ssb radio station

[markcozzy]

hi i would like your thoughts and idea's on this one. im thnking of starting a sailing radio station ie weather,music,text in and talk about our wild sailing adventures this is in the early stages at this time.dont know if any one else has attempted this

 

[William_H]

I am not a potential listener however I think you will find music will be hopeless. SSB requires the reinsertion of an artificial carrier inn the receiver.
The freqency if the artificial carrier must be exact to give correct audio frequency of the sound in the speaker. So 500 cycles per second of error in the receiver or transmitter is not a lot of error yet gives 500 cycles error in the output sound which for music would be intolerable however for communications of voice can be understood or data corrected for. Many sets (used to) have a clarifier control where the frequency can be finely adjusted to improve quality but even this is difficult to get and keep right. hence whenever you hear SSB voice it often sounds either high or low in pitch.
i think you would find for music you would need to transmit either full AM or suppressed sideband with one sideband and a carrier. I guess there are techniques to transmit music on HF. However these technniques I think require more bandwidth. your problem will be to get an allocation of frequency and if you need bandwidth that becomes even more difficult. For reliable service you will need at least 2 frequencies widely spaced to cope with day and night propagation. The allocation of bandwidth needs to be acceptted by all nations not just UK and even then Short wave broadcasting is a total free for all shambles with high powered (often eastern block or third world national broadcasters blotting out the small stations.
Don't let me discourage you but I reckon it will be difficult. It would be far easier to use local FM radio or internet type broadcasting. good luck olewill.

 

[Mike_Martin]

If you plan to set this up in the UK, you will need to approach the Office of Communications first.

Mike

 

[Strathglass]

As mike said check with the authorities first.

Many SSB recievers (unless general coverage ones) will not recieve on frequencies you may be allowed to use.
That is in the unlikely event of you being granted a license in the first place.

Assuming you get past your first hurdles then the main technical problem is the bandwidth of the ssb recievers.

'Music' with the frequency response limited to between 300Hz and 2.4 kHz is a bit almost unlistenable.

I don't think it is much of a go-er.

Iain