To set up a station...

[Nom de Plume]

I have all my studio gear, now all I need is whatever else to put this baby on the air! Where do I start? What equipment, antennas, transmitters, links, compressors, etc do we need and how much is it going to cost us? How much power does it take? Thanks!

[andy walker]

firstly you will need a frequency and if you setting up in Dublin and i dont mean to sound bad there's none available

for equipment the likes of antennas, transmitters, links and compressors check out
www.nrgkitz.co.uk (http://www.nrgkitz.co.uk)
www.broadcastwarehouse.co.uk (http://www.broadcastwarehouse.co.uk)

you ask "how much is it going to cost us? How much power does it take"
it all depends if you plan to cover the city or just be localy based.
if you want to cover the city you will need a mountain site which will incur costs like rent ,getting a pole or mast erected ,antennas, a transmitter , and link equipment .
can cost around 3000 euro or more depending on what way you decide to go .
Next the studio, you will need a decent compressor ,stereo encoder , rds encoder (optional) link tx , pole erectecd for link antenna and all you studio equipment mixers, mics, cd players, md players and a pc ,optional but now a days a must.
again all this you could get for about 4000 euro ,but it all depends on what way you want to go .
hope i was of help , are you still thinking about setting up :)

[TheOneWhoKnows]

It all really depends on how much money you want to put into the station. Are you looking to get it up on a low budget?

If you are setting up in Dublin (for example) and want to cover the whole city you will need a mountain site. When you have a mountain site you can cover the city on very low power (40w's) on a good frequency, however, this is where you will have a problem. The FM band in Dublin is jam packed! Where do you plan to broadcast form?

Ta!

The One Who Knows :cool:

[NoelRock]

Technically speaking, what would be the bare minimum that I'd need to set up a radio station?

And how much would the expected cost be?

Just some thoughts...

[Mike]

Essentials
An aerial (if youre really cheap AND KNOW WHAT YOURE DOING you can build one)
A transmitter (ditto)
A mixer
A pair of CD players
A microphone

Highly desirable
A compressor
A proper mast (for the aerial)
SWR meter

It goes without saying youll also need cables an Electricity supply and a place to put it all

A small station could be set up for £400 (if you have a rent-free studio) but If you want citywide coverage youll need to spend a four or even five figure sum

[NoelRock]

Cheers Mike - and thanks.

Just another question for anyone who isn't mumbling "Effin' newbies" right now - what kind of coverage would you get with a 5, 10 or 20 Watt transmitter? I can't seem to find anything about it online.

[Mosfet]

5w,50w,500w,5000w,5000kw,BEWARE all R.F is black magic and a lot of luck"PLUG AND PRAY";)
Check out www.nrgkits.co.uk or www.veronica.co.uk,has some very basic power level concepts:D

[Michael Masterson]

In theory the range of a transmitted radio signal is infinite regardless of power used, basically it goes on and on forever until it encounters an obstruction. More power helps to penetrate any obstructions. Given this, when engineering and planning a station it is always better to consider the issues that limit the range.

Range is limited by:

a) How far the transmitting antenna can effectively see. If you stand where the antenna is mounted and look out with a pair of binoculars, wherever you can see it is possible to transmit to. This can sometimes be up to 20, 30 even 40 miles if you are looking out from a mountain top.
b) Other sources of interference or other stations operating on the same frequency. For example the antenna may be able to see 20 miles, but if another station is on the same frequency 20 miles away, it will block/interfere with the signal.

c) Transmission power. If the antenna can see 20 miles, but say 1 Watt ERP of power used, it's very
likely that about 1 mile of range will result. This is quite simply because there is not enough power to propagate the signal 20 miles. If 50 Watt ERP is used, it's very likely that 20 miles of range will be achieved. This is because 50 Watt ERP is ample power to propagate a strong signal 20 miles. If 1b Million Watts of power is used, it is very likely that signal will only propagate just over 20 miles. This because the range is limited as described in point a) above.

Assuming the antenna has a clear view, the frequency is clear and an average quality portable receiver is used, typical transmission power ver range figures are as follows:

Watts range in miles
ERP
1 1.5
2 2.1
4 3.0
8 4.2
16 6.0
32 8.6
64 12.0
128 17.0
256 24.0
512 34.0

If your goint to start a station remember always
try and be different and come up with new ideas
as a small station will probly not do so well
starting off and often your only reward will be lots of hard work and hasstle and a lot of dedication is needed theres going to lots more downs rather than ups.Know what your getting yourself into read loads and talk to people involved in radio and above all be carful to pick
a good frequency and make sure you cause no interference to others or your station will have a very short life indeed.

[NoelRock]

Thanks Mosfet - and Michael for the advise... but just one thought...

"and talk to people involved in radio"

Isn't that what I'm doing now :)?

[sub-site]

Michael, could you recommend some reading material ? I have searched and searched for actual books on this subject.

So far I`ve found the following

www.dojo.ie/active
www.transmittersrus.com/
http://glasnost.itcarlow.ie/~barryp/elmo/Comer/sec2_co_displ.pdf
www.csn.ul.ie/~francis/fyp_report/report.htm

.....aswell as picking up info. along the way from the message boards and going through "The Irish Era".

[Mike]

The question "how far can I get on x watts" is really a bit like asking how long is a piece of string.

Transmitter power is just one factor youve also to consider
1) height and type of aerial
2) terrain (height, hills, mountains, vallwys, trees, buildings)
3) The sensetivity of the reciever (most walkmans are hopeless in this regard, nowadays portable radios and even some mini systems are offten little better, modern car radios however are generally pretty good)
4) What you define as "coverage" (just about auidable to blasting in)

I have a veronica 5 watt with a loft mounted homemade j-pole aerial. In some directions I can be heard 15 miles away but in others I can bearly make one mile

[mattbrat24]

I have a sony walkman that can recieve fm104 and spin1038 from most areas around my house in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland. Most walkmans may not be so good, I may just be lucky...

[Mosfet]

As I said before R.F is black magic,its alive:p

[Mike]

mattbrat24 what is the model no of your walkman.

Walkmans that sensetive are rare (and sought after)

[mattbrat24]

Hi Mike,

It is an FM/AM wm-fx271 walkman

FM104 and spin1038 can not be picked up in stereo but in mono mostly clearly...

Matt :-)

[David FreedomTalk.tk]

Might be a Newbie Question, But what do you need to start a Pirate Radio station?

I know you need CD/record Players, CD's/Record's and someone to play them,

i just put them in because i had a feeling someone would say them just to be smart :)

It's not like i'm gona go out and start one i just would like to know what's needed

Thanks.

[Turiel]

I'm sorry, but did you not read this thread you've posted in?

The answer to your question is in post number 2 in this thread. Or are you looking for something else?

Not trying to be smart! Just can't see why you asked :)

[John Fleming]

David originally posted his question in a separate thread...it was later merged with this one...

[Turiel]

In that case I sincerly apologise :)

[Mike]

A good tip that I discovered is for the feeder (the cable that goes between the TX and aerial) use quality coax like UM213

RG58 is cheap crap only really suitable for CB frequencies and even then only in short lengths

Theres no point in using a good transmitter and aerial only to penny pinch on cables

[Flash 105 FM]

If you ask me, this is the best place on the web to find good second hand transmission gear. You know it has benn owned by genuine radio enthusiasts and not some pratt and all the equipment is located right here in Ireland.

Also about an earlier post. Mike is dead right. He gave me this same advice about a month back and he was spot on. The co-ax I use is of extremely low quality and means me losing almost half my tx power!! High Grade co -ax is worth the money, no doubt.

P.S. - Thanks for that Mike.