Radio and WIreless

Future of Radio, Television, Telephony, Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:09:00 +0000

In the present day most of our transmissions are discrete units where the signal corresponds directly with an information path. An AM station transmits a program, and FM station transmits a program, a TV station transmits an audio and visual program.

Gradually we are seeing a trend towards the breakdown of this 1:1 relationship in favor of a continuous digital RF media and multiple multiplexed information channels. Cell phone networks, WiFi, and WiMax networks are examples of this.

The availability of spread-spectrum technologies and orthogonal frequency division modulation technologies made it possible for multiple transmitters to share spectral space and to transmit and extract information even when noise actually exceeds signal.

We are seeing AM, FM, and TV stations move to digital transmission and virtually all of the new digital systems use a orthogonal frequency division modulation techniques because of the noise immunity and lack of susceptibility to rapid fading that the technique provides.

We are seeing multiple information channels being multiplexed onto these AM, FM, and TV digital signals just as with cellular and WiMax capability.

As the demand for faster transmission rates and the availability of faster and faster digital signal processors capable of encoding those rates continues, the bandwidth of each transmitted signal widens.

We will see the end of the discrete 1:1 information flow to transmitted signal disappear entirely for terrestrial transmissions. Eventually the special purpose nature of various transmissions will disappear and we'll end up with ultra wide broadband networks with virtually all communications multiplexed onto those networks.

The digital bandwidth available will eventually eliminate the need for nodes to be wired together, they'll start routing information between themselves directly. Smart routing will be developed that will find optimal routes on the fly allowing nodes to be added / dropped at random with no effect on service, automatic hand-off will allow information streams to follow moving targets as with present day cellular.

This sort of infrastructure is inevitable because it will make the most efficient use of bandwidth and power while providing almost infinite functional flexibility.

Devices will be less inclined to have significant data storage, instead, you'll access data over the network from a centralized location. This will greatly increase interoperability between devices as well as facilitate communications between people.

There are going to be challenges, organizational issues, who owns what when any given node will carry anybodies and everybodies traffic of all kinds?

Privacy, any veil of privacy is going to disappear. Privacy itself has already disappeared, the current administration demonstrated that it's OK to completely ignore the constitution when it comes to unreasonable search and seizure and it's implications for domestic spying. Privacy is already gone.

We'll be able to use our electronic gadgets everywhere, that will be another assault on personal privacy because virtually everywhere there will be laptops with built-in cameras, cell-phone with built-in cameras. However, strong end-to-end encryption will become indispensable. It will need to be based upon something other than factoring the product of large primes because quantum computers will render that task trivial, unless advances in number theory does so first.

The media center in your home and car will no longer tune stations that occupy certain frequencies, instead it will tune addresses. Narrowcasting will largely replace broadcasting.

The ubiquitous nature of this new ultra-broadband everything media will not lend itself well to respecting national borders and this is going to change the nature of governments as well as society greatly.

One social aspect I see coming is that the total lack of privacy will lead us to the recognition that nobody is without sin in a social sense at least, and perhaps that will force laws to be brought more inline with our true nature, what we are, as opposed to what we like to pretend we are, and the need to jail 2% of our population will go away, and hopefully a fair amount of the current social hippocracy .

It's going to be an interesting experiment, if we manage to survive the current era so that it can unfold.

Virtenna

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:39:00 +0000

Virtenna (at http://www.virtenna.com/) is kind of a virtual internet tuner. You select a city and then you can select from various radio and television stations in that city to listen to or watch.

It's a neat idea, easy to use, but the downside is that right now it only lists a handful of major cities around the world. If it were made more comprehensive it would be an incredible service.

Radio Heritage Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:31:00 +0000

I received e-mail from the Radio Heritage Foundation and after taking a look at their website decided it was a resource that was worthy of mention. I've added it to the resources on the right column under Radio History.

This site is rich with material covering history, current events, pirate radio, foreign radio, all with a substantial degree of depth. Many very cool photographs and much in depth information. I'd write more about it but am pressed for time at the moment; however, let me assure you that this site will keep you entertained and informed for many hours.

Rainier Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:34:00 +0000

I received e-mail today from one of my early partners in bootleg and then later legitimate radio informing me of a new website that has been created by the Seattle community colleges that has a lot of interesting radio history for the Pacific Northwest.

There are jingles for various local radio stations including KAYO, KJRB, KJR, many classical radio shows, old mysteries and other radio drama.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of 60's era regular radio shows on stations like KJR and KOL, a lot of radio checks from various DJ's but not full programs.

They've also got a streaming online station you can listen to as well as many photos.

For being new though there is a wealth of material there and hopefully more will come as it evolves. Enjoy!

Cell Phone and Cell Tower Safety

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:41:00 +0000

I continue to receive e-mail from folks who are concerned about cell phone and cell tower safety.

It is my position that cell towers do not represent a safety risk, at least in so much as the RF radiation from them being a health hazard is concerned. I do believe that modern hand held cell phones, which operate with a maximum power of 100mw but typically much less than that, pose a very minimal but non-zero risk, and that the older 3 watt and 5 watt units were a significant health risk.

Regarding risks posed by cell towers, you may wish to read this article entitled, "Health Symptoms Aren't Linked to Cell Tower Emissions, Study Finds..." in Science Daily.

I've added a new section to the sidebar links with related information, and in particular there is a new link to this FCC Website, "Human Exposure To Radio Frequency Fields from Cellular and PCS Transmitters".

It may seem odd that I'd take a position that cell towers are not harmful, whereas cell phones may pose some health risks, but the reason is very simple. RF fields decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the emitter. You hold a cell phone up to the side of your skull where there are only a few millimeters from your cell phone antenna to your brain. But it is unlikely you will get any closer than tens of meters to a cell tower antenna. In short, the exposure you will receive from a cell phone that you use will exceed that from a tower by a factor of thousands.

If you really want to get excited about RF fields, I'd be much more concerned about these things in this order, HAARP (High Active Aurora Research Program), high power RADAR, UHF television stations, VHF television stations, FM stations, AC wiring in your house, CRT televisions and computer monitors, AC above ground transmission lines, ULF submarine communications systems.

What all of these things have in common is that they either operate at power levels that are high enough to have thermal effects on people close to them, or they operate on frequencies that are low enough to cause ion transport issues across cell walls, both of which are known mechanisms that can induce cancer and other health problems. HAARP has the unique distinction of having both of these properties making it a double threat to health.

