- Posts
Somehow yesterday I wound up floating around the Radio Brandy website.
I was somewhat disturbed to find their link right off the front page, “Power Adjust Details” for the C. Crane FM 2 transmitter.
“4 – Locate the VR2 pot just to the top left of the Antenna connection.
5 – Using a small screwdriver rotate this pot control all the way to the right as far as it will go (Fully Clockwise). Be careful not to break it.”
Now, clearly depending on which model of the C. Crane you have you may be going left or right. But if you “turn it all the way” your transmitter will be ILLEGAL. If you recall my field tests with the Potomac FIM the C. Crane 2 was the ONLY certified FM transmitter I tested that was actually legal out of the box, but when I did the “power mod” to see what happened it went to 5850 u/vm, over 23 times the legal limit in the USA. And then I tested it for the Canadian rule and it was STILL more than three times over THEIR limit.
Their website points out repeatedly how Part 15 is legal, then links right on the front page, to instructions to make your transmitter illegal. There is NO mention that this mod may make your transmitter illegal, or that modification voids the certification and makes YOU responsible for knowing your field strength at 3 meters.
They DO mention that their range went from “20 feet to 700 feet”. This would not be legal in the USA or Canada. I’m not privy to the rules for unlicensed broadcasting in every nation, but a responsible web site would mention where this mod might be acceptable.
TIB
Total posts : 45366I think everyone knows how to modify a C. Crane FM1 and FM2 by now!! there has been plenty of websites, Youtube video’s that clearly show how to do this. If you have enough eyesight you should have no issues with modifying the transmitter.
There is also a website that sells the C. Crane FM2 preset to high power!! It gives you a choice rather you want the high power or not. Most individuals who buy the C. Crane and don’t come on to part 15 web sites probably do have theirs modified.
The Whole House 3.0 with lightning bolt will do 1.1 Miles with the attached wire to a car Radio and 1,000 feet to a Digital Radio with a decent receiver which is further than a modified C. Crane.
If you want to make things better for FM the first thing we need to try is to make 87.7 and 87.9 Mhz legal for a new service separate from ordinary part 15 Radio. The New transmitters will have a receiver that has a sensitivity of at least 0.9 micro volts and scan for a clean frequency and or check the FCC database with it’s built in GPS to make sure you cannot transmit near licensed stations. Plus it will have a built in clock and after 6PM check for ducting and if there is a temperature inversion will stop transmitting till the inversion is gone end of discussion with this my friends have already made this for the new petition to the FCC.
Plus for the new transmitters absolutely no one under the age of 18 can buy this new transmitter. If any company gets cought selling the new FM transmitters to minors they should be fined or put in jail or both. Even the Whole House 3.0 sold to the wrong person could prove fatal to the FM band anywhere within 1.1 miles.
Time to show responsibility with our transmitters so we don’t cause destruction to the FM band.
Total posts : 45366Yes the 18 or over is a good rule for transmitters so any kid can’t get a transmitter and fool around and screw up the airwaves.
As for the shutting off in a temperature inversion I don’t think this technology exists.
Having a built in reciever with the sensitivity of a car radio and also check automatically for a clean frequency, if that could be done, would make a transmitter so expensive it would be out of reach to most.
The transmitter owner with some intelligence can do this on their own.
If you get higher power on FM one of the rules should be any transmitter sold for hobby use can’t excede the max power allowed, unless buyer shows a licence to operate a higher power transmitter.
Mark
Total posts : 45366Digital radio?
Total posts : 45366or it could have a smart card issued by the FCC. Card issued by the FCC. You apply for your higher power permit and they ship you a smart card which in turn you insert into the slot of your FM transmitter. Then the transmitter will only transmit on the frequencies that are programmed on The Smart Card along with the power that you are allocated for in your area. Remember when I said rural areas get more power and more congested areas will get less period the transmitter will be a sealed unit waterproof but sealed you cannot open it you cannot modify it and anyway.
Total posts : 45366The FCC issuing cards? Now this is funny.
Total posts : 45366TheLegacy, member of the ALPB and webmaster of the FM Initiative, has said two things that seem to conflict with each other:
For one, TheLegacy has been promoting a very sophisticated FM transmitter with an in-built highly sensitive scanner tied to a GPS database that would seek an open channel.
But TheLegacy has explained that the reason he (and others) can’t afford better transmitters is because of the economy.
