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.

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.

This week I attended a broadcast engineering seminar at the Alabama Broadcaster’s Association in Birmingham. After the seminar I took a certification test to become a Certified Radio Broadcast Engineer. That’s right up there with the big boys! (I’m waiting for my exam results with ‘bated breath.)

Also at the seminar I met more fine folks in radio engineering.

Having been in Information Technology and Amateur Radio for a long time, I’ve had some of the related pieces but no direct participation in the particular world of broadcast engineering up until this WMFH-LP project came along. But I have received a lot of good help and advice from various sources both “live” and on-line. These seminars help me find and fill any gaps in our plan to get WMFH-LP on the air.

Thanks again to the ABA for their free (yes free!) broadcast engineer training.

— Chris

Our t-shirts have arrived and are available for purchase from the website!

We were listening to the local NPR station yesterday while driving.  They were doing their spring “drive time”, known in our house as the “beg-a-thon”.  It was $50 to get their shirt, ours is only $40. (And ours is so much better in every way!)

We also have been working on the 501(c)3 application and always downloading content for the broadcast library.