With respect to cell phones and cell towers, what I would really like to find are recent large scale studies that attempt to analyze statistical correlations between living in proximity to cell towers and health issues, and studies that do the same for cell phone usage. My hunch is that no health issues will be related to cell towers, save maybe for one falling and injuring someone physically, but that there may be some issues with heavy uses of cell phones although I don't expect that to be significant. But I'm really interested in actual numbers rather than conjecture and sensationalistic crapolla.

One issue to be aware of is that when you read of long term studies finding risks, and those are studies that go back ten years or more; you are getting into an era when high powered, as much as five watt, handsets were used that did cause thermal effects, and it is not at all surprising to me that those sets did cause significant health issues.

Stupid Radio Commercials

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 04:20:00 +0000

Last night I found myself I wish I could secretly break-in to KVI 570 and replace their stupid commercials.

Listening to coast-to-coast and when it ended a commercial...

Men... Are you finding that you are urinating more frequently?

Do you sometimes wake-up at night to urinate?

Now be honest, how's your sex life been lately?

Super-beta prostate contains 10,000 times the active ingredient found in Saw Palmetto... yada yada yada..

Anyway, I'd add a testimonial, I mean what's more effective than a testimonial?

"Hi, My name is Ivan P. Freely. Lately I've been getting up in the middle of the night to urinate and so I decided to try Super-Beta-Prostate.

Boy did it work! The sex that night was fantastic.. And now I sleep like a log, no more getting up at night to urinate.

Unfortunately, that night was the last night I had sex, seems the wife has problems with the no more getting up at night to urinate. She much preferred that I woke up and got up first.

Seems to me like this era is a almost like a century ago with all the snake oil being pedaled.

Radio Propogation

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:19:00 +0000

I continue to receive comments and e-mail to the effect that the propagation changes are cyclic, part of the solar cycle.

Let me make it clear that I have been into radio since my elementary school days, I am 49 years old now. I've owned shortwave and AM receivers across that entire time frame, and AM/SW/TV DXing has been a hobby of mine also across that entire time frame.

Conditions are too noisy for effective DXing below the AM band in this area. There is a lot of power line harmonics creating interference to the long wave band. City Light, the power company here, seems to have a policy of replacing defective insulators only after someone is electrocuted or the pole catches fire. I have phoned in insulators visibly arcing over only to have the calls repeatedly ignored for months on end.

I don't have the equipment for past the UHF television band or I'd be exploring frequencies below and above as well.

I am well aware of the solar cycle. People commonly refer to it as an 11 year cycle because peaks come, on average, every 11 years. It is really a 22-year cycle because the magnetic field reverses every peak and it takes 22 years to return to the same state and magnetic polarity.

The maximum usable frequency, that is the highest frequency which will be returned back to the Earth from the ionosphere generally follows three things; the solar cycle, the MUF is highest during solar peaks, the season, the MUF is generally highest in summer and lowest in winter, and daily, the MUF is generally highest in the daytime, particularly mid-day, and lowest at night.

So during solar minimum, during the winter, late in the night, is the time when the MUF would be the lowest, rarely above 6 Mhz or so under those conditions. I've been listening to a signal on 9484Khz now (9.484 Mhz) that has been coming in strong for quite some time tonight. On other nights I've been able to listen to signals as high as 18 Mhz. Several decades ago this would have been rare for this part of the solar cycle, this time of year, at night. Now it has become common.

When I was young, sporadic E-skip events that would bring the MUF up to television channel 2, 54-60 Mhz, was a relatively rare event except during the very peak of the solar cycle. Now the MUF reaching up to channel 10, 192-198 Mhz, during solar peaks, has become about as common as reaching channel 2-3 was several decades ago. During solar maximums, the MUF going above channels 2-3 has become so regular that it can hardly be described as "sporadic" E-skip anymore. There is nothing sporadic about it.

At the same time the MUF has increased, so has medium wave absorption, and AM stations that used to be easily and reliably receivable no longer are. AM stations in Vancouver BC, only about 100 miles from where I am, used to be easily receivable here, no longer.

Yes, these things do vary with the sunspot cycle, but superimposed on that cycle has been a steady rising of the MUF and AM absorption over the last several decades. The activity of the Sun also has increased, with the last solar peak being the most intense on record, but even during solar minimums, even during times when zero sunspots have been visible, the MUF and AM absorption have both been more than what they were when I was younger.

There are many potential factors; the weakening of the Earth's magnetic field allowing the solar wind to interact with it more may be a factor. Changing atmospheric chemistry and resulting changes in refractive index of the ionosphere under given conditions may be a factor. Changes in the heat distribution in the atmosphere and resulting changes in refractive index might be a factor. Increasing solar activity over the longer term may be a factor. Artificially increased ionization by HAARP and similar activities may be a factor. The introduction of halides into the atmosphere, Bromine added as part of an anti-foaming agent in jet fuel, the solid rocket boosters of the shuttle having a chlorine compound, these may be factors. There are so many potential causes that I don't know if it's even possible to sort them out. There are probably more that I haven't thought of.

Radio Propagation Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:26:00 +0000

Well, the net is an interesting place. I did some digging and found that are in fact hundreds if not thousands of articles dealing with the topic of radio propagation and atmospheric chemistry.

There is interesting chemistry in the middle atmosphere between 15Km and 90Km in altitude, and this overlaps the "D" layer of the ionosphere, extending from approximately 50Km to 90Km, which is responsible for much of the absorption of radio signals below about 10 MHz.

The concentration of water vapor in the middle atmosphere has been increasing over time and thought to be a consequence of global warming.

The concentration of ozone has been decreasing on the whole though the variation caused by changes in solar UV radiation over the 11 year solar cycle are greater than the rate of decline so during the ascending part of the solar cycle the ozone depletion is masked or even partially reversed, and during the descending part, exaggerated.

Above 15Km, the atmosphere gets hotter rather than cooler. This increase in temperature is primarily the result of heating caused by UV radiation being absorbed by ozone. It has been known that the suns UV output varies considerably over the solar cycle, as much as 200% at the shortest UV wavelengths and as much as 30-40% at 250 nm.

