[00:00.000 --> 00:03.200]  FM radio has a lot of importance to me.
[00:04.160 --> 00:11.360]  The group that's putting this talk on, the Prometheus Radio Project, I was involved with them since the late 90s.
[00:11.440 --> 00:14.160]  There was a private radio station in Philadelphia called Radio Mutiny.
[00:14.500 --> 00:29.360]  And the whole purpose of that was to, as a form of social protest, to tell the FCC and Congress that there should be a mechanism by which communities should be able to have their own low-power radio station, because it's a...
[00:29.360 --> 00:31.600]  Radio is a real bonding medium.
[00:31.780 --> 00:33.220]  It's magical and powerful.
[00:33.840 --> 00:37.680]  And there was just no way to do that without huge amounts of money.
[00:38.660 --> 00:47.900]  And so the Prometheus Radio Project really was in the forefront of making that happen through unauthorized means.
[00:48.180 --> 00:54.800]  And then after five visits from the FCC, the last, the final one involving the chief of enforcement from the FCC with an armed posse of U.S.
[00:54.900 --> 00:56.640]  Marshals came and shut down the station.
[00:56.840 --> 00:58.700]  But then that made us ever stronger.
[00:58.700 --> 01:03.760]  And we started this collective, the Prometheus Radio Project.
[01:04.000 --> 01:08.400]  And they've been extremely active in building community radio stations around the country.
[01:08.520 --> 01:14.420]  But even more importantly, getting legislation through Congress to make it possible to do that.
[01:14.560 --> 01:22.020]  And there's a new opportunity now, it's a window of opportunity for people to start radio stations and get licenses through the FCC.
[01:22.020 --> 01:29.460]  And these folks have developed some really useful tools, software and web tool to facilitate that.
[01:29.600 --> 01:33.860]  So I want to introduce Anna Martina, who's from Mexico.
[01:34.080 --> 01:36.480]  She's been involved with community radio for probably over a decade.
[01:36.920 --> 01:40.220]  She came up here from Mexico City about five years to work with Prometheus.
[01:40.480 --> 01:45.160]  And Maggie Avner, who's been involved with community radio projects since she was five years old.
[01:45.480 --> 01:48.640]  And has been working with Prometheus for probably six or seven years.
[01:48.940 --> 01:50.960]  And they're very inspiring people.
[01:51.060 --> 01:52.940]  They're gonna be doing a workshop for the A little after the talk.
[01:53.540 --> 01:56.060]  And you can build your own FM radio transmitter downstairs.
[01:56.580 --> 01:58.420]  So, I won't delay any more.
[01:58.580 --> 01:59.580]  These folks have a great talk.
[02:00.260 --> 02:00.740]  Enjoy.
[02:09.550 --> 02:10.030]  Hello.
[02:10.170 --> 02:10.550]  Good morning.
[02:11.750 --> 02:17.910]  Well, as Bernie was saying, Prometheus Radio Project have been working promoting community radios.
[02:18.810 --> 02:24.090]  And we're going to talk a little bit about the work that we do in Prometheus, the workshops and trainings.
[02:24.390 --> 02:27.850]  And we will talk a little bit about the window, the low-power FM window.
[02:27.850 --> 02:29.390]  That we're expecting.
[02:30.390 --> 02:34.750]  And we will then show the tools that we develop to support applicants.
[02:37.050 --> 02:41.970]  So, in Prometheus, we're not just trying to support applicants right now.
[02:42.090 --> 02:43.570]  But we have a constant training.
[02:43.690 --> 02:48.530]  We attend different conferences where we're trying to explain to people how FM works.
[02:48.810 --> 02:52.530]  And this is kind of similar to what we're going to be doing today.
[02:52.710 --> 02:54.970]  We're going to be building one of those small transmitters.
[02:54.970 --> 02:59.910]  So, we provide support to already existing stations.
[03:00.350 --> 03:06.950]  And sometimes when we go to this kind of conference, we try just to show people how this complex technology...
[03:06.950 --> 03:09.430]  And it's just something that you can do.
[03:09.650 --> 03:14.850]  And a lot of the people also that have been involved with Prometheus have been supporting radio stations.
[03:14.850 --> 03:17.190]  Not just in the states, but in other countries.
[03:18.990 --> 03:28.730]  And we do a lot of workshops that are also to explain people and show mainly promoting open-source free software technologies.
[03:30.090 --> 03:35.470]  And we are doing these trainings online too.
[03:35.470 --> 03:40.550]  And we do also band racings where one of the most important things.
[03:40.850 --> 03:45.430]  When one of the groups are getting a license, we go to that town.
[03:45.590 --> 03:52.790]  We try to put together a whole team of people in that town and from other places to actually build a radio station.
[03:53.010 --> 03:54.630]  That's one of the main things that we do.
[03:54.630 --> 03:59.810]  And so far, I think that we build 12 radio stations and one that was full power FM.
[04:00.810 --> 04:07.570]  So, with this new window, we're expecting that hundreds of radio stations, low power FM radio stations are going to be opening.
[04:07.950 --> 04:11.690]  So, we are kind of like preparing a lot of...
[04:12.530 --> 04:14.450]  Just a lot of things that we have to do.
[04:14.690 --> 04:22.530]  First, like help the people to go through the process and applying because it's a little bit complicated and slow with all the FCC legislations.
[04:22.530 --> 04:23.550]  And we have to wait.
[04:23.770 --> 04:25.370]  We still are waiting for the rules.
[04:25.590 --> 04:28.070]  So, it's a lot of different steps that we have to do.
[04:28.510 --> 04:40.830]  But eventually, when we have rules and then we have the window, we're expecting that a lot of the groups that we're going to be working with are mainly groups that are really close working with social justice.
[05:02.270 --> 05:10.810]  So, for the process for the window, in order to apply for a radio station, one of the things that first you need to have is you need to find an ability for a radio station.
[05:19.090 --> 05:23.690]  So, for the first step, we develop a tool that we're going to be explaining a little bit.
[05:24.490 --> 05:29.370]  So, it's a tool that will help applicants to find an available frequency in their town.
[05:29.830 --> 05:35.650]  So, you need to have a specific location where you're going to be placing the transmitter.
[05:35.650 --> 05:41.970]  And from there, it's going to be the antenna and then that's the area around there that's going to be covering your radio station.
[05:42.710 --> 05:50.950]  So, one of the rules is also that the frequency that you have is not causing interference with some other already existing station.
[05:52.330 --> 06:02.190]  So, if that's the case, then the rules of FCC protect these radio stations, these frequencies, and then you're probably going to need to have an engineering study.
[06:02.450 --> 06:12.890]  So, the software that we're going to be presenting today is going to be providing information to applicants whether they have to get one of these studies.
[06:12.890 --> 06:19.050]  And if not, then it will give the information for them to just take the information and to fill the form.
[06:19.330 --> 06:21.330]  And this is a little bit like more paperwork.
[06:21.630 --> 06:27.210]  But the software, it has the intention to make this process a little bit more easier for people to understand.
[06:31.090 --> 06:31.490]  So...
[06:32.190 --> 06:33.370]  I think we lost the slide.
[06:33.490 --> 06:34.830]  Do you want me to talk about the CRA?
