Item — HN Reader

A soapbox of mine here in the UK is that since BBC and commercial AM radio is more or less dead with the remaining stations set to close over the next few years, Ofcom should open up the band to low-power broadcasting hobbyists. These already exist illegitimately and have done for decades, you can pick up plenty from the Netherlands and a few domestic ones as well on a sporadic schedule.

It would be a nice thing to do from several angles I think and would help drive interest in radio as a technology in general; as well as building transmitters and aerial systems, there's things like setting up an audio processing chain to get the best possible modulation and being a disc jockey which will always have a bit of a buzz from being on the 'real' radio. If valves and vintage equipment are involved it would be an interesting form of technology history preservation and 'living history', and there's also an environmental angle where old analogue radio receivers could be prevented from becoming e-waste.

There could be a minimal licencing regime to demonstrate the individual is not a complete numpty and a fee to PRS for music rights along the lines of how streaming works. Maximum power could be kept low especially at night to avoid interfering with countries in Europe where AM radio is still an active platform, and I don't think there'd need to be a lot of enforcement with respect to content since you'd only realistically be broadcasting to other anoraks. Additionally there's already precedent for non-profit stations where the medium of AM itself plays a role, for example former pirate Radio Caroline which uses it to keep its historic radio ship in operation.

3 comments

Just yesterday, I was talking with a colleague in the UK, who's selling a serious-sounding amateur radio tower.

Whilst waiting for regulatory change, besides amateur radio station, are there other fun RF things one could do with such a tower's height?

Stick a meshtastic node at the top of the tower and be the envy of every meshtastic user!

I think you are looking for a Restricted Service License : https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/restricted-r...

I think lots of communities running localised AM stations could be super cool.

> There could be a minimal licencing regime to demonstrate the individual is not a complete numpty [..]

I wouldn't bother and it just adds more resistance.

> [..] and a fee to PRS for music rights along the lines of how streaming works.

I think the quality is so low and the audience so few that it wouldn't matter.

> Maximum power could be kept low especially at night to avoid interfering with countries in Europe where AM radio is still an active platform, [..]

Yeah, not sure where the sweet zone would be though.

> [..] and I don't think there'd need to be a lot of enforcement with respect to content since you'd only realistically be broadcasting to other anoraks.

That would be the point, just low-power decentralised communities. Only real reason to get involved is if the power goes too high or band use is not respectful to other users.

> I think lots of communities running localised AM stations could be super cool.

I agree. My US thoughts on the likelihood of (and potential outcome of) opening AM to the public - they all focus on content.

US AM content is mostly religious, conservative, sportsball and ethnic-usually-Latino. Those are the opposing interests to opening AM. To counter opposition, I'd open the upper half of the AM band to the public. To ease friction, I'd lift any regulatory fees and offer subsidies to offset costs.

As for content on the newly open bands, I could see at least 2 of the current AM interests firehosing cash to saturate the newly open bands and markets (which might unwind over the long term).

Where is the energy coming from? The power source towers are connected? Already our electric bills are super expensive. How can we run localized AM Stations with high cost of maintenance?

It depends how powerful, but running a 1kW station could be feasible for a home owner. Also I imagine they would generally have operating times which would greatly reduce operational overheads.

True and a community station might have community content and funding. Buying airtime is as old as broadcasting.

It could also power down for a bit. I'm old enough to remember commercial TV going off-air overnight.

That's a good point about the regulation given the low quality, I suppose if it was a problem they'd already have gone after public SDRs capturing the broadcast bands.

It doesn't sound like the sort of thing Ofcom would go for as I suspect it'd be seen as making unnecessary work for them, but you never know. Someone there clearly likes Radio Caroline (despite Ofcom's predecessors having fought to close it for decades in its pirate days) because they got awarded a 1 kW and later 4 kW power limit when AM community stations are usually much lower, so there might be sympathy towards the idea of more community AM generally. It would be a difficult thing to lobby for politically I think because it's such a niche interest, but it'd be an easy thing for them to do and there's not much else that part of the spectrum can be used for easily.

The reason for licensing is similar to the reason for licensing ham radio: you get a slightly higher level of clue about not creating huge amounts of accidental interference, and a point of contact to yell at if they do. and a little safety education....

The ham radio licensing process is not onerous.

I went through it (admittedly many years ago), but ham licensing wouldn't really do anything for safe radio operation. I learned the real stuff from two very experienced operators.

It would probably be easiest to regulate the transmitters than the people using them.

Me too, but at least there's some stuff in there (for extra) about RF safety. Not a lot, but enough that someone with an extra class license should know that they need to go do some calculations about the safe distance from their antenna based upon radiated power, etc., and hopefully that's enough to get them to actually do it. IIRC there was a question or two in the pool about RF burns.

Not much in there that would stop you from electrocuting yourself, though, I agree.

Licensing the transmitters is the FCC's other standard approach and would probably work except for radiated power safety and antenna issues -- which can be pretty big. You could easily create significant interference or hazard from a botched antenna or connection. (But also which you don't learn enough from just passing the exam.)

Electrocution I think is an easier risk to manage than the RF side, it's less intuitive and you'll be burned but not necessarily understand why. Ham is better than nothing, but I wouldn't feel personally comfortable operating a 1kW+ AM rig.

It seems like it needs more thought, but I still like the idea of de-centralised community AM transmitters operating.