Lately, the Suns activity overall has been increasing. We're presently at a solar minimum, but on top of that 11-year cycle there seems to be a longer term increase in UV output. Observations of the UV output of other similar stars shows that this is actually "normal" behavior for a star like our Sun. UV is produced in the upper reaches of the Sun's atmosphere and is therefore more affected by magnetic changes than visible light from the photosphere.

So increase in water vapor which results in increased ionization increases atmospheric absorption up to about 10Mhz. Decreases in ozone allow UV to penetrate further increasing ionization at lower altitudes where the effect mainly is to increase absorption. And increases in the Sun's UV output increases ionization at all levels which increases absorption at lower radio frequencies and reflections at higher frequencies.

While I was able to find information with respect to the role water vapor, ozone, and chlorine play in atmospheric ionization, I was not able to find anything regarding CO2 and methane, also increasing in concentration, so I don't know what roles they may play.

Suffice it to say there is not only one but multiple factors affecting radio propagation. So where will this go in the future? Well at this point we really don't know what will happen with the Suns activity. We can be reasonably certain global warming will increase for some time. Levels of chlorine will likely increase and ozone will likely deplete for some time. So I think it likely that we will see existing trends continue. Lower frequencies will become more useless for long distance communication and the maximum usable frequency will continue to increase on average.

New Look

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:38:00 +0000

Hope you don't mind the new look. I redesigned the game section here and people seemed to like the change so thought I'd do the same for this Radio Blog but I don't know how much cross-over there is between radioheads and gamers. If you find it excessively ugly say so.

Radio - AM Propogation

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:41:00 +0000

I'm not sure if I'm noticing over time, a steady decrease in the propagation characteristics of the AM radio band, particularly those frequencies above 1 Mhz, or a steady degradation of the performance of my AM receivers and a lack of quality in newer receivers.

I live in Shoreline, WA, just north of Seattle (about 13 miles north of downtown Seattle). I used to be able to receive CFUN in Vancouver, BC, Canada, about 100 miles to the north, at about S8 on my receivers that had an S-meter and strong enough, save for the occasional night time fade, to be listenable.

For the last few years though, CFUN barely comes in at all, not even S2 on the S-meter anymore and the noise level is too high to tolerate listening, even at times to be intelligible. Even many local stations which used to be solid are now marginal, particularly on the high end of the band.

At the same time AM propagation seems to have suffered, the higher shortwave bands seem to be alive at times of the year and times of the day that they wouldn't have been in the past and sporadic E-skip on the low VHF TV channels has almost become so regular that calling it "sporadic" anymore seems inappropriate. It seems to occur more frequently now during the winter months during a solar minimum than it used to during a solar maximum in the summer. And during the last solar maximum, on one occasion I got skip all the way up to channel 10, and for all I know it may have gone past that but there are local stations on 11, 12, and 13 that would have required a very strong signal to overrun.

I'm wondering if this is the result of changing atmospheric chemistry, or a general increase in RF power levels causing an increase in ionization, or HAARP, or some other factor(s).

Ionosophere

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:52:00 +0000

I've had the hobby of radio MW/SW/FM and television DXing since I was in elementary school. I've received distant stations via a number of propagation modes. I have received distant AM and SW via "skip", which is refraction of a skyward radio wave back towards the Earth by the ionosphere. This is often referred to as a "reflection", but that is technically incorrect. If it were a reflection, a signal straight up would be reflected back, but that is not the case.

The ionosphere is a layer of the Earth's atmosphere, extending from about 50 miles up to several hundred miles, ionized primarily by UV radiation from the Sun, also to some degree by cosmic rays. UV from the Sun is mostly from the chromosphere, an area above the visible photosphere which is occasionally visible as a rosy red glow during a solar eclipse.

The UV flux from this chromosphere varies with the level of solar activity and is generally low during solar minimums and high during solar maximums. The higher the level of UV flux, the greater the degree of ionization in the ionosphere. The stronger the ionization, the greater the refraction at a given radio frequency. This means that as the ionization increases, higher frequencies can be refracted back towards Earth.

Because UV flux is non-existent at night, that source of ionization is absent at night and the ionosphere is weakly ionized. The lower altitude regions tend to go away as the charged ions and electrons recombine into neutral atoms. Only at higher altitudes, where the density is low enough that collisions are less frequent, does significant ionization remain at night. Ionization is also generally lower during solar minimums as well because of lower solar UV flux output.

Image courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

What you are seeing here is an image of the Sun that is completely lacking in sunspots. It has been this way since July 24th, 2007. We are presently in a solar minimum. This means that ionization of the ionosphere should be minimal as well, particularly at night.

The higher the radio frequency or the shorter the wavelength, the less the ionosphere will refract the radio wave. Consequently as the radio frequency increases, signals can only be refracted back to Earth if they arrive at the ionosphere with a low angle nearly parallel, a signal entering at a high almost perpendicular angle would not be refracted sufficiently and would pass through the ionosphere or be absorbed by it. At lower frequencies signals can be refracted back at sharper angles.

Above some frequency a signal can not be refracted sufficiently to return to Earth even if it arrives at a very low angle. The highest frequency that can be refracted back during given ionospheric conditions is known as the maximum usable frequency or MUF.

Two days ago, at 11pm, I was still able to receive WWV at 15 Mhz and I listened to Radio Japan at just over 13 Mhz for almost two hours and the signal was strong. I was able to detect some skip at frequencies above 17 Mhz, however, because of computer hash I wasn't able to make out what it was.

This is really abnormal behavior during a solar minimum. During a solar minimum this reception would be more typical of daytime reception. At night it is generally not possible to receive anything distant above about 7-8 Mhz. The MUF is only about 7 or 8 Mhz at night during solar minimums, but two nights ago it was over 17 Mhz for at least a couple of hours.

Sometimes space events called gamma ray bursts can significantly increase ionization of the ionosphere. Gamma ray bursts generally last milliseconds to several minutes. Radio Japan came in strong for several hours and maybe more as I did not continue to listen.

Lightning storms also can dramatically increase ionization at night, however, generally in a limited geographical area, yet, I was receiving WWV on 15 Mhz from Ft. Collins, CO, and Radio Japan, so whatever phenomena resulted in this high level of ionization was geographically more disperse.

Given a Sun which was not active, and the lack of a fit to other known sources of nighttime ionospheric ionization, I am puzzled as to what is responsible for the high degree of ionization.