Mark spotted that right away: “Having a built in reciever with the sensitivity of a car radio and also check automatically for a clean frequency, if that could be done, would make a transmitter so expensive it would be out of reach to most.”
And Mark goes on to make the point that the station operator can do his own frequency search at no cost, which I think is pert of the fun of it.
Total posts : 45366Thelegacy Said:
If you want to make things better for FM the first thing we need to try is to make 87.7 and 87.9 Mhz legal for a new service separate from ordinary part 15 Radio. The New transmitters will have a receiver that has a sensitivity of at least 0.9 micro volts and scan for a clean frequency and or check the FCC database with it’s built in GPS to make sure you cannot transmit near licensed stations. Plus it will have a built in clock and after 6PM check for ducting and if there is a temperature inversion will stop transmitting till the inversion is gone end of discussion with this my friends have already made this for the new petition to the FCC.
MrBruce Said:
Why have it scan if it is designed to only operate on channel 199 87.7MHz and channel 200 87.9MHz? Also, how can your transmitter know what your next door neighbor’s radio can receive?
Listen I have 15 receivers in my house that can get AM and FM, each one has it’s own level of sensitivity, one can hear a station the other can not, maybe because of physical location or other factors I am not aware of.
A broadcast device such as a part 15 transmitter, mostly uses a vertical antenna, FM reception antennas are usually horizontal, so, how does your device receive a signal that is hortizontally polarized when the antenna is vertical???
GPS? How can GPS determine what FM broadcasts are reaching your area at the present moment?
I try and try to think how your idea will work flawlessly and I fail to see it working like you think it will.
Also, time and time and time and time again I say digital television is going back into the VHF low band with the newer digital television technology that is soon to be built into newer television sets. I say 87.7MHz will once again be a full time channel 6, there are over 200 television stations currently boardcasting on channel 6 NOW!!! So why keep mentioning 87.7MHz????????????????????????????
My words fall on deaf ears, I just can’t seem to get that message through to some people no matter how hard I try.
Bruce.
Total posts : 45366I do agree with you Carl that searching for frequencies and doing homework is part of the fun of setting up an FM Transmitter.
A smart card reader inside the transmitter won’t cost all that much. A DirecTV satellite receiver has it. Cable boxes had them and no longer do in most cases but some still do. And a GPS is already in most smartphones most costing less than $100.
If the receiver was required I still believe it would not be all that expensive. FM Radio’s are built into many smartphones. Since your not driving audio from this receiver I do believe it should not drive up the cost that much. If we were to scrap the idea of the receiver then the Transmitter should still be required to check with an FCC database or database that is updated regularly in order to prevent Johnny Punks (someone who intentionally jams Radio stations for fun).
The goal of some of my friends and I is to eliminate the possibility for the NAB to reject the petition due to the risk of interference. I’ll discuss this more on The Initiative site but since we’re talking about operations that the NAB or other licensed stations would find objectionable I feel we who are responsible operators need to show our stance since the FCC is not likely to just give us more power unless we can throw them a bone and assure no chaos will happen as a consequence from giving us the power we’d like to have.
Again my purpose was not to hijack or start a conflict. It was to sort of assure the powers that be and who do read these forums that The Initiative is on top of some would be concerns. This is an idea I should put in the public section of The Initiative not the Elite section.
If your a transmitter manufacturer and want to discuss this technology I’d be glad to give you the Elite access. You must prove your identity to me by calling my station number without blocking your caller ID and your companies main number must show up on my phone. Then you get the access. I’d be glad to have many transmitter manufacturers on the Elite section so we can come up with an iron clad defense for our asking for more power without becoming too expensive.
I’m still pushing for a change in current part 15 laws that will criminalize the use of the even frequencies on FM broadcasting. This too will help with the NAB’s concerns about our operations in the FM band.
Again thanks for your input Carl and Mark and all who are giving me some ideas to stop unwanted operations from unlicensed broadcasters in the FM and AM bands.
Total posts : 45366My points in post #8, were, once again, ignored.
Sigh!
Bruce.
Total posts : 45366Clearly missed. A Part 15 website that on it’s front page talks up “Part 15 LEGAL Low Power Broadcasting” has a link right on their front page that makes a commonly purchased FM certified transmitter ILLEGAL in the US and Canada, without so much as mentioning that the modification they’re showing violates FCC rules.
