CENTRAL STANDARD TIME

Tuesday January 31, 2023

11:20 AM -- Treacherous Weather in the Southern United States --

6:53 AM -- Long Distance Records --
From the research of Richard Powers:

Carl, with the question of 49mz range in mind... In 1966 when the 100ft tower of the 250w community station KBAR (in Idaho) fell after a pickup truck ran into one of its guywires, they temporarily ran a wire up a utility pole so to continue broadcasting.. Amazingly, with their makeshift wire antenna their station was picked up "loud and clear" in England! Of course it was due to just some kind of atmospheric fluke but it happened. I attached the following article about it because its on hand but I've heard of similar such flukes before as I'm sure you have too. 
I recall another article of a part 15 AM station that was picked up about 100 miles away (I think it was during the 1970s, I've posted the article before, I'll try to find it again). Also, years ago I posted over at the ALPB forum somewhere about my puzzlement that I was able to pick up my station clearly at the Wilmilgnton Island dump, about 7 miles away (as the crow flies) yet was unable to even hear the slightest indication of a signal inbetween during the miles of highway drive on my way there... it just didn't make sense to me. The whole point being is that radio waves travel occasionally unexpected ways, So perhaps it's not so hard to believe that a part 15 49mz signal can under certain conditions travel unexplainable distances -  same goes for part 15 AM signals too. It may not even be that rare of an occurrence, it might be happening all the time, though for only brief spans of time.
It would be cool to set up a 49mhz part 15 station 24 hours a day with contact info, just to see if someday a reception report came in from someone somewhere somehow.
It's intriguing thought.

- Rich

Monday January 30, 2023

7:38 PM --Loonies Out of Tune --

7:47 AM -- Medical Advertisement --
Ask your doctor about Nirgavap. Side effects may include odd activities in peripheral vision, kaleidoscopically shifting olfactory smells, drooping of the ears and paranoid suspicion that family members are conspiring to collect your life insurance. If your doctor is slow to respond it may indicate he is in on it. When something is wrong with you but you're not sure what it is, Nirgavap has been found 40% effective, over 7% of the time, almost as good as a placebo, but better colored.

7:30 AM -- Detecting Traces of Restored Youth --
As manager of the Upper Management Lounge, a food service destination within the KDX Internet Building, I stocked up on provisions in advance of a coming week of wintery conditions, consisting of a large amount of perishable foods. As the sole staff member of the radio station it will be my responsibilty to consume this food before spoilage and yesterday's feasting brought about early bedtime at 6:30 last evening which resulted in being awake at 2 AM following a full 8-hours in dreamland. We arose and went to work on our frequency biasing experiments by way of the B.U.T.T. Encoder driving the Icecast Stream of KDX-VORBIS. By 5 AM we became subjectively amazed at the stunning result which became less obvious due to uncertainty over whether being younger is equivalent to being more immature, so we turned once again to chowing down.

7:12 AM -- Slick Roads Cause Widespread Automobile Crashes --
A thin layer of 'black ice' has contributed to multiple traffic collisions throughout the KDX operational area since Sunday night through this morning. Hazardous conditions will continue to about Wednesday, with temperatures remaining in the 20s. Circumstances inside the Internet Building, home of KDX Worldround Radio, are very comfortable as we do what broadcasters do, living troublefree warm and toasty lives with steaming breakfast served all morning. 

Saturday January 28, 2023

12:44 NOON -- Religious Moron of the Week --
Every week the popular rock musician George Hrab is heard on KDX with his Geologik Show including a feature called "Religious Moron of the Week", which today named Catholic Priest Father Gerald Johnson who claims to have died, gone to Hell, and returned to life to tell about it. Fr. Johnson said he was so angry at being sent to Hell that God sent him to Hell. While there, Fr. Johnson reports seeing crying men on their hands and knees being walked by demons using chains wrapped around the neck. Leash laws in Hell are strictly obeyed.

11:58 AM -- As Carl Was Saying --
Um, as we follow the two paths of, 1.) trying to fill in and rationalize the idea of a magic tone that rejuvenates youth, and 2.) an actual working mechanism to achieve the objective through web streaming, we must praise the B.U.T.T. guy, his name is Daniel Noethen, whose latest version 0.1.37 has a feature perfectly suited to my apparatus... for a reason of his own he added a mixer which allows two different inputs which can be blended together directly within the encoder. Here's how I have it figured and configured: the main KDX program channel enters input 1 set to sample rate of 41.1 kHz, same as that for compact discs, and the mystery frequency, pre-produced in Audacity by generating a steady tone of 96 kHz, close to the 100 kHz stated in the article. The mixed audio channels are passed through the encoder with Bit Rate of 192 kHz, which I may be able to set higher when returning to the experiment. Confusing as it is, I point out that SR and BR are two different properties. Try to keep it straight and so will I.

That was the important part. Now here's the other important part. Older technology is based around a circuit that does exactly what my new system does, but for a different outcome. We're talking about analog tape recording technology in which an audio signal is encoded to the magnetic tape heads and mixed into it is a bias frequency of 100 kHz more or less which, rather than inducing renewed youth, flings the magnetic particles embedded onto the tape into a consistent forward direction thus reducing distortion while adding the characteristic 'hiss' for which tape is beloved. Therefore my insertion of a similar high pitched tone on top of an audio signal shall borrow the name 'bias' and suggests a bias toward youngness. Will it add hiss? And also, if hiss was so good why did they make hiss reduction devices that took up rack space? As a medical doctor once said, "There's a lot we don't know". But when a second opinion was sought another medical doctor said, "If there was something to this we would know about it." The summation of the two opinions adds up to saying that this will work unless it doesn't.
 
