to about 790 is relatively clear..especially on 630, 670, 710 and 770, but only during the winter months. In the summer it's so frigging crowded and overlapping of stations, every channel is like a scramble and you are not going to pull anything out of it no matter what antenna, filter or fancy dancy rig you have.
In the warmer months, the upper third..ie 1270 up to 1700 is fairly clear, tho 1620 out to 1660 gets incredibly crowded and worthless even for DX listening much less TX'ing. That's why I operate on 1670 during the warmer seasons and on 630 or 710 during the cold seasons.
Lately however, with the increased CME activity and ionosphere being affected by those CME's, the LW, MW and SW bands, and even sometimes the FM band is in a state of flux.
As another member pointed out, sometimes stations come in that never were there before, and sometimes so silent it's kin to a ghost town of radio spectrum.
It's interesting though to hear stuff coming in from overseas now and then on the MW band. I tried to tune in to the Cuban time station on 540 but there is an AM station in Vancouver BC Canada on 540Khz that totally occupies that channel at night..and sometimes even throughout the day you can hear it pretty clearly..as if it was just a state or two over.
Radio in flux...gotta make a new DX listen time chart!
RFB