[06:35.070 --> 06:35.350]  Oh, yeah.
[06:37.010 --> 06:41.690]  So, how many of you were here for the talk that we did about Prometheus two years ago?
[06:42.410 --> 06:42.970]  Okay.
[06:45.070 --> 06:56.310]  So, in the last talk, we gave some background about the Low Power FM radio service, which is a very specific class of radio stations.
[06:56.310 --> 07:02.130]  And it's the class that's most suited to community radio, at least by small community organizations.
[07:02.130 --> 07:11.090]  So, starting another type of radio station might cost anywhere from $100,000 to a couple million dollars.
[07:11.630 --> 07:15.230]  Starting a Low Power FM station can cost about $10,000.
[07:15.790 --> 07:22.810]  So, Prometheus has been fighting ever since it came around for more opportunities for Low Power FM stations.
[07:23.190 --> 07:32.030]  And, in particular, after the FCC started allowing this class of radio station, Congress passed a law that really strictly limited it.
[07:33.110 --> 07:35.650]  by reducing the number of available channels.
[07:36.030 --> 07:43.510]  So, Prometheus and a bunch of our allies spent a good 10 years trying to convince Congress to reverse this law.
[07:44.590 --> 07:52.630]  And when we left off at the Prometheus talk two years ago, this law had passed through the House in Congress and it was stuck in the Senate.
[07:52.630 --> 07:55.610]  And that was July.
[07:56.380 --> 07:59.650]  And it stayed stuck for all through the fall.
[07:59.830 --> 08:02.030]  And finally, things started moving in December.
[08:02.250 --> 08:04.350]  And we seem to have lost a slide here.
[08:04.490 --> 08:11.950]  But one of the culminating events was a flash mob circus that we held in Washington, D.C.
[08:11.950 --> 08:26.550]  So, one of the biggest opponents of what was called the Local Community Radio Act was the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents a lot of the big broadcasters that, as it turns out, tend to not want small community radio stations.
[08:27.750 --> 08:33.410]  And they were doing everything that they could to keep this bill from passing.
[08:33.670 --> 08:38.490]  And so, we had been using the slogan, stop making community radio jump through hoops.
[08:38.690 --> 08:48.910]  So, we had maybe 30 people show up at the National Association of Broadcasters headquarters with hula hoops and had a big hula hoop festival.
[08:48.910 --> 08:52.750]  And within days, the law had passed through the Senate.
[08:53.070 --> 08:56.230]  In January, it got signed by the President.
[08:56.490 --> 08:57.670]  And now it's a law.
[08:57.950 --> 08:59.370]  So, that's why...
[09:05.070 --> 09:06.790]  That's why we're where we are now.
[09:06.960 --> 09:17.120]  And we've been able to shift from spending most of our time basically fighting with Congress to spending most of our time preparing community groups to apply for radio licenses.
[09:18.750 --> 09:19.310]  Ready?
[09:21.330 --> 09:27.190]  I'm going to pass around also some sign-up sheets if people want to put their information.
[09:27.880 --> 09:30.930]  I know there is not going to be a lot of available channels.
[09:31.120 --> 09:35.520]  Maybe not here in New York because it's already... the dial is really crowded.
[09:36.580 --> 09:43.070]  But, if you know somebody that might need information or something, please just fill the information in.
[09:46.830 --> 09:52.830]  So, we have a lot of people that every day is calling us and asking us, what's going on?
[09:53.450 --> 09:54.290]  What's happening?
[09:54.520 --> 09:58.460]  Like, I sign up and I send my information and is this the application?
[09:58.710 --> 10:01.640]  And we're still like, oh, well, we still don't have rules.
[10:01.640 --> 10:06.840]  And we're respecting rules last year.
[10:06.960 --> 10:09.980]  And we're expecting the rules that were going to come this early spring.
[10:10.380 --> 10:12.670]  And they keep pushing and pushing back.
[10:12.960 --> 10:16.190]  And it's a little bit frustrating because there is a lot of people.
[10:16.260 --> 10:21.400]  And we have been doing a lot of outreach work to let people know that the opportunity is going to be here.
[10:21.400 --> 10:25.120]  But it's a little bit frustrating having to tell people, hold on.
[10:25.430 --> 10:25.760]  You know?
[10:25.950 --> 10:26.760]  It's going to happen.
[10:26.880 --> 10:27.430]  It's going to happen.
[10:27.520 --> 10:28.580]  We're going to have radio stations.
[10:29.290 --> 10:32.520]  But this is also giving us the time to be a little bit more prepared.
[10:32.900 --> 10:39.950]  And we are developing tools that will also let us provide more support and advice for applicants.
[10:40.080 --> 10:44.360]  Because we're like maybe seven people working at Prometheus.
[10:45.290 --> 10:50.640]  And a lot of us, some of us are doing work that's more related with policy.
[10:51.070 --> 10:52.810]  And other, it's like more technical.
[10:53.170 --> 10:54.580]  And other people are doing help desk.
[10:55.050 --> 10:58.540]  So, we're just trying to think in a way that we can provide more support.
[10:58.760 --> 11:00.580]  And so, we developed a tool.
[11:00.860 --> 11:01.820]  It's a website.
[11:02.220 --> 11:03.540]  It's called Radio Spark.
[11:03.790 --> 11:11.240]  And the intention is to have some kind of a social network that can have, that has also forums.
[11:11.440 --> 11:13.300]  So, people can go there and post questions.
[11:13.300 --> 11:17.790]  And they can also be making connections with other applicants.
[11:18.580 --> 11:25.320]  And it's just a way for, like a social network, but other than Facebook and other than Crabgrass.
[11:25.480 --> 11:28.420]  Because really, Crabgrass wasn't really going to work for us.
[11:29.200 --> 11:30.880]  So, we developed Radio Spark.
[11:31.120 --> 11:33.480]  So, I'm just going to show really fast.
[11:34.540 --> 11:37.740]  Radio Spark is just basically a forum to support applicants.
[11:38.440 --> 11:39.960]  Can I go to the end?
[11:43.510 --> 11:44.030]  Okay.
[11:46.370 --> 11:48.360]  So, basically, you just have to go there.
[11:48.540 --> 11:49.880]  And this is not just for applicants.
[11:50.040 --> 11:52.860]  It's also for people that already have radio stations.
[11:53.100 --> 11:55.530]  And also for all the people that are engineers.
[11:55.720 --> 11:57.560]  So, people that can provide also support.
[11:57.720 --> 12:00.040]  So, this is basically an invitation for all of you.
[12:00.040 --> 12:04.820]  If you think that you can help or support applicants in one or other way.
[12:05.300 --> 12:09.030]  One way can be, you know, like, oh, I have this equipment that I'm not using.
[12:09.220 --> 12:10.220]  You know, it's probably a mixer.
[12:10.440 --> 12:14.840]  And it's probably something that some applicant or some radio station in the future is going to need.
[12:14.840 --> 12:19.220]  So, if you have resources, the only thing that you have to do is create an account.
[12:19.600 --> 12:26.000]  And then you can go to resources and you can say, like, oh, I live in this town.
[12:26.700 --> 12:27.440]  I don't know.
[12:27.580 --> 12:30.270]  I know this person that has this equipment.