9:50 AM -- Quest for the Fountain --
Experiments to find the 'frequency of youth' per our earlier post (Jan. 23, 9:17 AM - 'Sound Reverses Aging') are continuing here on Experimental Radio Station KDX, as we slowly inch the settings closer and closer to the ideal for streaming sine waves so high up that you can't hear them. Although, the magazine piece didn't specify whether the secret tone should be sinusoidal or otherwise, such as maybe a squarewave or sawtooth wave. Nor did the article describe what bodily mechanism aids our detection of said wave albeit subliminal. We can't easily believe that brainwave frequencies have anything to do with it because they are measurably very low down between zero and about 24-Hertz, below audible range. The newly 'discovered' anti-aging whistle is up there, above hearing, the approximate value of 100 kHz given by the writer, suggesting a general ultra high range but lacking any mention of bandwidth. Considering the fact that this new frontier in the search for restored youth joins the age-old fable of a 'fountain of youth' can we assume that reference to a 'fountain' alludes to a liquid formulation? If so might we leap to the notion that our bodily blood-plumbing is the responding element, like the tidal sea to the moon's gravitational pull? Print me in a scientific magazine, if you wish, but give me the money. And, as youth returns in the form of better looks please don't tell me that foolishness and immaturity gets restored along with everything else, and especially, I want it understood that I will not attend grade school this time.

9:44 AM -- Deeper and Darker Internet --
There  is a very informative entry (Jan. 27) at the Artisan Radio Blog titled

Friday January 27, 2023

5:18 PM -- Warbles, Nursing, Keith Hamilton and Cats --
Richard Powers opens a number of topics

Hi Carl,
Concerning the youth restoration warbles found in certain frequencies and your investigation into such claims, haven't we explored something similar before? I can't remember exactly but it had to do with some frequency or tone that affected our pych somehow and the whole thing was played around with at part15.org ?

I couldn't figure out what your shovel guy in the barn story had to do with a Nursing Care Facility, but it did remind me of a story of low power am at nursing homes - which I can't find right now.. and suddenly I'm perplexed how nursing may refer to breastfeeding, old folks homes, or greenery plant shops.. or a sexy nurse fantasy.
Now, we add to that a guy sleeping in the barn with a shovel. Nursing is an odd word.

Here's another (non-related) newsclipping from 2005. I never heard of 'Community Audio Touring Service' (CATS), nor is it clear how it's associated with home sales, but part 15 AM transmitters are used..  not transmitting from a house, but rather directing to an entire sub division. This article in the 'News and Observer' Apr 22 2005 isn't very clear and I haven't looked further into it just yet, but here in Savannah we have a city run busline using the acronym CATS which I think means "Community Area Transit Service" but it's involved with neither AM nor house hunting.. nor expected to be.. just saying it's a CATS too.

Its not a particularly good article but what's notable are the mentions of Keith Hamilton design of the Rangemaster and something about a "community station in Clayton" which is indirectly connected with CATS.Radio of Yesteryear in a Nursing Care Facility
Carl here with a few responses to Rich's several topics... The title of my blog "Radio of Yesteryear in a Nursing Care Facility" is all about the title itself and has nothing to do with the barn yarn that follows. In other words, anything about oldtime radio (of yesteryear) should be in a nursing care facility because of being a senior category. And that other thing, sexy nurses. It's interesting to wonder what they fantasize about. Maybe you should contact a nursing school with your questions about 'nursing'.  

4:55 PM -- A New Zara Bug Discovery --
Need we mention that Zara is the name of a popular automation program used by radio stations which in addition to generating the playlist of programs scheduled to run on the air also puts out metadata that informs directories what is currently being heard. The way it works is that the title of the audiofile being broadcast is sent to a text file which in turn is grabbed by the stream encoder and relayed to the directory. Ours, however, has been malfunctioning. No matter what actual audio title we were airing, the directory showed that we were sending a sine wave. After more than an hour inspecting and re-inspecting the system, nothing changed and I became discouraged and was this close to shutting down the whole operation. But first I went deeply into the subconscious mind and reviewed everything about life to date until I recalled some kind of experiment we tried the other day involving a sine tone being repeatedly sent over Zara's Auxiliary Channel No. 1, so I looked and indeed that sine wave was still ruminating and we instantly knew that audio being played on the auxiliary channel over-wrote audio on the main program channel so far as metadata is concerned. By stopping the aux sine wave everything is returned to correct operating status and we are newly aware of a previously undocumented bug in the software.  

4:22 PM -- Knowledge Is Never Complete --
As a lifelong broadcaster it is possible to look back over the career and recognize the changing course taken by ambitions and objectives along the way. That doesn't say anything and requires more explanation before it starts to make sense. So then, at the outset I became attracted to certain particulars of working in radio. Announcing was a biggy and reading scripts branched off into both refinement of the voice and writing skills, but no announcer is heard without microphone technology and no microphone is complete until it gets amplified and no amplifier goes beyond public address status unless it connects to a radio transmitter and no transmittert radiates very far without an antenna tower but hold on... antenna towers require climbers and that's where I drew a boundary and never went above the base of any tower. Programming became part of the package as it seemed necassary to frame announcements with material to fill the time and what better than tapes and records. The basic DJ was stage one of the radio work, but it was humbling to take orders from a manager who might not have ideas as brilliant as I thought mine were so naturally I tried to figure out how to become a manager but didn't know what they actually did other than being bossy. Envisioning executive jobs as ways of free-loading avoidance of physical labor seemed a little boring although having secretaries looked like a pleasing compensation. Ultimately the solution to everything came in ownership and with KDX I finally know what it's like being at the top of the radio game. Do you think for one minute that I'm going to tell you?

