UK planning to license ultra-local AM stations Although it doesn't seem like much, the 100 milliwatts allowed for unlicensed transmitters in the US and Canada is more than some countries permit. The UK requires all transmitters to be licensed, and previously did not allow any flea-powered transmitters on mediumwave. This is changing now, as the Radio Authority plans to issue licenses for LPAM stations serving hospitals, universities and other non-commercial establishments. A government press release said, "Hospital and student stations are currently restricted, in most parts of the country, to delivering their programmes via hard-wired headset systems or a form of AM transmission using induction loop transmitters. These methods of broadcasting involve the use of equipment that is expensive to install and maintain. Commenting on the new arrangement, Tony Stoller said, `By providing for a more cost-effective form of transmission, the Authority hopes that low-powered AM will give a new lease of life to a valued and respected sector of the radio industry.'"

FCC admits oppression In a letter dated 7 Apr 1998, sent to the operator of Radio Amor Poder y Gracia in Tampa, Dennis Williams of the FCC's Audio Services Division wrote the following confession: "Initially, we note that the Commission receives similar inquiries from persons wanting to operate a low power station nearly every day. Many of those who call or write cite the same reasons expressed in your STA request -- no interference, no complaints, proper maintenance, and community service. Consequently, your request is far from unique." Needless to say, the request for a Special Temporary Authorization was denied. But the contents of this paragraph are noteworthy. Once again the Commission has admitted that it receives hundreds or thousands of requests for some kind of local, low-power broadcasting service every year, and that it steadfastly refuses to create any such service. Well, at least they're honest about their oppressive tendencies! car radios getting worse A recent discussion in a usenet newsgroup dealt with the declining quality of mediumwave receivers furnished with automobiles. Bill Bowen wrote: "The AM sections of most OEM radios are crap. The only solution for that is an aftermarket radio. Beckers are good but not cheap." The message thread included tips from various authors on things you can do to improve AM reception in the car; you can get the thread by doing a power search at DejaNews; specify the rec.radio.shortwave newsgroup and the dates 18 through 20 Sept 1998.	unorthodox AM signals heard These have already been published all over the 'net, so I'm not spilling any beans here. from New England Radio Watch: "Now on the air, without a license: `WKNM' in Lowell at 1570 is being heard by several NERW readers with Portuguese-language programming on what's being described as a TIS-strength signal." DXers around the country are reporting activity on 1630. One station in the northeast appears to be the return of WKDW "The Claw", recognizable by its muddy audio. There seem to be a couple of rock music pirates on 1630 in other parts of the country. AM best for micros? In the recent flood of comments sent to the FCC regarding creation of a "micro broadcasting" service, Renard Communications suggested that the AM band would be the best place to establish such a service. Follow this link to read the full text. Product Detector Check out the $20 frequency counter at www.fix.net/~jparker/sml/ ... It sends its output to an earphone in the form of Morse code, and can provide 5 digits of resolution. It works on mediumwave and shortwave frequencies. There is another "Part 15" AM transmitter kit on the market, the Vectronics VEC-1290K. Looks interesting but I don't have any info on the signal quality (stability and audio response); if you've worked with one of these, let me know what you think of it. The lack of AM stereo receivers in the marketplace bothered Chris Cuff so much that he started making them by hand! To have a look, follow this link.
spam transmitter in California passes inspections For several months I've been trying to get details on rumors of a Part 15 AM station "out west somewhere" that has decent range and has passed FCC inspection. Here at last is some more information, although I must warn you that I'm on the other side of the continent and this data is all second-hand. The station is on 1570 kHz in Tustin, California. It has been inspected twice by Mr. Paul Oei of the FCC's Compliance and Information Bureau, Los Angeles. The most recent inspection occurred around the beginning of this year and was instigated by local broadcast engineers contacting the FCC and requesting an investigation. With a good car radio, you need to be within 100 to 200 yards of the transmitter to hear it clearly. The signal gradually disappears into the background noise as you drive farther away, becoming barely readable at 1/2 mile. Well-equipped radio hobbyists can hear it farther away. It runs a tape loop of advertising for a local business. The transmitter is located on top of a tall metal signpost or billboard support. It might be getting the benefit of some inductive coupling between its legal 3-meter-long antenna and the larger supporting structure. Or perhaps the ground side of the output jack is connected to the support structure and the latter is acting as if it were the lower half of a vertical dipole. (The Part 15 rules do not spell out any limits on the type of ground to be used; in theory, it can be anything from a copper rod hammered into the soil to a huge above-the-soil counterpoise designed specifically to interact with the 3-meter active element...) The FCC man gave the Tustin station a clean bill of health, declaring it legal under 47 CFR 15.219. He probably did not open up the transmitter to see if the RF amplifier section is really consuming 100 milliwatts or less; he assumed this to be the case because the station is using FCC Type Accepted equipment (manufactured by Ultra Sensors). I wonder if the station would have been inspected more closely if it had been broadcasting material that people found interesting, or if it had been operated by an individual or a non-profit group rather than a business. The FCC database of type acceptance (and other equipment authorization) records contains the following entries for Part 15 AM transmitter manufacturers: KNE393 (granted 5/3/93) Infotech Systems 6513 Churchill Way, Dallas, TX 75230 range: 0.53-1.62 MHz description: "advertising transmitter" DPD624TA100 (granted 1/24/96) Ultra Sensors, Inc. 24136 East Cedar Lake Drive, New Prague, MN 56071 range: 0.51-1.705 MHz description: "AM transmitter" DLB5LTT98 (granted 9/4/97) Realty Electronics 195 N. Main St., Fon du Lac, WI 54935 range: 0.53-1.7 MHz description: "real estate transmitter"
Status of AM Expanded Band The table below shows the commercial stations authorized to operate in the AM expanded band in the US. These stations all run 10,000 watts daytime and 1,000 watts night in C-QUAM stereo. The goal of the expanded band is to offer an improved AM service with less interference among stations, so there are fewer stations on each channel and they are spaced farther apart than in the 540-1600 kHz part of the AM band. It looks like the FCC intends to reserve 1610 for TIS (Travelers' Information Service) stations. We also note that most of the new AM radios with digital tuning will tune up to 1710 kHz, and the FCC may be planning to move some TIS stations to 1710 in the future. At the present time there is no licensed broadcasting activity of any kind on 1710.