[12:30.270 --> 12:35.410]  You know, they probably have an antenna or something that can be useful for some other people.
[12:35.770 --> 12:41.100]  And you can just go there, you know, and just post, you know, I'm this person and I have these resources.
[12:41.100 --> 12:42.790]  And that will be super, super helpful.
[12:42.960 --> 12:47.790]  Because there is, seriously, there's like hundreds of people that are trying to get radio stations.
[12:48.040 --> 12:50.920]  And one of the main problems is always money.
[12:51.420 --> 12:57.500]  So, money and also, if you know engineers also, we're trying to recruit more engineers.
[12:57.500 --> 13:05.040]  They have experience in filling applications for LPFM or for radio FM.
[13:06.210 --> 13:09.030]  And that's another thing that is really important.
[13:09.170 --> 13:16.440]  Because engineering studies cost from 500 up to 2,000, depending on how complex is that.
[13:16.800 --> 13:23.840]  So, we're trying to find people that is willing to, you know, like maybe do a low cost study or something.
[13:23.840 --> 13:26.580]  Or people that have the expertise for this.
[13:26.840 --> 13:31.030]  Because we're expecting that it's going to be at some point 1,000 people applying.
[13:31.380 --> 13:35.440]  And it's a little bit tricky when you're talking about engineering studies.
[13:35.480 --> 13:40.530]  Because one engineer cannot be presenting a waiver representing another group.
[13:40.560 --> 13:41.910]  So, we have limited people.
[13:42.000 --> 13:46.460]  Maybe a list of like 25 engineers that have experience doing this kind of studies.
[13:47.020 --> 13:49.040]  So, we're just trying to recruit more people.
[13:49.620 --> 13:55.120]  So, RadioSpark is this kind of tool where you can go and help other people that want to start radio stations.
[13:55.380 --> 14:01.920]  If you are a person that wants to start radio stations, you can just go and create a profile as an applicant.
[14:02.440 --> 14:06.240]  And then other people will be able to see your profile.
[14:06.240 --> 14:14.670]  And if you have any questions, you can go to the forum and you can there kind of like share and answer questions.
[14:16.080 --> 14:19.540]  And another tool that we're going to be showing is ArtFree.
[14:20.030 --> 14:26.700]  ArtFree is a tool to find an available channel to see if it's an available channel in your community.
[14:26.700 --> 14:33.270]  And we have a community here also where we have discussions.
[14:33.720 --> 14:37.150]  And you can go there and you can just create a theme.
[14:37.410 --> 14:42.220]  And then that's where we are providing the support for ArtFree.
[14:42.940 --> 14:47.500]  So, we're just trying to push applicants to use this tool.
[14:47.800 --> 14:57.440]  And instead of us eight people in the office trying to answer all these questions, we're pretending to just trying to put this tool there.
[14:57.720 --> 15:00.680]  So that way, you know, it's not just us providing support.
[15:00.840 --> 15:05.530]  But it's a whole community of people that have been working and doing independent media for a long time.
[15:05.650 --> 15:07.240]  They can offer their expertise here.
[15:10.380 --> 15:17.270]  So, it has a lot of different resources that you can explore.
[15:17.420 --> 15:20.040]  But I'm not going to go and show all of this right now.
[15:20.040 --> 15:24.340]  Because we want to use a little bit more of time to show the tool that Maggie is going to present.
[15:24.530 --> 15:26.040]  That she has been working in this tool.
[15:27.140 --> 15:28.720]  So, I don't know if you want.
[15:29.480 --> 15:29.920]  Okay.
[15:31.500 --> 15:37.720]  I want to talk a little bit about the motivation for this other tool we have, which is called ArtFree.
[15:41.200 --> 15:48.170]  So, if you've never looked at the FCC rules for allocating radio stations, you should probably be grateful.
[15:48.170 --> 15:51.270]  It turns out this is a really complicated problem.
[15:51.600 --> 16:01.320]  So, aside from the bureaucratic part of this problem, you're trying to figure out how to fit as many stations on the air as possible without having them interfere with each other.
[16:01.460 --> 16:08.700]  So, you need to know their latitude and longitude and their elevation because that impacts how far the signal goes.
[16:09.300 --> 16:12.150]  You also need to know what channel they're on.
[16:12.500 --> 16:17.480]  And the database of other stations is constantly changing.
[16:17.740 --> 16:22.000]  So, really, you have latitude, longitude, height, frequency, and time.
[16:22.000 --> 16:25.080]  So, it's like a five-dimensional problem that you're trying to optimize.
[16:25.630 --> 16:27.940]  And then you throw in bureaucracy on top of that.
[16:27.940 --> 16:30.270]  And it's a little bit of a mess.
[16:30.540 --> 16:36.100]  So, the rules for low-power FM stations have...
[16:36.100 --> 16:40.790]  Well, they will hopefully soon have basically two tiers.
[16:41.060 --> 16:47.980]  And the first tier is the rules about just how far away you can be from another station.
[16:47.980 --> 17:08.680]  So, if you are a low-power station on one channel, and there's, let's say, a full-power station two channels over, there will be a particular distance that you have to keep from that station that depends on what part of the country the two stations are in,
[17:08.860 --> 17:11.220]  what class the other station is.
[17:11.220 --> 17:17.840]  So, there's, like, class A, class B, class C stations, how long they've been on air in some cases.
[17:17.840 --> 17:24.030]  So, some older stations are grandfathered, and a couple of other things.
[17:24.030 --> 17:27.560]  And the rules are different for what's called each adjacency.
[17:27.840 --> 17:33.400]  So, there's one set of distances for someone who's on the same channel as you.
[17:33.490 --> 17:38.920]  There's another set for the first adjacent channel, just one channel over, and another set for the second adjacent channel.
[17:40.210 --> 17:42.580]  So, if you meet all of those rules, you're good.
[17:43.920 --> 17:50.790]  If you don't meet those rules on your channel or a first adjacent channel, you're pretty much out of luck.
[17:50.940 --> 17:58.540]  So, there might be something else on a different channel or in a nearby area, but you cannot apply for that channel in that location.
[17:59.420 --> 18:08.160]  There's also a big gray area, which is if you're only short of the distances that are required on a second adjacent channel.
[18:08.160 --> 18:11.990]  So, in that case, there's some room for the FCC to make waivers.
[18:12.530 --> 18:18.210]  And you might be able to get a waiver if you can show that you won't actually interfere with the station that's close by.
[18:18.560 --> 18:25.490]  And you can show that primarily based on terrain and also based on the actual power that somebody is operating at.
[18:26.060 --> 18:34.040]  So, you may have like a class D station that's not actually... or class C station that's not actually using the maximum power for class C.
[18:34.230 --> 18:37.580]  So, when you just consider the class, it looks like you're too close.
[18:37.710 --> 18:40.710]  But when you consider their actual power, you're not too close.
[18:41.060 --> 18:46.990]  So, the old way of checking all of these rules was to do it by hand.
[18:46.990 --> 18:49.060]  So, you would get a big list of radio stations.
[18:49.270 --> 18:50.970]  You'd find all the stations nearby.
[18:51.160 --> 18:53.290]  You would take a map and you would take a ruler and measure.