Thursday January 26, 2023

6:28 AM -- Unseemly Microscopic Things --

6:07 AM -- Earth's Inner Core is Slowing Down --
The length of a day may change as a result. "Since we don't actually know what's happening, we really don't know. So I guess I can't really tell you what it is that we don't know as to whether there is anything to be concerned about", said John Vidale, a physicist at the University of Southern California.

Wednesday January 25, 2023

9:17 PM -- The Lying Life of Congressman George Santos --

9:05 PM -- First, This --

8:43 PM -- Developing Story --
This just in:

8:40 PM -- From the Night Desk --
Carl Blare reporting for night duty. We just checked the Drudge Report to see what's going on. There is nothing going on at this time. We will be here through the next few hours just in case of something.

8:20 AM -- Live Cameras --

8:05 AM -- Morning Weather --
A very light dusting of snow, about 1.5", covers the campus here at home school college. Predictions called for substantially more snowfall during the night. Additional snow is expected during the day but with temperatures above freezing. How are things where you are?

8:00 AM -- Security Search --
No classified documents have been found in a search of the Internet Building, home of KDX Worldround Radio. The search team mentioned that we have many classy documents.

Tuesday January 24, 2023

2:17 PM -- Several Things On the Mind --
Earlier today I got tangled up in an attempted blog in reaction to something recently seen on the Artisan Radio Blog about trolls pretending to be someone very dumb as part of an assault against part 15 websites accusing them of promoting pirate radio activity. Out of frustration at my own fumbling over what I was trying to say the item got deleted and I may pick it up some other time. Thought you'd like to know about editorial attempts that go on here during what appear like silent stretches. Just for now I'll say that I've seen it before... characters that appear out of nowhere to make rude remarks following which they evaporate and are never heard from again, an indication that they are only imposters who drop the facade leaving whatever trail of damage they can achieve with one nasty swipe.

In an entirely other department of mind while we await two days of snow here at the Internet Building in the Mid-Mississippi Valley I've been toying with the idea of taking such occasions, when weather closes down normal activity, to stream live over KDX-VORBIS on the internet, with a call-in line open to engage in realtime conversations with listeners, something we haven't done since our live streaming shows of 2007 while first exploring our newfound place in webcasting. Our role model of the time was KPAH, a part 15 radio station in Pahrump, Nevada, streaming live with townspeople doing call-in shows as the International Voice of Pahrump. The shows were delightfully entertaining but faded away due to unfortunately slim response, then disappeared entirely when Harvey, the owner, obtained an LPFM license serving his town. So now today, here in the future, we report that live-radio is not something part 15 radio stations tend to do. The appeal is a romantic one, the idea sounds good, but actually doing it requires giving up other pleasures such as free movies, delicious meals, and deep naps.   

Monday January 23, 2023

12:05 NOON -- No Go --
It doesn't seem like our streaming devices will pass the VHF (very high frequencies) needed to experiment as discussed in preceeding blogs. And even if we could, the loudspeakers at the receiver end are very unlikely to reproduce the inaudible ultrasound required to rejuvenate youth. We will be able to go forward with in-house testing given our audio frequency generator which indeed generates 100kHz tones together with capable amplifier and tweeter speaker. Nothing to do with Twitter. While we are able to handle very high bandpass from audio source through Virtual Audio Cable through Stereo Tool Audio Processing, the bottle-neck is the B.U.T.T. Stream Encoder which tops out at 96 kHz. Oh, and I forgot to mention... to pass 100 k we'd need a sample rate of 200 kHz. Right? Anyway, even if we could send 'youth restoration warbles' over the internet, it would probably not make it to the other end.

9:29 AM -- Major Experiment at the Planning Stage --
As we learned in the earlier blog (Sound Reverses Aging) an ultrasound audio frequency of around 100 kHz may bestow health benefits to humans within the field of transmission. Starting very soon KDX Worldround Radio plans to superimpose ultrasound mixed with regular program audio with the expectation that listeners whose loudspeakers are able to reproduce the extra-high frequency will find that listening to KDX makes them 'feel good'.
We will also take into account the electronic side of such frequencies which coincide with the longwave radio band, wondering whether operation of a transmitter in this spectrum would also be detected by human sensory mechanisms. Imagination is at work.

9:17 AM -- Sound Reverses Aging --
Baseband audio includes the frequencies from 20-Hertz up to 20,000-Hertz. Of course that range applies to human hearing. The continuation of audio spectrum above 20 kHz is known as UltraSound, hearable by certain other creatures with dogs being a well known example. According to recent scientific findings the unheard frequencies above the range covered by our ears may have beneficial affects of unexpected significance. Put this in your head and think it:

7:05 AM -- Guest Commentary --
From time to time we welcome Buster Boatrocker to deliver a guest commentary for readers of The Blare Blog, especially when Buster starts calling repeatedly until we relent and give him access. We present... Buster Boatrocker:
Buster Boatrocker is Carl Blare's barber from South St. Louis, Missouri.

