Blogs

Rant from Riverton: Why didn't REC change to a rainbow logo for Pride Month?

This is a difficult personal blog for me to write, but I do feel that it is worth an explanation.  Today’s REC is about diversity.  We even have the root word “diverse” in our current slogan “a leading advocate for a diverse dial.”  When you visit REC’s website or call up by phone, you hear that slogan.

Rant from Riverton: The Japanese are doing it right, but they've got the room to do it

Sony ICF-29 - (Photo: Sony)Lately, I have been seeing an article in the Japan Times that is spreading around the US broadcasting industry and hobby like wildfire.  Those who know about my connections with Japan have been sending me e-mails and Facebook private messages about it.   I am referring to the request by the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association (JBA) (Japan's NAB) to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) (Japan's FCC) to work towards abolishing commercial AM radio broadcasting in Japan through converting to a full FM arrangement by the year 2028.  

 

Some are saying that the end is near for AM broadcasting in the United States, especially with the moves by several European nations and now this move by the JBA to work towards their own solution to AM revitalization.  

Rant from Riverton: It's about ARRL's numbers.. and "Tyro"-mania

The §1.401 Inbox in the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System occasionally gets blessed with Petitions for Rulemaking regarding amateur radio.  Everything from license class restructuring to people upset because they lost the opportunity to get an extra class call sign is tn there.  Very few see the light of day, be assigned an RM number and get on the public notice for a 30 day comment period.   Two ham petitions re

Rant from Riverton: How come we don't have a "WHOIS" for DID numbers?

Anyone with a telephone (wireless, wired or otherwise) should be now accustomed to our modern culture where you are getting calls from scammers.  Many times, these are automatic dialers that will call you and play a message, usually in a synthesized voice.  These calls will sometimes claim to come from Social Security or from Internal Revenue Services.  They will threaten you with an arrest warrant or like the one that I got the other day, cancel my social security number.  

Rant from Riverton: Why we must embrace IP-based ham links as "real" amateur radio

A recent Facebook post on 100 Watts and a Wire triggered a debate on the claims that IP-based linked amateur radio systems like Echolink are not "real" amateur radio and that for it to be true radio, it must be a complete radio connection without the use of any terrestrial facilities such as wireline or IP.

Radio, historically has had used different forms of "non-radio" in order to connect people. For many years, many public safety providers have used wireline links to connect a dispatch console (control point) at a police or fire department to a hilltop 2-way radio site. Broadcast stations, have used a mix of radio and wireline methods of establishing studio to transmitter communications. The early national radio networks (i.e. NBC, CBS) were AT&T phone lines. Are these things not "radio"? 

Rant from Riverton: Is there a market for "otaku radio" terrestrially in the USA?

On the "I Love AM Radio" Facebook group, a member posted a poll about whether a format consisting of "anime soundtracks" and video game music would work on AM or FM radio.  For the uninitiated, anime music is from Japanese animation.

Rant from Riverton: So, who killed the radio star?

In response to Dick Taylor's blog "Automation Killed The Radio Star" and the subsequent discussion on The Broadcast Club on Facebook.

The narrow formatting of American radio is what killed the radio star. There are simply too many stations and formats. More group owners who see radio as nothing more than just a billboard with music to keep people entertained between the ads. 

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