During the last solar maximum, the MUF reaching above 50 Mhz was almost a daily occurrence for months at a time. That was unusual, but the last solar maximum was also unusual, the most sunspots of any recorded maximum. Chinese and Tibetan monks have been recording sunspots for thousands of years. Western records date back several hundred years. Strong ionospheric activity during the last maximum is not surprising but the level of activity during this minimum is.

I mentioned that television DXing is one of my hobbies. Most frequently, TV DXing is in the low VHF band, channels 2-6, during solar maximums. Occasionally there are what are known as sporadic E-skip events as well. These happen most frequently during summer, during afternoons, but they can happen anytime and I have seen events in the middle of the night, in the winter time.

During this last solar maximum, I received channels via skip all the way up to channel 10, which is at 192-198 Mhz. I only experienced skip at this frequency once, it is extremely unusual, and unfortunately it did not last long enough to get a station ID, so I don't know the distance involved which would have revealed more about the nature of the skip. I received skip on channel 8, 180-186 Mhz on several occasions.

Skip at low frequency channels, channel 2 or 3, at 54-60 Mhz or 60-66 Mhz respectively, was a rare event when I was young, thirty years ago, I might receive skip on these frequencies several times generally during afternoon late summer hours. It seems to have become more and more frequent over the years to the point where now in any two week period I can usually pick up something just listening sporadically.

Ionization seems to have increased gradually over the years on average and I am very interested in knowing the source. I have also noticed that while shortwave and low VHF propagation have improved over the years, absorption in the AM broadcast band (540 - 1700 Khz) as well as the low shortwave frequencies between the high end of the AM band and around 5 Mhz, seems to have increased.

Another area that seems to be related is auroras. I have lived in the Seattle area all of my life, first near Northgate, and then for the last 22 years in Shoreline, approximately 7 miles north of Northgate. When I was a kid, I used to sleep outside on the patio on clear summer days falling asleep under the stars. Never once did I see an auroral display in all of those years. I have now seem them five times and all within the last decade, and this during a time when I spend much less time outside under the sky.

With respect to Auroras, the last heavy duty solar cycle might explain those, but it does not adequately explain the changes to radio propagation even during solar minimums. I am convinced that either something in our Sun is changing significantly, or something in our own atmosphere.

The amount of carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphere has been increasing as a result of human activities. The distribution of water vapor and ozone in the atmosphere is also affected by human activities. At 350 PPM or .035%, I would not expect carbon dioxide to significantly impact the ionosphere. Carbon dioxide is also heavy so I would expect it to make up an even smaller percentage of the ionosphere.

Then there is HAARP and other similar installations that intentionally heat a portion of the ionosphere, but these are tightly focused beams, so I would not expect widespread geographical changes, however, I have heard that there is now a system in place to destroy inbound warheads electronics by supercharging the ionosphere, so maybe the capabilities are greater than I know. However, this seems to be a gradual effect and HAARP at higher power is a relatively recent phenomena.

I wonder if all the space missions don't contribute somehow, the rocket exhaust, the re-entering of space debris, do they significantly alter the ionosphere on a large scale?

Then there is the general increased use of higher frequencies, more power in the microwave band. Could these be affecting overall ionization levels?

How about 50 and 60Hz radiation from long distance AC power transmission lines? We know these have some effect on the ionosphere and magnetosphere because whistlers often start at these frequencies (though they are most often triggered by lightning events).

And I know this may seem really far fetched, but could Gaia play a role? The reason that I asked this is that I've listened to a phenomena where a large audio frequency antenna is used to pick up signals from the Earth's magnetosphere. Here listen to this. Tell me that doesn't sound alive and organic to you.

Please, tell me if you've observed any related phenomena and what you think might be the cause.

KNDD 107.7 The End People

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 03:44:00 +0000

I went down to the KNDD Beach House to see Silversun Pickups, however, only Brian Aubert showed up there. However, he did perform Well Thought Out Twinkle and Lazy Eyes solo on acoustic guitar which I video-recorded. The performance was excellent. Brian Aubert was on during DJ No-Name's show.

DJ No Name seems to prefer a low profile. He's seemed soft-spoken and takes things at a comfortable pace but also seems to prefer to hide most of his face with that baseball cap. He interacts well with guests on the air and seems to have a good, albeit at times dark, sense of humor.

DJ No Name

I hung around afterwards to meet the Church of Lazlo personalities, Lazlo, Afentra, Slim Fast, and Candice Derriere. Afentra wasn't there so I did not get to meet her. Lazlo strikes me as not unprofessional, but laid back. Like he's been doing radio so long he just has it totally handled and that well may be the case given his history. He came in just before his show started and then just kind of grabs a microphone and starts talking.

Lazlo

Slim Fast comes in a bit early and talks to people and gets things setup the way he wants before the show. He comes across as spontaneous on the air but he really seems to plan ahead and just makes it sound that way.

Slim Fast

Candice Derriere, their resident Drag Queen adds an element of high strangeness. Definitely the most visually interesting member of the church. Candice Derriere performs locally with a group called The Nutcrackers.

Candice Derriere

Click on any image to see a larger version. To see more photos of those that were present take a look at the KNDD page on my photo gallery. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of Afentra here because she was not present while I was there.

This group I think makes a great team. Lazlo seems to need to have a rapport with a present body. Slim Fast is a not uninteresting person. The two of them have a good rapport. Still, just the two of them might seem kind of mundane, nah, not really. Afentra adds a female perspective. Throw in Candice Derriere and you've got enough strange factor for all of them. It's a weird show but I think it works.

I will end this by saying if you have an interest in radio or just an interest in music, either way, a trip down to the KNDD Beach House on Alki is worth while. All of the KNDD staff I've met have been extremely personable people. They seem to have struck an ideal balance between professionalism and having fun.

The one thing I wish the folks at KNDD would do, is fix the audio on their website. The sound quality of their audio on the web sounds muddy and swishy. A nice streaming Ogg Vorbis feed would fix that.

Art Bell Gone - Alternate Venue?

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:17:00 +0000

Experimental data that merely confirms theories are less than exciting. Completely random pseudoscience that has not even a shred of evidence is also useless. What is interesting is that which is right on the fringe. Data from well thought out and executed experiments that contradicts conventional scientific theories is where real advances in science come from.

The Art Bell show allowed everything from credentialed scientists to certifiable loonies on the air. By providing a relatively unfiltered medium, from time to time we did get to see truly interesting cutting edge stuff.

There are flaws not only with the execution of the scientific method but even with the method itself. Science wants phenomena to be reproducible on demand. Natural phenomena don't always lend themselves to this. Pretty much anything that doesn't is dismissed as pseudoscience.

Phenomena such as ball lightning, extraterrestrial visitations, psychic phenomena, all of these things are just dismissed out of hand by mainstream science. And that leaves many phenomena unexplained.

Art Bell provided a venue where these phenomena could be explored, I don't see anyone standing inline to take his place. The other hosts do not have enough of a grip on known science to try to extend that into the presently unknown.

KNND 107.7 The End Alki Beach House

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:00:00 +0000

KNND 107.7 The End is broadcasting from an Alki Beach house through September 22, 2007. It's got a big deck where you can hang out and watch the show get done live as well as enjoy free drinks. They're also giving away free CD's and promotional material.

They don't have an enclosed studio at the beach house, just an open broadcast table. They use an ISDN line to get the program material from this remote studio to their main studio and actually broadcast the music portion of the program from the main studio doing only the announcing from this studio.

They are giving away free CD's and other promotional materials. The CD shown above, End Sessions Volume 4, is one worth having. These are recordings they've made in their own studios and the engineering is nothing short of excellent. Kick drums sound like kick drums not the mushed wumps, the cymbals sound like cymbals, the guitar is crystal clear with all the overtones present, in short music sounds like music. There are few recordings I can't find fault with but these are really good. If you can't make it down to the Beach house to pick up a copy, you can buy it online.

I want to stress that I have absolutely no affiliation with The End 107.7 or their parent company. I simply happen to like the station, most of the music they play, and have a past that involves the radio industry, engineering, and also doing sound reinforcement. I love good music, I know what it sounds like live, and when someone actually does a decent job of recording good music I want people to know it.

They have a version of Jet's "Are Ya Gonna Be My Girl" with an acoustic lead. It actually works rather well, and the overall recording is excellent. The performance is also very energized but then that's Jet.

Tegan and Sara do an exceptional performance of Walking With A Ghost, again the recording is excellent. I wish the record companies would take a hint and start kicking out recordings like these.

They are located right next to slices pizza, about a block south from the Pepperdock.

Kraig Kitchen Resigns

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:27:00 +0000

Kraig Kitchin has announced his resignation as president of Premier Radio Networks. Kraig Kitchen was co-founder of Premier Radio and many of you have heard Art Bell talk about how much he helped Art through difficult times. This announcement was apparently made the same day Art Bell announced his retirement.

Art Bell's program became more slanted towards the right, misquotes of Iran's president were highly inflammatory and seemed geared towards trying to provoke a war. I wrote to him about this, about the quotes out of context, and how taken out of context they meant exactly the opposite of what they meant in context. To this I received no reply.

This article on Unknown Country, gives some insight with respect to the corporate culture at Clear Channel. It might give further insight as to the reason for Art Bell's resignation. It is clear that the company line stating that Art Bell resigned because he wanted to spend more time with family is just so much bovine excrement.

Kraig Kitchin has stated that his future projects will be much more tightly focused. I can't help but wonder if some future collaboration between Art Bell and Kraig Kitchin might be in the works? Perhaps one not so burdened with heavy handed control by Clear Channel? We can only speculate and hope.

Art Bell

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:34:00 +0000

Someone left a comment that said,

" Want even more supposition re Art Bell's most recent retirement? Check out: http://hamfanz.blogspot.com/"

I'm not going to endorse the content at that link, or the links that you may follow from there because I have no way of knowing what is true. I will say that the history given in that link differs significantly from what is given in, "The Art of Talk", Art Bell's autobiography.

Art Bell Retired Again

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:12:00 +0000

Art Bell retires from Coast-to-Coast AM again saying he wants to be able to spend more time with his new wife and daughter. Well, I guess doing a 4 hour show two days out of the week would take a lot of time away from family. I can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with the merger between Clear Channel and Mergerco.

I hope you will forgive my cynicism but I can't help but feel there are issues, other than those stated publicly, involved in both this retirement and previous retirements. That said I'd like to state a few of my beliefs and suspicions. These are nothing more than my beliefs and opinions. I'll make that clear from the onset in hopes it will dissuade Art Bell and Clear Channel from suing me.

First, a lot of people were critical of Art Bell remarrying only three months and a few days after Ramona's death. They have suggested that Art was "vulnerable", or that Airyn is a "mail order bride". I have even read one blog in which the poster suggested that he "disposed of Ramona and bought a new wife".

Art Bell lives in Pahrump, Nevada. Prostitution is legal in Nevada counties with low populations and I believe that includes Nye county. Art Bell has large amounts of money. If all he wanted was a hot Asian girl to bang he wouldn't have much difficulty obtaining same without the commitment that goes with marriage or the publicity.

Although it might seem disrespectful to many that he remarried so soon, it is a statistical fact that when men in a good marriage lose their spouse to death, they remarry substantially sooner on average than men who were in bad marriages.

Having listened to Art Bell over the years, having read his autobiography, and having seen many photos of him with Ramona, I do believe his love for her was very real and that their marriage was very good.

If he were going to mail order a bride, the Philippines wouldn't be the best option because divorce isn't even a legal option there. I don't know what the effect of a legal annulment in the United States would be in light of the fact that the marriage took place in the Philippines. Suffice it to say that he could have gone with some lower risk options.

He generally speaks glowingly of various network officers but I wonder if things are as rosy there as the picture he paints. If you look at the rest of Clear Channels hosts, Art Bell seems very out of place.

Prior to the Clear Channel takeover, Art Bell didn't use call screeners and did generally have interesting guests. Now calls are screened and the guests all seem to be selling something, usually pushing a new book. The commercial load seems up considerably. These don't impress me as things that Art Bell would not accept without some resistance but perhaps I am wrong.

During the last retirement, which was somewhat lengthy, one of the substitute hosts that got a long run was Mike Siegel, who I personally couldn't stand for a variety of reasons. Those of you who had heard Mike Siegel on KVI would know that prior to taking the position on Coast-to-Coast AM, he was a right wing political talk show host.

