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Add an EventNew SF Pirate Radio Station could bring FCC to SF
Kumpo Beat -- African music Thursday nights hosted by Jean-Pierre Kubaka
Your Legal Rights -- The first lawyer talkshow to give legal advice for free
Philosophy Talk -- the only show about philosophy on the air anywhere
Mark Naftalin's Blues Power Hour -- need I say more?
AIDS Update -- the only regular AIDS information program
BBC Overnight -- the only Bay Area place to get 4 hours of live BBC programming
Folk Music & Beyond -- showcasing local folk artists each week for 20 years
Music From the Hearts of Space -- the only trance music on the radio!
Bluegrass signal -- weekly bluegrass music show!
Tangents -- Dore Stein's innovative world music program
Work With Marty Nemko -- the only program specifically for workers
Harry Shearer's Le Show
This American Life with Ira Glass -- award winning audio magazine
As It Happens -- the only Canadian news show airing in the Bay Area
Writer's Voice, Selected Shorts, Book Talk -- all about writing!
Your Call -- live and local daily call-in show
Thistle & Shamrock -- the only Irish music show in the Bay Area
Out in the Bay -- longest-running local GLBT radio show
This Way Out -- longest running national GLBT radio show
Up Front -- news about the Bay Area's ethnic communities
RADIO X WILL KILL ALL OF THIS!
Radio X will be broadcasting at 100 watts at 91.3. KALW is only running 1900 watts. It is the only FM allocation available to them and they can't increase power. If Radio X is allowed or encouraged to go on the air, it will kill off 90% of KALW's potential listeners. 91.3 is simply too close on the dial to 91.7. KALW is already getting hammered by a Jesuscaster on 91.9 in Santa Rosa which has effectively cut out its listenership in Marin.
I am a radio engineer by training. I know about these things. Radio X must be stopped. If you want a radio show, go approach KALW and make a proposal. That's how Kumpo Beat and all the other shows got on the air!
PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT RADIO X.
More information about KALW, visit: http://www.kalw.org
--David Kaye, sfdavidkaye [at] yahoo.com
If you'd like to help out, please write to Radio X and tell them that you support KALW and are proud of its community service to San Francisco, and remind them that if Radio X comes on the air at 91.3 (or anywhere within 3 channels of 91.7 -- that's between 90.9 and 92.5) it will KILL KALW's signal coverage.
Email: wsup [at] radioxsf.com
Hopefully Radio X will be curtious and not make a mess of the beautiful micro-radio community in San Francisco.
Stations like Pirate Cat Radio, Kult and West Add are great, and they do make sure not to step on each others toes and stati other stations for that matter.
what I'd like to see is community stations developing processes to resolve issues locally, in the community, rather than immediately resorting to the feds..
Has anyone just tried talking to Radio X members instead of bashing them?
Interference:
Radio X may slightly cause Interference with KALW. if they dont have proper filters in place.
KALW's Independence:
Ha ha ha.
The concers of other Pirate Radio Stations:
Even if Radio X's interference isn't completely blocking or interfering with KALW's signal it only takes one complaint from KALW to the FCC, to make broadcasting hell, not just for Radio X, but for the other stations in the area. KULT radios original broadcast next to the hospital cause FCC visits to not just them but West Add Radio as well, I dont know about other stations though.
What should Radio X do?
It seems that someone at KALW isnt too happy with Radio X going on the air. If I was Radio X, I would change my broadcast channel and station name.
- West Add Radio 93.7fm - Pirate Cat Radio 87.9fm - KULT Radio 89.9fm -
ps. has anyone heard about Pirate Cat Radio ripping off XM for several $$$$ ?
As long as KALW runs shit like that, we don't have to worry about 'protecting them' with interference which probably wont' happen anyway. If they do start bringing in the FCC then we have a radio station which wants all of san francisco to look as lilly white as pacific heights and russian hill.