1620
on the air	WPHG	Atmore	Alabama
on the air	KRIZ	Renton	Washington
authorized	KAHI	Auburn	California
authorized	KECN	Blackfoot	Idaho
authorized	WHLY	South Bend	Indiana
authorized	KENN	Farmington	New Mexico
authorized	KHRT	Minot	North Dakota
authorized	WKZQ	Myrtle Beach	South Carolina
authorized	WTAW	College Station	Texas
authorized	WRRA	Frederiksted	U.S. Virgin Islands
1630
authorized	KOQO	Clovis	California
authorized	WRDW	Augusta	Georgia
authorized	KCJJ	Iowa City	Iowa
authorized	KHVN	Fort Worth	Texas
authorized	KJJL	Fox Farm	Wyoming
1640
on the air	KDIA	Vallejo	California
on the air	KKJY	Lake Oswego	Oregon
on the air	WKSH	Sussex	Wisconsin
authorized	WSYD	Mount Airy	North Carolina
authorized	KCRC	Enid	Oklahoma
1650
on the air	KGXL	Costa Mesa	California
authorized	WAOK	Atlanta	Georgia
authorized	KCNZ	Cedar Falls	Iowa
1660
on the air	WQSN	Kalamazoo	Michigan
on the air	WBAH	Elizabeth	New Jersey
on the air	KXOL	Brigham City	Utah
authorized	KTFN	Merced	California
authorized	KQWB	West Fargo	North Dakota
authorized	WCHQ	Canovanos	Puerto Rico
authorized	KRZI	Waco	Texas
1670
on the air	WNML	Warner Robins	Georgia
on the air	WTDY	Madison	Wisconsin
authorized	KNRO	Redding	California
authorized	WTGM	Salisbury	Maryland
1680
authorized	KXEX	Fresno	California
authorized	WMHG	Muskegon	Michigan
authorized	WHWH	Princeton	New Jersey
1690
on the air	KQXI	Arvada	Colorado
on the air	WMDM	Lexington Park	Maryland
authorized	KRCX	Roseville	California
authorized	WBIT	Adel	Georgia
authorized	WDDD	Johnson City	Illinois
authorized	WGOD	Charlotte Amalie	Virgin Islands
1700
on the air	WCMQ	Miami Springs	Florida
on the air	KBGG	Des Moines	Iowa
authorized	WEUP	Huntsville	Alabama
authorized	WZNN	Rochester	New Hampshire
authorized	KAST	Astoria	Oregon
authorized	KBOR	Brownsville	Texas
authorized	KDSX	Sherman	Texas
authorized	WSVA	Harrisonburg	Virginia

This edition of Ionospheric Messenger was made possible by the people who sent me news tips and the URLs of relevant web pages. Please let me know when you discover any relevant data in print or on the net. If you want to contribute an article about your own AM activities (past, present or future) the audience would love to read what you have to say. May the Ascended Electric Beings of the Ionosphere watch over you and bring you good DX!

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