State of the Station

..AMT5000 which screams out farther than I would be comfortable with at all times. It gets shut-down unless I'm outside..

As far as "the community" is concerned, I don't know them and would feel silly providing unsolicited programs on the assumption they'd have any interest.

Wow Carl, I'm kind of surprised to hear you say either of those things.

You say you're uncomfortable with the range you're getting which implies you think it may not be complient.

And as for feeling silly providing you're programming to the locals.. well, it could be that some one browsing the dial would come across your broadcast and be delighted by it.. for those who aren't, well, they could just tune to another station.

Seems to me that not broadcasting outside your four walls eliminates a lot of the appeal and fun of it! Where's your sense of adventure?!

Ahhh.. but as they say; to each his own.

Oh, by the way, I loved your "State of the Station" expression.

Rich Powers, you are valuable to the ongoing conversation, and I am glad you returned to part15.us after being busy with other life for awhile.

I have no sense of what's compliant and what's not, but two things worry me about reaching a wide area: this community has a reputation for falsely charging residents with zoning violations and if they sniffed a radio station in their midst I expect that it would cost a thousand or more to possibly be found "innocent."

As far as the fcc is concerned, although on the one hand I submit to their authority to govern the airwaves, I can't stand unexpected knocks on the door because none of my time is spare time and I don't want to put up with it.

If an unusually astute neighbor tunes one of my signals and actually enjoys it, they are my welcome guest and I appreciate their good taste. But unless I can ever know they exist, they are only figments of imagination.

My sense of adventure is reserved for encounters with women.

For a long time my stations put out at all frequencies: AMT3000, AMT5000 and carrier current.

The carrier current was a new toy and seemed like an added tool for actually getting into homes. But I had a personality split.

On my website home page I clearly state that my station is personal, a means of building a dream station for myself as the end listener. But if that is true, why would I want to get into other people's houses with a signal? Especially people that I do not know?

One model that offers a tantalizing solution is what I call the "DX Model," which means: a station that comes from an unknown distance. I even thought of identifying as an Antarctican radio station coming from near the South Pole.

If people like your station, does it matter where you're actually located?

Anyway, life has taught me not to trust the way people think, aside from the fake smiles they present when approached. Cynical? No, it's skeptical.

Why should my little radio station entangle me with strangers?

Keeping true to the purpose stated on my website homepage is reasonable, and in no way inconviences part 15ers with other missions.

Only the ALPB can save us all. Join.

For the non-neutral injection system, Carrier Current operation is an excellent way of "getting into" your own home while not being heard around town.  This is somewhat dependent upon how may buildings are serviced by the same transformer.

This will aid in your desire to remain in-house and supply an excellent signal strength to all parts of your home.  The backyard may be a problem though...

KDX is a wonderful experiment.  Carl - if it

makes you happy the way you have it - then

do it that way.  I have listened to it on line,

and I have enjoyed it very much. 

Drawing a parallel: In the ham radio world there is a very interesting

place.  It's the spectrum between 7100 and 7125 kHz. 

This spectrum (along with other frequencies) was a

"Morse code" training place for new ham radio operators (years ago.)

Signals came from simple transmitters, one tube or one

transistor oscillators, or used twenty year old vintage transmitters -

whatever the new operator could afford. 

On those frequencies, years ago, there were patient operators

who would talk slowly to those hams who liked Morse code, but

(for hams like me)

could not transmit or receive it very fast. 

Today, that frequency range is very much the

same as it was years ago.  Slow Morse is there -

people are enjoying stations with regenerative

receivers and simple or vintage transmitters - interesting

old equipment - that sort of thing.  7100 to 7125 kHz is

a celebration of the past.  It is a friendly and reminiscent place.

Here is my point. 

Firing up my 90 watt Heathkit DX-60B ham transmitter, hearing

the hum of the transformers, seeing the movement of the various meters,

the neon light that says the plate voltage is on - and looking up

at the transmitting wire outside the window in the yard...

And sometimes... launching the "vintage" carrier wave into the ether...

can make a person feel GREAT - - even if NOBODY answers the transmission.

Trust me.  Just the thrill of firing up the old contraption

 can be MORE THAN ENOUGH. 

Whatever makes you happy. 

Bruce, DOGRADIO

Around 5 years ago or so, a bunch of

radio historians with a lot a technical savvy

had a big celebration honoring FM radio, and

it's inventor, Major Edwin Armstrong.  

These people painstakingly reconstructed

an FM transmitting station in Alpine N.J. that

had been part of Mr. Armstrong's original FM radio network. 

This celebration took a lot of work.  Right now, for

some reason, I cannot find any specific details on the internet.

(The info IS out there, however.)  At the celebration time, the

beautifully reconstructed transmitter went on the air

with a very  special memorial broadcast. 

And this was in the original FM broadcast band that

was used before World War 2.  So instead of

being somewhere between 88 to 108 MHz, the

transmitter was in the {Pre-World War 2) FM band

of about 42 to 50 MHz. 

It was a big event for radio historians. 

I cannot remember the exact frequency,

but somewhere between 42 to 50 MHz, I

put a high receiving installation up on a higher

hill, in West Hartford, Connecticut.  I was hopeful

about hearing the special memorical broadcast

on about 45 MHz FM.

I did not hear it.  But putting up the receiving

station was a great experience. 

I was part of it, even though the broadcasters

didn't even know I was out there. 

And for me, the thrill of trying to hear the

weak FM signal was more than enough, even

though it wasn't even there on my radio. 

So again, I guess - whatever makes you happy.

Bruce, DOGRADIO

Actually the "Happy Station" is an actual program done weekly by Keith Perron of PCJ Media and available for use by part 15 stations.

