I have been seeing more wifi internet radios in the catalogs, some of them looking like table model and others like portable radios. I am guessing that these operate under Part 15 and that wifi itself is a Part 15 technology.
What I wonder about the wifi radios is whether they are any more than a private, closed circuit, personal technology. I would assume that a wifi portable “radio” is only able to receive stations from one’s own computer and not from other broadcasters sending stations from other computers.
Therefore, if I am right…. I probably should reverse that to say…
If I am right, therefore, there’d be no point to operating a wifi radio station because the only audience would be one’s self.
True or false?
or maybe I mean…
False or true?
However
If I were to answer myself, I’d say that the way into wifi radio broadcasting would be to convince people to select your stream on their computer and send it to their own wifi closed-circuit transmission.
If you could convince a half-dozen individuals to put you on their wifi dial, you would have a wifi network.
I may use my own idea starting right away by all at once becoming
WorldRound WiFi
Bonus points for putting us on your wifi home system…..
I fact, I’ll give 100 bonus points to anyone reading this post.
Wi-Fi Net Radios
These radios are capable of tuning in ANY net stream cast as well as your own stream. They are specifically for that purpose and not anything else.
They are meant to be a simpler method to tune in internet stations instead of going through your computer, browser, station search etc etc.
All they need is a Wi-Fi connection.
RFB
i had a thought of setting up
i had a thought of setting up a license free wifi mesh network with solar powered nodes and streaming over a wireless wide area network using off the shelf wifi hardware running ddwrt.
Let’s Talk
That is another interesting bit of news from you, kc8gpd. I want to ask questions to see if I can better understand the wifi capabilities…
Can your wifi mesh network be set to transmit only the radio stream or will it also send other material, such as your radio station website?
How will the public “connect” to your wifi mesh network… will it be by computer, or wifi radio?
Can a wifi radio receive radio signals from mesh networks or are they limited to whatever the owner is sending to them?
If I were smarter, what would be another good question I should ask?
you can run it through a
you can run it through a radius server which shows a website splash page as a gateway to find your stream plus allow basic web and email and disallow p2p,IM, and FTP or internet access entirely and just allow your station site access and stream. the possibilities are limited only by our imagination. mlr would be the one to ask but he seems to have disappeared entirely from part 15 only involvement he seems to have is providing server space.
So Then
So, having only a wifi radio all by itself doesn’t really do too much.
So, having only a wifi radio
So, having only a wifi radio all by itself doesn’t really do too much.
Think of it this way Carl..
Anyone with a PC, or a laptop, or a Mac computer can receive KDX Radio, right?
a WI-FI radio works basically the exact same way, except that’s the only thing it does.
It can receive KDX (or any other streaming station on the net) just like any computer hooked to the net can.
On a related matter, you might want to check this out:
Phoenix Wi-Fi radio – brand new $25 plus $12 shipping
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330519161848
But do some research and make your own determination.. Below is a copy of my correspondence with the seller…
Dear stockmanusa,
Hi, The price is right, but I’ve done some research, and please correct me if my information is wrong.. Evidently, you can no longer use this for internet radio anymore in the states because it is no longer supported (the company went bust and there are no us servers operating, so you cant register it to pick up anything).
Can you clarify if this is correct?
Thanks,
Rich
Dear end80hwy,
Hi, as you may have guessed, i m liquidating a inventory of these radios. the web site works but some people have difficulties connecting depending on their ISP
i have a radio at home and it works just fine.
if you not satisfied with it let me know and i will reimburse you the cost of the radio.
best
phil
Internet radios are a great
Internet radios are a great way for listeners to tune into your station (assuming that you’re streaming of course). The limited range of AM or FM broadcasts under Part 15 rules virtually dicate that any listeners that way will be strictly local.
One thought I had was to give away Intenet radios to businesses (that had local area networks) with the priviso that they had to use them to play Artisan Radio.
Some of these radios can be programmed; it seems that the majority these days use the various Internet web sites such as vTuner or Reciva.
My personal favourite is the Linksys WMS11B. It’s old technology (it only uses 802.11B) but is reliable once you flash it with the latest firmware, contains built-in speakers that sound pretty good (you can also hook it up to external speakers) and best of all, is cheap (I bought a number of NOS units a year or so ago for $25 apiece). They’re discontinued, so I don’t know what the availability is these days.
Most Internet radios will also let you connect to a network via ethernet cable or wireless.
So you don’t need to start your hotspot to make use of these tools. Although that’s an idea as well, particularly if there’s a localized area that you want to service (such as a downtown business core). I’ve experimented briefly with this idea, but coverage results were generally disappointing, and came to the conclusion that you need to spend big bucks to get professional transmitters (such as the Trango ones) to get the desired results.
Wi Fi Health
I heard another radio program tonight talking about the suspected health hazard of Wi Fi signals, linked to luekemia, tumors, brain cancer, cognitive disorders and poor sleep, to name a few.
In addition to many recommendations, the program suggested avoiding even cordless phones, since most of them operate in the 2 GHz region, a Wi Fi device.
My one question is… do cordless phone sets emit Wi Fi transmission when they are hung-up on the battery charger-base-unit with no call in progress?