[18:54.190 --> 18:56.080]  Thankfully, we have computers now.
[18:56.080 --> 18:57.920]  So, you don't have to do that.
[18:59.060 --> 19:03.100]  But the available software options for doing this are pretty limited.
[19:03.560 --> 19:05.860]  So, there are some commercial options.
[19:06.120 --> 19:11.660]  And those work reasonably well if you're an engineer and you have some experience with them.
[19:11.790 --> 19:13.530]  But they're also really expensive.
[19:14.750 --> 19:17.160]  They're generally on the order of $10,000.
[19:17.400 --> 19:21.800]  Which is about what most low power stations spend just to get on the air.
[19:22.300 --> 19:23.800]  For everything all together.
[19:24.100 --> 19:26.660]  Like all of their equipment and space.
[19:28.670 --> 19:30.580]  There are also some free tools.
[19:31.010 --> 19:33.580]  But the free tools are pretty limited in what they can do.
[19:33.860 --> 19:36.470]  So, the FCC has a channel search tool.
[19:36.790 --> 19:41.560]  And there's an organization called REC Networks that also has a channel search.
[19:42.470 --> 19:45.800]  But they only do the first pass.
[19:45.990 --> 19:47.400]  So, they'll check the distances.
[19:47.400 --> 19:49.440]  But they won't check the terrain for you.
[19:52.130 --> 19:57.290]  So, our goal when we created R Free was basically to make something better.
[19:57.540 --> 20:02.040]  So, we wanted a tool that could do the distance stuff and the terrain stuff.
[20:02.600 --> 20:05.270]  And we wanted to have multiple versions.
[20:05.270 --> 20:14.100]  So, there was a basic version that some group that's trying to apply and doesn't have a lot of engineering experience could use.
[20:14.320 --> 20:21.640]  And the basic version, you can even see up here, has a lot of helpful stuff like text telling you what to do.
[20:21.640 --> 20:25.580]  And it only gives you like the minimum level of information that you need.
[20:26.060 --> 20:41.770]  So, if you fall into that, what we call the green category, where you meet all of the distance rules, then this software will eventually give you everything that you need to get to the point where you're ready to apply.
[20:41.770 --> 20:49.100]  So, it'll walk you through figuring out exactly what location to put on your application, what to fill out in different fields.
[20:49.860 --> 21:06.180]  If you're in the yellow category, which is the category for if you might be able to get a waiver, it gets you to the point where you have all the information that you would need to give to an engineer, so that they can take you forward from there.
[21:07.340 --> 21:19.750]  If you're in the red category where there's nothing available for you, it will either help you look for other stuff nearby or give you suggestions about alternatives to FM radio.
[21:20.080 --> 21:27.270]  So, maybe you're just not going to be able to do it, but you could get some good information about web streaming or podcasting.
[21:29.420 --> 21:32.530]  On top of that, we're also working on an engineer version.
[21:32.530 --> 21:38.820]  And the goal of the engineer version is to have everything an engineer would need to write a waiver for you.
[21:39.750 --> 21:41.380]  And to automate the process.
[21:41.600 --> 21:50.880]  So, with the older software, you can figure out all the things you need for an application, but you have to do a lot of the groundwork yourself.
[21:51.140 --> 21:55.960]  So, we want to have something where you put in the basic info and it spits out an exhibit for an application.
[21:58.700 --> 22:02.580]  Another goal that we had was to have this all be free and open-source.
[22:03.040 --> 22:10.180]  So, the reason that we exist is to help people basically take control of their own media.
[22:10.800 --> 22:14.140]  And radio is kind of a complicated thing to start with.
[22:14.600 --> 22:18.680]  It's not as bad as it sometimes looks, but it takes people a while to get the hang of it.
[22:18.680 --> 22:29.000]  And it's really important to us that somebody feels like they understand the technology that they're using well enough that they can own that technology and not have to rely on somebody else.
[22:30.580 --> 22:38.880]  So, it seems to make a lot of sense to also have tools to use along the way that you can have some control over.
[22:38.880 --> 22:50.400]  So, telling all of the people who we were telling to start their own radio station that they should use an expensive proprietary tool just wasn't really making sense.
[22:50.820 --> 22:57.900]  So, what we ended up with was something that's a web-based tool.
[22:58.930 --> 23:04.940]  It's based on CakePHP, which is a web application framework, kind of like Ruby on Rails.
[23:06.020 --> 23:12.660]  It also has some Fortran, some C, some C++, some MySQL as these things happen.
[23:12.840 --> 23:16.040]  So, it draws on code from a lot of different sources.
[23:16.040 --> 23:17.880]  It takes some of the FCC's code.
[23:18.840 --> 23:21.720]  It takes inspiration from REC networks.
[23:22.480 --> 23:28.420]  It also has some code from an engineer named Al Davis in New York who's been working on this for a while himself.
[23:30.620 --> 23:34.380]  And there are a couple of advantages of having this be a web-based tool.
[23:34.380 --> 23:39.560]  So, it means that we can share login information with RadioSpark, the other tool that you just saw.
[23:39.860 --> 23:45.710]  So, somebody can talk to another person and say, hey, I did a search.
[23:45.800 --> 23:46.710]  Go look at my search.
[23:46.800 --> 23:51.840]  And the other person can log in to RadioSpark and see our free searches that they've done, sort of.
[23:53.240 --> 24:02.580]  It also means we can have a shared database so that when the FCC updates their data every couple of days, we don't have to tell a hundred users to all do their own database updates.
[24:03.840 --> 24:07.920]  The basic version is in a beta release right now.
[24:08.060 --> 24:10.460]  So, we do have people using it.
[24:10.640 --> 24:12.160]  We're still working out some bugs.
[24:12.340 --> 24:16.160]  And the engineering version is still in the works.
[24:16.820 --> 24:21.960]  So, I'm going to give a little bit of a guided tour through RFRI.
[24:24.940 --> 24:26.480]  This is a login page.
[24:26.640 --> 24:27.620]  It has some warnings.
[24:30.080 --> 24:35.060]  If you're already logged into RadioSpark, it should log you in automatically.
[24:46.680 --> 24:47.160]  OK.
[24:47.460 --> 24:47.700]  Cool.
[24:48.080 --> 24:52.120]  So, this is a list of the searches that Ana has already done.
[24:52.340 --> 24:57.860]  So, when you do a search for a frequency and a location, it gets saved and you can come back to it later.
[24:58.920 --> 25:01.360]  I'm going to do a new location right now.
[25:03.040 --> 25:05.820]  This is what you would see originally if it was your first login.
[25:05.820 --> 25:12.420]  So, I wanted to try a channel search right here in New York City.
[25:13.220 --> 25:19.660]  It turns out the search is really slow when you do it in a place that has this many channels or this many stations on the air already.
[25:19.900 --> 25:22.820]  So, I'm going to do one in Philadelphia instead.
[25:23.200 --> 25:25.380]  It's still a little slow, but it's not so bad.
[25:26.460 --> 25:34.040]  So, the address I'm putting in is the church that Prometheus used to have our offices in.
[25:34.040 --> 25:36.560]  It's one of the tallest buildings in the neighborhood.
[25:36.860 --> 25:39.820]  So, it's actually a pretty good place for a radio tower.
