Low power AM radio

[cwilliamsws6]

I live in a fairly rural area and I am thinking about starting a low power part-15-compliant AM radio station in the neighborhood. I could easily get away with running much higher power than part 15 permits but that's for another time.

I was curious if there were any other hobby broadcasters on here and how you run your setup.

I was just going to have a library of music on shuffle in WinAmp on an old desktop being piped into the transmitter but I'm curious to hear other ideas.

 

[Chris142]

My dad was a radio engineer all his life. He talked about doing what you are talking about. Be had everything needed but never did it. I sold the tower and transmitter at a yard sale about 6 years ago

 

[supton]

Thought about it, never bothered. Mostly just for fun of course.

Antenna is the hard part. Inverted L would be what I would use, raised radials. Without trees though one is kida stuck on how high up the vertical section can be. If not high enough then one starts thinking top hat to improve things.

Easier to aim for top end of the band rather than lower!

 

[eljefino]

FM is easier by a bunch and you'd have a bigger client base. You can buy pre-built transmitters on eBay.

If you don't want to run afoul of the law (civil) also consider ASCAP and BMI will want their music licensing royalties.

Part 15 and covering your neighborhood should be mutually exclusive.

 

[cwilliamsws6]

My dad was a radio engineer all his life. He talked about doing what you are talking about. Be had everything needed but never did it. I sold the tower and transmitter at a yard sale about 6 years ago

Story of my life, I always get ideas and begin projects but never finish them. One of the things I hate about being autistic. But, this one I plan on going through with.

FM is easier by a bunch and you'd have a bigger client base. You can buy pre-built transmitters on eBay.

If you don't want to run afoul of the law (civil) also consider ASCAP and BMI will want their music licensing royalties.

Part 15 and covering your neighborhood should be mutually exclusive.

I don't want to do FM mainly because a lot of the FM transmitters emit tons of harmonics where they shouldn't. I plan on broadcasting older music and old time radio shows so hopefully no issues occur.