iamcal.com Since May 2000

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• Hello!

Right then.

My ambitious thought of the day.

I want to start a radio station, just transmitting on a Friday, with our entertainment news from Malawi.

Do any of you have any knowledge of setting up the station, equipment needed etc?

I would like to stream it over the net too, so all help and advice is greatfully received!!

Thanks

Wow! That *is* an ambitious project. I wouldn't even know where to start! ;D What gave you the idea?

I know that in England you need permission to use a certain frequency, but can't say what the situation is like in Malawi

FYI - "Man Friday" does updates on a radio station at 5pm on a Friday, it's an update to what's hot and what's not over the weekend. BUT, would like to be independant :-)

Ok. friday, are you an English lady living in Malawi?

yep - why?

Just interested. How long have you lived there? What do you do there? Have you ever been to South Africa and if so, is Malawi similar? (sorry for the 3rd degree)

cal whizzed by and didn't say hello. You're up late, cal! or is that sal using your login? anyway, hello gorgeous : )
*shameless flirting*
hussy

Cal is sleeping :-)

uma - check my profile and my home page friday.zikomo.net

Cewl website! (and you're gorgeous too!)heh heh
It's quiet at the moment hey?

You could use something like shoutcast or peercast to broadcast over the net. All you'd need is a relatively fast Inet connection, a server to host it on (depending on the speed of your connection, you could use your own computer or one hosted somewhere else) and the relevant software to broadcast (eg. Winamp or Audion with the relevant plugins)

Thanks :-)

you'll need a license for broadcasting radio over the airwaves, me thinks

that much i know, but the actual equipment? Transmitter?

I have been and looked at what one local radio station used, but would actually like to know what this consists of, an aerial, obviously - but what else?

i dont want to ask the local one myself

What about getting on a 'radio shack' style website, or an amateur radio ham chat room...

That should prove riveting...

erm, doesn't really consist of anything special as far as I'm aware, variable capacitor, a big pile of a resistors, not much else. You could build one quite easily

i'm currently a volunteer at a local public radio station in the states.

the minimal cost for us is something like $18,000/year (how much we have to make from pledges) to keep the station running. but i believe this mostly pays for rent and certain programs that we air.

there is an article in a recent issue of 2600 about pirate radio, it has some nice specifics... but i can't seem to find it at the moment. if i can remember later tonight, i'll try to look it up

thank you very much - much appreciated

That's a mini fm transmistter I made a few years ago, it has a really good range for it's size. It wouldn't be very hard to amplify over a large range I should imagine.

Basically, you can build one out of crap :p

okay, it's volume 18#4 (winter 01/02)... seems it's not too "recent"

i'm gonna type what i think is important

"Basically, there are two types of transmitters available: VCO and PLL. VCO, voltage controller oscillator, is just that: an RF oscillator controlled by the voltage. While cheaper (around $50 for 1 watt models), they will drift off the frequency it is set to transmit on as voltages, temperature, and settings change. That means if you set it to broadcast at 100.0 mHz, you may find it transmitting at 101.2 an hour later. PLL (phase-locked loop) trasmitters, while a bit more costly (roughly $40 more than VCO), are a much better deal. They are controlled via microcontrollers, which means they will never drift off frequency.

"Most transmitters come in two types: mono or stereo. While stereo transmitters are slightly more expensive, it is still more economical and space-saving versus adding a stereo encoder to a mono setup. Think before you buy about which setup would be right for you.

"While great for broadcasting around the house, simple transistor or BA1404 chip based transmitters are NOT sufficient for professional grade radio. They were designed specificaly for short-distance broadcasting, so let them do their appropriate job.

"Transmitters can be purchased ready-built or in kit form. Kits usually include the PCB, parts and instructions. Do not attempt a kit unless you are TRULY experienced with soldering SMD parts and RF emitting devices. PCS Electronics and NRG Kitz both carry high-quality transmitters of varied outputs.

"A Transmitter would be useless if it had nothing to run on. Most transmitters require a power source. PCS Electronics makes a computer card transmitter which plugs into a free ISA or PCI slot, so that would be an exception. A plug-in "wallwart" transformer is NOT a sufficient power source. Remember, the quality of the power determines the quality of the transmission. You will need a well regulated, well filtered power supply, like the ones designed for CB and ham radios (RadioShack sells one for about $30). A 12 volt car battery will also work. Just be sure to keep it maintained.

"Although it may not seem like it, the antenna is the most vital part of a station. A one watt station with a well-built antenna can easily supersede a 25 watt station with a crap-tenna. The easiest and most common antenna is the dipole, which is basically two wires going out in opposite directions cut according to the frequency you are transmitting on. There are loads of other great antennas that are easy to build such as the ground plane, J-pole, slim jim, and on and on...

"Most antennas are either omnidirectional or directional. Omnidirectional antennas such an the dipole and 5/8 ground plane transmit in all directions. Directional antennas on the other hand spew RF in one direction.

"Don't forget to invest in a good SWR (standing wave ratio) meter. The SWR measurement is probably the single most important factor in determining the effectiveness of your antenna. Although cheap SWR meters made for CB radios will work for out setup, they will be far from accurate. Try to aim for an SWR of 2:1 or lower. An SWR reading of 1.5:1 would be theoretically perfect, but realistically impossible.

"Connecting everything together is not quite as simple as a length of RadioShrek coax. Firstly, the impendance of the coax has to match the parts you are connecting them to, usually either 50 ohm or 75 ohm. Secondly, cheap coax results in cheap connections - line loss. Line loss is literally losing your transmitter energy out of the cable as heat. Line loss inceases as the length of the coax increases. Therefore, use as short of a length of coax as you can. Also, use high quality, well shielded cable, such as Belden cable."

Last but not least, the references for the article:

ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs
ARRL Antenna Handbook
www.nrgkitz.com
www.ramseyelectronics.com

hope this helps

oh yeah, as tommmorris said, winamp shoutcast is really useful for streaming over the net.

www.shoutcast.com

send me an e-mail if you have any questions about it or broadcasting in general.

blimey - thats a lot to get through! Thanks so much.

So I can make one can I? That would be amusing. I was talking to a friend today and I need to find out about the licensing thing first, because apparantly, the area over which I want to broadcast dictates the wattage - I'm learning fast!

I have also just learnt that it can be done from a computer, with an aerial on the roof. Fortunately my office is several storeys high. This is getting exciting.