I have noticed very little activity on the 3 major Forums and very little equipment on ebay lately.
seems that Part 15 is dying out.
I have noticed very little activity on the 3 major Forums and very little equipment on ebay lately.
seems that Part 15 is dying out.
I wonder if this is due to the stepped up piracy enforcement scaring people away from the hobby or people just going on to other projects.
But there are some issues, as you pointed out. As a relative newcomer to "serious" Part 15 operation, I offer these comments:
That said, it still a very enjoyable hobby as far as I am concerned! If you stay within the rules, you can have your own radio station and there are no logs to keep, EAS tests to run, or any of the multitude of other requirements and restrictions that are mandatory for licensed stations. And the FCC EB doesn't let those guys off the hook either-- check out the thousands of dollars in fines levied by the FCC every day for what most people would consider relatively trivial infractions.
My main disappointment is that the usable range of a Part 15 AM station is considerably less than what I was hoping for. In my case it is negatively impacted by having a less-than-desirable transmitter location and very poor ground conductivity. Neither of these things are easily remedied.
For those lucky enough to live in small towns, or in rural areas where there is little interference, it is actually possible (apparently) to cover a significant number of homes. For me, it's more like "down the block broadcasting".
WEAK-AM
Classical Music and More!
Can't speak for others but I have distractions from family, friends, and other hobby pursuits and haven't devoted much time to part 15 recently and have not had much original to post. I still try to keep up with posts and reply when I can, I am just not generating anything original. Maybe it will change when the weather keeps me indoors but I cannot be sure of this.
Neil
.. If anyone has built a Slinky antenna yet.. 😉
The tuning stuff is what scares many. If not, I'll get-er-done.. LOL
I pretty much figured out the possibilities of what we have to work with. Now I need to figure where to apply them. My quest was to cover a small town around 2 miles away but that isn't going to happen unless I combine 5 Rangemasters together. That's a lot of money!
Another quest of mine is to figure out a way to make some side money with my aquired knowledge. I've been looking at a couple of local churches..
My high school class just had our 30th year reunion. We had a band with P.A. equipment. I tied into the mixer board and broadcasted everything all day.. (Arrr.. 😉 We had a setting area that was away from the area where the band was playing. I set up a boom box tuned to the frequency that I was broadcasting at the setting area and no one missed anything! The band did a sound check using my frequency and a stereo in the van that they were driving to set levels. It was neat! Needless to say, I sold one to them...
Keep the faith guys.. We ain't done playin' yet..
~Don
We're still going strong here in NC. Nothing new to report. The SStran sits out in the backyard cranking out rock and roll 24/7. I might tackle a new antenna project in a few months. I'd love to put up a Rangemaster a few miles down the road to extend my coverage into the nearest town, but my rich uncle hasn't assumed room temperature yet.
1610AM The Copperhead
It's All Rock n' Roll
Lucama NC