I’ve never noticed a Part 15 joke before, but maybe this is the first one:
Part 15ers Do touch it with a 10-foot pole
by Carl Blare
I’ve never noticed a Part 15 joke before, but maybe this is the first one:
Part 15ers Do touch it with a 10-foot pole
by Carl Blare
Part 15 is the best hobby for the imagination. Participants are always trying to discover new physics and reach many miles under the rules. So I am imagining what changes I’d lobby for if I stood among the pillars and marble halls in the District of Columbia.
I happen to believe that the present Part 15 Rules use the tired and dull practice of treating everyone like the youngest dumbest child in school and holding all others to the lowest standard. By that short-cut we end up with a portion of signal too weak to measure. Therefore my proposed changes would be magnanimous in their recognition that some citizens are actually mature and reasonable.
The 100 mW-to-the-final with 3-meter antenna would continue exactly as it is with kits, home-made units and certified versions. But a tiered choice of additional choices ranked by price would, since cost is a tremendous method of self-limitation, allow “upgrading” to 500 mW, 750 mW and 1-watt certified transmitters, no kits nor home-mades allowed. Antenna lengths of 15 to 20-feet would be allowed based on prevailing safety regulations and tower codes.
Bigger lobbyists would never allow it, because they still believe that in the absence of choice we’ll actually listen to their boring licensed stations, but internet radio makes such desperation unnecessary, so why not make way?
by Carl Blare
I was sitting here enjoying the critical hours with both 1550 and 1680 KHz radiating to the bird and human-mammal houses in a radius of 200-feet, when I suddenly became aware that everyone on part15.us seems to be male gender. Is this true? Why wouldn’t there be women on part 15. I even recall that a few bloggers said they “saved their marriage” or “avoided the wife’s scorn” by reducing part 15 activity.
Then it became clear. My purpose in life is to interest women in part 15 radio. This should be a gender friendly website where all nine genders can mingle. I threw that in because I’m not sure exactly how many genders there are, but I know of definitely two of them.
by Carl Blare
What I mean is, that this is a continuation of rock95seven’s “Scosche FMT-4 Review” blog, which is well worth browsing through so that what I say now makes more sense.
What I mean is, that this is a continuation of rock95seven’s “Scosche FMT-4 Review” blog, which is well worth browsing through so that what I say now makes more sense.
rock95seven’s discovery of a $10 CERTIFIED FM transmitter got me back into FM, which I left when I sold my Ramsey 25B. Now what about that. After building the 25B I tinkered with it for awhile, decided to concentrate on AM, and sold the 25B to a friend. Is that illegal? Never mind. That’s not why I’m calling.
Another outstanding feature I’ve noticed about the Scosche, is that the audio hasn’t overmodulated, even though I have no limiter attached. This suggests an in-built limiter, and it seems to be unnoticable. Tonight I’ll really overdrive it and see if I know what I’m talking about.
Scosche isn’t in my dictionary, but I would have sworn that it’s a vocabulary word. It would be used like this: “How much vodka do you want in your drink?” Answer, “Just a scosche.”
The amazing ranges achieved with various antenna lengths are reported in the other blog, but this addendum adds more to the story. When tested the Scosche was plugged to my indoor audio system, which adds a major layer of grounding. But today I tried a reverse setup.
I wanted to fine-tune the Ramsey AM 25 at 1550 KHz with its indoor antenna. So I took the C.Crane Plus radio back to the mulch pile about 100′ behind the house where the reception was very wobbly. I plugged the Scosche to the radio’s audio out and put the AM 1550 signal over to 107.1 MHz FM and went back indoors.
Reception of FM 107.1 was terrible even using a 1/4-wave antenna which had done a solid 400′ from inside the house. I raised the whip on the RCA Super receiver and added two more feet with clip-lead so that I could indeed diddle until the AM 1550 fringe signal was as buff as I could get it.
Conclusion? Probably that the grounding matters a lot for distance transmission on FM.
At the same time I scrolled through forums and blogs reading FM transmitter reviews and could now hypnotize a dinner companion until she nodded face-forward into her soup while I went on about FCC certification and how milliwatts count under the law.
As soon as I hang up I’m getting a C.Crane FM transmitter so there’ll be a point of reference in this madness.
by Carl Blare
Tonight I was reminded of a theory I’ve had for a long time. Simply, I think there are times when some licensed stations do NOT lower their power after sundown as required by their licenses, but I think it’s a calculated “violation.”
Almost everytime I’ve heard a far away station loudly and clearly after dark, when they should be on low power and unreadable, it has been on a weekend, like a Friday or Saturday night, and has coincided with a special event. Like tonight I heard an auto race on my channel, 1550, which is usually very open after dark. The station in question has 5 kw by day but should be 48 watts at night. There have been many such experiences before on several channels.
Now I’ll get a little editorial, but in a friendly way. Whereas licensed stations want to eliminate any low power or Part 15 competition, since they believe that if they alone occupy the dial we’ll actually listen to their dull nonsense, we Part 15ers are more kind. I call attention to the fact that I am not naming the stations I suspect of violating their license.
by Carl Blare
About one mile away is a 5 kw AM tower, daytime only, at 850 KHz. Unlike all other local daytimers, it goes off 1-hour after local sundown, which is sundown Denver time, where the station being protected is 50 kw KOA.
By chance this one station at 850 KHz produces “interference which must be acctepted,” according to the rules, by putting an intense RFI (radio frequency interference) on the phone line, also the DSL line, and a buzzing second harmonic at 1700 KHz. Except for that, 1700 KHz is very clear here, so I use it at night starting one hour after sundown. During the day I use 1680 KHz, the next closest clear spot.
This frequency jumping is a reminder of the way international shortwave stations switch frequencies at different times, but there reason is to reach certain land masses during particular hours.