\input defs Yo Hooligans, After reading RADIO IS MY BOMB I thought I'd drop you a note to¨ say that I appreciate what you're doing, and the fact that there¨ are some other technically-minded \circleA types around. Stab 'em¨ with their own knives I say. I just re-read THE FREE, I bought it at Bound Together Bookstore¨ here in San Francisco; they carry RADIO IS MY BOMB, but because¨ RADIO\dots is really for the English environment, I never bought¨ one, besides, radio is not on my (overly-long) do-list at the¨ moment\dots but someone in our hovel here brought a copy home¨ from somewhere, so I checked it out. In the section entitled ``The Rest Of the World'', you pretty¨ correctly summed it up here as it pertains to U.S. radio. I¨ thought I'd provide you with some updates and further facts on¨ U.S. radio. Some friends and I pursued actually getting a legal low-power¨ radio license; amongst us, we had more than enough technical¨ expertise, one of us was a Class 1 license holder (and chief­ engineer for a local commercial FM station), plus other talent¨ and resources were around. We ultimately gave up the project, but¨ we learned a lot, so I thought I'd write and tell you what we¨ found. Mainly this is about FM broadcast, 88 - 108MHz, I think¨ it's the same frequencies and technology\dots though we briefly¨ thought over AM broadcast, ie. ``medium wave'' to you, 550 - 1060¨ KHz. ANYWAYS -- here's the basic environment here at the moment. The¨ FM band consists of two halves -- 88MHz through 91.9MHz is ``non­ commercial'' and 92MHz up is deemed ``commercial''. (I am not¨ certain of the boundary but it's within 1 MHz of that.) Broadcast¨ licenses are in two basic categories: Class A and Class D; A is¨ full power, unlimited hours etc, and restricted to the commercial¨ segment; D is ``low power'' (to oversimplify: 1KW and under),¨ generally college and community radio. Only ``non-commercial''¨ can have Class D transmitters, and are restricted to the bottom¨ half of the band. If I am not mistaken, this scheme was laid out in the late 50's¨ early 60's to encourage the use of the ``new'' radio band, which¨ I think laid fallow for some time, to encourage relatively low­ cost experimentation. (I do remember getting a brand-new cheap FM¨ radio for my birthday when I was a kid, and the band was pretty¨ clear. 1968 or so?) Radio history 1960 - 1980 goes here -- I¨ don't have it. The situation ended up as this: in urban areas, there are no more¨ ``clear'' (ie. unoccupied, available) frequencies; there are many¨ in the many rural areas of the country. (Alas, it seems us types¨ are totally urban\dots but that's another story.) The large¨ commercial chains own the top end of the dial, period; stations¨ sell for millions and up. The bottom end of the dial is mainly¨ ``college radio'', attached to various universities, since it¨ costs real money to run even a ``low power'' station. They are¨ generally considered training grounds for radio jockeys and the¨ like who want to go on to ``real'' radio for careers and all that¨ crap. They tend to be better than commercial radio, but that's¨ not saying much. Some are OK though. Many are truly independent and serve their communities pretty¨ well. The Pacifica stations (KPFA, KPFB, and all its affiliates)¨ are pretty OK, though they tend towards ``liberal/leftyness'' but¨ they do actually fight the infrastructure on basic radio rights,¨ etc. For example: in San Francisco there's a station KPOO, started by¨ the guy who formed or helped form the Pacifica group, amongst¨ many others; damn I can't remember his name, and that is a crime¨ as he did wonderful stuff for radio in the U.S. A definite saint.¨ Anyways it is a community radio not beholden to any university¨ etc. It is local black community run and refuses to get coopted¨ by the white liberal/lefty types that always ask for coverage of¨ their events, etc. In the last ten years (or so) though the FCC (Federal¨ Communications Commission) changed things. Now, though the FCC is¨ the usual gov't bureaucracy, the FCC rules \& regs were laid out¨ pretty fairly, a long time ago; they actually did treat different¨ parties fairly (in that context). The problem is, big business¨ types have full time legal and political lobbying staffs to do¨ nothing but petition and harass the FCC for rules changes, pay¨ off politicians, get puppets appointed, etc and generally make a¨ mess. You may have heard of the trouble a Pacifica station in Los¨ Angeles got into for reading something not very scary (I don't¨ remember) on the air; well-funded right-wing christian¨ fundamentalists brought the FCC on their collective asses for in¨ and they came close to losing their license; the x-tians¨ constantly harass them by listening for every trivial breach¨ (swear word, etc) and getting their mindless minions to flood the¨ FCC with letters of complaint. It is effective. This process is¨ not uncommon. And this is what the big biz types have succeeded in doing: no¨ more Class D licenses will be issued, ever. (Means: you must¨ afford a 10KW transmitter!) Existing Class D are ``encouraged''¨ to upgrade (right). The non-commercial distinction no longer¨ exists; commercial, full power stations can exist in the low end¨ of the band, if such a frequency becomes available (either by¨ buying out an existing station or after loss of license (see¨ above)). If a new Class A station interferes with the clear¨ signal of an adjacent Class D station, the Class D station must¨ tolerate it or upgrade to Class A. (NOTE: the normal process¨ regarding interference is, to make a long story short, done at¨ site (trans \& antenna) design/installation time; the new station¨ must not generate interference.) These guys are obviously in it for the long haul\dots it will¨ take decades for this to pay off, but it will, as the Class D¨ stations wither away. Someone said, a radio license is like a¨ license to print money. LET'S DIGRESS Pirate Radio doesn't really apply here like it does there.