RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

8 March 1988/Baha'i News The village radio concept can be applied in several ways in addition to independent stations serving isolated communities . Рог example , selT —contained uni.ts of this sort might act as repeaters for a larger "flagship" station , extending its coverage ог filling in reception shadows . Moreover , village stations might repeat a signal at certain hours while programming locally at others . The networK programming might come from another station in the агеа , ог a satellite . microwave ог landline feed . The part-satellite , part-local origination concept is being implemented by small radio stations in Canada's Far North. (C.f., Douglas Ward, "Access Radio in the Northwest Territories" , CBC Northern Services, Ottowa , Ontario ) "There is no reason why ever у village in the Third World should not have a radio station of its own . ..." (Philip Crookes , "Down to Basics" , Development Forum April 1983) When many village stations exist in a region , they can enter into cellular communication (see "communication models" chart , f ollowmg ) , at times originating programming fог one ог all of their neighbors , at others repeating the broadcasts of villages elsewhere in the networK . Two ог more village stations might well engage in two-way ог multidirectional communication in similar fashion to the networks ог radio amateurs , participatmg in multi-community f orums , roundtable discussions , ог s.mply an interchange of greetings and personal messages . The new communication models thus created аге not only incredibly powerful but efficient of spectrum space as weii. A typical

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EQUIPMENT COST YEARLY OPERATING COST RADIATED POWER COVERAGE AREA' Commercial AM; S 100,000 $100,000 1.000 watla 23,800 km 2 Radio BahA’f AM: S50.000 $24,000 1,000 watts 23.800 km 2 Village Radio AM: S2.000 $1,200 5 walts 2.300 kra 2 Commcrcial FM: $200,000 $100,000 50,000 walts 74.350 km 2 VUIage Radio FM: $5,000 $2,000 50 walts 744 km 2