To add a bit to my previous post, I'll also add in programming to the things that we need to seriously look at.
What's the point of the collective us programming the same sort of things that everyone else does? I can see it if you program for yourself primarily and you can't get that stuff locally. But otherwise, why not explore different things?
I remember Carl Blare coming up with an internet stream that consisted of time only (I really miss his insights). Hey, there was a shortwave station out of Canada that did just that over the air. Another time he played bird calls.
Why not mood music? Or audiobooks? Or hearings from various governments (there's something that would correct insomnia)?
I'll go back to Carl again - he had an experimental electronic music phase for a while. I play music from the Acoustic era for the most part.
If we get the creative juices flowing, who knows what kind of interesting things we can come up with?
And no matter what, it's better than sitting on the sidelines complaining about modern radio, while doing exactly the same things that modern radio does.
Artisan said"
"And no matter what, it's better than sitting on the sidelines complaining about modern radio, while doing exactly the same things that modern radio does".
That is what I say. If commercial radio did what I want to hear and didn't have tunnel vision I wouldn't be bothered with this. It's when radio left me behind that I got into this hobby, being a radio listener all my life. Also it was mentioned that a cell phone is radio but to me it's a type of walkie talkie with two way conversation, a receiver and transmitter happening simultaneously using the conventional phone system transmitted to and from cell towers. I am "old" and to me radio is over the air analog transmission to a receiver that is frequency selectable, and free! Airwave freedom.
Getting back to the price of transmitters if the tariffs cause the price increases to go up drastically it will limit the accessibility of the best transmitters to the average hobbyist, and result in a dwindling number of enthusiasts doing this.
Gerry(Procaster) told me that he knows the tariffs will affect his sales as this already is not a big money maker and niche market and as mentioned if a one man show with a home business can't recoup the cost of certification and time to design and market them they will just call it quits. They don't do this for themselves. None of the transmitter makers do this hobby themselves.
@artisan-radio This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately — I'm teaching a special topics course this semester about broadcasting (really, narrowcasting) and using radio as a form of publication/communication/community building. We've spent some time researching freeform and grassroots stations, and I think looking at models and making my students program our part 15 station has them re-thinking their relationship to radio, generally.
There are a lot of really interesting and dynamic radio groups popping up! I suspect the pandemic was a boon, but also dissatisfaction with spotify and apple music serving up the same playlist over and over again.
That said, these stations are almost entirely online, and in particular very video forward. Which makes sense in 2025! KCHUNG is the best example of this kind of station that does also broadcast on Part 15 AM (with a rangemaster, I believe), but the AM feed came before a lot of the video/community programming that they do now that they've become somewhat prominent in the LA arts scene.
I dunno, at some point it feels like an uphill battle because advocating for radio at all feels like an uphill battle these days. But somehow, at least in these corners of the art and club world, radio feels trendy. How can we capitalize on that??
I look upon radio as audio culture, which existed long before video. I prefer audio. It requires the use of imagination, whether listening to music, full cast dramas, audiobooks, whatever.
I brought up cellphones because they're just a tool, which happen to be a radio. That's all a transmitter and/or receiver is - a tool. It's what you do with that tool that makes the difference.
I have a cellphone which is loaded up with about 1 terrabyte of audio files - Old Time Radio, audiobooks, music. I also have e-books on it, which I can either read directly on the eink screen, or convert to audio. I could care less about video, gaming, social media, etc.
I believe that we as a group need to move past analog radio (while also keeping it alive, even for just nostalgia) into newer technologies to keep radio (and audio) alive. Utilizing the AM band would be one possibility. My work with SDR's has shown that all you need is software to decode digital signals (such as RDS). RDS is primitive; DRM, which is open, appears to be the standard in most of the world except for North America (go figure). But even though the FCC (and maybe the ISED, don't know for sure) have restricted the use of DRM by licensed stations on the mediumwave spectrum, I believe that that doesn't apply to Part 15 or RSS-210 (again, not sure about BETS-1). We can use any form of transmission, as long as the rules for bandwidth, harmonics, power, etc. are held to.
