We accomplished a few things this past week, capped off by a short period of on-air testing at approximately 8 pm on Sunday 30-AUG-2015. We were running reduced power to test the newly installed antenna system.
Pesky thermometer – gone
I removed that pesky thermometer from our home page. I was hoping it would be an inspirational tool to help people see how we were making progress.
I decided the thermometer had outlived its usefulness. It was saying we still need X amount of money based on our wishlist of shiny new equipment.
We are making progress! But most of it is by going with inexpensive alternatives to our wishlist. I wish we could buy the new stuff, but I’m more happy that we are checking off the boxes and getting things built even if it means using used or re-purposed equipment.
Yesterday we were up on the tower doing some prep work for our antenna installation. I hope to get back up there soon and get our antenna installed. When that happens we will be in a position to start some test transmissions. That will be exciting!
Events in June and July
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
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.