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Post by Admin on Jan 30, 2019 0:35:20 GMT
1/28/2019
At 7 pm EST, 11 degrees and falling here on the North Coast of America.
Temperatures from 0 tonight to -5 through tomorrow night with a high of 3 degrees.
Wind chills expected down to -30 degrees tomorrow.
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Post by mark on Jan 31, 2019 5:24:06 GMT
Blame it on Canada, it all comes from here.
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Post by End80 on Jan 31, 2019 8:14:17 GMT
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Post by Boomer on Jan 31, 2019 13:23:24 GMT
I'd never heard of the hobby of camping on a lake in ice huts, but I agree, it's a great use for Part-15 broadcasting! Since the event lasts for 2 months, that's a lot of time for people to get to know and make friends with the station, and offer their ice camping stories to be broadcast.
Electric power must be conserved in the huts, and a simple pocket radio is a low drain device that could play for a few weeks on a couple of AA cells, versus a phone that would play for a much shorter time. With an open area on the ice like the pictures show, there would be few obstructions to the signal going out, not like in a residential area.
I also wonder what the AM FM radio dials are like in the area, and how many other stations can be received. If it's few, that little station might be even more valuable, certainly it is for its audience already.
I too wish more stations would broadcast at special events, and I would, and already probably have everything needed. There are potentials in many situations, it just takes someone to realize it and do something about it.
We've discussed radio used at drive-in theaters to broadcast to cars there, and there's a summer event that seems to be popular everywhere: car cruises held in school fields, fairgrounds and shopping center parking lots on the weekends.
Every one of them plays oldies like doo-wop and surf guitar music, either from the cars, or from a PA with speakers facing the crowd. I've heard of people broadcasting at these, but haven't been to one that I knew had a broadcast so far.
Maybe there's a community of car show broadcasters we don't even know about.
Boomer
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Post by End80 on Jan 31, 2019 15:05:58 GMT
Funny you should mention that..
2018 Main Street Car Show & Fire Station Contruction Project www.collegevillefire.org/apps/public/news/newsView.cfm?News_ID=280
"..We will be using a new way for participants to hear music and all announcements for the show. We will be using a low power FM Radio channel. All you will need to do is on the top of every hour and every 1/2 hour tune a radio to FM 99.7 Bring an FM Radio to the show and tune to 99.7 FM. This way you will hear all Announcement pertinent to the show..."
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Post by mark on Feb 1, 2019 0:44:42 GMT
To get power in an insulated fish hut it must have a gas generator out on the ice. A good place for a part 15 station. Get quite good range out there too. If it was AM would the ice or lake water with a metal rod make a good ground.
Up at Lake Nippising the AM(daytime) and FM dial would be 2/3rds empty. Lots of space! In fact the AM band may have 2 or 3 stations only, if that, until nighttime.
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Post by End80 on Feb 1, 2019 9:08:02 GMT
Yeah, some, not all had generators. One of the pictures shows a guy inside the hut holding a video tape of the movie Die Hard.. the caption explains: "Seems they forgot the generator though and will have to wait little while longer for Die Hard"
Back to the subject of the cold weather, it's been about 30 degrees here the last few days, (that's pretty cold for here) and I noticed that suddenly I've not been able to receive a couple channels on OTA TV that I normally can receive all year long.. It seems like it's related to the cold weather since it began the same time as the temperature drop... or maybe it's just a weird coincidence.
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Post by End80 on Feb 1, 2019 13:54:55 GMT
From Newsy: Which is deadlier: extreme heat or extreme cold? www.newsy.com/stories/which-is-deadlier-extreme-heat-or-extreme-cold/
"Heat is our No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S.. ...As a bottom line, that's pretty conclusive. But weather experts say the exact risk of the different extremes depends on a lot of factors. One of them is time. Cold gets dangerous faster than heat does..".
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Post by mark on Feb 2, 2019 0:29:50 GMT
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Post by thelegacy on Feb 19, 2019 11:22:01 GMT
Cold Weather efffects AM Radio Lots of unusual reception reports have been posted on the I love AM Radio page. Its also effected my Part 15 station too. Be careful of your ATU's cuz the capacitors will detune in extreme temperature changes. You may want to consider a remote control to tune your transmitter every few hours along side a field strength meter.
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Post by End80 on Feb 19, 2019 14:24:11 GMT
Cold Weather efffects AM RadioLots of unusual reception reports have been posted on the I love AM Radio page. Its also effected my Part 15 station too. Be careful of your ATU's cuz the capacitors will detune in extreme temperature changes. You may want to consider a remote control to tune your transmitter every few hours along side a field strength meter. Who actually has a field strength meter?? But it does bring to mind something I had only recently become aware of.. If anyone had seen my recent blog post reviewing Carl Blares past LPH interview with Bill Baker, in it Bill talked a little about an SMR receiver they provide along with every TIS installs system and also sell separately which their test have shown can be used to calculate rather reliable field strength readings when compared to a premium Potomac by utilizing it's 15-99 incremented S-meter along with a supplied conversion chart. I emailed Bill for the price which he quoted at $144.
I'm going to get one this summer, not so much for the field strength reading capability itself, because it would be so rarely that I would need to do that, but more so as a quality AM/FM/LW/SW portable radio which also has the added bonus of calculating field strength for the rare occasions which I would want to do that.
Anyone else interest in getting one www.theradiosource.com/products/smr.htm
My bog post about Carls Interview with Baker is part15lab.blogspot.com/2019/02/interview-with-bill-baker.html
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mram1500
Junior Member
No Jab -Just Fact
Posts: 67
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Post by mram1500 on Feb 20, 2019 2:42:17 GMT
Bill visited my AM-TIS station a couple years ago. He did a field intensity check to see how our system was performing.
He told me about the Grundig Traveler radio and later sent me a copy of his dbu correlation chart which converts the radio's signal strength indication to a reasonably usable number.
He demonstrated this by comparing his FIM readings to the Grundig's readings after using the chart for conversion.
I bought the radio shortly after on Amazon for $35 new. I recently tried to purchase another but they seem to be out of production. Lot's of used available on Ebay for more than I paid new.
Ooops, I guess we're off topic...
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Post by End80 on Feb 20, 2019 3:01:47 GMT
Aha!... a Grundig Traveler radio.. I had gone through Google shopping images trying to get a visual match on the radio and couldn't find a match. I had asked what kind of radio it was and what was the price, but he just responded the cost. I guess I'll be looking on eBay to try and save $100....
Edit..ah, but without the chart, no calculation..
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mram1500
Junior Member
No Jab -Just Fact
Posts: 67
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Post by mram1500 on Feb 20, 2019 3:09:35 GMT
And it's been so long I don't know if I still have the chart.
You might check with Bill to see if he would make it available.
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Post by Boomer on Feb 20, 2019 3:33:39 GMT
A field strength meter can be as simple as a diode across a meter, with a short antenna near the transmitter's antenna. The diode rectifies the RF signal and shows it on the meter, and you tune the transmitter for a peak reading. You can even use a cheap volt-ohm meter with a diode across the probes at the meter end, with one probe going to ground, and the other laying near the antenna.
Good for close-in strength readings and getting your transmitter peaked tuned.
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