Sunday January 22, 2023 

12:55 NOON -- Radio of Yesteryear in a Nursing Care Facility --
As a kid growing up with a wood burning stove and stylish furniture console radio I never missed Roy Rogers on one network and the Lone Ranger on a competing network. Without maturing a whole lot I none the less was just barely able to grasp the humor of the radio team Bob & Ray who often spoofed, lampooned and otherwise parodied and satirized popular shows of the day, such as doing 'Jack Headstrong, All American American' as a spoof of 'Jack Armstrong, All American Boy'. And they did 'Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons' as a take-down of 'Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons'. So, therefore, it would have been very much their style to do 'Roy Ranger, Rides the West' as an overall mockup of Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger combined, but Bob and Ray overlooked the possibility, and it wasn't until 2023 that I, Carl Blare, came across the idea while stumbling to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Being self-taught of the Bob & Ray school, I happen also to maintain a stable of fictitious radio characters and having chanced upon this new one would like to stake my claim by scripting an original radio play here on The Blare Blog! You are in the audience for Episode One of 'Roy Ranger, Unemployed Cowboy; Have Shovel, Will Travel':

EPISODE 1 - Titled: "Stealth Camper in a Farm Barn"
CARL BLARE:  I'm a radio personality from the Big City who spends a few weeks every summer out here on the half-acre where I grow potatoes and squash. This morning, walking out to the barn, I found a squatter sound asleep next a shovel that I didn't recognize. 'Hey! Stranger! You and that shovel can't sleep in my barn! Skeedaddle before I call the sheriff!'
[The stranger awakes and shows his face from underneath a tattered cowboy hat]
ROY RANGER:  Uh, gosh, I'yam plenny sorry, Misser, ain't nobuddy been 'roun fer awhile. Thought this-here barn wuz 'bandoned! Say, you isn't got no cows, is ya?
C. BLARE:  No. This isn't a dairy farm. Just some veggies. That your shovel?
R. RANGER:  Yep. Don't go nowhere widdout 'er! Shure comes in handy ina cow pasture!
C. BLARE:  Well, maybe you can earn some barn privilege, depending.
R. RANGER:  I'd be mighty obliged. Say, ain't I heard yer voice somewheres?
C. BLARE:  Well, I've done some radio, but back to business. Where do you stand on tending potatoes and squash? You got your shovel, and I forgot to buy one of my own at the hardware store. Except, your shovel isn't for digging, it's a scooper shovel.
R. RANGER:  I'm purdy darn good with diggin aroun' an I sure need tha barn what with storms commin', so whadiya say?
C. BLARE:  Oh, alright. We'll take you on as a hired hand until we see how things work out.
R. RANGER:  Yew won't regret 'dis, whadya say yer name wuz?
C. BLARE:  Carl. Just call me Carl.
[Closing Music. talked over...]
NARRATOR:  Join us next time when Carl says...
C. BLARE:  That shovel of yours just isn't right for this job!

Saturday January 21, 2023

3:02 PM -- Unbridled Thoughts --



Friday January 20, 2023

8:06 PM -- Not To Be Confused with Hobby Broadcaster --

7:38 AM -- Let's Dress It Up --
The low power radio hobby doesn't bring the stature and admiration that it should, so we look around for ways we might soup things up to bring the sense of importance we so much deserve. I got to thinking about the power of costumery, which most of us only think about at Halloween. I often say, "Watch out for men wearing costumes", as the mere sight of a costume is able to instill fear. For example, people wearing cop costumes could have you in jail for the whole weekend, a man wearing robes can sentence you to a labor camp and a man wearing a tailored pin-stripe suite can 'defend' you against the other cosplayers at great expense, by the way, while the one in a navy-blue suit attempts to have you locked up for good. If a priest shows up wearing a black suit and roman collar it could mean you'll be receiving the Last Rites prior to a death sentence, administered by a man wearing a hooded mask. But what I'm really getting to are costumes that evoke respectability and are 'looked up to', such as the studied scrubby ungroomed look of rock stars and the various upholstery fabrics designating Holy Office color coded by rank: black for priests, red for Cardinals and white for Popes. With all that in mind, look at us in our slobby half-pants with mismatched socks and shoes, ill-fitting wrinkled tee-shirts, unshaven faces and home-cut hair looking like retarded six-year olds. Bus drivers, postmen and train engineers have better costumes than we do. Establishing a sophisticated part 15 dress code is something the ALPB could have achieved but for the schlocky takeover carried out by the Mini Trump, soiling the hobby community by dragging it down to the level of sibling rivalry among mutts in a homeless camp. We need a fashion look of our own, and until we have it the FCC will continue to view us as interference.

Thursday January 19, 2023

4:50 PM -- Puzzling Logic --
If you broadcast on 12 frequencies which are not heard by one and the same person, that means each station is not being listened to by one person. If each station reports that one person is not listening, the sum of people not listening is twelve. As an example, there are about thirty local stations that I am not hearing. If each station counted me as not listening, I would be thirty people. I don't think I could afford to feed all of my selfs.

4:21 PM -- Very Stupid People Being Trolled While Marching for Un-planned Parenthood --

Wednesday January 18, 2023

11:16 AM -- Order Yours Today --
Send in your advance order for the forthcoming book "It's Not Who You Know, It's Who You Say You Know" by Republican Congressman of New York, George Santos. If you don't yet know George, believe me he tops Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green put together. Click here for the rundown:

11:04 AM --

7:26 AM -- I Did It! 49.870 MHz, NBFM, Back On Air, As of Sunday  --
Message from Tha Dood:

Uh-huh... It took me a bit to reassemble everything back together, after over a decade of non-use, but after finally making an audio divider, (Since JG Tiger and I could find the ones that we knew were already here.), as of about 6PM Sunday evening, 49.870MHz NBFM Auxiliary Station, is back on-air. Huh... They still sell this model at Wal-fart:  https://www.walmart.com/ip/Safety-1st-Crystal-Clear-2-Channel-Audio-Monitor-with-1-Receiver-White/21968380

Albeit, outta´ stock. That claims a +600ft range, or 1/8^th mile. Here´s a bad rating for these:  https://www.babybargains.com/audio-baby-monitor-review-safety-1st/#comment-93893

- Tha Dood

7:22 AM -- Stream Them Bells --

7:15 AM -- About FM Supertower --
Mark from Part15.org says...

Nice article. Was interesting!