And, as a side note — all these fancy ideas for “smart” FM transmitters will not only increase the cost substantially. A Decade CM-10 is already $200 (and discontinued, but there must still be some left) and the new MS series costs $500-$700 depending on configuration. I use the Decade units as an example (even though my tests of a CM-10 showed it clearly well over the limits out of the box) because they are certified, available, and certainly feel more “quality” than the C Crane or WH. So, take your $500 quality unit, add in your GPS, and your receivers, and your scanners, and your card readers, and wind up bumping it up to $1000 or $1500. Then wait for manufacturers to design, spool up for production, spend the $$ necessary to get the certification, and see where you wind up!
I wouldn’t count one the FCC doing anything that will cost them even $1 to implement. Heck, they won’t even send out a paper amateur radio license anymore. Paper is GONE. If you want one, you can download and print your own, which looks exactly like anything anyone could make on their computer. They’re certainly not going to offer cards, licenses, new frequencies, or anything else, unless fees are charged that covers the costs.
Anyway, my point was a web site (that seems to get a lot of traffic) talks about legal lower power broadcasting then right on the front page links to information to make a transmitter illegal without one iota of information explaining that that is exactly what people are doing!
TIB
Total posts : 45366TheLegacy has a vision in mind for a very self-operating sophisticated transmitter that would basically do all the work for the user and force itself to be legal.
We must keep and guard our great ideas, even if they never become reality.
Back in 1778 an inventer named Fordly Battlekamp built a perfectly formed glass globe that contained a filament in a vacuum, and he held it up to his mouth and repeated, “Hello! Hello!”
Sadly the device would not transmit his voice, but over a hundred years later Thomas Alva Edison figured out that the device could be used as a light bulb.
Total posts : 45366To address the original point in this thread, Radio Brandy is really not a Part 15 web site. They profess to be, just as there is a Facebook page (several actually) that professes to be Part 15. Most of the posts on the Facebook page(s) (which includes some by Radio Brandy’s founder) aren’t really Part 15. And most of the reviews on Radio Brandy talk about blatantly illegal operation (along with, as Tim has pointed out, the website itself). Put lipstick (Part 15) on a pig (illegal operation), and it’s still a pig.
Other points. Mr Bruce, I do agree with you. 87.7 and 87.9 aren’t going to be given to any sort of hobby broadcasting – they’re just too valuable (as is the rest of the FM band). Plus, the FCC is not going to let just anyone install transmitters anywhere in the existing FM band that can potentially interfere with licensed broadcasters, including translators (both of which are increasing in numbers). There is no way currently to absolutely prove that increased power on the FM band is NOT going to cause interference unless a low power service is fully regulated, with frequency allocation by the FCC.
As for Thelegacy’s vision for smart transmitters and receivers, yes, that would be ideal. But for that to be mandated (with all the costs and work that follow, both within the FCC and the manufacturers), the FCC would have to be first convinced that low power radio is absolutely necessary for them to meet their strategic plan. I haven’t yet seen any argument for low power radio or a hobbyist service that even comes close to that – it’s always we want increased power because it would be good for US.
One thing I don’t understand (and I apologize for getting slightly off topic). There have been some perfectly reasonable and doable suggestions to relax existing Part 15 rules on the Long Wave and Short Wave bands, and even AM. Why keep going back to FM? It’s the least likely to happen, and the same arguments are being put forward over and over – yet nothing gets done.
Suggestion – if you want to get something done, you have to actually sit down and do it, rather than talk about it.
Total posts : 45366Yes the original subject got off topic and I am partly to blame. I just replyed to Thelegacy’s post which took the subject off topic to begin with…..guilty as charged!
I was aware of Radio Brandy site also and there are also reviews of illegal, uncertified transmitters like the EDM for example among others and I agree with Tim that this isn’t a part 15 site.
Also Tim is correct in referring to Decade as a measure of quality and the cost of them and adding all the smart technology and the certification on top of that, that the Inititive wants would drive up the price to unaffordable levels. Even an AM transmitter that’s good quality and certified is already quite expensive, and the only one that can be used here(Canada) is the Procaster which starts at $600?….$695 now that I remember…..
Now add all this smart stuff.
Mark
Total posts : 45366Somehow I’m not convinced that adding ‘smart’ stuff makes a device smarter. It certainly makes it more prone to failure, and increases the probability of something going wrong even if it is operating. Sometimes adding ‘smarts’ makes a device dumber overall.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
