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Former DJ launches Griswold Part 15 radio station

all of the same freq?? Talk about sync problems with Part 15 (commercial stations are +/- 20 Hz. Part 15 transmitters usually dont maintain that stability)..in the areas where the signal overlaps, it will be a mess...
and "Now he can automate his playlist to keep the signal broadcasting while he spends time with his family."..sounds like another juke box radio station to me..and a waste...how is he gonna feed all the other transmitters?? Via internet? Well so much for synced audio! Yep, that will sound..........just terrible
 
My college ran something like this when I was a student. We might have had ten transmitters, located in dorms, cafeteria, and one or two other buildings. Interconnected by AT&T phone lines. All on the same frequency. Probably not much in-car listening because of all the gaps in the signal.
 
ContinuousWave said:
all of the same freq?? Talk about sync problems with Part 15 (commercial stations are +/- 20 Hz. Part 15 transmitters usually dont maintain that stability)..in the areas where the signal overlaps, it will be a mess...
and "Now he can automate his playlist to keep the signal broadcasting while he spends time with his family."..sounds like another juke box radio station to me..and a waste...how is he gonna feed all the other transmitters?? Via internet? Well so much for synced audio! Yep, that will sound..........just terrible
Click to expand...

Someone who knows Mike told me that he plans to feed the transmitters via internet. If Mike uses the Hamilton Rangemaster transmitter, it has a sync feature that allows the use of multiple transmitters on the same channel.

You can read about this feature here:

http://www.am1000rangemaster.com/zerobeat.html

My only thought was the cost of doing this. For cost of installing a dozen transmitters around town, he could buy a 250 watt TX and an antenna like the Valcom 75' whip and set up a real community AM station. Too bad he can't get a Class C or D license.
 
An AM station is a possibility but there are filing windows and the frequencies are auctioned. It can be years and years before a filing window opens and prices can reach staggering amounts even in isolated communities. After all of that you still have to do engineering, secure land and build the thing.

Versus this option, if cash was available, I'd try leasing an existing station. I gather, however, his station is more for fun than profit.
 
Carmine5 said:
Someone who knows Mike told me that he plans to feed the transmitters via internet. If Mike uses the Hamilton Rangemaster transmitter, it has a sync feature that allows the use of multiple transmitters on the same channel.

You can read about this feature here:

http://www.am1000rangemaster.com/zerobeat.html

My only thought was the cost of doing this. For cost of installing a dozen transmitters around town, he could buy a 250 watt TX and an antenna like the Valcom 75' whip and set up a real community AM station. Too bad he can't get a Class C or D license.
Click to expand...

Whether they will stayed sync'ed is the question...Part 15 transmitters do not have the stability of the real transmitters. Feeds it via the Internet?? The audio will arrive at the transmitters at different times...thus not sync'ed on the air audio...which will cause problems....Cant get any class AM station right now....unless he could cough up a lot a $$$ for a B that was for sale (and probably none are)..Yeah he could set up a 250 w on a Valcom and wait for the FCC/US Marshals to show up....but even with the Valcom, still needs a decent ground system....thus land for the ground system and copper for the radials...
 
He's a hobbyist. He's not spending his own personal money on ground systems and copper. So rule that out.

If it sounds like hell, it sounds like hell. The Part 15s I've heard sound as good as the receivers you listen to them on, which are awful. It's also subject to all the noise and interference that AM has. Out of sync? That's the least of his problems. But a lot of this is why hobbyists do internet radio. Which have a whole different list of problems.
 
ContinuousWave said:
..Yeah he could set up a 250 w on a Valcom and wait for the FCC/US Marshals to show up....but even with the Valcom, still needs a decent ground system....thus land for the ground system and copper for the radials...
Click to expand...

Oh, right. I was absolutely advocating that the guy build a 250 watt illegal AM station instead of merely comparing the dollar for dollar cost of the equipment. Uh-huh. Sure.

According to Keith Hamilton the syncing of his transmitters is absolute and stable. Maybe you should talk to him about it instead of speculating.
 
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b-turner said:
An AM station is a possibility but there are filing windows and the frequencies are auctioned. It can be years and years before a filing window opens and prices can reach staggering amounts even in isolated communities. After all of that you still have to do engineering, secure land and build the thing.

Versus this option, if cash was available, I'd try leasing an existing station. I gather, however, his station is more for fun than profit.
Click to expand...

Right. Trying to get any CP now, AM or FM, is almost an impossibility. Leasing (or an LMA) is certainly an option, although there doesn't seem to be much there to lease.

A strategy Mike want to pursue is to do the engineering for an LPFM station, get the paperwork ready and contact his state senator to request the FCC open a filing window for him. It's been done in the past. I believe it was Harry Reid who was able get the FCC to license an LPFM station in Parhump, NV.

Mike can certainly make a case for the need of an LPFM station in his area. The closest stations are in Norwich and there are only three stations in that city--four if you count the PBS affiliate TV station. And it shouldn't be that difficult to create a 501C non-profit or even partner with the town government in Griswold.
 
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Carmine5 said:
A strategy Mike want to pursue is to do the engineering for an LPFM station,
Click to expand...

More expensive and more work than a Part 15. Once again, this is a hobbyist, not a corporation.

He used to DJ weddings. He's not used to professional quality standards. If he gets on the air, he'll be very happy. The people I know who have Part 15s get to play whatever music they like, and don't have to deal with someone else telling them what to do. That's what this guy wants.

There's a similar guy who get the last LPFM license in Miami. He's now stuck trying to figure out how to pay for his station. He's got people telling him he needs to fix his playlist. It's a headache he never expected when he started this thing.
 
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TheBigA said:
More expensive and more work than a Part 15. Once again, this is a hobbyist, not a corporation.