[25:42.420 --> 25:47.880]  For some reason, Google Maps sometimes takes you to Arizona when you do your first search.
[25:48.160 --> 25:50.400]  We don't have any control over that.
[25:54.620 --> 25:55.620]  Yeah, thanks.
[25:56.020 --> 25:56.820]  That'll help.
[25:57.580 --> 26:04.260]  It does sometimes take you to the wrong place even if you do put in all the right info.
[26:04.520 --> 26:05.400]  This looks good.
[26:05.880 --> 26:07.460]  So, this is Philadelphia.
[26:08.720 --> 26:16.320]  The blue circle here is a really rough estimate of the coverage you would get from a low power station at that location.
[26:16.320 --> 26:19.000]  And we'll get a more refined estimate in a minute.
[26:19.000 --> 26:24.160]  So, I'm going to call this church because that's what's at that address.
[26:29.490 --> 26:31.390]  And now we get to wait a minute.
[26:31.750 --> 26:37.970]  While we're waiting, I'll mention that you're all invited to come to the transmitter building workshop at noon.
[26:37.970 --> 26:39.630]  It's in the Hackerspace Village.
[26:40.670 --> 26:46.990]  And I'm told that the keynote from the Yes Men will be streamed downstairs so you can come build transmitters and listen to the Yes Men.
[26:46.990 --> 26:48.290]  And you don't have to choose between them.
[26:49.690 --> 26:52.050]  This is what we call the easy table.
[26:52.330 --> 26:55.530]  It's a table of available frequencies at this location.
[26:56.330 --> 27:00.390]  And they're broken down by the categories I was talking about, green, yellow, and red.
[27:01.290 --> 27:07.130]  Unfortunately, there are no green channels at this location because there's a lot of stuff on the air in Philadelphia.
[27:08.010 --> 27:09.690]  There is one yellow channel.
[27:09.950 --> 27:13.370]  That means there will probably be a lot of competition for this channel.
[27:14.830 --> 27:19.590]  I want to look at what I think is actually more interesting, which is the red channels.
[27:20.110 --> 27:26.990]  So the list of red channels are channels that are not available at this location.
[27:26.990 --> 27:31.190]  So they have some short spacing that there's no way to get around, as far as we know.
[27:32.230 --> 27:37.190]  But there's a possibility that there's something nearby based on the numbers that we see in the database.
[27:38.570 --> 27:41.610]  So when I click on one of these, I get a little map.
[27:42.790 --> 27:44.590]  The coloring is a little funny there.
[27:44.770 --> 27:46.590]  But this is an availability map.
[27:46.750 --> 27:50.490]  So it has red circles and yellow circles.
[27:50.830 --> 27:52.270]  This stuff here is red.
[27:52.350 --> 27:54.590]  This stuff is yellow, which is hard to tell right now.
[27:55.550 --> 27:56.810]  It's probably easier to tell.
[27:56.930 --> 27:58.670]  If I switch off the red, that's what I get.
[27:58.670 --> 28:01.910]  If I switch off the yellow, I get that.
[28:03.450 --> 28:07.570]  I can also check this box that says IF and third adjacent.
[28:14.350 --> 28:21.390]  And that'll show you the difference between availability now and before this law passed.
[28:22.930 --> 28:25.790]  So I don't think there's any difference here in this case.
[28:25.930 --> 28:27.830]  In a lot of places, it makes a huge difference.
[28:28.950 --> 28:36.710]  So if I could move my station to somewhere in this area that's yellow but not red, then this channel, in theory, would turn into a yellow channel.
[28:37.070 --> 28:44.830]  So this is kind of cool because some of the area that's in yellow is actually more populated than the place where I started off.
[28:45.030 --> 28:48.130]  This is a more populated part of Philly.
[28:48.130 --> 28:51.550]  So I'm gonna try saving at my new location.
[28:51.790 --> 28:53.870]  And sometimes this works and sometimes this doesn't.
[28:53.990 --> 28:55.650]  So we'll keep fingers crossed.
[29:05.640 --> 29:08.460]  Let's see, a couple of other things to note.
[29:13.650 --> 29:17.790]  The map that you see here is only valid within 20 kilometers.
[29:18.070 --> 29:21.950]  So if I zoomed out, you would see a bunch of stuff that looked really great like it was all available.
[29:22.210 --> 29:25.190]  That's because we're only checking stuff within 20 kilometers.
[29:27.990 --> 29:30.250]  I'll talk about the height stuff while this is going.
[29:30.570 --> 29:36.710]  So the FCC wants some information about elevation on your application.
[29:37.110 --> 29:43.110]  It turns out they don't really care about how high you are in, like, a relative to mean sea level sense.
[29:43.330 --> 29:47.130]  What they care about is how high you are relative to the stuff around you.
[29:47.130 --> 29:50.670]  So they use a metric called height above average terrain.
[29:52.530 --> 29:55.450]  And this is kind of a tough calculation.
[29:55.490 --> 30:05.410]  So to get your height above average terrain, you look at eight different radials going 16 kilometers, I think, away from your location.
[30:05.550 --> 30:10.870]  And you take, like, 40 data points on each of those radials and you average them all.
[30:10.870 --> 30:12.670]  And you get an average terrain height.
[30:13.830 --> 30:17.970]  And then you compare that to your height and see how far you are above average terrain.
[30:18.310 --> 30:23.950]  So for low power FM, you can be up to 30 meters above average terrain.
[30:24.150 --> 30:26.450]  If you're higher than that, you have to turn your power down.
[30:26.610 --> 30:29.130]  And if you're lower than that, you don't get any bonus power.
[30:29.130 --> 30:33.030]  So for a lot of people, the goal is to be at exactly 30 meters.
[30:34.530 --> 30:38.850]  And usually that's calculated using a terrain database.
[30:39.430 --> 30:41.110]  We don't have a terrain database.
[30:41.390 --> 30:46.950]  There are some that you can get for free, but the one that the FCC uses isn't publicly available.
[30:46.950 --> 30:57.390]  And we wanted our calculations to match the FCC's so that if somebody figures out their height in RFRI and puts it on their application, the FCC doesn't say, wait, that's wrong.
[30:57.390 --> 31:04.350]  So the FCC does have this online height above average terrain calculator.
[31:06.190 --> 31:11.690]  And you can do bulk queries, or you can script a bulk query through this calculator.
[31:11.870 --> 31:19.910]  So the way that we check someone's height above average terrain is just to take their location and send that to the FCC search tool.
[31:20.610 --> 31:28.790]  The thing we realized that was really exciting was that if we did enough queries at enough points in the U.S., we could actually back out their terrain database.
[31:29.110 --> 31:31.790]  So we haven't done that yet, but it's fun to know that we could.
[31:34.510 --> 31:39.930]  So I'm going to skip the moving my location thing, but I promise when it actually works, it does the right thing.
[31:41.690 --> 31:42.650]  And maybe...
[31:47.520 --> 31:52.120]  Oh, it only shows the channels that have any semblance of a chance.
[31:52.120 --> 32:02.680]  So all the stuff that's listed as red is because according to the numbers in the database, there's a chance that you can get something close by.
[32:02.920 --> 32:06.360]  So basically that means this one says 4.4 kilometers.
