Lefty Gomez

It’s been a long while since I have been around the scene.

 

I had to deal with many issues over the past year and a half.

It was really nice to be around the ALPB guys again and talking about the Radio world once again.

 

My hope is to get all things with my station worked out over the next few weeks and to start doing all of the things I have talked about over the past three years.

Part15 is now in my blood , So I am hopelessly hooked LOL.

Ok here goes.

I once did work in Radio as a DJ and lost my job due to the people who allowed deregulation.
I have posted many times about the ways I want to support our little stations and I have said some things that were over the top at time’s.

However to sit here and read this forum and see people try to tell me and other Part 15 broadcasters that we are breaking laws or dreaming about how far our signal will go is really starting to piss me off.

1 Weather you like it or not we are here and we are very serious about trying to do the right thing for the public with radio.
We are serious about trying to take radio back from the evil corporate world.
Weather or not certain people don’t like what we are doing or not we are going to win.

I have read over and over to the point of nasauem about ATU’s , ground’s and weather or not we are legal.

I have seen endless physics posts on how our systems can’t work.
Sorry to the person who keeps the war going.
But I find computer simulations to be for the most part a joke.
Just like the global warming asshats the data is only as good as the input.
You can bend the direction of all the simulations to fit an agenda and that is why I don’t trust any of them.

Now back to radio.
Radio was once a great way to hear news and good music for all tastes and each area of the US had it’s own feel.
Today you can be in a small town or New York and hear the same shows.

Part 15 is the only hope to save radio Rich , Further more if part 15 goes down to the regulatory BS that you seem to want I promise you that radio will be gone in just a few years.

You see if the same crap is being played all over the US people will tune out and that will be that.

Oh and Internet based stations don’t work as the internet can fail at anytime along with the fact that the RIAA has just about killed the music on the radio stations of the internet.

So tell me MR Science wonder boy , Do you want part 15 just to be a hobby based deal or do you want programming that fills people with joy ?
You think we are playing a game ?

Figure it out , We are getting our stations to be so much more efficient that the NAB guys that we will be a challenge to them weather you like it or not.

My tiny station is hitting once mile at night and trust me I can add more transmitters to cover my entire town. That is a challenge to the big boys and I promise that we will kick the NAB’s ass.

If you don’t like it . To %#(*&#%$ bad.

Deal with it dude , WE ARE HERE AND WE WILL ALWAYS BE HERE.
Expect us.

You have been working on that Part 15 Station and you got the magical mile going.
The Sound you have been working on is at last perfect and ready for the local world to hear.

You have been working on that Part 15 Station and you got the magical mile going.
The Sound you have been working on is at last perfect and ready for the local world to hear.
The Antenna System is running a it’s peak efficiency and all the audio chain is working as it should.

Then as you sit there think man this is killer I now have a real broadcast station.

AND THEN IT HITS YOU!

What do I put on this station?
Will people enjoy what I am playing ? will anyone even listen to this station ?

That is the moment when you realize that you have to decide if that station you built is a hobby or if you are trying to offer a station that gives the public better programming.

So lets say that the station you built is going to be a pro deal.
Then you will have to decide what should be part of the stations programming.
Music , Talk , and if music then what ?
Are you going to do the same old oldies format or are you going to do the same old left VS right format in talk ?

That is the point everyone , We have to consider what the public wants to have on a station and not use our ego to set the programming.
And let me tell you , It is not easy to program a station in a manor that is best for the public. You have to have programming that is able to gather people to the station and also sell adds.

The Programming must be the main part of these stations and it must be live and have lots of ways for people to connect to the station and it’s DJ’s or Talk show hosts.

Phone must be part of this.
You want you’re DJ’s to be able to take requests and the talk show hosts to field phone calls.

Another thing with Talk shows, Loose the fricken call screeners already.
Automation is a big part of the problem.
Work on the schedules will take months , But once you get the station working as it should that part of it will become easier.

Do not over look this aspect of part 15 Broadcasting.
Have self respect and your listeners will have respect for your station and you.

Lefty.

After much research and a lot of thought I have decided to Change to the SS trans 3000 AM Transmitter for Banana Belt Radio.

The Plan is to use the Talking House ATU for the SS Trans.

After much research and a lot of thought I have decided to Change to the SS trans 3000 AM Transmitter for Banana Belt Radio.

The Plan is to use the Talking House ATU for the SS Trans.
Reason for this change is that the TH can not handle the volume that I want out of the station and it distorts when I try to run my input levels where they are at the same DB level of the Commercial stations around me.

The SS trans 3000 will work with the ATU and I should be able to get the volume to where I want it.

Also I plan on testing the ATU at ground level so I can use radials with the System.
These changes are to make Banana Belt radio more attractive to the listeners in our area.

