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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