[32:06.360 --> 32:11.780]  That means you're short spaced by at most 4.4 kilometers.
[32:12.080 --> 32:19.480]  So if you move 4.4 kilometers away, you'll get away from the station you were overlapping with, but there's a chance you'll overlap with someone else.
[32:19.740 --> 32:34.640]  So if there's no possibility of anything within 13 kilometers, which is about double the distance that your station's signal would go, then we don't put it on.
[32:39.240 --> 32:40.000]  Yeah.
[32:40.760 --> 32:43.800]  The directional antenna thing is something that...
[32:45.080 --> 32:45.680]  Right.
[32:45.920 --> 32:47.380]  The FCC has talked about it.
[32:47.500 --> 32:49.140]  It's not clear whether they'll allow it.
[32:49.540 --> 32:50.680]  The problem is that...
[32:51.780 --> 32:52.380]  Right.
[32:52.540 --> 32:57.560]  So the problem is that the main thing that's a problem in the overlap isn't your contour.
[32:57.780 --> 32:59.160]  It's the other station's contour.
[32:59.420 --> 33:03.880]  So you might have 50 kilometers of overlap.
[33:03.880 --> 33:19.340]  You could turn off your station and basically like eliminate all of your coverage, and you would still have like 45 kilometers of overlap because all of that overlap is coming from the full power station signal, which is a lot bigger than yours.
[33:19.580 --> 33:26.600]  So cutting down on your coverage in a particular direction only helps in really specific situations.
[33:27.440 --> 33:28.040]  Right.
[33:29.820 --> 33:32.780]  So the other thing to look at here is this map up here.
[33:34.960 --> 33:37.440]  And I think we can see a bigger version later.
[33:37.640 --> 33:40.300]  But this map here actually does account for terrain.
[33:40.540 --> 33:45.200]  So the first map you saw with a blue circle was just circular.
[33:45.500 --> 33:55.060]  This one has things like a wider contour in the northwest there because the terrain is a little bit lower and your signal would probably get further.
[33:57.920 --> 34:01.460]  So there's a place to verify your latitude and longitude.
[34:02.340 --> 34:04.520]  There's an elevation and height calculator.
[34:05.280 --> 34:08.600]  And that's where this height above average terrain stuff comes in.
[34:11.140 --> 34:16.220]  There's this kind of impressive list of things you might have to worry about.
[34:16.440 --> 34:20.300]  These are all the things that won't necessarily keep you off the air but might be a problem.
[34:20.300 --> 34:26.300]  So it includes if you're in a border zone close to Mexico or Canada, you have extra rules.
[34:26.480 --> 34:37.780]  If there are nearby AM stations, you have to worry about your tower interfering with them because FM towers can be approximately the same height as an AM antenna.
[34:40.440 --> 34:42.240]  There's protected sites.
[34:42.440 --> 34:48.820]  So these are things like FCC monitoring stations and the radio astronomy quiet zone.
[34:50.440 --> 34:52.660]  And that's it for right now.
[34:52.900 --> 34:56.060]  There are actually more things to worry about that aren't even included here.
[34:56.980 --> 34:58.840]  Here's your bigger coverage map.
[35:01.400 --> 35:02.820]  And that's about it.
[35:02.940 --> 35:12.140]  We have a page for next steps that says they're not yet implemented, which is partly because we haven't implemented stuff and partly because the FCC hasn't implemented this stuff yet.
[35:14.980 --> 35:16.040]  Where did Ana go?
[35:17.380 --> 35:18.460]  Do you have anything else?
[35:20.080 --> 35:22.120]  Do you want to talk more about the transmitter building?
[35:24.600 --> 35:31.520]  Yeah, well, so that's the tool that Maggie and Pablito and other people have been collaborating.
[35:31.960 --> 35:41.460]  And it's actually, it looks a little bit like really, I don't know, complicated sometimes to all these really specific parts.
[35:41.740 --> 35:48.120]  But the tool is really going to be really helpful for the applicants because as Maggie was saying, the software is already there.
[35:48.120 --> 35:49.680]  It is really expensive.
[35:50.360 --> 35:56.700]  And I don't think that you can share the, like you can't really share the password or whatever.
[35:57.840 --> 36:02.180]  So that was a really big limitation for people that want to apply for stations.
[36:02.580 --> 36:14.760]  And this is just, it's a really big piece, but it's just in the application, it's just maybe a page of this whole complicated process for the application.
[36:14.760 --> 36:18.000]  So it's just a little part of the whole process.
[36:18.260 --> 36:33.200]  And in Prometheus, we're just working to try to support not just the technical support, but then also like policy and, you know, like help people to find ways to funder, to connect with other networks.
[36:33.200 --> 36:36.680]  And it's just like a little part of the work that we do at Prometheus.
[36:37.840 --> 36:39.000]  So yeah, that's it.
[36:39.240 --> 36:44.340]  And again, just to invite you again, we're building small radio transmitters at noon.
[36:45.700 --> 36:47.040]  So I hope to see you there.
[36:47.080 --> 36:51.420]  And if you have questions, this is the opportunity.
[36:51.820 --> 36:57.840]  Oh, and we're requesting, I think we said a $15 donation for parts for the transmitter building.
[36:58.980 --> 37:03.020]  But if you don't have $15 and you still want to come, you should definitely come.
[37:06.760 --> 37:07.460]  Am I up?
[37:07.620 --> 37:08.360]  Yeah, go ahead.
[37:08.520 --> 37:10.760]  Yeah, if you have a question, come up to the mic so it gets recorded.
[37:11.520 --> 37:15.500]  So I have a question for you about the covered...
[37:15.500 --> 37:18.700]  Well, actually two questions.
[37:18.860 --> 37:26.300]  But is there a specific exemption for simulcast for LPFM, whereas there's not for full broadcast?
[37:26.300 --> 37:33.160]  In other words, two synced transmitters to cover a larger area where you could have two 100 power...
[37:33.160 --> 37:37.960]  100 watt transmitters that still meet the criteria but are on the same frequency?
[37:37.960 --> 37:40.180]  Or is that like with LPFM?
[37:40.460 --> 37:41.720]  That's a hard question.
[37:43.700 --> 37:51.020]  So as far as the FCC is concerned, there's not really a simulcast category, but there are some other similar options.
[37:51.020 --> 38:03.920]  So one of them is getting an FM translator or a booster station, which would rebroadcast your signal either on the same frequency or on a different frequency.
[38:05.060 --> 38:25.580]  And that's a mess because there was this big application window for translators years ago where a lot of organizations applied for like 2,000 translators and threatened to take out all of the spaces that could be used for smaller community groups that don't want to apply for 2,000
[38:25.580 --> 38:25.940]  stations.
[38:28.760 --> 38:34.480]  And the FCC decided to freeze all of those applications until they figured out what to do.
[38:34.660 --> 38:45.920]  And right now they're in the process of throwing out a lot of those applications where they would block potential low power FM opportunities, but leaving some of them in and processing some of them.
[38:45.920 --> 39:01.860]  So the goal... the FCC is actually now mandated by law from the new law that passed to balance those two services to make sure that there's room for new people who are originating signals and not just for people who are rebroadcasting someone else's signal.