If we are to take on the NAB Giants we have to have a better product than they do.
I still recommend the TH/ATU to anyone who wants to get into Part15 Broadcasting to learn or even start a station.

However the Goals of Banana Belt Radio are to bring a serious radio station to Santa Cruz Ca and to offer much better programming along with a better sound to the people of our city.

It is my belief that the SS Trans system will make for a better station on the long run.

Lefty G

Surprised

It has taken me over three months to get Banana Belt Radio ready for the public.

Surprised

It has taken me over three months to get Banana Belt Radio ready for the public.
The Work that has gone into this little station has shown me how little I know about setting up or building a Radio Station.

It took about ten hours to get the Antenna up and the Transmitter running.
However that was the easy part.

All of the studio stuff has been the hard part.
Getting the level’s to work right has been very complex.
I wanted the sound of this station to blow away the other stations in my area.
It took me weeks of testing and using scopes to find my levels.

Right now Banana Belt sounds better than any HD or FM Station out there.
The Station kicks ass as far as sound, but let me tell you it was very complex to get to that point.

Then to stay within FCC Part 209 Limits or 219 I took my grounds down.
That opened up all kinds of new doors for me to deal with.
I Did what Mram suggested to do with the Cable and grounding.
It works and my signal gets out better with this setup than it did with the Ground running from the ATU to the ground rod.

Question is what do I do with that ground rod ? LOL!

Getting the Levels working right for the transmitter was another battle I dealt with over the past 30 days.
Every weekend I would work all weekend on the levels and it was not until tonight that I finally got it right.

I had to remove the CBS Monster that I was using for several reasons.
I will share reason two at a later date.
Reason one was the Transmitter just did not play well with the CBS.
It’s ok I like having that old compressor just because it’s so darn cool.

So I am now using a Behringer Mini Con Compressor and it works darn well.
The Station now has a sound that is really solid.
Levels and more levels LOL, That is what I have been dealing with for weeks on end.

I thought I would have the Internet Stream weeks ago , But all of this other work has pushed it back for two more weeks.

However Banana Belt Radio is ” ON THE AIR”!
Yes today was the first day that Banana Belt transmitted full time.
I have much more work to do to get the Automation working perfect along the side of the live programming.

Now lets get ALPB hitting on all cylinders and let’s get to saving radio.

Thanks to all of you for keeping the dream of Part 15 going. It was you guys who got me going on this station and I thank each and everyone of you.

Lefty G

Banana Belt Radio.
Santa Cruz Ca

Long live Part 15 Radio and the ALPB!

Ok gang I am going to give you the low down on this product .

But first let me make a few ground rules.

Ok gang I am going to give you the low down on this product .

But first let me make a few ground rules.

Please no arguments on the is it legal or not stuff. We have been down that Road and all it does is get people upset.

It is FCC Certified and thus I feel it is perfectly legal to use.

The Talking house ATU is built to give more range on the Talking house Transmitters.

So does it work ?

I posted pictures a while back of my installation and have made some small changes to stay within FCC compliance.

When I first installed the ATU I was running a ground from the ATU to a grounding Rod that is eight feet in to the earth.

I have since removed the ground.

The ATU is as simple as it get’s to setup.
Hook it up to the ATU and tune it , It takes about five mins to do this.

One thing that I feel is a rip off on the ATU is the price to ship.
They just plain over charge to ship the unit.

As for range , My ATU is 16 feet off the ground on the roof of my house.

With the Wire Antenna my TH get’s out about 1/4 mile.
With the ATU I have seen my signal go as far as two miles and more.
It is solid at one mile and is getting better as winter come’s on.

The ATU works and it works very good.
All the worries I had with it’s cost were removed once I started testing.

Now I don’t want to tell you that there are not more affordable ways to get this range.
In fact I feel that an SSTrans 5000 with a good Antenna will get out better than the ATU system.

But for cost VS Install and setup the Talking House system is hard to beat.
When you consider the fact that you can buy a Talking house transmitter on ebay for under $50.00 and the cost of an ATU is about $350.00 with shipping I think you have a very cost effective system that can do very well for a Part15 station.

For under $500.00 you can have a Radio Station that will cover at least .5 miles.
And with a good install perhaps over two miles.

Over all I feel the Talking House system is a very good value and a very good way to get started with broadcasting.

After having my ATU running for two months I feel it is worth the money I spent on it.
So even though I felt the shipping was a rip off , I still feel the ATU was worth it in the long run.

I am not good at doing reviews , but I wanted to share my thoughts with anyone looking to get into Part15 Broadcasting.
You can get started for very little money and still have a good signal.

Best of luck and I hope this helped.