Ian Punnett, who will replace Art Bell on the weekends, seems to be largely apolitical, reasonably knowledgeable, and reasonably capable of handling callers in a civil and non-abrasive manner. However, for reasons I can't nail down, he never has impressed me as being as interesting as Art Bell.

Many years ago I heard rumors that Art Bell was connected with the DIA. Whether there was any truth to these rumors or not, I don't know. I have for many years had the sense that someone else was calling the shots.

I have found his position on various wars disturbing, justification for our continued presence in Iraq, or the continual push for war with Iran. To be specific about what I mean about Iran, he keeps pushing the line that the president of Iran wanted to "wipe Israel off the map", but neglected to mention that that quote was actually part of a speech in which he is quoting Khomeini and setting himself apart from Khomeini's policies, which means, taken in context he is saying exactly the opposite of what is being implied by the out of context quotes.

I have written to him on this topic and neither received any reply nor have I heard any on-air correction or attempt to place the quote in the proper context.

I find his penchant for revenge troubling. It's hard for me to believe that after all of the years of marriage to Ramona and his long time friendship with Evelyn Paglini, he would not understand karma and the connectedness of all things and why revenge is not such a good thing for the person seeking it.

Art Bell received some items that were allegedly recovered from the Roswell UFO crash. I am of the belief that the crash really occurred and that these parts wouldn't have been allowed to remain in civilian possession if they were genuine, and because of certain characteristics of the parts, I do believe they were genuine. All of this leads me to believe that Art Bell probably has some military intelligence ties.

So now that he's off the air again, I wonder what is up? What's getting ready to go down? The world has been strange lately.

There are some of my random thoughts. I don't know if I am pleased or disappointed that he retired again, but I am not surprised.

Ghost Lines

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:19:00 +0000

At one time telegraph was the principal method of rapid communications over long distances. A telegraph consisted of a battery keyed into a long wire, and on the other end of the wire a sensitive electromagnetic device would clack as the key at the remote end was pressed.

The reliance on a wire was the weakness of the telegraph. During a war, wires strung across enemy lines would be cut by the enemy. To get around this problem, something known as a ghost line was invented. A ghost line used the Earth as it's wires. On one side of the enemy lines a set of ground stakes were placed in the ground as far apart as possible with the line connecting them perpendicular to the direction the signal was to be sent. On the other side of the enemy lines somewhere, a similar set of ground stakes parallel to the first set was also utilized.

On the transmitting end, battery was keyed into the ground stakes. On the receiving end, they were connected to a sensitive detector just as with a wired telegraph. This was not a particularly efficient system since only a small portion of the power keyed in at the sending end would reach the receiver, but it was a system that lacked any wires for the enemy to cut.

When I was in junior high and high school, I operated a pirate radio station and so did several of my friends. Near the end of high school, they all got busted by the enemy, the F.C.C., and I only narrowly escaped. After that we all started looking for legal ways to communicate a signal over distance.

One of my friends read about Ghost Lines. I thought it would be interesting to try it with audio. I drove two stakes into the ground at my parents house as far as I could get them apart in an east-west line, about a hundred feet.

I connected them to a 75 watt solid state amplifier using a PA line transformer backwards (hooking the eight ohm winding to the output of the amplifier and the 70 volt line to the ground stakes). I played music at close to the full power output of the amplifier.

I took a portable cassette recorder and connected a couple of portable ground stakes to the microphone input. With the receiving ground stakes not more than 8 feet or so apart and not more than a foot in the ground, I was able to detect a signal two miles away.

The limitation was not signal amplitude so much as power line hum amplitude which was abundant. I was surprised that the higher frequency audio components were not noticeably attenuated. It occurred to me that one could perhaps get around the hum problems by frequency modulating a carrier say around 40 Khz. I tried to build a little circuit to generate an FM modulated carrier in this range using a phase locked loop chip but I kept frying the chips and eventually gave up. This was late 70's or very early 80's, chips were primitive.

Back in those days digital signal processors also were not existent and as a result neither were more complex modulation schemes such as CODFM. With modern technology I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to achieve high speed computer communications this way. This could serve all sorts of interesting purposes, data communications, voice, even pirate radio station STL with your FM transmitter up in a tree somewhere.

Broadcasting and the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sun, 13 May 2007 03:23:00 +0000

I am going to go quite a bit into telephone switching here because there are some interesting parallels between the development of telephone and broadcast technology, and I think this provides some insight into the future of broadcasting.

I worked for Pacific Northwest Bell, then US West when the baby bells got sucked into various regional companies after the AT&T divestiture, and then Qwest when some brilliant marketing folks thought that Qwest sounded better than US West. I guess they just wanted to get "US" out of the company and put some "Q" in. I worked for PNB/US West/Qwest from 1978 to 1995 at which point I left to devote full time to Eskimo North.

Early on most everything was analog. In 1978, many of the central offices were computerized (they referred to it as "stored program controlled") but those that weren't completely mechanical used computers to control mechanical switches.

In the 1990's most of these were replaced with "digital" switches which used at their core a time switch multiplexer which basically took a data sample at one time slot and buffered it then sent it out on a different slot. The 5ESS still had a layer of physical switching acting as a concentrator.

When I started working for Pacific Northwest Bell, most trunking, the circuits that carry conversation between central offices, was on twisted wire pairs with individual trunk circuits on each pair. They used very primitive regenerative bidirectional repeaters on these circuits to overcome wire losses on longer circuits. They were a pain to adjust and maintain.

Over time these individual trunk circuits were moved to "T1" carrier systems, a time division multiplexing scheme that multiplexed 24 individual conversations onto two pairs of wire. These worked by taking samples of the analog voltage of each channel 8000 times per second and encoding it using 8-bit u-law encoding creating a data rate of 1.544 Mb/s which, with the aid of repeaters, could be forced down copper lines to a remote central office.

Later, these T1 circuits were multiplexed into a 45 Mb/s stream and sent down coaxial cable. Over time these streams were multiplexed into still higher bit-rate schemes and sent over optical fiber.

There was never sufficient capacity demand between two central office to justify the entire bandwidth an optical fiber could carry. It became desirable to use a form of multiplexing that could add/drop a portion of that bandwidth at multiple locations. ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) that run over SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) links provided this functionality.