Something else Rich Powers suggested in what he said has my mind struggling to think, which is hampered by the ionosphere...

There is the suggestion in what Rich Powers said that we part 15 stations have something like an obligation to "serve the listener" and this idea deserves some study.

If there is such an obligation, where does it come from? It's not in the FCC rules. Perhaps it grows from a sense of what we find lacking on the radio dial. As we often say, programming is the problem with AM radio and probably with FM radio too.

But even though programming is bad, what business is that of ours? Why should we appoint ourselves the custodian of good programming for a public that essentially allows radio to be bad without complaining, writing letters or holding protests?

I think what I'm doing is the most logical way of employing part 15 radio. If every household or at least every block had a part 15 station then people would control radio and not tasteless corporations.

If the "No Name Family" down the street wants good radio, let them order an AMT5000 and start planning a schedule. They can't expect me to be their DJ.

Hmm.. Actually Carl.. If my comment had an air of implying that part 15 broadcasters are somehow obligated to serve the community - it wasn't intentional, nor do I believe such.

In my view, Part 15 is primarily a hobby, a unique pastime, and a personal one - regardless if anyone listens or not.. but it also happens to be a broadcast, which generally pertains to a receiving audience, or at least the potential of one.

By no means at all did I mean to indicate that your personal implication of the hobby was somehow lacking. Fact is that the final result of your methods do more to promote this hobby than most of us.. I refer to the making of the Low Power Hour available for rebroadcast here and on your site..  You are therefore broadcasting to general public after all, even if it's not to your own neighborhood.. When it comes down to it, your getting more range out your broadcast then many of us put together!

I didn't mean anything by it, I was somehow just initially surprised by your comment is all. Keep experiencing this hobby in the way that you most enjoy it.

Actually, it was 42.8 MHz, with the

first broadcast on 5/11/2005. 

This is amazing stuff, and the person

who rebuilt the FM transmitter to exact

specs (along with it's Phasitron tube) should

get a big award!

Maybe more on that later, but anyway, the

42.8 MHz wideband FM broadcast was sent out

from Alpine, NJ.  (Alpine has a large broadcast

history in itself.)

So the 42.8 MHz transmission of WA2XMN (the

STA callsign issued from the FCC) was heard in

4 states: NY, NJ, CT, and MA.  61 radio DX listeners

heard it on 42.8 MHz: some were even using vintage pre WW2

(wideband deviation) FM radios that had the 42 MHz band.  

The best DX was 140 miles away, on a mountain in Massachusetts.

Geat stuff. 

I wish it was still on. 

Again, I didn't hear it, but just trying

was good enough. 

Bruce, DOGRADIO

The 2005 42.8 MHz WA2XMN broadcast transmitter

had a power of 200 watts.

Bruce, DOGRADIO

There are some radio dramas floating around about paranormal radios.

In one drama an angry wife gets annoyed by her husband's habit of listening to shortwave so she damages his radio, but he gets it to work... only now it receives the future and he's able to hear news from tomorrow.

I think there's another radio drama about a radio that brings in the golden age of radio as it's actually happening, somehow being received way in the future.

What we could do with a part 15 station is stage a broadcast from another time or some unlikely place. Anybody who discovered it while tuning around would think they were having a mystical experience.

How about "This is Venus, saying hello to our listeners throughout the Milky Way."

I think some hams were able to

send a signal to Venus and get it

back.  You know, Venus-Bounce.

It was a while ago.  Now I'll have to

look that one up, Carl.

Keep doing KDX radio.

Bruce, DOGRADIO

Somewhere in my vault, I have a copy of the show which included guest speakers elaborating about Mr. Armstrong's accomplishments, trials and tribulations.

I'll have to open the vault and see if I can find that if anyone would like a copy.

What we could do with a part 15 station is stage a broadcast from another time or some unlikely place.

I do have this idea I'd been kicking around awhile for where I live that I would call "Tybee Time Warp"...

You see back in 1958 a B-47 had jettinsoned a Mark 15 nuclear bomb into the waters just off Tybee Island after having a midair collisision with a fighter plane. You see they thought they were going to crash, and they didn't want it to explode.. There were many searches, even to this day, but it's never been found.

Well anyway, playing off this event, as a starter, I'd like fabricate an ongoing audio drama taking place in the present date. Scripting has to be created but the storyline would be something like this:

A fictional news reporter having a remote transmitter goes out in a boat to provide a local live report about the area in which the bomb was lost.. he drops anchor and after a while broadcast a rather uneventful report, but upon trying to pull up the anchor he realizes it is snagged on something solid and heavy (presumally the bomb) - a storm is brewing, so he prepares to remove the anchor chain from the boat and get out of the area, but before he has the chance, lightning strikes the chain.. and all contact is lost!

A search is conducted by the coast gaurd but no sign of him or the boat is found... But amazingly soon after we begin receiving several short transmissions from him.. he made it back to shore but he's trapped in a time warp, and each each transmission indicates him in a different time - which he reports about.. one will be about the Eunuche indians on the island.. the next might be during the attack on Fort Pulaski, the next perhaps the destruction of the first lighthouse.. next maybe the invasion of the Spain.. next perhaps when George Washington orders came in to build the cheaper standard staircase for a new lighthouse.. etc. etc.

Tybee has a very rich historic history..and the idea is to have this reporter documenting various events each time before his signal fades out to static.. until it fades back in the next time with yet another story..

Each episode will be only about 5 minutes long.. Hopefully when I do get around to writing the scripts around many documented facts it will come across a lot better than this general overview of ideas does!.

What do you think?