¨ Totally different world, and like you say, there are lots of¨ stations, and here in the S.F. Bay Area, you can get shows and¨ events listed on at least some of them. I wouldn't want to live in England right now\dots I think you¨ know what I mean\dots (Clause 28 is enough for me\dots) though¨ one thing that always surprises me -- how non-violent the cops¨ are there, in general. Here, something as simple asking a pig a¨ question at the wrong time (say: when he tells you ``you can't¨ walk there'' you ask why) can get you beat to shit, thrown in¨ jail overnight, and no recourse. Fighting the cops in demos is¨ simply out of the question -- for routine demonstrations (``U.S.¨ Out Of El Salvador'', etc) they use the Tactical Squad -- the¨ same pigs that handle hostages, bombings, etc. Lots of undercover¨ cops, tear gas, roundups, clubbings, etc. On TV no less, though¨ they always show the usual one dude fighting back then say¨ something about ``rioters''. It is as bad as it sounds\dots But one resource is overlooked: cable TV. Any idiot with a video¨ tape can get it on a cable channel, or hell, start a new cable¨ channel if there's a slot free. People do do this, there's all¨ kinds of stuff on, really bad homemade to good quality low cost.¨ There are also low power UHF TV channels, zillions of them -- UHF¨ TV never went through the boom cycle they expected so there's¨ lots of slots available, though it ain't cheap, it's not¨ millions, you could probably do it for \$10 - 20K, if you were¨ ingenious and filled out the mountains of forms right. (which,¨ like you pointed out, must prove financial responsibility and be¨ some sort of ``real'' organization -- though that part is easy to¨ do also -- there's a thing called an ``unincorporated non-profit¨ association'' that is as vague as it sounds. Costs \$20!) TECHNICAL JUNK: And now I get to the point (I do seem to have rambled a¨ bit\dots): What got me to write was the note you made about the¨ ``Mini-TX Boom'' in Japan, and your comment on maybe we're doing¨ exactly what the mass-market state/commercial broadcasters do. There are similar low-power laws in the U.S., I'd be surprised if¨ there were not some in England too. I'll list them in detail¨ below. Probably they simply deem such things as beneath contempt;¨ with scum-sucking tiny playlist pabulum stations blaring out 20 -¨ 30 minutes of advertisements per hour, with a 40-song playlist on¨ rotation, with a 1,000,000+ listener base, they don't give a shit¨ about some assholes with 100mW and a 10 foot wire out the window.¨ And rightly so, from their point of view\dots The FCC allows the following unlicensed broadcasts in the two¨ bands as follows: 510 - 1600KHz: You're allowed very low power operation, measured¨ one of two ways: a field strength of (24000 / F(kHz)) microvolts,¨ at 30 meters (part 15 paragraph 111) or, more reasonably, with a¨ maximum final-stage input power 100 milliwatts, and a 3 meter¨ max. antenna length (part 15 paragraph 113). Both with the usual¨ out-of-band limits, etc. 88 - 108 MHz: you're allowed a ``wireless microphone'' with a¨ field strength of 50 microvolt/meter at 15 meter distance (part¨ 15 paragraph 162); antenna is otherwise unlimited. There is no¨ input-power clause. Which brings us to: ``Certification and Identification Required¨ for Home Built Devices'', part 15 paragraph 133. This governs all¨ homemade RF devices, defined as constructing five or less devices¨ for ``his own use'' (women don't do such things they're too busy¨ cooking and cleaning),and you are supposed to attach a signed¨ statement regarding testing etc onto the device, etc. Right. AND THAT'S ABOUT IT No response to this is necessary, I don't generally write long¨ tedious letters to total strangers but I thought that stuff like¨ what you are doing deserves response, input, info and¨ updates\dots The RADIO AMATEURS HANDBOOK, published by the Amateur Radio Relay¨ League (biggest U.S. ham club) is pretty good. You know, some of us here were thinking of a project: a book,¨ published in loose-leaf form, that would be a general technology¨ handbook, written in sections, for example: basic electricity;¨ tools; house wiring; simple physics; basic electronics; component¨ identification; tips and tricks; etc. in no-bullshit style and¨ language. Sold and upgraded in sections, standard size paper to¨ encourage reproduction, etc. It's definitely on the long-term¨ project list, but if you're interested\dots Well more than enough for now\dots I've included a gay punk zine¨ I do, HOMOCORE, plus my ``sales sheet'' for a system I wrote,¨ FidoNet is a completely private, completely decentralized¨ literally world wide computer network (no, I don't run it),¨ though of course there's assholes all over it. This is how I make¨ my money. I soak businesses, sell cheap to hobbyists, but I also¨ give it away. If you know of anyone that could use it, let me¨ know, I'll send them a copy. It sounds like a strange method, but¨ it works. Well enough for now. Thanks for writing that book. \bye