Getting started: How long does it take?

As a part15 operator. you may simply begin.

If you contact the FCC (I did, because Part15.us hadn't started yet) the best you'll get is a photo copy of the regulations, the FCC isn't interested in what we're doing unless there is a complaint.

Now it's just a matter of having fun and keeping it going!

Warning - low power broadcasting can be highly addictive 🙂 I've been hooked since the mid 80s and there are others here even "worse" off.

Have fun and be sure to share your experiences here so that we can draw others into our little "cult"

Thanks for checking in!

Glad to have you here!

I think a lot of the people on this
board have worked in broadcasting.

Some of those people (and others)
have put a station on very quickly,
such as, in a few days or weeks
or months.

Other people have taken years building
their stations because of the sheer enjoyment
of it, starting small and adding a little bit at
a time.

To add a little more detail to this, about 7 years
ago, my son and a friend wanted to talk and
play CDs on a little neighborhood radio station.
I had told them I could build one, because I had
made a Part 15 station for myself when I was a
kid, decades ago.

So I hooked up a little beat up 20 year old Radio Shack
mixing board to 2 CD players and 2 microphones.
Then I ran the output of the mixing board to a Part 15
FM transmitter. The whole thing sat out on our front
enclosed porch.

My son's friend lived only a couple of hundred feet away,
down the street. So his parents could hear the FM signal
without any problem on an FM tuner in their living room
stereo system. Everybody had a good time with that little
station - the kids on the air and the listeners.

After a while, the kids got tired of the little station and moved
on to other things.

But because I love radio so much, I decided to keep the station
going. I built a legal AM transmitter kit, and after some experimentation,
I had a coverage area that wasn't too bad. People could hear
my station in their houses on our street within about a quarter
of a mile. A really good friend of mine could hear the
station all over our downtown area on his car radio. (The downtown
area is about a half a mile away.) It took me a long time
to get the AM transmitter working correctly. (For some guys,
that task might just take hours or days.)

I had some listeners, and it was fun. That was a couple of
years ago. My station is off right now. I am rebuilding
a really nice vintage broadcast control board, and eventually
making a whole new studio. I am also working on a new AM
transmitter arrangement, that might bring the coverage
area out a little more.

Some Part 15 station operators have built beautiful studios
that have taken years to finish. Some of these studios
look just as good (or better) than commercial broadcast
set-ups. A good Part 15 studio might also double as a recording
studio, if you are into that sort of thing. There are some
Part 15 stations out there that do both broadcasting and
recording. Also, one of the members on this board just started
broadcasting live music from a local band on his station.
His set-up was more elaborate. The local band was in
a different place - a local restaurant. (I think.)

So this guy had to get the audio from the restaurant
to his Part 15 station (and he figured out how to do
that.)

Anyway, if you are into radio and music, it can be a
lot of fun.

I hope this is a little bit of a help.

Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700

thanks for the reply - I think we're going to be up and running in Los Angeles soon!

One more question - since L A is so vast, is it legal to have someone relay your signal with another Part 15 transmission?

In other words, if we broadcast from a location and we also run the broadcast on a webstream - can someone else pick up the webstream and transmit that as well, so we'd be broadcasting on the same frequency but from two locations.

We're going to be setting up a studio at a public space, will I be allowed to transmit the signal from my house as well?

Hello Aminsky:

YES you can feed part 15 transmitters everywhere as long as each transmitter meets the regulations. Other people have talked about setting up part 15 networks not only by feeding their own transmitters, but by seeking agreements with part 15 "affiliate" operators located anywhere.

For a little while Rule of Law network in Austin Texas was building a string of nationwide part 15 affiliates, but lately they seem to have removed such reference from their website and programming messages. The programs "Free Talk Live" and "The Alex Jones Show" have increased their outreach by sending signals on everything at hand, including licensed stations, satellites, part 15, telephones and podcasts.

Let us know how things go.

I'll keep you updated as things proceed

very excited to get things going

- Alan