- Mark

Tuesday January 17, 2023

12:02 NOON -- FM Supertower --
Some of the local stations I listen to emenate from this tower.

Sunday January 15, 2023

6:08 PM -- When Part 15 Was 10-Years Old --
A Rich Powers Sunday Special:

Hey Carl, here's an interesting read (I hope this isnt a repeat) from the FCC's 14th Annual Report (Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1948). 'Section 2' had already become 'Part 15', but there's no alternate rule yet. Below are pasted two full excerpts, both are short reads. In them you see part 15 AM stations were considered a "Low Power Radio Service" and others specifically referred to as "miniature broadcast stations" (a rarity in FCC documentation).
There's no specific mention of pee-wees yet, but the "miniature broadcast stations" presumably alludes to them. I have not found any kits or plans the kids may have been using in the 1940s, but phono-oscillators were plentiful, I'd like to find more part15 stories from the 1940s..

Anyway, here's from the FCC's 1948 Annual Report, the first comes from Chapter 4, section 10, on page 69, followed by Chapter 8, section 2 on page 127:

CHAPTER IV.
 SAFETY AND SPECIAL RADIO SERVICES

10. LOW-POWER RADIO SERVICES

The Commission's low-power rules (secs.15.1 to 15.4 of pt.15, formerly secs. 2.101 to 2.104 of pt. 2)  provide certain limitations for the intensity of radio-frequency energy which may be radiated without necessity for licensing by the Commission.

The largest benefactors from these rules are the various organizations using carrier current, telephone companies, and railroads. Various schools and colleges throughout the country are installing intracampus carrier current broadcast systems and the Commission has received numerous inquires from other institutions and private individuals regarding such systems.

Because of this interest and because of the increasing number of regularly established radio services, unlicensed low-power operations are becoming a potential source of interference. Accordingly, the Cornmission is studying its low-power rules with the view of revising them to meet new conditions.

Inquiries have been received regarding the use of radio for controlling model aircraft. It is estimated that there are approximately 10,000 such enthusiasts in the United States. The Commission's rules provide for such operations in the amateur and the citizens services. However, most inquiries of this nature stem from those who have the operation of their models primarily in mind and the use of radio is merely an incidental matter. Thus, in most instances they do not wish to go through the process of learning radio fundamentals to obtain amateur station licenses.

Equipment is not yet available for use in controlling model aircraft in the citizens service. However, the 27 megacycle diathermy band provides a present medium for such operations. The Commission also proposes to permit equipment such as garage-door-openers to operate in this band, as well as short distance radio communication systems not provided for in other parts of the rules.

CHAPTER VIII.
TECHNICAL STUDIES 
2. LABORATORY DIVISION
Page 127:

LOW-POWER DEVICES
This group consists of devices not expected to cause interference because of the low power employed. Examples are radio-operated garage-door openers, miniature broadcast stations, and devices for remote control of models. Of the devices tested, a considerable portion were found capable of causing radiation greater than that permissible. The manufacturers decided either to give such new products further study or withdraw others from sale.

///////////

Oh! Just thought of a 1940s Part 15 story,.. have I already told you about Al Capone's gang getting busted over a phono-oscillator? It's true, I've got a few clippings filed away... kind of a funny story. More on that later.

- Rich

10:10 AM -- Asking Why --

Why do radio hobbyists like radio so much? That's a good 'why' to open the discussion, and of course there are other why's also worth asking about. But one why at a time.

The appeal of these so-called 'part 15' blogs and the part 15 forums we also write about is that a small number of fellows enjoy radio so much that we do it for free. That's pretty well the definition of a hobby; Something a person does in their spare time at no pay which to other people would be a paid job and a profession. While it's true that some radio hobbyists come from a professional radio background there are many more that have only admired radio from the outside while earning a living in some other field, such as Uber drivers or snow plowers. As for me, I became attracted to radio as a small tyke whose family tuned the big furniture radio against the wall to mystery programs, cowboy shows and music, which resulted in my beginning to acquire a wardrobe starting with a cowboy hat and a love for thumping bass notes in dance music as enjoyed from the radio's 15" electro-magnetic loudspeaker.

At first radio opened an interest in an unseen world out there somewhere where all the talking and singing was coming from. "WTMJ, Milwaukee; WGN, Chicago; KMOX, St. Louis; KAAY, Little Rock." How do they do that(?)", I wondered. Passenger train journies taken with the family to some of these far flung locations did not explain how radio worked, but opened a new interest in railroad trains. But that's a whole other paragraph. Good luck smiled my way when I discovered an actual radio station one block away in a college building where the public was able to watch the actual origin of a broadcast on the other side of a large plate glass window. From that moment forward I knew that someday I would have my own large plate glass window. And on the otherside, at the very hub of the magic, an engineer sitting at a jumbo sized control panel, a turntable operator with two industrial sized record players, and an announcer seated at an important table with a bulky microphone dangling from a crane made from metal pipes. Back at the family apartment the same station could be heard on every radio in the house and I knew something that many people never know, namely what line of work I wanted to do.

Just as this story has gotten interesting, I've decided to take a snack break, so maybe we can pick it up again some other time.

Thursday January 12, 2023

5:46 PM -- Satellite Internet On the Horizon --

9:55 AM  -- Unexplained Antennas in Utah --

3:59 AM -- Rolls Transmitter Certificate --
It is unclear whether the Rolls FM-70 is actually certified by the FCC. What we see here is an independant lab certificate.