What should be noted about this entire architecture is that each conversation creates an entire 64Kb/s data stream continuously for the entire conversation and each trunk circuit represents 64Kb/s of data being transferred continuously whether or not someone is actually speaking on it. ATM adds considerable overhead because it operates with only 53 byte cells with 48 bytes of data payload and 5 bytes of header information.

As you can see, this means almost 10% of the transmission mediums capacity is eaten by cell headers. The reason they used such small cells has to do with latency. At the speeds common at the time, the concern was that larger cells would introduce too much delay and interfere with natural conversation. Small cells were chosen to minimize latency at the expense of efficiency.

I made the conjecture way back before VOIP (Voice over IP) was commercially available that eventually IP transmission would come to dominate voice transmission. The reason is efficiency. With VOIP you don't have static paths or connections. You route data as the need arises. Most VOIP software has silence detection and doesn't send data or much data, during silent intervals. Additionally modern encoding techniques are more efficient and less data is required for a voice conversation than the 64 Kb/s used by the telephone companies.

The main thing that prevented the implementation of VOIP back then was that routers were not sufficiently robust to handle large amounts of voice traffic. High end routers had 25 Mhz CPU's and limited memory back at that time.

Still, back when I was working for the telephone company and they were educating me with respect to ATM, I believed that eventually the fixed data rate encoding of voice circuits would eventually be replaced with voice over IP and at best ATM would carry IP traffic between routers. The economics of doing so make sense.

Now there are many VOIP long distance and local telephone carriers competing with traditional carriers and British Telecom has committed to converting their entire network to VOIP. But I don't think VOIP as it exists today is the end point.

As it exists today; you get a box you plug your phone into and it connects to a broadband internet connection. It creates a connection between you and a telephone company switch (which might be a software switch consisting of nothing more than a PC loaded with the proper software). Then that switch takes information and creates a connection to somewhere else, might be over a conventional trunk circuit to a conventional telephone company central office, might be to another VOIP switch, or might be to a customer. Eventually I see all of that going away and connections going directly from one end user to another over a broadband connection. There are programs to do this now but with most people still using conventional telephones you still need access to the circuit switched telephone network.

So how does this impact the broadcast industry? Broadcasting today is extremely inefficient in terms of the way it uses spectrum and energy. In addition, it offers the end user a very limited choice of programming, particularly with the recent change in station ownership rules allowing a few corporate entities to own and control the programming of the bulk of radio and television stations and prevent the entry of independent competitors.

Broadcast today involves a high power transmitter at some central location broadcasting an electromagnetic signal to a limited area surrounding the transmitter. 100 kilowatts of effective radiated power might provide a roughly circular coverage area with a commercially useful radius of perhaps 30 miles (give or take, there are many variables such as antenna height, local terrain, etc). A high quality receiver and antenna might be able to receive a signal up to about ten times that distance but not your average person.

Since the FCC has eliminated clear channels, even at night the geographical coverage area of any given station is very limited. If you are driving and listening to a program, you can not drive very long before that station is no longer receivable.

Net Radio by contrast has the advantage of having a global coverage area and not wasting hundreds of kilowatts of power for each originating source of programming. Potentially millions of stations are available which provides much greater program diversity. The barriers to new entries are much lower than with conventional broadcasting where it costs several tens of millions of dollars to buy or build a broadcast station. With Net Radio, someone with a PC and a broadband connection has everything they need to get started.

Net radio is limited presently to mostly fixed reception. This is so because presently a good infrastructure for continuous IP connectivity on the move doesn't widely exist. However, the recent introduction of WiMAX protocol will go a long way to changing this as well the introduction of even newer ultra-wide-band wireless data transmission standards.

Already there are companies installing national high-speed networks based on this protocol. I believe it's only a matter of time until portable internet radios and automotive internet radios become widely available. Presently, there are some portable internet radios that rely on WiFi hotspots, it's just a matter of time until versions for WiMax evolve and smart cell hand-off that allows you to retain the same IP as you move from cell site to cell site becomes available.

When this happens I believe it will completely displace conventional broadcasting and many other mobile radio services. Instead of having a gazillion different radio services, technologies, and modulation schemes, you'll have one ultra-wideband data transmission scheme and all of these various services carried over that wireless extension of the Internet.

When this happens, satellite broadcasting and conventional terrestrial broadcasting will become largely obsolete. Satellite may still enjoy some audience in areas were population density is too low to justify data cell sites, WiMAX or whatever future protocol they might be. They will become obsolete because IP broadcasting is so much more cost effective and at the same time will offer much more consumer choice.

That's my prediction for where broadcasting is ultimately headed; from a situation in which fixed terrestrial stations use tremendous amounts of energy to offer programming to a limited geographical coverage area and the people in that area have limited choices, to a situation where "Net Broadcasting" is broadcasting and wireless internet fills the gap for portable and mobile applications.

One artificial roadblock that was thrown at Net broadcasters was the recent increase in royalty rates, which if left unchecked, will pretty much kill Net broadcasters in the United States. Save Net Radio is an organization that is fighting this and recently a bill has been introduced called the Radio Equality Act which would set royalty fees internet broadcasters pay to the same as those that satellite radio broadcasters pay putting them on an equal footing. I suggest writing to your Senators and asking them to support S 1353 (the Senate version of the bill) and writing your Representatives and asking them to support H.R. 2060 (the House version). Also visit Save Net Radios website and consider contributing to their effort.

The potential for a great broadcasting future exists if power can be wrestled from the megacorporate interests that now control the industry.

Bush Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Thu, 03 May 2007 22:41:00 +0000

There is a radio station at the high school I attended, Nathan Hale, KNHC on 89.5 FM.

Doing an unrelated Google search I stumbled across "Bush Radio 89.5 FM". When I stumbled across this I thought, "Oh crap! Bush has even taken over my high school station!", but not yet... Bush radio is actually a station in Africa.

I've linked the blog for it here so you can go take a look (under the Radio Stations section).

Radio Equality Act - Loosen the Noose

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Thu, 03 May 2007 22:19:00 +0000

Please take a look at the Register article entitled, "Congress may loosen the noose on Internet Radio".
It is extremely unfair that Internet broadcasters should have to pay a fee 300-1200% higher than satellite broadcasters, but that is presently the situation.

