Microbroadcasting Summer Camp

ScottGant writes "Wired has this story about Steven Dunifer and his four-day Radio Summer Camps sponsored by Free Radio Berkeley that offers how-tos for building transmitters and antennas, along with advice on handling any FCC agents that might come knocking. Imagine this: A thousand little stations send radio programming across cities and towns from senior centers, dorm rooms and attics. The understaffed FCC would be powerless to shut them down. Audiences would have substantive content choices. No one would tune into Top-40 radio. And the media moguls would slink back into their caves. The FCC and Big Radio are obviously paying attention to the microbroadcasters -- it was pressure from independent broadcasters that forced the FCC to grant a limited number of low-power, or LPFM, radio licenses to community organizations, a decision that the NAB resisted. Are these Pirates or Patriots?"

Re:No one would tune into Top-40 radio?

[geekoid]

It's typical niave thinking that says if I don't like something, nobody likes it.
A lot of people like top 40s. Top 40 was around before radio stations where owned by clear channel.

I find this hard to believe

[caffeineboy]

"The Underground" was a radio station broadcast from the top of one of the dorms at OSU. They tried without success to get a license to broadcast, including a low power license, for years... Finally, they just started broadcasting at a couple of watts from the dorm with no license.

To put it in perspective, I lived about 300M away from their broadcast site and I couldn't get any reception.

Anyway, the FCC came in and turned their power down to the legal limit. You can't get their station from 4 floors below their antenna anymore.

"there are too many, they can't get us all" is not a valid way to go about changing things, especially when the penalties are harsh like the penalties for FCC violations.

Plus, who wants the local idiot to set up a station and swamp out a station you actually like? I'm not saying that I like anything that is being broadcast, and I wish like hell I could get the underground on my radio, but it just isn't going to happen until we start reforming media ownership laws...

Sources... Kits... or not

[Rick.C]

Try this [northcountryradio.com] if you want to build a free-standing FM transmitter from a kit, or this [pcs-electronics.com] if you want to drop a PCI card into your PC and be on the air instantly.

Re:MicroBroadcasters

[mpost4]

sorry it is 1/distance^2 not sqrt, the number is about right, I just missed typed.

Re:Pirates or Patriots? How about idiots?

[akb]

The FCC proposed doing just what you have said is impossible, that is, licensing thousands of low power FM stations. However, the broadcast industry purchased a vote in Congress [slashdot.org] to override the FCC's technical findings. They cut the number of stations from thousands to a few hundred by requiring overly strict and told the FCC to study it a second time. The FCC study came back recently [slashdot.org] with the same results as the first one, thousands of stations can be licensed w/o causing interference.

Watch for a new bill from John McCain to allow thousands of low power FM stations to be licensed. Maybe if you become more informed about the issue you will ask your Congress critters to support this legislation since your interference concerns have been allayed. If you want more info take a look at the Free Press LPFM page [freepress.net]

shortwave

[Barbarian]

Most "pirates" broadcast in shortwave, well away from any major AM and FM broadcasters.

www.frn.net has a sightings forum if you want to listen to this stuff.

Re:Everyone wins...mostly

[Lehk228]

The reason Morse code proficiency is required is HAM's are meant to be an ad-hoc communications network in the event the proverbial shit hits the fan, and after the thermonuclear EMP has fried all your microchips and shit, you need a way to communicate, and morse Code over radio is able to function without fancy electronics,

Why is a Patriot 'good'?

[dspacemonkey]

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Is being a patriot really a good thing?

Patriot , n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.

From a dictionary [richardgingras.com] via Google [google.co.uk]

Of course, there are many other definitions, but I like thie one above.

Why is someone who fights others because "My country is better than your country" held in such high regard? After all, we despise those who fight and kill because their race "is better than yours".

Sorry for being a little off-topic, but maybe someone will know the answer.

Interference

[kitzilla]

I work for a major broadcast corporation, but hope this will be taken on its own merits and as my personal opinion.

I like the idea of "hobbyist" broadcasting. The more voices, the merrier. Power to the people. There's no downside -- in theory.

The idea, though, of turning anyone with a soldering iron and microphone loose on our already crowded broadcast bands sounds like a disaster, though. Homebrew transmitters will be filthy, interefering with services inside and outside the broadcast spectrum.

The FCC has the legitimate purpose of regulating public airwaves for just this reason. Radio anarchy will reduce the usefulness of *all* broadcasting and many other services. Wanna surf wi-fi? Better hope your neighbor ain't running a dirty transmitter in your apartment complex.

I wish the Commission would consider laying aside a MHz or so for hobbyist broadcasters. But they should require type-accepted transmitters and dictate minimum technical standards of operation. None of this would be expensive or an undue burden upon those who would like to air out the First Amendment.

There's also the question of broadcast obscenity and indecency. If such broadcasts are illegal for licensed stations, the same should apply to hobbyists.

Re:MicroBroadcasters

[dasmegabyte]

Well, one of the rules of microbroadcasting is that you're not supposed to use a channel occupied by, or within .3 MHz of, an existing station.

And it's more than just gentleman's advice...if you try to piggyback your local 50,000W clearchannel station with your 10W community station, you will never be heard, not even in your own house. Your radio will ignore your broadcast as static.

When I do "pirate" broadcasts, I generally use a piece of the spectrum in between our local NPR station and a "dance party" college radio station. Both are low powered, relatively, so I get a good signal. I can broadcast almost all the way down the street! It was a lot more useful in college...where a good, low-powered-but-legal signal could reach the 9000 students or whatever in the dorms.

Re:MicroBroadcasters

[pjrc]

I agree. Aren't these microbroadcasters on the same level as spammers?

No. Well, not usually.

By broadcasting whatever they please over top of the expected/indended brodcasts, they interfere with the regular reception on my radio.

Like many other's posting today, you're stuck in the paradigm that microbroadcasters are going to intentionally broadcast "on top" of some already in-use band... and that if it weren't for the FCC's enforcement of the licensed allocation the FM and AM bands would be utter chaos. I've got some news for you...

Broadcasting in the same band as an established station with a strong signal isn't going to get you any significant coverage or audience (no matter how compelling your program material may be). A low power transmitter's field strength is going to be overwhelmed after only a short distance if there's a powerful transmitter within the same city... especially if it has the tremendous advantage of transmitting from a tower on top of a hill. This is especially true for FM, where the radio will track the higher amplitude frequency and effectively ignore your smaller signal. Even on AM, where you have a chance of superimposing your audio, it doesn't take much signal from the strong source before your voice/music is not intelligable.

Low power radio transmission also doesn't reach enough people to be effecive at selling the scams and questionable products that most spammers push.

What if I prefer 'top-40' drivel?

In the extreemly unlikely case some low power transmitter spewing an unlicensed signal on top of your pop music station... you'll probably only have to move a short distance or just orient your antenna a little differently to pick up the extreemly strong signal these stations transmit.

Even if you're deprived of Top-40 for a little while, take comfort in the likelyhood that it won't last long. Sure, someone may be having a good laugh somewhere... but they're probably going to shut it off soon, partly for fear of getting caught, but also because it won't be long until they realize turning to an unused band or one with a very weak signal is going to buy them a lot more coverage.

Re:Pirates or Patriots? How about idiots?

[Anonymous Coward]

If there were 1000 little stations then result would not be 1000 choices of content, it would be ZERO choices of content, because there'd be so much mishmash and overlap that nobody'd be able to tune in shit without interference

Not true. If there are two transmitters on the same frequency using FM then you will only pick up one of them. It's called the capture effect [wikipedia.org]. You may not get the station you want but there would be lots of stations to choose from. AM works the way you think, FM doesn't.

Italian broadcasting deregulation, NPR & FCC

[rolofft]

Italy deregulated broadcasting (on free speach grounds), and the result was vibrant: it replaced the state-run "cathedral" with a privately run "bazaar".

The FCC is a tool to stiffle free speach [ij.org]. National Public Radio was one of the forces that pushed the FCC to crack down on microbroadcasters. It wasn't for fear of chaos. It was to stiffle NPR's competitors. Someone from Radio Free Berkley (true community radio, as opposed to "public" radio) once called NPR the "agent orange of grassroots radio". If NPR is agent orange, then the FCC is mustard gas.

Re:MicroBroadcasters

[Otto]

Like many other's posting today, you're stuck in the paradigm that microbroadcasters are going to intentionally broadcast "on top" of some already in-use band... and that if it weren't for the FCC's enforcement of the licensed allocation the FM and AM bands would be utter chaos. I've got some news for you...

I've got some news for you too. Transmitters "leak". A homemade transmitter tends to leak a lot. They don't stay confined to one and only one section, they spread across a chunk of spectrum. They have to, in fact, because that's how frequency modulation works. But when it goes a lot further than it's supposed to, it causes interference on neighboring channels.

Few here are concerns about jackasses who try to steal bandspace from some other station. That's a self solving problem. But poorly made transmitters that knock out a whole MHz of the spectrum at a time is not unheard of, or indeed, uncommon in pirate radio.

Some background on Steve Dunifer and FRB

[Parker51]

Many of us in radio are quite familiar with Mr. Dunifer's history. Here are some of the more notorious examples:

• Back in the early 90's, Free Radio Berkeley advertised radio transmitter kits for sale and was unable to ship them on time, leaving many paying customers hanging for months without any feedback. In response to the inevitable complaints, rather than apologize or politely explain unforeseen circumstances, Mr. Dunifer tells them to kiss my ass [google.com].
  
  
• Around the same timeframe, FRB announces that they have been "invited" to Lollapalooza to set up booths and give demonstrations of pirate radio. I put the word invited in quotes because FRB got turned away at the gate at Lollapalooza at many tour locations. Blame it on poor planning by FRB, communications/coordination problems with Lollapalooza sponsors, or the whole thing inevitably degrading into a say-you're-with-FRB-and-you-get-into-Lollapalooza- for-free scam.
  
  
• In 1998, after three years of tilting at windmills filing appeals in federal courts, Stephen Dunifer's own pirate radio station is shut down. The judge granted the U.S. Attorney's motion for summary judgement, and issued a permanent injunction [radio4all.org].
  
  

What's ironic, and maudlin about the whole affair, is if Mr. Dunifer had not blatantly violated FCC rules, he would have been eligible to submit an application for a Lower Power FM (LPFM) license, which the FCC has begun granting again [fcc.gov]. Even if Mr. Dunifer is himself ineligible, he could have used this opportunity to encourage and support others in applying for such licenses. However, you won't see Mr. Dunifer or FRB doing this. They would rather play with their own toys by their own rules, and society be damned.

Re:Some background on Steve Dunifer and FRB

[mycal]

The problem is when Stephen started there was no LPFM license, NPR had just lobbied the FCC to not issue any more 10 watt station licenses.

It is because of Stephen and others like him that LPFM exists today.

mycal