All posts by wmfh955admin

Events in June and July

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I apologize for not keeping this blog a bit more active.

Yes, we are still here, still working on our station construction.  In June we applied for an extension to our FCC Construction Permit and it was granted!  We also held a Board of Directors meeting and covered our recent events, budget and things left to accomplish.

We also obtained a used antenna.  It is a multi-element array.  We don’t have space on our tower for such an array but we can use one or two of the six elements.  July saw us tuning up one of the elements for use on our frequency.  And we sold three of the elements to help offset the acquisition cost.  We still have two of the elements unallocated and may be able to sell them to another LPFM station.

Today I was doing some feed line work.  Feed line is a special kind of co-axial cable which transfers our signal from the transmitter, over and up to the antenna on the tower.  Our feed-line situation is good.  We have about 200 feet of low-loss 75 Ohm Cable-TV hardline coax with frequency-specific impedance matching sections on each end.  Then we have about 25 feet of flexible coax, some on each end, to connect to the antenna and to the transmitter.

Besides the line itself, there is some math to be done to figure out our total “loss” in the antenna system.  The FCC has licensed us for a specific ERP  (Effective Radiated Power).  We calculate the system losses to tell us how much power our transmitter needs to be generating in order to produce the ERP we want coming out of the antenna.  We really could use a 300 Watt transmitter, but the inexpensive 250 Watt transmitter we have obtained will be adequate for now.

As you can tell, we are trying to cut costs in every area in order to get our station on the air.  While doing that we also have been noting the areas we would like to eventually upgrade if the station proves to be a success.

Oh, one last thing:  in July we applied for an equipment grant from the 4-County Electrical Co-Op which services our area.  We have not yet heard from them a thumbs up or down. Our success with grants… let’s just say we have not had any success with grants.  But maybe something will come through.

Applying for time extension

Construction

The FCC  (Federal Communications Commission) awarded us our CP  (construction permit) in January of 2014.  It has an expiration date 18 months from the day of award.    That puts our deadline in the middle of July.

Word in the LPFM  (low power FM) community is that a CP-holding organization can apply for an 18 month extension if they have a good reason.

I have written up our current condition and our continuing resolve to see the thing finished and yesterday I sent that off to the FCC.  If granted that will give us 18 more months.  I surely hope it doesn’t take that long to get us on the air.  But the request is an all-or-nothing thing.  And we can start up any time we think we are ready.

Where we are:  We have most of the equipment we need.  The largest piece lacking is called an EAS/CAP Endec.  I’m told the one to get is the Sage Digital Endec and they go for about $2400 or so.  I would dearly love to get a more complete transmitter ($6500) and an RDS encoder ($400?) and a brand new antenna ($1400), but I can make do with the old transmitter, the used antenna and no RDS.  We have some $$ in the bank from our previous fundraising efforts, so we really need a bit more than $1k to squeak by.

If you want to be a sponsor of our station, contact me.  We will make sure your name or your business name is aired prominently.

 

East Columbus Lions Club

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Many thanks to the East Columbus Lions Club for allowing me to present our Classic Book Radio project to their group.  They had interesting and helpful questions after my talk.  (And they fed me!)

If you know a group who would like to hear about our project, contact us!

 

Current State of the Station

Construction

Hi Everyone.

It’s been too long since I’ve updated you all about our station construction.

As you may recall, we have our FCC issued construction permit and our initially allocated time ends in mid-July 2015.  We are still aiming to meet that deadline.  But we also have the option of applying for an extension of construction time for up to another 18 months.

We are moving ahead on multiple fronts.  For the budgeted list of preferred equipment (which was driving our fundraising need), we have filled a couple of functional slots with cheaper alternatives.  For example, we would really like to have the remote-controllable $6500 transmitter.  But we had the opportunity to pick up a budget model for less than $1900 and did so via a one-time contribution.    The bottom line is that we still need to fill the EAS/CAP function and that particular piece of equipment will need to be bought new.  So we need to find around $4,000 to get the station on the air in legal condition  (I have sent a request to a supplier for a specific $$ quote).

We still have a grant proposal outstanding, and we will know in mid-May whether anything will be coming in.  And we have a project presentation scheduled in May to another of the community service organizations here in Columbus.

Along with the basic transmitter, we have worked on the audio delivery system and the antenna system.  We plan to order a basic antenna this week and get it installed before the end of May.  We built some feed line transformers in order to be able to use a chunk of 75 Ohm CATV hardline that is already installed on the tower.  That will give us good efficiency but also save a few hundred dollars and the task of installing another line.

There is still plenty of work to do:  more with the play-back automation system, remote control (to meet our FCC requirements for remote shut-off), downloading, scheduling,   We seem to be about 80% done with about 80% of the task list.  I think the end is in sight.