3:35 AM -- Weather from Blog Station Blare --
Good morning to all points. We are on weather watch this early morning, prepared to close the website in the event of a storm. An hour earlier our temperature was 50-Farenheit with lightning toward the west, south and east. Since then temperatures have begun to drop headed into the 30s and lightning has moved mostly into the east with only a slight dash of rain here at Blog Central. To monitor real-time lightning activity anywhere in the world try

1:46 AM -- FCC Cites BSW Over Transmitter Certifications --
Mark has questions:

But the MS-100 (Decade) IS certified legal. The Rolls isn't but why is the Decade MS-100 included there?

Maybe Michel at Decade should see this?

- Mark

Yes Mark, I (Carl) also wondered about this and the article further states that after being pulled from the BSW catalog the Rolls transmitter later has become certified. That is also a big piece of news sort of being down-played.

Wednesday January 11, 2023

5:25 AM -- BSW Cuts Uncertified Transmitters from Catalog --

Tuesday January 10, 2023

6:49 PM -- Cutting a record with a...

5:30 PM -- From Richard Powers web searches:

Richard, when I worked in FM as a child there was some PRESTO equipment in use at one of the stations, but that's all I remember.

Sunday January 8, 2023

12:02 NOON --- Works Enter Public Domain in 2023 --

6:36 AM -- 49ers --
Word from Artisan Radio:


- Artisan Radio

And in my mind, Carl Blare asking, who would be 'out there' listening for voice signals on 49 MegaHertz?

Saturday January 7, 2023

1:18 PM -- The Forty-Niner Club --
The Powers Report:

Carl, here's a clipping of an old but interesting item called the "The Radio Hobbiest" which was a syndicated newspaper column by the national American Radio Council during the 1970s that sometimes focused specifically on part 15.

This particular issue talks about a group of hobbiest in California who formed a small organization called the "Forty-Niner Radio Club" whos primary purpose was to promote broadcasting on the new 49.8mhz band, which was one of five new part 15 frequency options the FCC added in 1977.

The article says the capable range is usually only about a mile but that when conditions are just right the signal can travel as far as four or five hundred miles! At the time this was written the rule specified 100mw input, 1 meter antenna, fully self-contained, including the microphone if used (like a walkie-talkie). -- However, the original "fully self-contained" requirement has since been amended to allow separate components.

Anyway, the possibility of broadcasting potentially for 'hundreds of miles' legally without a license really raised my eyebrows. It seems I've read through discussions about broadcasting 49mhz in more recent years but I don't recall anything about such extreme ranges.. What am I missing? Why is this not more popular now?

Seems like something is missing in this picture, but it's enticing to look at. How do you see it?

- Rich

The Blare Blog watches the various shortwave channels open for part 15 use and plan someday to build something for these frequencies. there are no ready-made transmitters or kits for these channels, and anything above 30 MHz would require using communications radios which are expensive.

Friday January 6, 2023

7:41 PM -- Stream Encoders --
In his blog of today's date titled 'Arbitrary Restrictions' Artisan Radio speaks about encoders used for streaming audio to an Icecast Server, a subject of interest also to me. At present I am using the B.U.T.T. Encoder with the OGG-VORBIS codec for the reason that I am thus able to post meta data, which shows what is 'Currently Playing' via a text window, something the OPUS format does not do. My second stream is an MP3 very low bitrate service for people around the world with limited bandwidth. For MP3 I use a different encoder, currently an AltaCast which does the job except that I haven't been able to get it to save log files. Evidently AltaCast is someone's re-working of Edcast, which has a choppy history starting with Oddcast and over time got re-shaped into Edcast followed by Edcast Reborn. The other day I tried Edcast Reborn and everything looked alright except it wasn't accepting an audio input and I eventually gave up on it. When I return to the lab for more tinkering I'll give plain Edcast a try. The log saving isn't a crisis because B.U.T.T. saves logs and the exact same programming goes out on both streams, but I'm fussy when little things don't work.

6:28 AM -- Response to FCC 2022 Marketplace Report --
From Mark at Part15.org:

I remember back as late as the end of the seventies to early eighties entry level cars like the Chevette for example came with no radio, just a cover where it should be. If you wanted a radio it was an option! Basic car came without it. So this now is nothing new. The Hyundai Accent basic car in the 2000s even came with no radio installed on base trim.

- Mark

I guess I'm lucky, then. My 2007 model has AM & FM, not to mention a disk player that I've never used.

5:58 AM -- About Surge Protectors --
Mark from Part15.org comments:

There are surge protectors and then there are surge protectors!
If I remember right he (in your posted video) wasn't home when this happened and there were multiple strikes around the house.
He didn't have a protector that shuts down power to the outlets if the surge protection is compromised. Most just have a light that goes out but you still have unprotected power so the protector did it's job but not for the successive strikes. There are some with automatic power shut down if the surge protection is overwhelmed or not functioning.

People don't want to pay more and want something for $19.95. Take a look at the common ones and open it up and see what is in there, Then take something like Isobar and see what is inside! Isobar's warranty includes a direct hit!

    Isobar Surge Protector, 6 Outlet, 3300 Joules, Metal | Eaton
Protection for A/V components, network hardware, retail displays, appliances, power tools and other electronics ...

- Mark

The Blog appreciates this technical input about electrical surge protection, Mark!

Thursday January 5, 2023

8:55 AM -- Radio Numbers --
125 fewer AM stations in 2022 compared to 2018.

6:36 AM -- Old Technology is Often Best --
Earlier this morning a local farm broadcaster spoke about how automobile manufacturers plan to charge extra for inclusion of AM & FM radios on the dashboard. This is not good news for rural areas that depend on radio for their information. And railroads have never lost their superior edge as a mode of transportation, despite the emergence of private cars and the speed of air travel. We will never see 2-mile long coal planes nor any form of getting about exceeding the romance and efficiency of going by train. Enjoy this film from the age of rail not so long ago.