Out of curiosity, I moved to 97.7 one night, to see what it might do to our strong local on 97.3 (around 78 dBu.) It only knocked out 97.3 within the apartment itself -- the minute I got out into the hall, my portable had no trouble. Again no audible interference in the car... and this time, no weird seeking behavior.
Later, I went to visit my parents in an area which has a signal on 97.5, at around 53 dBu (cars and good home stereos with matched antennas will get this, but with most Walkmen or kitchen radios... good luck!!!) With me transmitting on 97.9, this time at 90 watts out of a high-gain antenna, 97.5 was full-quieting in my car as close as 400' away; slightly staticky, but still predominant on the channel, as close as 150'; and not defeated completely until about 50'.
Though my equipment was quite rough and my methodology still rougher, it allowed me to come to some rough conclusions. The "critical point", where you hardly have to worry at all, is where the second-adjacent signal is better than 72-73 dBu at the location where you will be transmitting -- i.e., something between the first two examples. The point of "might be OK to risk it" probably lies somewhere around 60 dBu -- i.e., something between the last two examples. Exactly where it lies depends on your taste for danger, how much open area surrounds your transmitting location, how many people likely listen to the second-adjacent in your immediate vicinity, etc. -- my parents live on a fairly large semirural tract with no neighbors for over 600 feet, so that definitely helped in the third example. A hilly urban environment like San Francisco might present terrain blockage between the pirate antenna and the weak-signal areas of the second adjacent, which would help reduce the interference concern... or possibly a transmitting location in an apartment window, blocked by the rest of the building, which would allow the pirate to direct the great majority of its signal toward the second-adjacent signal's strong areas (i.e., where interference is less likely to happen.)
Being the geek I am, I'm going to check out the Radio-Locator coverage maps for this community signal. :D
Of course, none of this is meant to marginalize the concerns of KALW supporters. I completely understand, as KFAI, one of our community stations in Minneapolis, is getting similar "hammering" from Godcasters -- right ON its own frequency, out in the suburbs. (The offending station clears the FCC's spacing requirements by about 150 feet.) But also...
KFAI, with 125 watts at 446 feet, is on 90.3, and a mile or two away sits KMOJ, on 89.9, with 1000 watts at 79 feet... and there's no trouble with either of these stations, near the transmitters themselves or anywhere else in Minneapolis... despite KMOJ's being both eight times stronger than KFAI and at a weird, pirate-like low angle of incidence due to its low height. (On top of that, there's a 10-watt Godslator atop a downtown building just blocks from KFAI, on 90.7... so they're hemmed in by second-adjacents on BOTH sides, and still no problem. Nor does the public station on 91.1, which is 80 dBu or so in downtown Minneapolis, have any trouble with the 10-watter on 90.7.) I realize this comparison is open to the objection that each of these stations are located within the others' **90 dBu** contours (as opposed to what might be 73-75 dBu for KALW in parts of SFO)... as well as the objection that Minneapolis has rather flat terrain compared to SFO... but the terrain oddities can be used to defeat interference, as discussed in the last post... and hopefully it at least provides evidence for the possibility that this might be doable without interference.
One final additional note -- We formerly had another Godcaster in Minneapolis throwing 36 watts on 97.7 from a downtown building. Some 40 listeners of an extremely weak first-adjacent signal on 97.5, from distant Rochester -- 39 dBu!! -- complained, and the Godcaster went out to put filters on their receivers. This fixed the problem for all but four of the 97.5 listeners. Here, the signal of concern is much stronger AND second-adjacent rather than first, so the interference is really less likely... but even if it should happen, perhaps Radio X could do something similar, provide an e-mail address on the air or in its publicity, etc., to address the problem.
after numerous posts politely asking you to be reasonable and several responses from you that you didn't know radio x was us and that you were sorry, you continue to post your blanket condemnations of us, thinking we dont know whats going on. the fact that you are so upset with us even though we have not even broadcast a single second yet is further proof that you are not complaining about an actual breach, but are truly just trying to make our lives miserable for your ownn perverse delight. congratulations, its working.
