09/13/99 16:42:10 )

teswt

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09/13/99 18:17:47 )

Hi All,
A while back a few posted some questions about gear
(what was good and where to get it). Not to belabor
the point but maybe everyone could benefit by a group
info dump? Basically a search of the net will turn up
hundreds if not thousands of hits, but I figured that
I could paste a few sources here (who knows maybe we
could all add something and make a huge list of
sources, recommendations and tips) and at some point
put it on a web page somewhere? Anyway, here are a few
places with products I think (based on personal
experience) are good enough to recommend.

Gear I’ve used and would recommend:

Antenna -
Comet CFM-95-SL
It’s a very easy antenna to set up and has very good
characteristics. I use one and love it! Ask anybody,
it’s one of best the verticals out there.

SWR/Power meters-
Depending on what you are willing to spend you have
some options. Almost any SWR meter will work for
tuning your antenna to some degree - just get the
lowest reflected power reading. If you’re more
serious, I’d suggest either a used Bird 43 (with the
correct elements) or a DIAWA (with the proper
frequency range). If you’re into building your own
antennas, an MFJ antenna analyzer is a wonderful tool
which allows you to check your antenna without using
your transmitter - but they have some sensitivity
problems in strong signal areas (so if you live in a
city/major radio market save yourself the money and
possible confusion, just go for an SWR/Power meter).

Exciter (transmitter)-
Panaxis FMX
Veronica 1 watt PLL
I’ve used both of these and would certainly recommend
them to the broadcaster on a budget. Of the two I’d be
more partial to the Veronica.

A word on Modulation control-
This is probably one of the most important elements in
a station. Over modulation is the enemy and
counterproductive for several reasons: it causes
splatter and interference across the radio spectrum
hindering the reception of other broadcasts, it wastes
your stations power outside the pass band of your
listener’s receiver (the receiver can’t handle the
over deviation and your signal is clipped and
distorted) the result is a weaker usable signal into
the receiver and more noise on the distorted audio.
How to avoid making a mess and sounding messy: Read -
http://www.orban.com/orban/techforum/optimod/pages/opitair/index.html
In general-
Limiting is very important, if you can do only one
thing use a limiter. You will be able to have a
“louder” signal "without" over modulation and reduce
your chances of interfering with other stations.
Compression can help. If you can use compression too,
great! This will help your station have a more
consistent audio level even when your source material
is varied. Multiband compression will help your
station have a more consistent spectral balance
between songs. Bottom line, no station should be
without some sort of modulation control.

Products to consider:
Older “used” broadcast gear Orban, CRL, BE, CBS, RCA
etc. are all good choices.
If you can’t find used professional equipment DBX,
DOD, Alesis, ART, Berringer etc are worth
considering. Limiters with “peak stop/absolute
ceiling” are preferable.

A word on stereo generators (coders)-
Having a properly designed stereo generator is also
very important. A poor “SG” can make even the best
transmitter sound bad and cause your signal to be
received poorly. It can actually introduce undesirable
characteristics that degrade your signal. In general
my advice is to stay away from anything with a BA1404
IC in it. Try to find an SG with discrete component
design. I think Veronica and Broadcast Warehouse both
offer such stereo generators.

A word on amplifiers-
There are many units out there and they all very in
quality, but remember whatever you put in gets
amplified. No matter how good your amp is, if you have
a dirty transmitter you can expect serious problems
when you amplify it. Get the best transmitter and
amplifer you can get. Go for better quality rather
than more power. Use a low pass filter. If you’re
seeing higher SWR with an amp in line and low SWR
without it, this should be a red flag. Chances are you
have some harmonics (out of band radiation) causing
the “strange” increase in SWR. This is an undesirable
situation, to say the least. Find out what’s going on
and take the required steps to correct it ASAP. You
could be interfering with aircraft, police, fire,
ambulance or ham communications. If any of these
people have to track you down to get you to stop,
you’ll both be unhappy (besides it’s the right and
responsible thing to do).

A word on Mixers, CDs, Tapes and Phono-
One thing to remember when choosing gear is it’s
probably going to be exposed to some rather strong RF
fields. This can be a serious problem, especially with
Phono gear and also with Mixers (Mic inputs) and even
with some Tape and CD players. Try to avoid the very
inexpensive stuff, your probably better of getting
some older “pro” gear that’s used. Chances are it was
designed to a higher standard. If you can, bring a
hand held CB or two way radio along when shopping for
gear. While listen to the perspective device, hold the
CB radio near it and transmit. If you get pops buzzes
or other undesired operation you should probably avoid
that product.

Cables-
One word: shielding. Get the best you can.

Most of you already know everything I’ve stated, but
for the new guys it may be helpful and save them some
headaches. I hope it was helpful and not too preachy.
If you guys have differing opinions or additional
recommendations please pass them on.
-Seth KAOS

Some sources for gear-
General info sites:
A great article Recommended Reading for all would be
broadcasters -
http://www.orban.com/orban/techforum/optimod/pages/opitair/index.html
Call sign lookup and info -
http://www.fcc.gov/mmb/asd/fmq/html
Station Search Database -
http://www.airwaves.com/fccdb.html
Rodger Skinner’s site LPFM -
http://www.concentric.net/~Radiotv/

Non - Pro equipment:
Panaxis - http://www.panaxis.com/index.html
Veronica - http://www.legend.co.uk/~veronica/
Broadcast Warehouse -
http://www.broadcast-warehouse.com
Their kits seem well built and they have supplied some
fine products for my friends.
L.D.Brewer - http://www.ldbrewer.com/fmkit.html
I have no personal experience dealing with Mr. Brewer,
however the kits he sells are very nice (especially
the Veronica 1 watt PLL).


Pro “$$$” used equipment/gear:
Everything - Harris
http://www.broadcast.harris.com/usedeq/index.html
Everything -
http://www.amfmtv.com/scripts/buy_rent_lease/list.idc
Everything - http://www.halls.com/rebuilt.html
Everything -RF Specialties Group
http://www.rfspec.com/product.html
Everything - http://www.broadcast.net/equip.html




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09/13/99 18:26:21 )

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting some really useful info.

I've been piecing together my info from the various hundreds of mixed-quality websites out there and it's really hard to extract the useful stuff from the crap.

One thing, could you post approximate prices next to the gear? I'm especially interested in prices on the antenna and the SWR stuff.....


If I get some time today I'll put up a webpage on my site (http://wrybread.com) where we could add this info on the fly. By the way, have a look at my Burning Man 1999 pages at http://wrybread.com/burningman99.


For whatever it's worth (I'm relatively unknowledgable on this stuff and my signal didn't travel that far on the playa given my transmitter stats), here's my info dump:

I use a 1 watt mono pll transmitter going into a (theoretically) 20 watt amplifier. I bought it in kit form from free radio berekely (they're on the web, if you can't find them ask me). The kit was a total nightmare for me to put together, must have spent 30 hours hunched over the damn thing buzzed on solder fumes. And to tune it I have to flip dip switches and tune 3 pots using a tuning tool. Not much fun. But the people at Free Radio Berkeley have been absolutely stellar. Unbelievably nice people, unbelievably helpful. I think the kit cost about $200.

For an antenna I use a J-Pole, which is marginally tuned to my frequency, 88.3. It was about $50 (I bought the stuff two years ago so I'm a little fuzzy on price).

For an SWR meter I use some piece of crap that I got from FRB, seems to work at least somewhat. I massively covet a better SWR meter. (this one was $15).

I recently upgraded the cable running from my transmitter to the antenna and it greatly improved my signal strength. (the cable is about 25 feet, cost $15 in crimp-yer-own form).


As far as mics and all that, I completely ditched the concept of a DJ booth and I just put a few mics out in the open, right in front of the monitor speakers (no headphones), and I let anyone talk into them. It works great, there's almost never feedback.

This year for a mixer I use a Mackie, 1402. Love it, and it seems playa-proof (though sometimes it takes a little time to get the final verdict on that). ($350 used)

At Burning Man 1998 I just used the inputs from an old 4-track for a mixer, and it worked great too, though I was limited to just 2 tracks, yikes. ($100 used)


Hugh Mann
http://wrybread.com
"because you knead wrybread"

Burning Man 1999: http://wrybread.com/burningman99/


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09/13/99 18:27:42 )

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting some really useful info.

I've been piecing together my info from the various hundreds of mixed-quality websites out there and it's really hard to extract the useful stuff from the crap.

One thing, could you post approximate prices next to the gear? I'm especially interested in prices on the antenna and the SWR stuff.....


If I get some time today I'll put up a webpage on my site (http://wrybread.com) where we could add this info on the fly. By the way, have a look at my Burning Man 1999 pages at http://wrybread.com/burningman99.


For whatever it's worth (I'm relatively unknowledgable on this stuff and my signal didn't travel that far on the playa given my transmitter stats), here's my info dump:

I use a 1 watt mono pll transmitter going into a (theoretically) 20 watt amplifier. I bought it in kit form from free radio berekely (they're on the web, if you can't find them ask me). The kit was a total nightmare for me to put together, must have spent 30 hours hunched over the damn thing buzzed on solder fumes. And to tune it I have to flip dip switches and tune 3 pots using a tuning tool. Not much fun. But the people at Free Radio Berkeley have been absolutely stellar. Unbelievably nice people, unbelievably helpful. I think the kit cost about $200.

For an antenna I use a J-Pole, which is marginally tuned to my frequency, 88.3. It was about $50 (I bought the stuff two years ago so I'm a little fuzzy on price).

For an SWR meter I use some piece of crap that I got from FRB, seems to work at least somewhat. I massively covet a better SWR meter. (this one was $15).

I recently upgraded the cable running from my transmitter to the antenna and it greatly improved my signal strength. (the cable is about 25 feet, cost $15 in crimp-yer-own form).


As far as mics and all that, I completely ditched the concept of a DJ booth and I just put a few mics out in the open, right in front of the monitor speakers (no headphones), and I let anyone talk into them. It works great, there's almost never feedback.

This year for a mixer I use a Mackie, 1402. Love it, and it seems playa-proof (though sometimes it takes a little time to get the final verdict on that). ($350 used)

At Burning Man 1998 I just used the inputs from an old 4-track for a mixer, and it worked great too, though I was limited to just 2 tracks, yikes. ($100 used)


Hugh Mann
http://wrybread.com
"because you knead wrybread"

Burning Man 1999: http://wrybread.com/burningman99/


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09/22/02 15:52:56 )

moil mhj

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09/22/02 15:53:57 )

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09/22/02 15:55:22 )

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10/10/02 10:04:51 )

its good

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