Very beta, very slow:
Historical site – Part 15 Radio Stations of North America
Editor’s note: I ran across a copy of J. Smick’s famous pioneering low power radio web site, down since 2006. The link below takes you to an Internet Archve copy of this great site. The technical information alone is a gold mine.
Some of the links still work, although the links on the archived version frequently take you to archived versions of the sites.
Here’s a teaser, and the link below:
MORE
The Master List of Part 15 Radio Stations of North America
Basis and purpose
This site was created because of your author’s long-time fascination and involvement with FCC Part 15 legal low-power radio operations. While there are many excellent resources and station listings on the Internet for low-power radio in general, including
TIS/HAR, etc., e.g.
Terry Krueger’s Florida Low Power Radio Stations
to name a few) there is essentially nothing specifically and solely dealing with those tiny radio stations permitted under the Federal Communications Commission’s Part 15 Rules as unlicensed, but legal operations.
Since there are many excellent resources available online for both illegal Pirate Radio or Microradio and for licensed, TIS/HAR type operations, these type stations are not covered here; this site is strictly for those operations which can be classified as authorized under the various subsections of 47 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations), Part 15.
It is hoped that this site will serve to inform both potential listeners and DXers and those contemplating operating their own Part 15 stations, as well as helping to popularize legal low power radio.
Another approach to 13.556 MHz
I just ordered this Budget Shortwave Transmitter kit from Kenneke Communications
It’s an unbuffered Hartley oscillator, LC/VCO with pretty minimal modulation, sold as pretty much any band you like as long as you are willing to wind your own coil. The included coil and iron powder bar are for the AM BCB.
The assembly instructions include mods for 7 MHz and I’m going to try to stretch it 13.556 and add an output filter as I’m guessing the harmonics will be intense. This circuit might actually be underpowered for Part 15 in 3.556, but we’ll see.
The kit is sold by the Greek outfit Smartkits and re-marketed here by Kenneke among others.
Coil for 13.556
For 13.556 MHz operation I get about 17 uH using the center value of 8 pF for C and 13.556 for F, as shown below:
L = K/F(squared) * C
K = 25330.3
L = 25330.3/(13.556 * 13.556) * 8
L = 25330.3/(183.765136) * 8
L = 25330.3/1470.121088
L = 17.23
Coil Design
I used the Coil Calculators here:
http://eweb.chemeng.ed.ac.uk/jack/radio/software/newcoil3.html
and here:
http://www.vwlowen.co.uk/java/coil.htm
to arrive at a coil 0.5″ (12.7mm) in diameter and 1.5″ (38.1mm) long, of about 68 turns close wound.
To arrive at the 25% & 75% of total coil turns for the tapped coil, as specified in the instructions, it looks like 17 turns for the 25% section and 51 turns for the 75% section.
It also looks like the coil can be wound as two separate coils of 17 and 51 turns respectively and connected as shown in the instructions, because the PCB provides two solder terminals for the off-center tap.
KMRE: Over the airwaves and under the radar
KMRE: Over the airwaves and under the radar
Museum hosts locally focused radio station
Sara Geballe – Whatcom Independent
KMRE: Over the airwaves and under the radar
Museum hosts locally focused radio station
Sara Geballe – Whatcom Independent
BELLINGHAM – A well-kept secret for the past two years – KMRE, or 102.3 FM on your radio dial – is the in-house radio station of the American Museum of Radio and Electricity. Although the station has been broadcasting 24 hours a day since March 1, 2005, it has mostly been humming along under the radar. But all that is comabout to change as KMRE gets ready for prime time.Two months ago, the Museum hired Alena Feeney Adam as KMRE’s general manager and the station’s first paid employee.
After five years experience at Seattle’s “The Mountain” radio station, and serving as music director for KUGS at Western Washington University, Adam declares, “I’m new with a new vision. My goal is to let people know we are here.”
Until now, programming at KMRE has been automated, meaning there is no live DJ in the studio. The station has been largely devoted to broadcasting
music and old programs from radio’s “Golden Age” from 1920 to 1950 – before television arrived on the scene. According to Adam, the museum has a vast media collection from that era, including at least 50,000 old 78-rpm records. Also in the collection are recordings of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famed “Fireside Chats,” and copies of classic radio shows like “Captain Midnight,” “The Lone Ranger,” and “Dragnet.” And recently, Adam said, WWU Archives turned over “boxes and boxes” of reel-to-reel tapes of the “International Good Music” program which was once produced in Whatcom County. A key mission for both KMRE and the museum, she explained, “is to educate and entertain by bringing this historical content back to light.”
