Communications

Text of H.R. 1147: Local Community Radio Act of 2009

The floor of the broadcast booth at KXZI radio, which is, truth be told, really just Scott Johnston’s front porch, slopes gently down toward the yard, as 90-year-old farmhouse porches tend to do.

Mr. Johnston, once a folksinger, says that small stations like his, if royalty payments for Web-streaming remain affordable, could have equal footing to compete with the biggest stations in the world.

Mr. Johnston’s antenna, out by the big cottonwood trees that line the road, is not as fortified as it might be either. Unsupported by wires, it sways in the wind, so that when a storm front strikes northwest Montana, the station’s signal fluctuates. And even in the best of times, 100 watts go only so far — the music cannot be heard even in nearby homes because the signal does not penetrate walls very well.

Mainstream media it is not.

“I think some of my neighbors don’t even know I exist,” said Mr. Johnston, a bearded 58-year-old who looks more like the folk musician he once was than anybody’s idea of a media mogul.

But low-power noncommercial radio stations like Mr. Johnston’s, which emerged about 10 years ago in a brief window of eased federal regulation intended to foster competition with the big corporate radio chains, might be soon about to roar, some communications experts say — or at least squeak loudly enough to be heard.

A bill now before Congress, and considered by some low-power radio advocates to have a good chance of passage this year, would potentially double the number of licensed, low-power stations from about 800 now to perhaps 1,600 or more.

At the same time, technology is shifting the boundaries and definitions of what it means to be local, and even what it means to be radio. Internet streaming and digital wireless reception are combining in ways that could allow almost any station, even one broadcast from a front porch, to be heard anywhere in the world from the next generation of hand-held devices and smartphones.

Source/Full Story @: NYTimes.com
Technorati Tags: H.R. 1147

The crackdown, called “Operation Satellite,” was Brazil’s first large-scale enforcement against the problem. Police followed coordinates provided by the U.S. Department of Defense and confirmed by Anatel, Brazil’s FCC. Among those charged were university professors, electricians, truckers and farmers, the police say. The suspects face up to four years and jail, but are more likely to be fined if convicted.

First lofted into orbit in the 1970s, the FLTSATCOM bird was at the time a major advance in military communications. Their 23 channels were used by every branch of the U.S. armed forces and the White House for encrypted data and voice, typically from portable ground units that could be quickly unpacked and put to use on the battlefield.

As the original FLTSAT constellation of four satellites fell out of service, the Navy launched a more advanced UFO satellite (for Ultra High Frequency Follow-On) to replace them. Today, there are two FLTSAT and eight UFO birds in geosynchronous orbit. Navy contractors are working on a next-generation system called Mobile User Objective System beginning in September 2009.

Until then, the military is still using aging FLTSAT and UFO satellites — and so are a lot of Brazilians. While the technology on the transponders still dates from the 1970s, radio sets back on Earth have only improved and plummeted in cost — opening a cheap, efficient and illegal backdoor.

To use the satellite, pirates typically take an ordinary ham radio transmitter, which operates in the 144- to 148-MHZ range, and add a frequency doubler cobbled from coils and a varactor diode. That lets the radio stretch into the lower end of FLTSATCOM’s 292- to 317-MHz uplink range. All the gear can be bought near any truck stop for less than $500. Ads on specialized websites offer to perform the conversion for less than $100. Taught the ropes, even rough electricians can make Bolinha-ware.

“I saw it more than once in truck repair shops,” says amateur radio operator Adinei Brochi (PY2ADN) “Nearly illiterate men rigged a radio in less than one minute, rolling wire on a coil.”

Source/Full Story:: wired.com

I highly recommend Wealth, War and Wisdom, by Barton Biggs, and I also recommend that you pick up a good shortwave radio, if you don’t have one.  I have had great success with Grundig shortwaves over the years, but get whatever your budget will allow.

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Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

The Armchair Survivalist believes the nation is falling into chaos, and he wants to help.

He offers practical advice for dealing with riots, wars, natural disasters and food shortages, which he says are imminent because of the worldwide economic meltdown and the incoming Obama administration.

“Too many things are occurring at the same time. It’s upsetting people,” said the Survivalist, whose real name is Kurt Wilson.

So this Martha Stewart for the camo-and-compound crowd provides valuable information on nonperishable foods, portable water purifiers and defensive weapons. His catalog business, Survival Enterprises, sells what you need for the coming hard times.

Northern Idaho has long been a magnet for anti-government types and Wilson moved his business here from California in 1998.

He operates out of a modest strip mall that is, ironically, on Government Way in Coeur d’Alene. Much of the work is packing and shipping orders for survival supplies such as canned bacon with a camouflage label and cases of military MREs.

Wilson started “The Armchair Survivalist” radio show about a year ago because so many people were asking him for advice on what he considered simple problems. The Saturday show can be heard over his Web site, on shortwave radio, or a few broadcast stations.
…

“Some conspiracy theorists and fringe “Patriot” radio hosts are seeking to reverse that course by calling on their friends and countrymen to arm themselves, organize and head for the hills in preparation for a fast-approaching second Civil War,” the SPLC said on its web site.

Jim Rawles, editor of survivalblog.com said unique visits to his site are climbing. They’ve doubled to about 107,000 a week, he said. But he doesn’t think Obama’s election is the main reason.

“The main driver right now is the economic situation,” he said. “A lot of people are deeply concerned we are on the cusp of another economic depression.”
…

Barton Biggs, former chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley, recently wrote a book (Wealth, War and Wisdom) in which he warned that people should anticipate the breakdown of civilized society. He suggested creating a “safe haven” and stocking it with canned food, liquids, medicine, seed, fertilizer and other tools for survival.

Full Story

Technorati Tags: shortwave

US Army Antenna Group OE-254 Technical Manual 1991

Source: Wikileaks

US Army Antenna Group OE-254 Technical Manual 1991

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