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This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Bill Baker at Hamcation better known as the Orlando Hamfest. He had a fully functional TIS station in operation running 10 watts. In a very noisy RF environment his signal was fully quiet on a car radio minimally 3 miles in each direction and still copyable at Universal Orlando about 8 miles south of the Hamfest.
Thanks for the report and glad you had the chance to meet
Bill Baker.I look forward to the day (not going to happen?) when the rest of us can run a 10 Watt transmitter and be “full quieting at three miles” with our signals .
Nell
I had the pleasure of meeting Bill when he dropped in the check-out our TIS station supplied by ISS.
Bill got out his Potomac meter and we ran a field strength test to see how the system was performing.
A very nice gentleman.
Our station has about the same coverage as described above and has been on air for about 15 years.
Radio Pros!
Hello from Radio Joe,
On the subject:
All it would take is some politician to slip a modified part 15 document into some other huge complex bill dealing with dust in outer space or the like, and move it though the process in a day or so. Most of those guys don’t look at what there signing anyway, next thing you know we all have 10 watts and three miles legal!
Maybe we should start lobby effort, money talks. The question is why ruin a good thing meaning what we have now. Nobody listens to the radio anymore; people have smart phones walking down street, and no table radios in the kitchen or console in the living room. If there is a clock radio in the bedroom, the sensitivity on it will never pick up a part 15 signal anyway. Car “radios” if you can call those things a radio, have all kinds of icons on the screen for so called entertainment choices, most people leave it off for fear it may catch on fire if they press an icon or mess the system up. At home, people watch their big screen TV, glued to highly interesting programs like the bachelor …no time for the magic of radio.
Even if someone had a “radio’ as we know it, the music we like would most likely make them barf so we have built in protection for our hobby interests, no listeners, no complaints no problem!
I would write more but I have broadcasting to do besides, the transmitter tubes on my Allied Radio Broadcaster keep me warm here in Minnesota. Just remembered, of most importance today, I want to check reception of my signal down in the basement, and in the garage, you know how it is. I want to keep that signal confined.
Remember keep the antenna under 10 feet on AM and range on FM to 200 feet. We need to do whats right.
Radio Joe
Radio Joe has some great points. Becoming activists could backfire and you could loose what there is now.
Like no listeners and no complaints!
But a subsection to part 15 would be good to allow the equivalent of BETS-1(Canada) on FM.
I think Michelle Bradley, REC president, write to the FCC about that.
But the stats show that radio does quite well still.
But don’t we all want a few listeners?Hi Mark ,
Well I know my station(s) has at least has one listener…and like the song, “its 5 o’clock somewhere”, I am sure the possibility exists within a 1/4 mile of my antenna, there may be another listener out there somewhere also, if the noise level don’t eat the signal up before it leaves the house.Its nice to dream though.
Radio Survivor suggests possibilities for more power or relax of the antenna system rule for AM!!
I belong to several Facebook Radio forums and read what is posted all the time. AM Broadcasting is dying and this gives some room to forge ahead in some activist activity.
I do run C-Quam AM Stereo here in Deltaville, VA and post on the Deltaville, VA Facebook page about my station. Its well known and so well known that I get donations for the Internet stream and AM Radio transition.
Getting listeners for me meant youtube videos I created demonstrating Radios that can receive the best on AM as well as the best car Radios. The Terk AM Advantage loop is Highly Promoted on my station. Receive Hobby Radio stations otherwise not receivable on AM between 1620-1700 Khz. I got response from folks who still Love Album Rock and they want to hear the station.
By all means don’t give up if nothing else get a Procaster or Rangemaster and a Sean Cuthbert audio processor and set the compression so your Always close to 100% modulation. You’ll get listeners but if you really want them go AM Stereo and promote the AM stereo receivers available on Ebay just like I do.
Hard work always pays off! Your doing a good job promoting our interests, so hats off to you from Radio Joe ! A lot of good points in your post and a good way to promote and gain interest for other new people with similar interests like ourselves. Good Job!
Way off topic question and advice for RadioJoe.
Did you ever solve your hum problem with your KnightKit broadcaster?
I did so for mine. The problem here was the signal was so strong that it was being modified by all the electronics throughout the house by means of these devices intercepting the RF and producing non-linear mixing with the 60 Hz. power line frequency and the intended signal. This occurs with all my AM transmitters. The solution is if all you want is to “house cast” then reduce your radiated signal strength.
One tip-off that this is the problem is that the AM signal has hum inside the house but has none outside away from power lines, etc. This is the case here.
Neil
Hi Neil, good to hear from you,
On the hum problem, no not really, all I know if you pull the main breaker and run the transmitter on a battery you get a clear signal.
I read all the on line posts here and elsewere, when I researched the problem, and did a lot of experimenting.
I have an outside vertical antenna and one horizontal in the attic, both produce hum. I tried grounding everything possible to a central ground, all the pipes in the attic and in the basement nothing there but I left them all grounded anyway. One day it worked to reduce the hum, the next day you got hum. Finally I just gave up. What I do now is orientate the portable radio I use to listen to my broadcasts to null out the hum. Some radios in the house you can’t listen to because of the hum, next room you have a clear signal.
I made up charts which lights or appliances need to be turned on or off to get a lower hum level, some days you could count on that some days you could not.
I tried laying out aluminum foil over all the wiring in the attic and ground the tin foil didn’t do a thing to get rid of the hum.
I run car radios in my home connected to an outside vertical ground plane antenna. I get the hum on the car radios also, but that antenna is relatively close to my house.
The cause of the problem is what you have spelled out. I don’t know how commercial stations running a lot of power, with the studio a few feet away beat this problem. Most stations have their antenna and transmitter way out of town, but I know of some here in this area that is not the case so there must be an answer to the problem.
I suppose there are all kinds of industrial shunts on the studio gear at the location I know of, but there you have 5000 watts here I have 100 mw or less.
So I tolerate the hum when its bad I don’t house cast. I tried all kinds of different transmitter they all do the same because the problem is not with the transmitter at all. The RF gets mixed with the power lines and re radiated I guess.. Ill never figure out the physics on that one.
When I ran a Talking House 5 it would hum like a beast. When I had the Sean Cuthbert transmitter I didn’t get quite as much hum. Some places in my house I would but that was due to the wiring in the home. Now I run the ASMAX2 with a bench power supply and I did not get hardly any hum. 99.9% of my home is clear only a few places you hear hum.
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