HFU HF Underground
Technical Topics => Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation => Topic started by: ThaDood on April 22, 2023, 1835 UTC
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Our local LPFM where I am, WTSQ-LP 88.1FM, has done Vinyl-thon / Record Store Day, for the last few years. This year, they planned to spin-it all vinyl for a 52hr, all live DJ's, on-air marathon. I've linked-in to that before, via our crappy DSL internet streaming link. Sounds good, due to their high bitstream, but then comes the problems of maintaining that with DSL, many drop-outs and robbing bandwidth for others here, wanting to do work and stream VID's. Now, last year, that station had to move to another BLDG, and that, including their single FM omni-bay, to the top of a bank BLDG. The results??? They were only +29ft higher in AGL elevation, but were now transmitting from the Mid-Kanawha River Valley. They now seem to be getting out better on the 88.1FM-side, and the increase is a +3dB to +6dB improvement. NICE, but still a shadow zone where I have my Part 15 AM stations, or was it? At ground level, here, college station WMUL Marshall UNI still dominates over WTSQ-LP's 88.1FM signal. However, I did another 'what if?' test and walked around the upstairs attic with an Eton E10 portable. To my surprise, I found a full FM quieting sweet-spot. I did not have that from WTSQ-LP years ago on FM. So, I then mounted an old FM GND-Plane to a rafter and ran coax to the studio. That was 4 days ago, and have had perfect, full quieting, mono, audio RX'ed with that E10 radio every time I've checked in various times of the day. Even with the radio's -20dB ATT on, I was still getting WTSQ-LP at maybe 70% quieting. By the time Friday afternoon came around, I had a working 1/2-ass FM link point set-up. So, Friday 4/21/2023 at 4PM, here, I linked-in that audio to my Part 15 AM stations and told the crew at WTSQ-LP that I was linking-in the full duration of their Vinyl-thon, all 52hrs of it. You can check this out yourself, and here WTSQ-LP spin-it, with LIVE DJ's in 2hr shifts, even overnight at https://wtsq.org/ Yeah... Probably, should have posted this earlier, but... BTW, the WTSQ-LP crew dig that I'm getting them filled-in over here. That vinyl over AM wide-band radio just sounds so nostalgic, and no MP3 digital artifacts. Thus far, this is about the only thing that's gone right around here. OK... You might ask what the point of all that was about? A neat idea what could be done with Part 15 AM radio, an ass-backward, FM to AM-like, translator, where that FM station has poor coverage.
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That's a good idea, taking an FM station that can barely be heard in an area, picking it up with a good receiver and broadcasting it on AM.!
Since we have FM translators for every Am station, why not allow AM translators, to put an FM signal on the AM band, simple antenna and lower power in an area that doesn't have the signal.
Maby it's as simple as that no one has asked for that service.
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A little late on commenting, but that was a great little story, a very cool utilization of part 15AM.. When I originally read your post, it reminded me of something I had read before, but couldn't remember where or when, but now, found it again..It's about four colleges (Yale, Wesleyan, Hartford, Columbia, and the University of Connecticut) simulcasting licensed FM stations over their own part 15AM stations back in the 1940s:
Radio Craft, April 1942, page 456:
FM GOES TO COLLEGE
According to a recent release from Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, radio's infant prodigy, frequency modulation, has graduated from the realm of things you've heard about from friends with special receivers to things you can actually hear on your own regular set --that is, if you go to college.
The campus broadcasting systems of Yale, Wesleyan, University of Connecticut and Columbia are carrying regular FM broadcasts daily. The Columbia University station has been rebroadcasting programs of WOR's New York frequency modulation station, W71NY, since last November.
Recently Hartford's WDRC FM unit announced that permission to carry all Station W65H's programs has been granted to the Husky Network of the University of Connecticut, the Cardinal Network of Wesleyan University and the Yale Broadcasting System.
All these college radio stations, operating as members of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, use extremely low-power transmitters sending signals over their "wired wireless" systems.
This method of broadcasting has two significant results - no receiver outside the prescribed area of the wires can pick up the college station's programs; and, although long-wave and working on amplitude modulation, they are in effect, staticless. ___FREC Service Bulletin.
A decade later the Lincoln Tunnel rebroadcasted local music stations (possibly FM) over its Leaky Cable AM install in the 50s, and later (70s-80s) were numerous part 15 tunnel cable installs throughout the U.S. which often used rebroadcast (Tunnel Radio). I think Atlantic Records did something similar for one of their Robert Plant promotions in the 80s. (They also had a Leaky Cable install that ran the entire length of Sunset Strip - which I can't seem to find much info about)
There's probably more such examples. Nothing new under the sun.
AM translators for FM stations.. sounds funny don't it?
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Well, for me, my Part 15 AM stations have the extra wide-band audio to flaunt and enjoy, music-wise. That, and the local LPFM station real digs the extra, permissible, coverage in this dead-spot of their, that I live in. It certainly doesn't cost anything extra to do so, once you have a reliable terrestrial, or on-line stream, link. Not new either, since I've done that with College station WSBU 88.3FM, and freaked them out that I was able to listen to them at 40 miles away, let alone, rebroadcast them. That, was the early and mid-1980's. Ahhhhhhhhh... Good times... https://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=wsbu&x=0&y=0&sr=Y&s=C
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Well, just heard that LPFM station, WTSQ-LP 88.1FM, Charleston, WV, will do Vinyl-thon, again, for 2024, from April 19th through April 22nd. https://www.wtsq.org/ So, if any of you operating Part 15 stations out there want to link-in and simulcast this, and flaunt your good, on-air audio quality, that will be the weekend to do it. https://www.vinylthon.com/ Another helpful link is the page that Radio Locator has for WTSQ-LP, https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=wtsq&nav=home