[cma-l] Community Radio on AM

[Ian Hickling]

To me the problem is very simple - the archaic rules that govern potential interference on VHF/FM services need to be revised.CR will not get - and doesn't need - its own Band II sector.There are 204 channels available virtually everywhere - there is plenty of room for everyone.Italy as one case alone has proved this.

Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 09:43:17 +0100
From: ravensound at pilgrimsound.co.uk
To: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio on AM


  
    
  
  
    From an AM perspective, the old steam
      radio has been there and done most of this - sharing channels,
      synchronised oscillators - jamming - offset carriers you name it,
      all to try to overcome the limitations of the spectrum.  If you
      have super expensive receivers it helps, the problem with that is
      we increasingly don't have that option.  At least with a ferrite
      rod antenna you could null out (even jamming) the unwanted
      station.  There is also the strategic need to limit competition -
      once again AM has been there: it was strongly argued for years
      that there was no room on the medium wave band for commercial
      radio!

      

      I don't believe you will get anywhere with this until the
      community has it's own slice of the cake in band 2 (as do the BBC
      and ILR in principle).  It has long been accepted that low power
      radio should have a separate allocation.  As I understand it,
      there are now ways to reduce the 2.2 MHz national network slot,
      doing this with all five would release two chunks for CR.  Surely
      there is an argument that if the nationals are not going to move
      to DAB yet, they are squatters?

      

      Regards,  Tony Bailey

      

      On 25/09/14 08:23, Ian Hickling wrote:

    
    
      
      I don't agree that ".....proper computerised tools
        are needed to do it properly" Glyn - sorry.
        Computerised tools have got us into the farce that we are
          currently in.
        Certainly we need proper planning - but after that we need
          practical onsite trials as you say with measurement and
          analysis.
        This however is costly in terms of the equipment and
          manpower which Ofcom does not have available and is not going
          to get funded by HMG.
        So Ofcom could do it but won't.

          Lots of us can do it - but Ofcom doesn't accept that
          concept.

          

          
            From: tlr at gairloch.co.uk

            To: info at a-bc.co.uk

            Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 18:11:01 +0100

            CC: cma-l at mailman.commedia.org.uk

            Subject: Re: [cma-l] Community Radio on AM

            

            
            I understand the 'complex
                scientific' side of it, but I still don't honestly see
                how the map helps give any insight other than in the
                crudest measure of overall density of stations. 
             
            It shows the general
                density of stations and is a nice tool for browsing
                stations and frequencies, but it gives no visual
                representation whatever of frequencies or powers, so I
                don't honestly see how it gives even the vaguest insight
                into the interference landscape for a station.
             
            It could maybe
                take useful steps in that direction with some
                development. For example if one could select a frequency
                or transmitter of interest and set a filter to show only
                stations of that frequency, or of that frequency plus
                adjacent and/or image channels it would start to give an
                idea of potential for interference. Combined with
                perhaps a crude free space range indication using
                semi-transparent overlays based on on powers and
                direction templayes it might beging to give a rough feel
                for the interference landscape for a given station. But
                as it stands I don't see how it does that in the
                slightest.
             
            Not meaning to be picky,
                honest - I like it for what it is, and it does give a
                feel for the geographic distribution of CR stations, but
                it doesn't seem to me to offer any useful insight or
                even vague feel for the interference landscape.
            

                Alex
            

          
        
      
    
    

  


_______________________________________________

Reply - cma-l at commedia.org.uk

The cma-l mailing list is a members' service provided by the Community Media Association - http://www.commedia.org.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/community_media
http://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation
Canstream Internet Radio & Video: http://www.canstream.co.uk/
_______________________________________________

Mailing list guidelines: http://www.commedia.org.uk/about/cma-email-lists/email-list-guidelines/
_______________________________________________

To unsubscribe or manage your CMA-L mailing list subscription please visit:
http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/cma-l 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.commedia.org.uk/pipermail/cma-l/attachments/20140925/ab7fd405/attachment.html>