'Hi! It's Fran. In the lab. Again. Hoping everyone is doing well as we get through, hopefully, the last stages of this current state of funk we have been calling 'stay home-stay safe,' especially the way it has been here in Philly where there have been alot of restrictions. Well one of the unfortunate by-products of this situation we're all in has been that churches have not been allowed to have congregations inside the church building for the time being so some churches have been turning to other methods of making their church services possible for anyone who wanted to attend, and that is lot-casting. Broadcasting via short-range radio to churchgoers in thier cars parked in the church parking lot. While this seems like a great idea but I am not happy to say that, not only are there quite a few pastors and church leaders who simply have been either ignoring the rules and laws of license-free broadcasting but these guys and gals all over YouTube publishing bad and misleading information on how anyone who wants to do license-free broadcasting can do it without any trouble from the feds. Well- he heh- I'm tellin' ya, don't listen to any of those guys because that's likely to lead you right into a heap of trouble if you get caught doing it the way they are suggesting. Many of the videos and tutorials you see on this subject are involving poorly-manufactured little transmitter rigs made overseas that have an output power that FAR exceeds what is legally allowed in many countries including the UK, Canada and here in the U.S. and in some states it's even a FELONY to operate one of those rigs without an FCC license. we're talkin' an output power of 1 watt. 5 watts. 15 or more watts. In addition to that those cheap little foreign-made transmitters put out a very dirty signal that tends to interfere with aircraft, marine, first responders and other, Federal communications, in addition to causing interference to other, licensed radio stations in your area. If you get busted using one of those crappy rigs you can be hit with a hefty fine, I think it's in the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars and in some extreme cases imprisonment. Unfortunately and as it stands right now thre are no laws against the sale and import of those nasty transmitters but that does not change the fact that in many countries they are still illegal to operate. The legal power level limit, at least here in the U.S. is 100 millowatts. That is, one tenth of a watt. I know it doesn't sound like much but, set up and calibrated properly, that puny little tenth of a watt can offer surprisingly good and efficent, legal coverage for your license-free radio station. That being said, the FCC DOES allow license-free, low-power broadcasting that, set up properly so as to give you best performance and 100% compliance under the FCC's Part-15 rules and regs, and your transmitter will give you plenty of range to cover your church's parking lot, and then some. It's simple. When considering a transmitter for license-free lot-casting for your church, chose one where tthe manufacturer or vendor can say the transmitter is either FCC certified or is specifically designed to be 100% compliant with U.S. FCC Part-15 regulations. Cover your lot efficiently with no worries of trouble from the men and women in uniform who's job it is to keep our airwaves safe. I have on the bench here a little rig a friend of mine had and was broadcasting with it for a few years and he decided to let me try it. This one is the SSTRAN AMT3000 and it is FCC certified for Part-15, legal and license-free operations. This rig, simple and easy setup with just a straight wire for a radiating antenna plus a good earth ground is known for great range of a mile of more, legally! There are other transmitters out there you can get for your lot-casting, or any other form of hobby broadcasting you might like to do, A top performer alot of really serious Part-15ers get is the Hamilton Rangemaster. Once again, FCC certified, and offers a range of 2 miles or better, legally! Range can greatly dependent on good Earth ground conductivity. A top FM performer is the Decade MS 100 or if you want to do stereo, the MS-100s and both of those models are FCC cetified. Those are just a few places to start if you really wanted to do this legally and yet have great range to give your little station some coverage. I've been considering this for quite some time now as a way to utilize the broadcast airwaves to promote FranTone product and to offer listeners just some nice, un-homogenized local radio that has been lacking for so long in the Metro Philly area. Just as a hobby but I'm a hobbyist but by the same token I follow the rules and with this information I am sharing with you I hope you choose to do so too. Another area seems too many hobby boradcasters and church lot-casters completely overlook is audio processing. Your transmitter needs audio that is appropriately shaped and prepared to efficiently fit the airwaves and in some contexts certain aspects of audio processing are actually a requirement of every radio station on the iar. We'll go over some particulars of essential audio processing a bit later but audio processing is absolutely essential for any size radio station. This is Fran. Be safe. Happy hobby broadcasting. Byyyyyyeeeeee!'