Back around 1997, I used to get a
Kennedy International Airport Info
station on 1700 here in West Hartford.
I also got California on 1640 and 1650
before those channels started to fill up.
Bruce
Porch Light 2000
?
What's going on is the wrong thing going on. The TIS concept does not belong on the broadcast bands at all. The TIS concepts should have been put onto their own special frequency just like the NOAA radio is, and every single broadcast radio receiver manufacturer should have been mandated to incorporate those frequencies in the radios and selectable via a button, separate from the broadcast AM and FM frequencies.
The big sacred cows were so afraid of even a TIS concept that they slammed heavy restrictions on those TIS stations to the point they can barely get a signal out much less deliver quality information that isn't repeated over and over and over for days or weeks or months on end.
The only time you hear anything different is if the weather changes enough to clog up roads with ice and snow or floods. Any other time..its the same 5 second "nothing to report" message over and over and over and over.
So you tell me...what's going on!
RFB
Prompted by the TIS topic here I just tuned to two local stations. The one in my town is dead carrier at 1610 kHz and the other is a continuous loop of "travel time" information on the local freeways at 1619.3 kHz with audio clipping and splatter. This same audio is on at 1200 kHz, the Columbus, Oh TIS frequency.
What a waste of money and spectrum.
Neil
"What a waste of money and spectrum."
Indeed...but to the sacred cows and FCC it's not a waste of anything since they got their take and continue to get their take by backdoor patty wack pat on the back kickbacks.
Like I was saying in another thread, it's not about serving the public interests anymore. Its about serving the special interests and their coffers and ensuring they have a monopoly on every piece of the spectrum.
If they could..and they attempted to do so with the so called carbon footprint tax, would auction off air by the cubic centimeter and tax us to death...well they already are...taxing us to death that is.
To those of us who have real radio backgrounds and came from the real radio era clearly see the waste going on. And what can be done about it....next to nothing except to create our own little zones of flea power real radio. Even that can be put to a screeching halt at any time..as has been attempted before by the big sacred cows sooo afraid of tiny things taking away what little they have due to their own misguided management and greed.
Do you see the pattern? Consolidation by design in order to destroy what we have so they have it all and we have nothing but what they intend to dish out to us.
So sad.
RFB
My enthusiastic pep attempts to promote part 15 radio may be exactly the wrong thing to do.
I have been reading the last few messages, and because of the dismal state of affairs in radio politics, I suddenly realize that we may be well advised to be very quiet about our activities. If we attract the attention of the monopolists, they will indeed want our 1-square-inch of Alaska (recalling an old time radio promotion for Puffed Rice).
The ratings services are continuing to pretend that there is a giant radio audience tuned in to this or that NAB member station, but they ignore the real fact that thousands of people have migrated to toy media like iDink and Adenoid, where they have so many choices that no one actually watches or hears much of anything, in mass numbers.
Since the 1960s I have known more and more people who totally ignore radio unless there is a world series.
The world of ratings and advertising has become a game of pretend just like church.
Part 15 members probably share more than simply an interest in radio technology.... we suffer from seeing the world for what it is. The hardest kind of life there is because it is on the suspicion list along with 7-days supply of food, missing fingers, Ron Paul stickers and water-proof ammunition. In short: we are not fake.
I will end with another WEAK joke...
What is the difference between high-power licensed radio and part 15 weak radio?
Part 15 radio has one regular listener.
"I will end with another WEAK joke...
What is the difference between high-power licensed radio and part 15 weak radio? Part 15 radio has one regular listener."
Add this...Licensed radio has more than 1 listener, but it is mere noise clogging a void.
RFB
Note: WSF=Washington State Ferries.
At the Anacortes terminal, gateway to the San Juans (where I live), broadcasts current ferry information on a TIS at 530 kHz. This remains in operation basically all the time.
I don't know exactly how they keep it updated, but it's also a synth voice, like NOAA Weather (which I let run overnight from a scanner hooked up to my mixer). I should take another stab at finding out.
NOAA Weather is an automatic update created from data sent and compiled electronically from all the weather reporting stations in the area. I.e., I think it's a pre-formatted arrangement because each block of report types are always the same except for the numbers. It seems like the numbers are just inserted into the text files at appropriate points in the character strings, and the synth voices (there is a male and a female) repeat it over and over ... only the numbers have been changed to protect the innocent ... no, that's Dragnet 😉
I believe there are 4 basic types, but I can't remember how many reporting stations are in there ... some are even Canadian (but it's still the same TTS so the voices don't change). There must be some sort of off-air code header (metadata) that tells the system which file it is and inserts it in the right place in the text files.
Sometimes there is a short delay, between blocks of information. If true, the system probably just waits until the block of incoming data is complete via simple EOF code.
Also, it gives the 'correct time' between sets.
I haven't seen it, but I'd bet there is Flash javascript code that does TTS conversion embedded in secure files on their servers.
My guess is that this stuff is at least somewhat standardized, such that the software for the ferry updates, if not exactly the same, is certainly similar.
Here, there are signs in the ferry overflow lots that say to tune AM 530 for updates, but I've never heard anything since I've been here. Surely they don't expect the terminal TX signal to reach out here ... or do they? Hey, who knows if the person in charge of WSF Communications knows anything about AM radio. I tried several time via email to contact her, but never received a reply.
I truly believe WSF disses us out here.
Simple text to voice software is an example. Combined with teletype data acquisition and transmission and there ya go.
Just an example of the more elaborate systems used by TIS and NOAA.
RFB
It's actually called TTS for Text-To-Speech ... being a Mac user I've played with this stuff off and on for nearly 20 years. I'm also a SuperCard (and former HyperCard) programmer/script writer for longer than that. I run a couple of SC projects daily: A website page updater and a text data override for Nicecast to send to the SHOUTcast widget.
Now working on one that uses AppleScript (SC can execute AS code) to automate iTunes playlist switching and also audio source switching by time or live remote.
I once considered using TTS for running ads from email text, but it's much more fun to play with SFX and my own voice ... although some 12 years or so ago, I heard Apple's TTS in HyperCard combine with it's MIDI notation to sing songs. I think it was in the HyperCard 10th Anniversary stack.