Over the 14+ years that I�ve been contributing to Radio,I�ve received quite a few messages from readers, many of whom have very basic questions about how individual pieces of equipment, or systems, are supposed to work at a radio station.
Now as the Technical Editor of the magazine, and after seeing the results of our recent reader survey, I know there are many of you out there reading the print (or online) edition, and subscribing to some or all of our newsletters, that have a strong desire to learn more. Maybe you�re just a beginner; perhaps you�ve started off in IT; perhaps you�re the chief cook and bottle washer; or, maybe you�re trying to catch up with where technology has gone over the last dozen years. We really want to help you out�and for that reason,we�re starting a newonlinefeature, tentatively to be known as ��Ask Radio.��
What kind of questions are in play? Let me think of a few examples:
- Dear Radio�my FM transmitter doesn�t seem to be able to make as much power as it used to. What should I be looking for?
- Dear Radio�I need to connect multiple devices to a single audio feed. When I connect them all together, I get ��buzz�� in all of them, and the level drops. Help!
- Dear Radio�my stations are all automated. What�s the best way to tell if one of them is off-air?
- Dear Radio�I can no longer get ISDN to do remotes. What do I do now?
- Dear Radio�We used to do remotes with a ��marti�� from our local high school during football season. Now it seems that we can�t pick up the marti signal any more. What do I do?
- Dear Radio�is there a simple way to remotely monitor our remote site�s generator? It ran for several days last week, until the fuel was gone. I can�t have that happen again!
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Are you getting the idea here? In fact, nothing is too simple for this feature. And, in case you don�t want anyone to know that you�ve asked a ��simple�� question, we�ll just refer to you as ��anonymous.���
You�re invited to send your technical questions to us, using the following email address:radio@radiomagonline.com.�
Thanks for reading andfire away!
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(However, please keep in mind that neither I nor Radio is responsible if you follow my advice and things go awry. Use commonsense and keep in mind your technical limitations and those of your equipment.)�
