PCS-Electronics

There's an excellent publication called "Local Radio Handbook" by Robert Horvitz, published in 1990. It has very detailed information about setting up a small AM or FM radio station. While it's specifically for Central Europe, most of the information is valid anywhere. Unfortunately, the h...

Duh... Okay, so you gave the type of meter in your title and I didn't bother to read the title. But even THAT didn't help me a lot because there's precious little info online about the operation of this model meter. First of all, set the power output of your transmitter as low as you can to protect ...

I just got this power meter to see if my comet antenna was tune right. But since I'm new to this I 'm having trouble riguring out this SWR portion of this meter. I have all this connections in the right spot. When I put it in the REF postion its reading all 3 and near the red mark...And When I swit...

What is the difference between 1/4 and 5/8 wave as far as broadcasting is concerned?[/quote] 5/8 wave vertical antennas concentrate more power toward the horizon than 1/4 wave. An optimized 5/8 wave antenna can give you as much double the signal strength at the receive location. When used in AM broa...

First, a directional AM antenna would take a LOT of space. Second, if you're not getting more than 300 feet with 2 Watts, you need to redesign the antenna you've got now. What is it? Where is it? What kind of ground do you have. How long is it. Is it horizontal or vertical. Do you have any kind of m...

hey guys, i've been looking at studio type compressor\limiters and see that some say they are stereo units some are not. The ones that say they are stereo compress\limiters seem to have a stereo link? what does this mean and would one of these external units need to be a stereo model. I'm not clear...

Antenna polarization usually ends up as a battle between the real world and theory. First of all, if you have power to burn, you should choose circular or elliptical polarization. Commercial broadcasters do this because they have a legal power limit. They want to maximize the signal within that powe...

The biggest single way that antenna cable length affects antenna performance is the signal loss. Every cable has loss, less is better. Don't sweat the wavelength of the cable vs. transmission frequency. It's mostly esoteric unless you have a really badly tuned antenna and operate at a high power. In...

Here's the conversion for metric and U.S.:

1 km = 0.6 miles
1 mile = 1.67 km

1 meter = 3.281 feet
1 foot = 0.305 meters

I'm pretty sure a British Mile is the same size as a U.S. Mile, which is 5280 feet. (Not including nautical miles which nobody I know uses)


Dr. Sandi

I've been involved in a LOT of LPFM applications and station construction. I have seen NO EVIDENCE of FCC bias in favor of religious broadcasters. The real problem is that community groups that are not religious are not nearly as well organized as the Jesus Mob. The fish heads were out there rallyin...

Here are some tips on FM coverage for low power broadcasters. Antenna height is vital. Your biggest coverage killer is buildings and vegetation. Get your antenna above as many trees, houses, fences, sheds, etc as possible. Solid objects suck down your signal faster than pizzas and brew at a frat par...

A tactic that seems to be more popular as the Internet become ubiquitous, is to rebroadcast a webcast. Let's assume Radio Free Whiterash has a very successful web station running. Lots of volunteers, great programs, Democracy Now every three hours, etc. This is a legitimate venture. Nothing for the ...

Ian (and snoopy people who would read a PUBLIC forun) As I understand the law here in the U.S., a Search Warrant is a site specific legal tool. It has to be issued for a specific address and a specific reason. So if you move to a new address, the FCC has to once again establish reasonable grounds to...

Some real world considerations for your virgin broadcasts: If you're going to be heavy on the phones, then maybe a pay as you go phone would work for you. It's certainly harder to trace them to your address. While anything is possible under the current regime, it's unlikely that the FCC is going to ...