If passed, the Internet Radio Equality Act, would set the royalty fee for Internet broadcasting to 7.5% of revenues, exactly the same as Satellite Radio. This new bill was co-sponsored by Washington State Democratic representative Jay Inslee, and Illinois Republican representative Don Manzullo.

Please write to your congressmen and express your support for The Internet Radio Equality Act. It is only fair that Internet broadcasters be allowed to complete on an equal basis with satellite broadcasters.

Sidebar Links Reorganization

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:49:00 +0000

I've re-organized the sidebar links to sort them into categories. Because my own interests in the Radio, Broadcasting, and Wireless field is so broad, the collection of links was likewise broad. I've created the following categories:

Amateur Radio and DX
Broadcast Blogs, News, and Trends
Broadcast Equipment
Broadcast History
Broadcast Technology
Radio and TV Stations
References
Unlicensed Broadcasting
Vintage Radio
Wireless Data Transmission

Amateur Radio and DX primarily deals with Amateur (HAM) radio and the hobby of listening to distant stations.

Broadcast Blogs, News, and Trends, primarily deals with information sources pertaining to current events in the broadcast field, anything from personal blogs to industry news to scathing editorials. Sites that are more geared towards the technology and theory behind it are in a separate Broadcast Technology section.

Broadcast Equipment is for sites primarily selling broadcast equipment.

Broadcast History is for sites primarily concerned with the history of radio and television broadcasting.

Radio and TV station consists of web sites for operating radio and television stations. Note that unlicensed stations will be placed in the Unlicensed Broadcasting category.

References is sites which primarily consist of reference data, radio station databases, etc.

Unlicensed Broadcasting consists of sites which primarily relate to unlicensed broadcast operations. These may be part 15 stations, bootleg or pirate radio stations, or any other form of broadcast without a license.

Vintage Radio consists of sites which have information on or sell vintage radio equipment. There is some overlap with the Broadcast History category as many of these sites selling vintage equipment also have some history on them, and some history sites will have minor sales functions. If the primary activity of the site seems to be geared towards sale of vintage equipment or if the emphasis is on the equipment and not the broader history, it will be listed here.

abdx.org

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:25:00 +0000

I added a link for abdx.org. They are a group of radio enthusiasts interested in American broadcast DXing. This is a hobby I used to be fairly heavily involved in, particularly TV DXing. Unfortunately, most of the activity seems to be on a Yahoo mail list rather than on the website. However, there are some cool tower pictures including one of a tower downed after a storm.

Analog AM/FM Cutoff

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:32:00 +0000

An article in ElectronicsWeekly.com entitled, "AM Radio Broadcasts Could End In Two Years", I find very troubling.

I understand the governments desire to end analog TV service. All the digital channels have been moved to UHF and ceasing VHF broadcasts will free up that spectrum so they can auction it off to the highest bidder. What ever happened to governing the airwaves to serve the public interest?

I don't understand the rush to shutdown analog AM/FM transmission since the digital counterpart occupies the same frequencies. I also hate to see all those old AM furniture radios no longer functional.

I don't like the Ibiquity HD radio system for AM at all. FM, so-so, it's probably an improvement over analog subcarriers. The AM Ibiquity HD radio system is a gross waste of bandwidth. Better quality audio could be fit into an existing spectral footprint.

They are trying to stick us with a system that is incompatible with the rest of the world to limit our exposure to news and opinion from the rest of the world while at the same time edging out smaller broadcasters so that only a handful of mega-corporations remain. We've already had a sample of "Fair and Balanced", and that's what we're going to get more of if we allow this to happen.

There is no reason to force a change over. If the economics favor it, stations will switch on their own. I do think that stations on AM should either broadcast analog or digital, not waste bandwidth with hybrid systems, but I do not think the entire band should be mandated to change. A system, such as I proposed, which would fit in the same spectral foot print would allow stations to switch as they felt it was economically beneficial to do so without impacting adjacent stations.

A few analog stations would remain to service those old radios. The biggest thing I don't like about Ibiquitys' system is that it uses three channels for audio with "fake" highs when it could fit audio with "real" highs into one channel if it got away from proprietary and non-compatible standards and used open and compatible standards.

I'd urge people write your congress critters and tell them the FCC needs to be returned to governing the airwaves in the publics interest, not in the NAB's, not in Ibiquitys' interests. You can write the FCC too but given that they are owned by corporate interest there doesn't seem to be much chance at persuading them directly.

Undestanding Cell Phone Tower Health Risks

noreply@blogger.com (Nanook) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:15:00 +0000

There is a lot of paranoia surrounding cell towers s and possibly human health risks. What is important to understand is that radio frequency field intensity is related to the inverse of the distance squared. The exposure that you get from being in the vicinity of a cell tower is hundreds of times lower than the exposure you get using a cell phone.

The only exception to this might be in a situation were cell phone antennas are operated on top of a roof and people are allowed access to that roof top so you can get right up close to the antennas.

Some early studies of cell phone usage showed some adverse health effects, a slightly increased risk of brain tumors and cataracts among them. However, the largest and most recent study did not show any increased risk.

This isn't to discredit earlier studies however. The earliest cellular handsets operated at power levels up to four watts. Without any external input your brain normally produces about 12-25 watts of heat. An additional 4 watts is a significant heat load and it's not heat that is distributed evenly but rather concentrated near the antenna. So it is extremely likely that there were significant health risks with these phones.

The next generation cut that power to 1 watt maximum. Still enough for mild thermal effects and possibly some marginally increased risks.

The next generation after that which still operated at 900 Mhz had a maximum transmit level of about 250 milliwatts, a quarter of a watt. This is really approaching a power level where thermal effects are becoming insignificant. These phones only operate at maximum power if they are in a poor signal area.

The very latest generation operating at 1.8 GHz uses a maximum power of 100 milliwatts and will step down to as little as 1 milliwatt if the signal level is good. This is not enough to cause significant thermal heating and is safe.

The field strength you are subject to from cell towers is a small percentage of the field strength you are subject to using even one of these modern phones. They represent no threat.

For cell phone users, more towers reduces your exposure because your modern cell phone steps down it's power when the signal is strong. If you're a few hundred yards from a cell tower, that cell tower doesn't require that your phone transmit at a high power level for it to receive it. If you are several miles, then your phone must transmit at a higher, but still safe, power level.