Chuckanut Radio Hour
But Adam clearly sees a vital need for new, community-based programming as well. One exciting example is the new “Chuckanut Radio Hour” sponsored by Village Books. A hometown variety show modeled after “Prairie Home Companion,” “Chuckanut” showcases local writers, musicians, poets, and other homegrown talent. Taped each month before a live audience at the museum, Village Books owner Chuck Robinson co-hosts the show. Another example is the “Midnight Mystery Players” performing live radio dramas, the last one being “My Favorite Wife” for Valentine’s Day. Soon, Adam said, she hopes to see “Northwest Soundscapes” start up again. This program featured the works of local musicians from the Bellingham Independent Music Association (BIMA). Soon KMRE will have two up-and-running recording studios in the museum – one of which will be large enough to allow musicians to come in and perform live.
New programs wanted
With a 24/7 broadcast day to fill, there is plenty of opportunity to add new programming, if there are the people to create it. Recently, Adam said, an eight-person Programming Committee was established to review proposals for new shows. The main requirement is programs be in keeping with KMRE’s mission to provide radio broadcasts that are local, educational, historical, and cultural.
According to Adam, KMRE is also developing a training process so as new programs are approved, community volunteers can receive the technical training they need to allow their ideas to come to fruition. Providing a local voiceKMRE is a non-commercial, independent radio station under the aegis of the museum, a non-profit organization. It is licensed by the FCC as a “low power” station meaning its 100-watt signal transmits only about 3.5 miles in all directions from downtown Bellingham. “As more and more consolidation of radio stations at the corporate level is taking more and more frequencies off the air,” Adam sees an increased need for independent media like KMRE. With media giants like Clear Channel now owning more than 1500 U.S. radio stations, she said, there is “a homogenized sound everywhere.” By contrast, she sees KMRE as providing a community-
based alternative with a local voice.
Over time, Adam hopes to develop partnerships with area high schools and colleges, add children’s programming, and create an on-air community calendar. “For me, it is a sense of responsibility to connect with the community.” But with a paid staff of one half-time person – herself – it will take time and the commitment of volunteers, as well as financial support from local businesses and individuals. Adam is currently looking for programming ideas, community partners, volunteers,
and financial underwriters.
“The last two years was infrastructure – getting it up and running,” Adam summed up. Now it’s time to watch the station take off. If you are interested in volunteering at KMRE, or have an idea for a new program, contact
Adam at 738-3886 or [email protected].
Copyright Whatcom Independent, all rights reserved
Posted as Good Faith Fair Use: Transformative, educational, nonprofit use of articles, stories, or essays less than 2,500 words, factual in nature, not for use as entertainment or reward, the use is instructional, the place is non-profit multimedia and the use will not negatively affect the value of the copyrighted material.
How to start a radio station: Step one… KAVZ-FM the big voice of the Foothills communities
How to start a radio station: Step one…
KAVZ-FM the big voice of the Foothills communities
Matthew Thuney – Whatcom Independent
How to start a radio station: Step one…
KAVZ-FM the big voice of the Foothills communities
Matthew Thuney – Whatcom Independent
VAN ZANDT – “For me, it’s been a lifelong dream,” mused retired Motorola technician Marcus Burton. It was Sunday afternoon, March 25, at the Van Zandt Community Hall, and Burton had just completed his presentation about the do’s, don’ts, and how-to’s of producing a music show for radio broadcast. The following Sunday, April 1, KAVZ-FMLP 102.5 would switch on its transmitter and officially begin broadcasting.
What does this brand-spanking new community radio station’s alphabet soup of call letters stand for? You probably already know that any station’s signal west of the Mississippi begins with a K rather than a W. Ditto that FM refers to the broader bandwidth of frequency modulation as opposed to the more directional amplitude modulation of AM radio. The LP stands for low power, as in KAVZ’s signal will only reach out about ten miles. And the AVZ initials refer to the very roots of this community effort, that it’s centered around the towns of Acme and Van Zandt in the Mount Baker Foothills.
The process that led to the birth of KAVZ has been neither quick nor cheap. Indeed, earlier this year it looked like the station might be stillborn for lack of funds.
Brian Allen, who has been involved in promoting and producing community radio since 1984, began the project after he met up with Holly O’Neil while visiting the River Farm collective a few years back (yes, that old “hippie commune” as some neighboring farmers still refer to it, out at the south end of Hillside Road in Van Zandt). In 1999, the Clinton Administration had, much to the consternation of certain corporate media interests, passed legislation paving the way for low-power community radio. Allen and O’Neil sought to take advantage of this new opportunity by proposing just such a radio outlet along the Nooksack River in the Mount Baker Foothills.
In June 2001, an application was filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The project languished for a while, until it became more and more clear the priceless FCC license would expire unless KAVZ actually got on the air. A construction permit was acquired for the station’s studio at the Van Zandt Community Hall in April 2004. That’s when the “fun” began. A base had to be built for the antenna mast. Improvements to the Community Hall’s septic system were suddenly required. As Allen recalled, “the whole permit process was a crazy thing.”
