Saturday, July 31, 2010

Internet at the TX

Robin is thinking about getting wireless 4G out at the TX for Internet access. Clear is offering "business-class" service for $75/month, which is fairly cheap, all things considered. This would allow us to have IP-based remote telemetry of the equipment that supports it (I don't think our main transmitter (BE FM30B) does, but I bet our HD equipment will). It will also allow us to stream RDS (the text that shows up on some radios with song information and the like) from the studio. On the down side, that's more equipment that needs to be examined and protected from a security standpoint. But I can help with that. :)

We would also need to get an external antenna hooked up and run outside the transmitter building, as that building eats microwaves. Perhaps all the RF equipment causes interference as well, but if that were the case, I would expect that interference to be just as great immediately outside the building. Then again, the GPS antenna is outside the building and it works just fine (when it hasn't been struck by lightning, that is).

So, Dear Readers, have any of you in the radio business (are there any of you in the radio business?) done this? If you have, what have your experiences been?

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