[39:03.280 --> 39:12.860]  So there is a possibility that a low power station could get somebody else who has a translator to rebroadcast their signal.
[39:12.860 --> 39:15.760]  They're not currently allowed to have their own translators.
[39:16.940 --> 39:18.700]  But that's usually hard to do.
[39:18.880 --> 39:22.200]  Translators tend to cost a lot and they're kind of hard to come by.
[39:22.460 --> 39:28.580]  So the other possibility would just be applying for two channels and then airing most of the same content.
[39:29.200 --> 39:31.500]  And that's currently not allowed.
[39:32.400 --> 39:41.960]  There's some talk that hasn't quite panned out yet about allowing more than one channel per organization, but not more than maybe three.
[39:45.140 --> 39:49.420]  This is something that's been kind of spinning in my head since your talk from the last HOPE conference.
[39:50.700 --> 39:54.940]  We do work in a... basically a squatter village in Go Naives, Haiti.
[39:55.400 --> 40:00.220]  And we were talking to folks down there last time we were down there in April about a community...
[40:00.220 --> 40:02.040]  the potential of a community radio station.
[40:02.240 --> 40:03.980]  And we definitely have some interest.
[40:04.080 --> 40:10.520]  So I was hoping I could maybe talk to somebody a little bit later today maybe at the workshop about the potential of a project like that.
[40:13.100 --> 40:13.700]  Sure.
[40:14.200 --> 40:16.560]  I think Petri is also here.
[40:18.560 --> 40:20.180]  He's waving a hand over there.
[40:20.680 --> 40:20.880]  Yeah.
[40:21.500 --> 40:27.040]  Petri is one of the person... he is one of the main persons that start Prometheus project.
[40:27.700 --> 40:32.100]  And he's one of the persons that is working on an international level.
[40:32.100 --> 40:35.660]  So I think he might be your person here.
[40:37.220 --> 40:37.960]  Thanks.
[40:41.800 --> 40:45.240]  Is this just for FM or also for AM?
[40:46.440 --> 40:53.580]  Just for FM, there is currently no non-commercial low-power AM service.
[40:54.020 --> 40:58.520]  There are a couple of people who are interested in that and pushing for it.
[40:58.520 --> 41:02.860]  It's not one of the things that Prometheus has taken up as a main issue.
[41:03.140 --> 41:05.640]  But the power limitation is 10 watts.
[41:05.780 --> 41:06.120]  Is that right?
[41:07.780 --> 41:09.280]  For licensed AM?
[41:09.600 --> 41:09.680]  Yeah.
[41:10.080 --> 41:10.640]  LPFM.
[41:11.560 --> 41:19.240]  LPFM is currently a 100 watt limit and may get increased to as much as 250 in the new rules.
[41:19.520 --> 41:20.200]  Oh, wow.
[41:20.640 --> 41:22.920]  But these new rules haven't yet been published.
[41:22.980 --> 41:23.440]  Is that correct?
[41:23.780 --> 41:24.640]  We wish they had.
[41:25.120 --> 41:25.420]  Okay.
[41:25.540 --> 41:25.800]  Thank you.
[41:26.020 --> 41:26.380]  Thank you.
[41:33.640 --> 41:34.120]  Hi.
[41:34.240 --> 41:35.460]  I'm a HAM operator.
[41:35.800 --> 41:42.440]  And never underestimate the support that can be offered through the HAM community.
[41:42.800 --> 41:44.860]  Especially in the RF engineering side.
[41:44.980 --> 41:47.700]  Granted, they don't know much about the media side and so forth.
[41:47.900 --> 41:52.980]  But has there been any efforts to tie your work with the ARRL?
[41:53.240 --> 41:56.560]  Or have you found that community supportive or not supportive?
[41:57.640 --> 42:09.840]  Like I was saying in the beginning, we are trying to recruit more engineers and people that have the expertise and they can not just support with the equipment and, you know, the actual building the station.
[42:10.040 --> 42:14.840]  But they can also provide support when we're doing all these studies.
[42:14.840 --> 42:16.700]  So people that can explain to people.
[42:18.120 --> 42:21.760]  Like simple things sometimes, you know, like what is the transmitter side?
[42:22.080 --> 42:24.600]  What is the equipment that you need to place in that transmitter side?
[42:24.800 --> 42:26.720]  How radio waves work, you know?
[42:26.880 --> 42:28.640]  How the signal gets broadcast.
[42:29.000 --> 42:36.560]  So if you're one of those persons, so if you know anybody that can help with that, just answering questions, it's a lot.
[42:36.740 --> 42:40.200]  Because like I said, there's a lot of people that's calling us every day.
[42:40.200 --> 42:42.920]  And they have all kinds of random questions.
[42:43.040 --> 42:46.560]  They're like, you know, where can I get funds for my radio station?
[42:47.440 --> 42:48.880]  What is the transmitter side?
[42:49.020 --> 42:51.100]  And we just have to be answering those questions.
[42:51.240 --> 42:52.720]  So that's why we have the radio spark.
[42:52.880 --> 42:59.200]  So I encourage people that is here to create an account and, you know, just to offer your help with that.
[42:59.200 --> 43:07.120]  In the ham radio community, there's a thing called an Elmer, which is usually some old guy that, you know, has been in radio for 25 years and helped spring along people.
[43:07.280 --> 43:09.620]  And just having that available, those simple questions.
[43:09.860 --> 43:12.480]  I'll talk to you after about trying to hook up the two communities.
[43:12.980 --> 43:13.540]  Thank you.
[43:13.700 --> 43:14.420]  It's a great resource.
[43:16.020 --> 43:39.560]  We've also been connecting recently with the shortwave community, thanks to our MC here, which is another good opportunity to recruit people who maybe don't know the specifics of how the FCC makes their rules about low power FM stations but can still answer lots of the questions that people have and can also throw good ideas our way about,
[43:39.700 --> 43:44.840]  you know, maybe this tool would be good or maybe this would be a good way to get people connected with the right sites.
[43:45.400 --> 43:51.680]  I'm also a ham radio operator and many of them would be very good on the engineering side because a fair number are broadcast engineers.
[43:52.020 --> 43:56.380]  And my question is, are you familiar with the organization Free Press, which they're...
[43:56.380 --> 43:57.620]  I mean, they offer...
[43:57.620 --> 44:03.160]  Maybe you said this at the beginning, sorry, got out in kind of late, but they will offer help with the FCC licensing for LPFM.
[44:04.540 --> 44:06.660]  We are definitely familiar with Free Press.
[44:06.900 --> 44:10.020]  They were one of our big allies in passing the law recently.
[44:12.220 --> 44:13.180]  And they...
[44:13.180 --> 44:18.080]  I don't actually know specific services that they have for helping people get licensed.
[44:18.700 --> 44:25.260]  But they have a lot of services for helping people advocate for themselves on a national level.
[44:25.440 --> 44:29.860]  And also just helping raise awareness about these issues that we've been talking about.
[44:30.660 --> 44:31.580]  Yeah, that would be good.
[44:31.720 --> 44:32.780]  They help out locally too.
[44:32.940 --> 44:33.960]  So you might want to look into that.
[44:34.600 --> 44:35.080]  Yeah.
[44:35.360 --> 44:38.760]  We're also working with other organizations that are like our partners.
