2010 heralds the start of a new decade and the end of one that had promised so much. Where is my hover board, flying car, Cherry 2000, replicator, transporter or even a scutter or two.

2010 is bringing a few projects to Splash FM. We are now broadcasting in Ostend on 107.0 and the streaming feed is all upgraded. A new aerial mast has arrived today, a new transmitter from England last week, news bulletins from INN in the deep south, new station imaging from Nelson and a new gig guide.

So keep tuned in for more updates.

Splash FM’s first test broadcast on 88,2 MHz was on the 22nd of December 2007. Two years on we are still running and still experimenting.

Thanks to those of you that have popped in and  had a listen and we look forward to even more in 2010. We shifted frequency to 88. 1 in 2008 to make room for Waiheke Radio. Today you can get Splash FM on 88.1 in Onetangi and on 107.00 from Ostend as well as live on the web.

I always enjoy it when I get home and there is a little parcel containing something that I have purchased on Trademe or eBay waiting for me. Today it was my Sound Blaster Audigy 2, in one of those impossible to open Post Office plastic bags. I plan to test the Breakaway Audio Processor with it over the next couple of weeks. I am concerned that I do not have a PC with the horsepower to run it, but we should be bale to overcome that reasonably quickly.

Next Tuesday I have enrolled in the TSOLPFMBI (The Society Of Low Power FM Broadcasters Inc) J Pole building class. It should be a hoot.

Chris Knox

 A friend came to visit in the weekend, mainly to to catch Chris Knox play at the Waiheke Radio fundraiser, but we got to talk about synchronous FM. I initially argued that you could run two transmitters on the same pole synchronously under the 25km rule, effectively doubling  your e.i.r.p. He quickly refuted my claim by reminding me of the field strength measurement rule. Oh Darn. Back to synchronous though, I did a search and came up with a paperby my good friend Chuck Kelly. My friend, who has designed for Rakon and has a brain the size of a planet, hypothesized that modern crystal oscillators are accurate to 1ppm. This coupled with his transmitter design that uses a single oscillator to derive both TX frequency and pilot / 38kHz that synchronous transmission should be feasible. This will need some testing.

Oh dear, I have just won a broken Francis Francis coffee machine on trademe for spares to rebuild ours, which will win out, caffeine or wireless.