We are a non-profit organization that provides free services for low power radio applicants. 

If you are getting this, it means that you are a low power applicant who was placed on  "Appendix B" by the Federal Communications Commission. That means you applied for a frequency that would have been good under the original FCC low power rules, but your frequency was taken away by the dastardly act of Congress sponsored by the incumbent monopolists at National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio.  However, you should know that the reports of your demise are premature. There are a few possibilities that may allow you to still go on the air.

This morning the FCC made a public announcement that you and all other groups in your same situation would have an opportunity to file a curative amendment. Really. You finaly have the opportunity to “cure” your application. Read on to see if there is actually something that will work for you now that the opportunity to amend is at hand. Now is your chance, it will not come again!

You can read the announcement at www.fcc.gov/

 Basically what it says is

1) The  location you originally selected was rendered ineligible by Congress for a low power FM on the frequency that you chose. The abstruse reasoning for this is on the back of this flyer, called  “Adjacents, Co-channels and Frequencies- Oh My!, ”  which you can read if you want your brain to do a few somersaults.  It is often possible to move your transmitter site to another location and be re-qualified: maybe a few hundred feet, maybe a few miles. While this option is not open to some applicants, we have seen  in a number of cases that applicants do have good options to  change their application to meet the new rules. Sometimes, if you are really lucky, you might not even have to move- you just need to switch frequencies. We are happy to do a simple, free evaluation of this for you.

 If this option works, you will need to secure the new location and be prepared to file an amendment to your original application during a filing window sometime in the coming months.

If you need help figuring this out, contact us right away- it will take time to get all your ducks in order for this window. Remember, you do not have to move the site of your studio! You can leave that right where you originally planned it, if you want. You only need to move the transmitter and the antenna. The transmitter is no larger than a case of beer, and the antenna can be even less obtrusive than your average tv reception aerial, so you could even choose a new site on top of a friends house. It does not need to be a commercial location. You will need to plan for the additional expense of a “studio transmitter link,” which will carry your sound from the studio to the new transmitter site. At Prometheus, we are currently researching and developing several inexpensive studio transmitter link options. We believe you will be able to do this without too much hassle or expense- we believe that we are very close to building a studio transmitter link using unlicensed wireless ethernet that can cost well under $800, if you are crafty. You can see more about this at http://www.prometheusradio.org/studio_transmitter_link.shtml and http://www.prometheusradio.org/skunk.shtml.

2) The US Congress ordered the FCC to do another study to see whether the frequency you chose really would cause interference, like the NAB said it would. This study will probably be done in a year or two. We are confident that if the study is done fairly, it will vindicate low power FM. After all, the FCC’s engineers are the ones who came up with the rules that allowed you a frequency in the first place! Then we will need to mobilize to encourage the FCC and Congress to reinstate your application and re-open the opportunity that was originally offered in 2000.

3) Finally, some groups are  challenging the legality of the action Congress took in upcoming court cases.  If you are interested in this effort, we can direct you to those organizations.

Adjacents, Co-channels and Frequencies- Oh My!

The FM band is set up in the United States so that there are a hundred channels, starting at 88.1 and ending at 107.9. They are allocated on odd decimals: it goes 88.1, 88.3, 88.5, 88.7, etc. So there is no such thing for example, as 89.4. Lets use the example of 89.1. The FCC uses the poetically titled "Minimum Distance Spacing Methodology” for allocating FM radio licenses. If there is a 6000 watt station on 89.1 (referred to as co-channel), you cannot set up a low power FM station within 67 kilometers of an existing station. If you want to set up a lpfm on 89.3 or 88.9 (known as the first adjacent channels, because they are the next channel in either direction), you cannot put a LPFM closer than 56 kilometers. If you want to put a lpfm on 89.5 or 88.7, you can not be closer than 29 kilometers. These were the original fcc rules for LPFM. Then Congress forced the FCC to add "third adjacent protection," meaning that you could not put a LPFM on either 89.7 or 88.5 closer than 29 km to an existing 89.1. Pretty dreary. There are even  a few more technical details than that- IF protection, and so on. Making matters worse, those distances are for the smallest powered incumbent stations: Class A  with 6000 Watts. The distances are even greater for higher power stations. For a class C (100,000 Watts) the co-channel minimum distance is 130 km, first adjacent is 120 km, the second adjacent distance is 93 km, and the new third adjacent distance is also 93 km away.

So why might it work for you to move your transmitter site?

Perhaps you were disqualified by a class C station that was on a third adjacent channel 92.1 kilometers to the northeast- a station you probably never even heard, and a station that only a hallucinating congressman could imagine you would interfere with.  If you simply move to your cousins’ garage, 1 kilometer to the southwest, your application will be resuscitated!

So, we’re writing to  tell you: don’t give up in disgust yet. Feel free to contact us to help you evaluate your options. All of our services are free, and part of Prometheus’  main mission is to make sure your local group gets its rightful sliver of the airwaves.

More info is available at www.prometheusradio.org, or call any time at 215-727-9620