Abstract:
This is an ad-hoc mesh network of micro powered FM radio transmitters. They work as an autonomous Radio Bulletin Board System allowing anyone in the local community to call in and add their message to the streaming broadcast. Listeners at home now become part of the conversation without any prescribed ideology or delegation of a talk radio host. The system is designed to be as cheap as possible using common off the shelf products and open source software. The system is designed to facilitate international connectivity between communities through the use of Voice over IP, in which case communities that are normally separated through geographic proximity can foster a sense of connectedness by being exposed to a conversation that is a mix of both communities.

Materials used:
Low power radio transmitter
Desktop PC
Asterisk open source PBX/telephony software
Internet connection (optional)

Use case scenario:
Bill is a concerned citizen from a small community. He knows something that he would like his fellow community members to be aware of. He calls a local number and records a message with an automated telephone system. His recorded message then gets added to a queue of other recently recorded messages and soon enough Bill is at home listening to his message on a local radio station. John is also a member of Bill’s community and was also listening to the same local radio station. John hears Bills message and has something he would like to add to that and so he calls the same local number and records a message in response. And a dialogue evolves that could go on asynchronously for hours, days or months. Sally is a member of a another small community separated by thousands of miles from Bill and John. Sally is also listening her local radio station and hears the messages that Bill and John have left. She has never heard of this information before but she suspects that it may be important to her community as well. Their communities are linked through this radio network because they share common vested interests and the information Bill and John have shared turns out to be very important for Sally’s community to consider as well.

Artist Statement:
Information shared and consumed on the internet even when it is concerned with a community is always an isolating experience. Massive amounts of personal information is exchanged online but the physicality is irrelevant. In the end we are always separated by a virtual wall. By using analogue radio as a means of dissemination, the community becomes connected by a network in a more tangible and intimate way. Pirate/neighborhood radio, because it is a sound based medium and because of it’s physical limitations in broadcasting range, reinforces the sense of local and timely. Radio depends heavily on the use of voice, which is an important component of identity. The voice that you hear in the broadcast could be the same voice that you hear at the bus stop.

Centralized radio stations require high power broadcast transmission, this both increases the cost and makes the station more visible by state regulation. Regulating a centralized broadcast station is simple, either the station is broadcasting with enough power to be easily located and shut down or they are broadcasting with not enough power to be reachable by a general audience and therefore don’t need to be shut down. A mesh network of FM radio transmitters can cover the same area as a centralized radio station while keeping the maximum power of each node in the network low enough to be undetectable and inexpensive. If the coverage area needs to be increased to accommodate a larger audience, a centralized transmission needs to increase it’s broadcasting power which in turn increases it’s cost and detectability. A mesh network on the other hand can simply increase it’s number of nodes. Adding the same level of coverage without increasing it’s detectable transmission power and at a cost that can be more easily distributed across the community.

References/Antecedents
Pirate Radio or Community Communications by Howard Rheingold~ http://www.well.com/~hlr/tomorrow/radio.html
Free Radio Santa Cruz Shut Down by FCC ~ http://www.democracynow.org/2004/9/30/longest_standing_pirate_radio_station_free
BBS ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system
Indy Media ~ http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml