Govt daft idea of the day (turning off FM radio)

[bigpaul]

I never really understood who I was supposed to be communicating with?

[Lightspeed]

Sorry,, this thread diverted away from posed question:

So, anyone (RS?) care to comment on the possible future application of private local FM Broadcasting?

[CharlesHarris]

Low power local FM stations are a perfect outlet for emergency public safety information, bulletins and general information. I would envision not continuous operation, but scheduled daily broadcasts several times daily, of short duration, perhaps 15 minutes each at mealtimes, with news and general information. Maybe a late evening entertainment reading a chapter from Charles Dickens...

[River Song]

<2p>

re Post SHTF Comms

Quite right – I was involved in experiments here.

Lets recapitulate.

Firstly legalities – Totally illegal except if you have a HAM Licence on certain wavenlengths. (Bands). In a post SHTF situation, I personally wouldn’t give a monkeys and if you are doing it on behalf of the community then you are providing a measure of resilience (a good thing). I think tptb will have far more important things to do that chase radio pirates. (Unless we have a Marxist takeover in which case there are other considerations).

Morse Code (CW) – there was a thread recently originally started by NR and highjacked by LS and myself ☺ regarding low power transmitters. As and when I receive mine we’ll see how they work. As far as my very limited knowledge goes, CW works on lower power and greater distances than Voice.

Voice (FM) about a year ago methinks I invested £48,76 in this little 5w-7w FM Transmitter.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CZE-1W-7W-FM-S...XQlgtS-T0u

Distance covered with a decent aerial highup would be around 5 miles or so.

A cheaper alternative with slightly lower power would be for £28.67 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-W-Digital-PL...XQuTNTO3te

Having said that I would be happy to have anyones views on which 20W transmitter would be useful. The ones on the bay range from a few hundred quid to a few tens.

Data (Server). I was far more interested in getting a community server up and running containing a preppers library and elemental message switch. I got the server up and running on a small 5v battery using Wifi to which you could connect with your smartphone or pad. Sadly even with a decent aerial I couldn’t get any useful distance out of it. I did consider (theoretically) networking a couple of servers over a few miles and connecting them using some form of protocol (AX.25??) over a pair of UC5R’s – maybe even a repeater with cascading data but things got in the way (or in the words of the late Harold Macmillan (“Events dear boy – events).

All this seems dreadfully technical but being able to have some kind of broadcast comms that is independent from “The man” would IMHO be useful in a post STF Situation.

</2p>

[NorthernRaider]

I shall just sit here with a pencil up each nostril, wearing underpants on my head and say " Wibble" and pretend I understand the technical stuff you guys are expressing in such an eloquent manner

[Steve]

Exploring what information would be useful for a remote community FM station:

Security bulletins - who saw a couple of strangers near their barn or a bunch of caravans in a nearby field.

Heads Up - TPTB have managed to send a truckload of fresh water, or perhaps a coal lorry has visited the village. Mr Steve has some pork for barter, looking for cider.

Barn Raising - or well digging, harvesting, ditch digging - anything that needs a bit of labour.

Social occasions - people like to socialise, when times are hard communities can become stronger.

[River Song]

Steve

Well done for those suggestions. Thinking about "programming' rather than the hardware side of thing, your ideas are a great start.

I would add perhaps some 'how to's', eg. water, medical etc
maybe a bedtime story for the children and just to annoy the heathens
amongst us, an epilogue :-)

[NorthernRaider]

Where wild food crops like berries are ripe, where wild fishing is good, Want / need requests,

[Steve]

Thinking about the services offered over a community FM station made me realise that a lot of these things would have been offered by local churches - and that churches have high steeples and ample, usually quite defendable, meeting space. So, perhaps St Marys is the logical home for the transmitter.

[River Song]

steve

my local vicar wears a paracord cross !!