2:47 AM -- Free Posters --
The 'Automotive Radio Frequencies' poster referenced yesterday by Richard Powers has not been found in a search of the Rohde-Schwarz website, but 51 other posters are available:

2:17 AM -- Recommended Reading --
Check out the entries in particular for December 25 - 'Trump & Hobby Broadcaster', and January 4 - 'Amateur Radio Station':

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 4, 2023

4:37 PM -- Non vs. Anti in Online Society - Part 1 --
Anti-social people don't like and might be a threat to others, whereas non-social people simply neither want nor need social contact but are harmless. In my experience of the past several years I would call the typical part 15 hobbyist more on the non-social side but we have spotted a few trolls who might be regarded as anti-social. What it comes down to in other words is that part 15 hobbyists are often independent loners who mainly do their own thing with little interest in 'societies' in the sense of membership organizations such as was attempted with the ALPB (the Association for Low Power Broadcasters). The founder of the group, Lefty Gomez, envisioned a cooperating social organization where stations could work together sharing technical assistance, program exchange and perhaps even petition the FCC for fine-tuning of the rules. But when a past chairman used his insider privileges to stage a hostile takeover the few active members did not stand up against the invasion and either dropped out entirely or allowed the siege to happen and sheepishly cowed down to the remaining hollow shell now used as a phony 'Lifetime Achievement Honor' for the schitzi mini-Trump EX-chairman.
[To Be Continued ]

4:34 PM -- Speaking Of Purchasing Domain Names --

1:55 PM -- Octopus Head --
During brief intervals in between intentional thoughts the human brain is apt to grope around for random thoughts and I for no reason started wondering what can be done with unused FM frequencies. After all, I am one of the lucky low power operators because my location has enough useful channels to set me up with spares. We hear of other stations not so fortunate who find no open channels in their town. As it is I use two channels on a daily basis. KDX-FM carries 'main channel' programming simulcast with streaming stations KDX-VORBIS and KDX-MP3 and KEGO-FM is our private utility channel used for audio editing, movie sound, You Tube sound, and DXing other streams. Two unused channels are all equipped with their own transmitters but no reason the be used. Oh, my brain is doing a new grope. I'll let you know what we think about next.

1:51 PM -- Surge Protectors May Not Do Anything --

12:19 NOON -- Automotive Radio Frequency Poster --
Richard Powers Report:

Carl, I don't know just what a "automotive radio frequency poster" might be, but at some point I grabbed a screenshot of an ad to download one for free (attached). I'm offline as I write this but wanted to drop you a note about it now lest I forget. You've recently posted links to several calenders so I thought you might be interested in this too.. whatever it is.

As for my desire to purchase part15.org., it's been on my mind for a while. Almost inquired last summer but held off. I have no idea whatsoever of what fair price might be but summertime is when I'm usually able to come up with a "lump sum", but it's also when I have the least free time to tend to such things, so that's a problem. I have no familarity with forum software, so initially would be flying blind. Hosting cost is another matter, but I really don't see how it could be that much of an expense.

What's a dead forum worth? - It's worth nothing, but that's the wrong question.

It's our oldest existing part 15 forum and from where most of us as a community originated. I think I joined in 2001 and it had already been in operation for some time, and now I, like you, have made thousands of posts there, decades of interactions and history just sitting there in a mangled, unused, and hardly usable state. It's practically unusable. Such a shame. It needs resurrection. It takes passion to resurrect a mangled mass of crap, no one else is doing it, I have passion, I can do it.
Guess an initial inquiry is in order. Maybe Mark could be of assistance.

On another matter.. I know I had downloaded a copy of "Passport to World Band Radio 2001" from worldradiohistory.com several years ago but apparently it's no longer available anywhere for download.
What's particularly interesting about that issue is that it contains several pages with images reviewing several hobby-type AM&FM transmitters including Heathkit, Ramsey, Talking Houses and others.  I'll probably end up getting a hard copy on ebay or Amazon, but for the moment I did some strategic searches on Googlebooks for a few "snippets" from the issue. One interesting observation was that the range of the Ramsey AM-25 at 1 watt was not much better than the Talking House (T99)  at only 100mw.

Here's more snippets I was able to pull out:

//////////////
KITS WORTH THE EFFORT?
Years ago, the roster of companies offering kits used to be long and distiquished, but none achieved success like Michigan's Heathkit. Their products were often wanting in performance, but Heath had kit-building down to a science. If all else failed you could...

Lone Ranger Rides Again
Monaural AM is inherently not a fidelity match for stereo FM, and Passport's ratings reflect this, however it is good... .. ...cds or big band FM stations to your favorite antique radio...

[Ramsey]...is normally available as a kit, and construction is no cakewalk (see box). Thankfully it comes with reasonable assembly instructions and excellent telephone support, but Ramsey is no Heathkit. Figure at least 50 hours--half that if you'r an experienced kit builder-- ....
...typical home and even into the yard providing your using a decent FM radio.

>> The Decade FM-800 series has variable power, raising in 50 milliwatt steps from a 50 milliwatt minimum to a maximum 1.8 watt. These Canadian-made units which sell for around US$1,000 may not...

**
Talking House T99
Price transmitter $299 plus.. [shipping?]

You don't expect much in the way of audio fidelity in the AM band, but the T99's audio is designed specifically for speech reproduction. Instead of being broadband, it emphasizes the midrange and high end, with bass coming up woefully short. Even though it sounds clean and intelligible, the... ... ... Alas, that's not all, like the Ramsey AM-25 it uses a mediocre AC adapter that causes hum that's clearly audible even with the T99s limited bass reproduction. A good regulated and... ... ...