He used to DJ weddings. He's not used to professional quality standards. If he gets on the air, he'll be very happy. The people I know who have Part 15s get to play whatever music they like, and don't have to deal with someone else telling them what to do. That's what this guy wants.
Click to expand...

Hey, if the late Bob Denver can get a licensed LPFM station set up in his house, Mike could certainly do it.

Also, according to the article, Mike wants to "… host town and borough officials and local talent". So I get the impression he wants to create a station that will serve the needs and interests of his community. It doesn't appear to be strictly a vanity project.
 
Carmine5 said:
So I get the impression he wants to create a station that will serve the needs and interests of his community. It doesn't appear to be strictly a vanity project.
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Everybody says this kind of stuff before they learn what it actually entails. I've seen several people try to run LPFMs with those same ideals, only to get hit with all the negatives that come with local politics. Ultimately, it's about time and money. If you've got unlimited amounts of both, sure. Go for the LPFM. But if you want to have a life and not go broke, the LPFM is not the way to go. He can "serve the needs and interests of his community" very nicely with a crappy sounding Part 15. That's why that option is available.
 
A LPFM is a good plan. Who knows how many years until the next window opens. For the price of a new car you can be on the air and monthly operating expenses are low. You can slice on that initial cost here and there.

I would think the Congressman getting the FCC to open a filing window has little chance but you never know until you ask. And if you don't ask, you can't get a yes.

The Goldfield, Nevada situation was a pirate that got a license thanks to Harry Reid. Their argument was Goldfield had no other broadcast service and the radio dial is really vacant. They made a case of being the only outlet for local emergency information. What few stations did come in (I think there were two), they were so distant they would not bother to announce information for a tiny community of a little more than 200 people. This was reasonable as one would not expect an AM sports talk in a major market to break programming for, say, a flash flood warning in a distant county of a few thousand on the fringe of their coverage, much less a town of barely over 200 people. There is a Nevada Public Radio station in Tonopah, about 30 miles distant but I'm sure they have a local studio waiver and are little more than a satellite dish at the tower site.

At any rate, being the only source of local information in time of need is a good argument but they might have to prove they are the only option available to create the need for an exception. Certainly a career in the radio business is a plus.
 
That's a great point on plans versus implementing them. I see many LPFMs with pie in the sky ideals that never materialize. Talk about ball and chain, you are permanently handcuffed to a radio station if it is licensed. There is no getting away. Vacations mean pulling up the station to make sure it is running correctly and getting friends to watch things for you. Even Peter Hunn's book on how to start a FM radio station had the remark that after a few years running the radio station seemed like a prison sentence. Then again this was long before computers allowed mobility.

Getting locals involved is two pronged. You have a bunch of eager people trying to control your station and the people you want on the air being constantly begged by you. The results are always an unknown. I know a number of LPFM operators that have had several nightmare scenarios play out even with the board. In fact one guy wanting a true community station had a couple on his board bully the others to the point they left. Remaining board members wound up with their friends getting elected resulting with the guy that started the station being voted out of his station. I caution LPFM stations to guard their asset. For some reason situations with volunteers can get really ugly fast. I haven't touched on FCC Rules. It's not always this way but a rule of thumb is to compare it to moving to a new town and school when a kid. The bad element always welcomes you in when you're the new kid and only after a period of time does the good element let you in.

Politics and religion can really seal your fate. Quite often you get labeled as on one side of the political fence or the other and that divides your potential audience that was small to start with because of limited power.
 
Someone has to be the adult. Someone has to be the bad guy. And that's difficult when you take money or self interest out of the equation. What's left are things like ego and personal agendas. Not a real improvement over money. Where does that leave community service?
 
Carmine5 said:
Oh, right. I was absolutely advocating that the guy build a 250 watt illegal AM station instead of merely comparing the dollar for dollar cost of the equipment. Uh-huh. Sure.
Click to expand...

Sarcasm dude..........SARCASM.

Carmine5 said:
According to Keith Hamilton the syncing of his transmitters is absolute and stable. Maybe you should talk to him about it instead of speculating.
Click to expand...

syncing freq is one thing....but it requires PHASING....just because a transmitter is stable does not make it a SYNC'ed signal...and syncing the audio is much different than syncing the RF.......if you never dealt with 900MHz sync'ed pagers using 72MHz links in the old days OR never been involved in a RF simulcast on two way or FM broadcast, then you have NO idea how difficult it is. Period, regardless of what Hamilton thinks or says.
 
ContinuousWave said:
if you never dealt with 900MHz sync'ed pagers using 72MHz links in the old days OR never been involved in a RF simulcast on two way or FM broadcast, then you have NO idea how difficult it is.
Click to expand...

Once again, we're talking about a wedding DJ here. Not a corporate engineer.

His technical background involves setting up a mixer and a PA.
 
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b-turner said:
A LPFM is a good plan. Who knows how many years until the next window opens. For the price of a new car you can be on the air and monthly operating expenses are low. You can slice on that initial cost here and there.

I would think the Congressman getting the FCC to open a filing window has little chance but you never know until you ask. And if you don't ask, you can't get a yes.
Click to expand...

Actually, on second thought, Part 15 AM might be the best route for Mike to go. If you consider that an LPFM station is legally allowed a coverage area of 3.5 miles radius, you could easily match that with three or four Rangemasters.

Mike wants to expand and broadcast into Jewett City and Plainfield in addition to Griswold, CT. While it might result in some holes in the rurals, a Rangemaster or something similar in each of those towns should do the trick. Perhaps he can make an arrangement with the local officials in each town to let him set up a TX on one of their buildings in exchange for air time and/or a small rental payment.

As has been observed, with any licensed station, you are basically chained to your desk. I know that to be true.
 
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