Then there was the problem of money. It may seem as though a radio station magically appears out of a freewheeling ether of voices and music. But it takes big bucks and loads of equipment to generate and transmit those ethereal sounds. Such as: the aforementioned mast and antenna, an FM transmitter, a decoder and receivers, computer hardware and software, iPod technology, a gaggle of cable and connectors, phone line, and on and on.
How much does that add up to? Let’s see…add, multiply, divide by pi, carry the six…roughly $8,000 worth of equipment. Not so much, you say? Well, to a valleyful of cattlemen and organic farmers, that’s a lot of hay and herbs. Silicon Valley, this ain’t.
As 2007 dawned and the expiration date of KAVZ’s license application loomed, financial panic set in. Holly O’Neil, longtime River Farm resident and community organizer, quickly cobbled together a fundraising drive, reaching out to everyone she could touch in the Foothills, their friends and family from afar, and those with an abiding interest in community radio in general. A deadline of Feb. 28 was set to raise a minimum of $5,000. The supporters of “South Fork Community Radio,” as O’Neil calls it (as in, the South Fork of the Nooksack River) gathered in the Van Zandt Community Hall that evening, anxiously awaiting the results of their networking efforts. Would KAVZ receive the actual dollars it needed to make the dream reality?
As mail envelopes were opened, checks counted, and walk-in cash wandered through the door, the donations poured in. The money had come, the station was saved. Apparently this was one lifelong dream/crazy thing whose time had come, septic tank and all.
While the physical parts of the low-power FM station were purchased and put together, a vision began to take shape regarding the content of its broadcasts. “I believe some core values of this station would be celebration and honor,” commented O’Neil in a recent email message to supporters, “It’s going to be a really cool thing.”
The supporters of KAVZ would like everyone in the community to get into the act and onto the air. Longtime community radio booster Dennis Lane likened the licensing of local low-power radio to “a kind of Homestead Act of the airwaves,” noting after five years of successful broadcasting, such a station’s license will actually belong to the entire community. “It’s a way of giving communities a voice,” observed Lane.
According to Dudley and Dean Evenson, proprietors of the Deming-based music production company “Soundings of the Planet,” KAVZ will begin with entirely pre-recorded, automated programming which will include music (much of it by local performers) ranging from bluegrass to alternative rock, political discussion, public affairs, news from the Nooksack Tribe, and some shows borrowed from fellow low-power FM station KMRE in Bellingham. That’s the beginning, but much more is planned, such as an effort to involve Mount Baker High School. “We need to bring the kids in and get them involved,” advised Dudley Evenson. A KAVZ Web site is also in the works. “Eventually,” said Evenson, “we’ll reach the whole world through the Internet.”
Apart from the Web presence, the physical broadcast (currently 100 watts) may soon increase as well. If KAVZ goes to full power in the future, it could reach well beyond the small communities of Acme, Van Zandt, Wickersham and Deming. So what begins life as a community’s simple desire to have its voice heard may grow into a greater commitment with a broader expression. There’s a lot at stake in this tiny effort, and Allen is well aware of the overall implications. “Without independent media,” he asserted, “we’re going to lose our democracy.”
So next time you’re taking the scenic route through eastern Whatcom County, tooling south toward Skagit County on Highway 9, you might want to reach over to your car radio and scan to 102.5 FM. What’ll you hear? Maybe some new local music, maybe some Native American voices, maybe an amusing or informative interview…or just maybe the heartbeat of a community you never heard from before.
Donations: Community radio stations welcome tax-deductible contributions. Donations to KAVZ may be made out to “Van Zandt Community Hall Association” and mailed to P.O. Box 242, Acme, WA 98220.
Coming Up:
April 7: KAVZ’s official “Launch Day,” when it begins broadcasting its initial regularly scheduled programming.
April 28, 8:00 p.m. in the Van Zandt Community Hall: “KAVZ: Making Waves,” a gala celebration of the station’s successful birth.
Copyright Whatcom Independent, all rights reserved
Posted as Good Faith Fair Use: Transformative, educational, nonprofit use of articles, stories, or essays less than 2,500 words, factual in nature, not for use as entertainment or reward, the use is instructional, the place is non-profit multimedia and the use will not negatively affect the value of the copyrighted material.
FET Impedence Transformer, 8 Ohm output into 600 Ohm input
I just stumbled across this old schematic from 1992, originally lifted from the Late Doug DeMaw’s (W1FB) column in Monitoring Times.
more
I really built this back then (in fact, I just found it in my goodie box) to connect my auto reverse tape deck to my very first transmitter. The XMTR was built from James Cunningham’s schem in the Low Power Broadcasting handbook now in our library. FIR, Friendly Information Radio, AM 790 🙂 broadcasting a loop of tourist announcements.
Might come in handy!