[44:39.140 --> 44:45.820]  And the idea was to try just to have, you know, create more capacity since we are seven people in Prometheus.
[44:45.820 --> 44:48.640]  And it's like hundreds of people that want to start stations.
[44:49.360 --> 44:50.280]  So we...
[44:50.820 --> 44:51.780]  We have a...
[44:51.780 --> 44:53.520]  I think Free Press is one of our partners.
[44:54.240 --> 44:55.560]  Media Mobilizing Project.
[44:55.940 --> 44:56.500]  Magnet.
[44:59.040 --> 45:00.860]  Common Frequency in California.
[45:01.440 --> 45:04.140]  I can't really think of all the lists that we're partnering with.
[45:04.560 --> 45:08.640]  But the thing is, a lot of these partners, they're more committed to do outreach.
[45:08.640 --> 45:11.420]  So to let people know that there's going to be this opportunity.
[45:11.740 --> 45:18.840]  But when we ask them what kind of support they want to offer, they don't really feel comfortable when offering their technical support.
[45:19.120 --> 45:24.620]  So we're still like really, you know, like trying to find people that want to help us with that.
[45:24.780 --> 45:28.360]  Because that's mainly, you know, like where it's going to be...
[45:28.360 --> 45:32.880]  People are going to be having more trouble and filling the application because there's not enough people to support.
[45:32.880 --> 45:36.240]  So yeah, again, got rid of Spark.
[45:38.920 --> 45:39.640]  Hey there.
[45:40.500 --> 45:50.120]  I was curious what the like maintenance or like support status of that software that you're demonstrating is.
[45:50.260 --> 45:52.620]  And like what, like what's the deal with that?
[45:52.740 --> 45:53.080]  I don't know.
[45:54.540 --> 45:58.860]  Are you talking specifically about the first piece of software or the second or both of them?
[45:59.080 --> 46:01.480]  I guess specifically like that calculator.
[46:02.300 --> 46:02.820]  Yeah.
[46:04.060 --> 46:13.840]  Prometheus is committed to maintaining and supporting that software, which includes improving it, at least through the end of an application window.
[46:15.260 --> 46:25.500]  We haven't decided whether keeping it up and running after that is a priority, but it also has the beauty that it's free and open-source.
[46:25.700 --> 46:30.200]  And if we don't want to and somebody else thinks it's worthwhile, there's no reason someone else can't take it over.
[46:30.680 --> 46:33.780]  And it's like hosted on GitHub or something like that?
[46:34.040 --> 46:40.640]  Yeah, it's the, the instance itself that's running is hosted on Prometheus's servers.
[46:43.160 --> 46:44.040]  But it...
[46:44.040 --> 46:45.500]  The source code, I guess.
[46:45.720 --> 46:49.160]  Yeah, the source code is available online through Savannah.
[46:49.780 --> 46:53.100]  And I think that there's a link to it on the Radio Spark page.
[46:53.120 --> 46:55.960]  And if there's not, I'll make sure that there is by the end of the day.
[46:56.380 --> 47:01.820]  So you can see the source code and you can see the issue tracker and the wiki that we've been using for it.
[47:01.820 --> 47:02.140]  All right, cool.
[47:06.580 --> 47:09.800]  Regarding the tool, the RFree tool, I think it's really great.
[47:10.240 --> 47:12.320]  Congratulations to you guys for building that.
[47:12.500 --> 47:12.840]  Thanks.
[47:13.820 --> 47:14.900]  My question...
[47:19.120 --> 47:24.980]  My question is about, I live in Brooklyn and obviously it's a highly contested area.
[47:24.980 --> 47:29.900]  Are there power, licenses for power levels below 100 watts or is that it?
[47:31.540 --> 47:36.080]  There is a class of station on the books for 10 watts.
[47:36.260 --> 47:40.720]  And I don't remember off the top of my head if, what the 10 watt options are around here.
[47:40.720 --> 47:47.120]  You can actually do an RFree search and change the power level from 100 watts to 10 watts and see.
[47:47.860 --> 48:02.580]  The problem is that the FCC has never actually allowed people to apply for those licenses, mostly because the coverage area is small enough with 10 watts that in most cases, it's hard to generate enough money to maintain the station.
[48:03.820 --> 48:13.040]  We have been talking to the FCC about either starting to allow 10 watt stations or doing an intermediate 50 watt option.
[48:13.640 --> 48:15.840]  And that's still in question.
[48:15.840 --> 48:17.520]  We'll find out when the rules come out.
[48:17.760 --> 48:23.360]  That would be really great because in my neighborhood, 10 watts would reach thousands of people.
[48:23.660 --> 48:23.720]  Exactly.
[48:23.720 --> 48:24.520]  So that would be amazing.
[48:24.760 --> 48:27.960]  What's good in one neighborhood might not be good in another neighborhood.
[48:28.200 --> 48:29.840]  So we're hoping to get more options.
[48:30.560 --> 48:30.800]  Thanks.
[48:32.040 --> 48:33.080]  Just one more thing.
[48:33.240 --> 48:34.820]  I think we have to finish.
[48:35.060 --> 48:35.740]  We have to wrap up.
[48:36.220 --> 48:38.260]  So we're going to be in Urbana Champaign.
[48:38.260 --> 48:40.840]  There's going to be the grassroots radio conference.
[48:41.160 --> 48:44.240]  And Prometheus is going to be helping applicants there.
[48:44.340 --> 48:46.100]  We're going to have a low power FM clinic.
[48:46.500 --> 48:48.880]  So it's going to be a whole day of workshops.
[48:49.360 --> 48:52.100]  They're designed just for people that want to start radio stations.
[48:52.480 --> 48:56.060]  So it's going to be the 26th to the 29th of July.
[48:56.920 --> 49:00.840]  So I think this side is grassrootsradioconference.org.
[49:00.840 --> 49:05.580]  So if you know anybody that lives close to Illinois, we're going to be there.
[49:07.460 --> 49:10.200]  We could probably take one more quick question.
[49:11.820 --> 49:15.780]  If I recall correctly, the last time there was license opening, there was kind of a land grab.
[49:16.480 --> 49:21.700]  And I wondered if that's something that you're concerned about with this round when the new rules come out.
[49:22.240 --> 49:24.180]  And clearly, you guys are really prepared.
[49:24.180 --> 49:26.200]  And I congratulate you on that.
[49:26.280 --> 49:28.200]  And I was just wondering if there's a sense of urgency there.
[49:28.940 --> 49:32.000]  Yeah, we're absolutely anticipating a land grab.
[49:32.740 --> 49:42.580]  The thing that we've been trying to do most to prepare for that is when a lot of people apply for the same channel, the FCC has a point system they use to decide who wins.
[49:43.280 --> 50:02.200]  And so we've been both advocating for points that we think are the most reflective of groups that are really rooted in their community and likely to serve their communities and then trying to push the groups that we're working with to do the things they would need to do to be able to get the most points possible.
[50:03.920 --> 50:05.020]  I think that's it.
[50:05.300 --> 50:06.100]  Thanks, everyone.
[50:06.380 --> 50:07.560]  Hopefully, we'll see you at noon.
[50:07.640 --> 50:08.340]  Thank you.