...United States only the 100mw alternative is legal, and then only if the antenna is set up according to the manual's instructions.

At one watt the Ramsey AM-25 reaches out very little farther than a Talking House at... .. ...
...this, best to use the outer conductor of either RCA socket. Beyond that, what this unit really needs, is a properly filtered and bypassed power supply of suitable voltage, amperage, and polarity.
If the AM-25 requires service, even within....

/////////__

That's all I got. By the way, why do you always shut down for stormy weather? A basic surge protector would protect your equipment. Seems to me that stormy weather can be a prime-time for a part15 broadcaster as nearby potential listeners will be confined indoors. But who we kidding? They'll just turn on the TV.

- Rich

Rich, in addition to your portrayal of the present-day part15.us/org website as 'unusable, etc.', I would base my calculations on the site being 'BLIGHTED' and in 'DISARRAY' with an 'INACTIVE USER BASE' and 'MINIMAL VALUE IN DECLINING NICHE MARKET'. It seems apparent to me that the failure to repair the site indicates the absentee owner does not consider it worth upkeep. It's primary value to you would be your passion for keeping the radio hobby alive but with little prospect of monetizing the operation. The ongoing costs of keeping the lights on includes cost of the domain name, forum software, server, internet service provider (host), and a lot of your time.

According to advice from a number of industry radio and internet operators, the power of lightning can do damage to electronic equipment despite any kind of surge or grounding protection. The safest protection is total disconnection. For one example, WBCQ the shortwave station shuts down during lightning storms. Station owner Allan Weiner says the expense of replacing burned out equipment is not worth risking. Another example is Maria Gilardin of TUC Radio who recommends physically unplugging from the internet because a modem can be fried by a strike and grounding alone is no guarantee of safe-guard. Also, since this website and radio station operate from our own servers we are vulnerable to power loss which can destroy hard-drives and for us being online at all times is unnecessary and we are unwilling to undertake the added technical burden of installing a backup power thing... I forget what they're called.

TUESDAY JANUARY 3, 2023

7:05 AM -- Power Up --
Overnight weather for us in the mid-Mississippi River Valley was subdued. Brief thunder was over 20-seconds apart from the flash and rain was sprinkly with no wind.

MONDAY JANUARY 2, 2023

3:35 PM -- Dicey Weather Outlook --
We are standing by for possible shutdown of our web & radio servers based on this advisory from the National Weather Service:

We'll see how things look after a break for hot oatmeal with cranberries.

3:06 PM -- Fussing with the Station Schedule --
Realizing that I hear the same news stories on KDX too often I began stripping the schedule of news and while I was at it I dumped a classical music program and there'll be more cuts. My budding interest in ambient and experimental music will fill the extra time with program series I've been finding, including today's discovery of a hosted program of noise music with Tom Baker, a wry personality who says entertaining things. For example he said he doesn't care about romance one way or the other and is a bitter troll who keeps lists of serial killers. It seemed funny at the time.

2:52 PM -- Memory Doesn't Remember --
I've opened up to you about the oatmeal. Over the past several days I've been unable to forget about it and have continued to be nagged by the sense that there should be another carton of it right around here somewhere. Here is a list of memories I held:
1.)  I remember bringing all foodstuffs indoors leaving an empty trunk containing only an empty plastic bag;
2.)  I distinctly recall bringing in a plastic bag containing two cartons of oatmeal which I set over there between that box and that stool;
3.)  I clearly recollect emptying a previous carton of oatmeal and opening one of the two new cartons.
4.)  When I soon ran short I had the strange sense that a new carton of oatmeal shouldn't be empty in so short a time;
5.)  For a number of days I repeated a search of the house for that remaining box which could not be found;
6.)  Still troubled over the matter I today decided to open the trunk of the car, but I did so with the certainty that I'd find only a single empty plastic bag.
Upon opening the trunk I refused to believe what I saw. There were two cartons of oatmeal and an empty plastic bag. I came close to shutting the trunk and walking away, but renewed my gaze and confirmed the two cartons. I fit them into the bag and brought them in, where the old memories persist and I still feel puzzled that I have no oatmeal, even though I have more than I thought I did in the first place.

10:02 AM -- Is Today or is Today Not a Holiday? --
This same dizzy uncertainty hit me last week when we wondered the same thing about Christmas Monday. We became somehow convinced that last Monday was, so it stood to reason that today also is, but the mailman just delivered mail giving us reason to doubt. Possibly the mailman is also mixed up because of too much celebrating. We asked Duck Duck Go whether January 2 is a holiday...
According to what we found, the nearest country where today (Jan. 2) is a holiday is Cuba.  But of course we seceded from the United States many years ago and declared our radio campus a sovereign country called 'Heaven' landlocked on all sides by the U.S., and pay foreign aid to them in the form of real estate tax and they (the U.S.) collect our trash. The point being that we have the power to declare today a holiday but since it's half over we may do it retroactively later in the week.

6:00 AM -- Time Spelled Backwords is 'Emit' --

SUNDAY JANUARY 1, 2023

4:42 PM -- Stream Maintenance #2
New Version Audacity Audio Editor V 3.2.3 available.

11:52 AM -- DFM Now Added to Demand Radio Page --
DFM RADIO TV INTERNATIONAL is a Free Form Radio and Video Streaming Station from the Netherlands.

11:33 AM -- Stream Maintenance #1 --
KDX-VORBIS and KDX-MP3 will close streaming this afternoon for routine maintenance until tonight.
New version of B.U.T.T. Encoder V 0.1.37 available.
New version Audacity Audio Editor V 3.2.2 available.

8:18 AM -- Music Education --
We may have found the penultimate in musical forms, the holy grail, as it were.