From BillyBurg

Glad you were spared a hit from that storm, R.

Were you able to participate in any emergency operation communications or broadcasts?

Its not a matter of agents being trained to handle kits; but rather a matter of a sensible responsible operator making sure his/her gear works properly. That means checking the device first for spurs, distortion etc before making it an active and necessary part of the operation.

There is a reason why SpaceX blows the crap out of their rockets…[Read more]

And then … boom!

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/business-and-law/maryland-gas-explosion-site-was-birthplace-of-hd-radio

Leg,  I’ve been looking on the web for any reports or court filings backing up your claim that AAC was stolen. I am finding nothing. If you know how to find these links, please share them.

And FWIW, since another forum has been talking about SDR receivers, it should be noted that there is an open-source method to listen to HD radio on your…[Read more]

Good points to be sure, Tim. But…

The XM Satellite Radio rollout took place in September 2001. XM was the granddaddy of all satellite services and at the time there was nothing else like it anywhere — other than terrestrial stations streaming RealAudio. After some rough times and a merger with Sirius, the service became, literally, the only…[Read more]

It still means the general public needs to buy a new radio. And they aren’t going to.

Some of US will, to be sure, because we’re not the “general public” — we are radio freaks and will listen to everything short of the Jovian Decametric (radio waves naturally emanating from the planet Jupiter:…[Read more]

Shop carefully.  Some of the lesser expensive devices started out life as the guts from TV tuners and as such do not start coverage until close to 22 MHz; way out of the range of general communications.

You’re going to want one starting way lower that covers 300 kHz to 30 MHz.

>>> how would I know what I see is coming from my transmitter and not some other signal or interference of some kind? <<<

Mark, you can cycle the power on your xmitter and observe the computer monitor. If the suspected peaks disappear on power-down but resume when you re-energize your RF gear, you can see it is being caused by you.

Before firing…[Read more]

A few weeks ago, I proposed the use of an SDR receiver as a quick-n-dirty harmonics detector — it won’t scientifically tell you how many dB down your spurs may be, but it will show if you are slobbering all over the spectrum in places other than your chosen frequency.

Is anyone actually doing this with an SDR; either a low end RTL type or a…[Read more]

AMRL – True that restoration to the original circuitry would probably retain type acceptance. But installing a filter to eliminate spurs created by the mods (a “patch to a patch”) drastically alters the design enough to put certification in jeopardy.

If The Man With The Payin’ Paper shows up, we got some ‘splainin’ to do.

If the previous owner of these units was the one who did the mods, it may be possible he/she still has schematics or photos available. I’d give them a ringy-dingy.

In the absence of a decent spectrum analyzer, an inexpensive garden-variety SDR that covers 300 kHz-30 MHz will do well to sniff out spurs. But if you can’t undo the mods done by the…[Read more]

Rich  – – –  Great coverage map. Where do I find those?

I’ve dealt with the quick-n-dirty maps provided by Radio-Locator, but this one’s got some real pepper sauce going on. How can I find the site that has them?

The most I would use it for would be a studio clock (https://www.broadcastradio.com/smartsign#Navigator)

Definitely not for music or airplay, because the PWM audio output sounds horrible. But mostly because I would not want to trust my on-air signal to a $35 computer.

A-aa-aa-and there’s a minute of my life I’m never getting back.

TL:DR – – Don’t be a dick. Get along.

I am remaining impartial, as I am a member in good standing of many broadcast forums and only want for everyone to play fair, including myself, and glean as much information as able from all resources. So to that end, we all really need to tuck in our dewlaps (look it up) and work it out.

Artisan, you…[Read more]

Worldline in Canada offers ten complementary web-based email accounts for every customer, even with their bottom-of-the-barrel $40 6Mbps plan.  How is it they didn’t provide you with any? I would be on the phone with them before lunchtime demanding they set you up with at least one.

For that matter, customer ratings for Worldline are quite…[Read more]

Digging down into HB’s Terms of Use, the administrator suggests: “use an email account provided to you by your internet service provider.” Have you tried that? It would be something like:   {your_unique_name}@verizon.com    and your ISP already gave it to you for free when you signed on.

Other than the unbearable agony of three extra taps of the…[Read more]

Timinbovey asked: At what point do you consider [AM radio] dead?

Years ago, a writer for Radio World said, “When they stop building receivers for the AM band.” And when you think about it, he is correct.

VHS VCRs were not considered officially dead until the last deck rolled off the assembly line. Same goes for single-disc CD-only players, cart…[Read more]

You’ve got that drive backed up, right?

Digital AM doesn’t necessarily mean the public is obligated to throw away their analog radios on the first of the year. If they like what you do and the MW BC band is not reallocated for some other purpose, they may well keep their receivers.

The other half of the equation – as I said a few months back – is that digital receivers have to be…[Read more]