here's just a sampling of the david kaye vedetta against a coupla folks with a small antenna and a dream:
groups.google.fr/group/ba....c18a7b2e57
perhaps you need to find a date david, or at least a less vindictive hobby. i find this whole thing very tiresome. as i sat in the 12 galaxies lastnite and had to answer the question "what did you do to piss off david?" repeatedly, i was embarrassed for us both.
since you have already succeeded in calling john higden in to do your dirty work, why not try laying off and letting this thing blow over?
I've explained to him and the Pirate Hunters he's sicked on us that we are a community minded bunch. We'd be the first ones to pull the transmitter should there be any interference. We're reasonable folks. We actually care about community radio. Novel eh?
We also explained to this bozo that we've spent a nice chunk of change to ensure that we have a properly working transmitter with all the bells, whistles and filters. In addition to having some brilliant Broadcast Engineers advising and helping us.
I'm at a loss. This is the microbroadcasting community I'm walking into?
I haven't even hit the on switch yet.
The news of my station, idiot that I am, came from a flyer for a benefit I'm throwing to help me kick this puppy off.
David Kaye has successfully crushed Radio X but not killed it. Me hearts still a beatin, pumpin with a renewed enthusiam. (anyone got a bandaid?)
Blank (ow)
What will happen is this: cheap radios will simply have trouble receiving the pirate station over its neighbor outside a couple of miles, as the stronger station will capture them. GOOD receivers will not be troubled in any way by second adjacency. I learned this when WSQT was temporarily on 93.5 in DC, second adjacent to a powerful rap station and first adjacent to a distant country station. The full power second adjacent signal could be heard even inside the transmitter house, so it was never jammed. It jammed us instead in cheap radios outside a mile or so. The faint first adjacent signal could be received over us starting a block away-but was enough to silence some receivers and jam us beginning at three miles or so.
The existing first adjacent station is the far more serious reception problem, as even good receivers will have trouble splitting the weaker signal from the stronger one(presumably the Jesus freaks). In addition, some receivers as mentioned seem to respond to two signals one chanel apart by going silent altogether(muting). So far I have not seen a receiver do this over second adjacency, as such a receiver would be useless in any urban area.
No, KALW is nothing like an independent broadcaster, being another pipeline for thoroughly commercial NPR (National Pentagon Radio, National Pharmaceutical Radio, National Propaganda Radio, whatever) as well as a typically entrenched station that has far too much funding and apparently little to no accounting for or access to programming by the general community it allegedly serves. Would anybody like to imagine what level of pressure by KALW general listenership it would take to budge one single program from the grid, nevermind whether it is directly offensive to that listenership? So much for the public access to local media or "communityh standards". If you want real accountability and access, don't waste your time with NPR venues, get on board with your local public access television station -- while there is one left. (By the way, why in the hell does the S.F. radio market need _two_ simultaneous feeds of NPR, let alone why supposedly independent KALW needs it at all? The redundancy serves nothing except station funding.)
It's true, the only FCC-legitimized _independent_ station in S.F. is KPOO. Granted, it's funding, programming and accountability seem, if only to the casual listener, rather mysterious, but they still sound like the real thing -- genuinely commercial free and in service to its local listenership. As such, it's one of the last (_the_ last?) of the class of radio stations that made of the "KRAB Nebula", progeny of the one of the country's first independent, non-commercial radio stations, KRAB-FM Seattle (this was when there were only two or three Pacifica stations... ). How they've managed to keep this sort of radio alive, I don't know, but I encourage the pirate broadcasters -- some of whom might co-operate with federal regulations if those regulations weren't designed to defeat community radio -- to do whatever they can to keep that spirit alive and kicking without _real_ -- not David Kaye's sort of _imagined_ -- interference.
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