So, DRM anyone? I guess I'll need to start another line of investigation.
@artisan-radio I don't understand how you are applying DRM to radio?
Here's a definition of DRM that I got when I looked it up....
DRM, or Digital Rights Management, refers to technologies and policies used to control access to and usage of digital content, like software, music, movies, and books, to protect copyright and prevent unauthorized copying or distribution.
@mark That's one DRM. The other is an open digital radio standard (Digital Radio Mondiale) used in Europe (and elsewhere) that gives you high fidelity (equivalent to above 50kbps streaming). It's being used in the MW and SW bands (where it was also known as DRM30) and the VHF frequencies (DRM+). It's spectrally more efficient than analog broadcasting, but relies heavily on cpu intensive compression/decompression.
I did a quick search and came up with at least one software package that's an addon to GNU Radio (a popular SDR/SDT package) that will do DRM.
Unfortunately, the FCC (and ISED?) went with a proprietary system developed by iBiquity, but that shouldn't stop us little guys. Heck, there's someone on e-bay who still sells C-QUAM AM kits. We could reinvent Part 15 radio as a broadcasting amateur radio, for experimental purposes. While also spreading audio culture (as opposed to an endless litany of what's wrong with the health of each ham operator).
To add a bit to my previous post, I'll also add in programming to the things that we need to seriously look at.
What's the point of the collective us programming the same sort of things that everyone else does? ..... ...
If we get the creative juices flowing, who knows what kind of interesting things we can come up with?
And no matter what, it's better than sitting on the sidelines complaining about modern radio, while doing exactly the same things that modern radio does.
I kind of hesitate, but you know I've been playing alot with the AI music and have built up a starting collection.. I've been listening to a shuffled list of them via my Zeno station.. its not live, Im not streaming, its just a cloud playlists.. originally I started building a kind of themed album but it wasn't working - but the songs themselves I think sound good.. so I just shuffled them into a collection of other songs I did (I wrote all lyrics in these and directed the productions).
Anyway I've been listening to the collective of most of them via Zeno the past week or so everyday and I'm not tired of it. I think its cool.
If several of us did the same we could build up an original royalry-free music station.
If you would, at your convenience, tune in for about an hour and tell me what you think: https://zeno.fm/radio/end80radio/ There's a wide variety genre of music here (some within a single song) from swing to heavy metal - it may be too oddball for some, but I'd like to know if any of you like it after listening for at least an hour. - And don't worry about hurting my feelings if you dont like it or have criticisms because it won't bother me - I just like to hear some opinions.
Not just you, I mean whoever.
I kind of hesitate, but you know I've been playing alot with the AI music and have built up a starting collection..
Curious what you mean here by AI music, Rich? AI Generated?
Listening now and it is pretty oddball, in a very Zappa/Residents kind of way — that's great, but I'm not on the AI train myself.
Politics of AI aside, one reason I think Part 15 radio is a particularly exciting and powerful form of broadcasting is because it can be decidedly against the algorithm — hopefully an antidote to the mushy, generic, sameness of I Heart Radio stations. Greatly prefer when I can feel someone's unique personality behind the dial, even if they never get on the mic themselves.
I think this have gotten way off topic of the thread "transmitter prices". Starting a new thread is a good idea here.
Since I can't see how to move some posts to a new topic without moving the whole thread, if transmitter prices is finished a new topic in general radio discussion or everything else would be more appropriate.
Curious what you mean here by AI music, Rich? AI Generated?
The one I've been using lately is https://www.udio.com/create
I use "custom" and write my own but you can just give it a prompt like: "Broacasting AM radio under FCC Part 15" and it will create on its own - but then what's the point in that?
OK I am closing this thread as it has gotten WAY off topic which was transmitter prices
Please start a new topic for this to continue this subject. As moderator I have to keep some form of order or I wouldn't be doing my job.