Complete Ignoramus Newbie to Radio but RF Power Designer

[technogeek58]

Hi

I'd like to introduce myself a bit and ask some really stupid questions. This may be the wrong forum, but my primary interest is in hardware and I've never operated a two-way radio in my life and know absolutely nothing about the radio jargon and programming these popular "old cop" radios and all that. I don't even know what "trunking" means! It's bad.

Is there a primer for real dilberts on all this stuff? I've been designing electronic products for 35 years, the last five being in high power RF generators on ISM bands (40.68MHz and pseudo ISM 81.36MHz) for driving CO2 lasers. I did Synrad's first 100W optical output unit (1200W RF at 40.68MHz) with the RF gen inside the laser housing and became a near-expert on using high-voltage RF MOSFETs. They now make a 200 and 400 watt unit with the same basic design (96VDC operation).

I relate all that to relay that I'm not ignorant of electronics at all. I'm just a complete dip-head regarding radio. I'm interested in getting smarter, primarily for my own private communications and also for some "rover" type robotics I want to play with with 3D remote viewing and remote control from a fairly far distance (a couple of miles will do).

Probably there isn't any legal way to use this much real-time bandwidth (robot transmits two video 30FPS signals and audio as well as GPS data). I've thought about "pirate broadcasting" on unused UHF TV channels up around 800-900 MHz. Given that no one around my area uses UHF TV except a few repeaters relaying 2-13 on a few UHF channels, I don't imagine it would cause anyone any grief, but I'm not too sure about that. seems there's a lot of radios that operate in that realm and I don't want to cause any problems for anyone.

So...tell me what an fool I am! Tell me a better idea! Tell me what to watch out for. Anyone?

[xmo]

There is a short history of two-way radio evolution, particularly regarding frequency bands, in Motorola's interference technical appendix:

http://www.repeater-builder.com/pdf/Mot ... pendix.pdf


Also, Decibel has an introduction to two-way RF hardware:

http://www.decibelproducts.com/collater ... ations.pdf

[Tom in D.C.]

Quote:

"I've thought about "pirate broadcasting" on unused UHF TV channels up around 800-900 MHz. Given that no one around my area uses UHF TV except a few repeaters relaying 2-13 on a few UHF channels, I don't imagine it would cause anyone any grief, but I'm not too sure about that. seems there's a lot of radios that operate in that realm and I don't want to cause any problems for anyone."

You're free to think about pirate broadcasting but please don't do anything like that. The FCC takes a dim view of unlicensed operation on all except a very few radio frequencies in the USA. As far as it not causing anyone any grief, you can't know that to be a fact, and odds are that you would, indeed, cause problems for someone and a lot of embarrassment for yourself. It's too easy to do things legally, so please plan on doing things right.

[kmoose]

Quote:

"I've thought about "pirate broadcasting" on unused UHF TV channels up around 800-900 MHz. Given that no one around my area uses UHF TV except a few repeaters relaying 2-13 on a few UHF channels, I don't imagine it would cause anyone any grief, but I'm not too sure about that. seems there's a lot of radios that operate in that realm and I don't want to cause any problems for anyone."

You're free to think about pirate broadcasting but please don't do anything like that. The FCC takes a dim view of unlicensed operation on all except a very few radio frequencies in the USA. As far as it not causing anyone any grief, you can't know that to be a fact, and odds are that you would, indeed, cause problems for someone and a lot of embarrassment for yourself. It's too easy to do things legally, so please plan on doing things right.

I agree. Furthermore, your pals to the north (NAS Whidbey Island) use a lot of UHF. Probably not in the broadcast band, but since when has the military ever cared about who they interfere with? *reads again...."up around 800 or 900Mhz". Should be safe from most of the airborne stuff. But, if the VPU sqaudron is still up there, they have all kinds of surveillance equipment (like for eavesdropping on cell phones) that you might interfere with, even at low power levels. And they are pretty serious about that equipment. I would imagine that you would be very distressed, if they found that you were interfering with it. I would call the Seattle FCC office, and ask them to help you do it legally.

[Mike B]

You should look into getting an amateur radio license.
http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html

The above ARRL web site link attempts to present a glitzy picture of amateur radio and barely mentions the experimentation aspect of the license (very few people build their own equipment nowadays). An amateur radio license allows you to legally build and operate your own transmitters, even from scratch. You can also re-farm commercial equipment by moving it to amateur frequencies or purchase new radio equipment. Generally speaking, the maximum power limit is 1500 watts carrier. There are several bands with television frequency allocations in their band plan, but they are shared and must be used on a non-interfering basis. You also have to transmit your FCC assigned call sign in the video signals, data frequencies and voice frequencies. Some of the WY-FI wireless frequencies are in the amateur radio spectrum. If you can digitize your TV, data and voice, you will have a ready made frequency to use (power levels / coverage range might be a problem to avoid interference).

You have the technical background to pass the licensing test, you just need to learn the regulations and other non-technical test materials. The Technician class license would probably be all you need.