I was reading today and found that radio stations in America are allotted 200 khz of bandwidth (I suppose that's the term?) to send data out on, but only use about 57 khz for music. The bandwidth would allow for a lot more data to be sent. I've been thinking for a while that it would be really cool if radio stations transmitted the song and artist name along with the music, and it would show up in the receiver. So I was wondering if I could build a little system, both a transmitter and receiver, that do this. The transmitter broadcasts music, and song and artist name, and the receiver accepts it and converts it into a playable and displayable format. At this point I'm not interested in an lcd or anything, I'd really just like to have it all on my computer. Well not the transmitter and receiver hardware, of course. But I have a transmitter that's connected to my computer, and some software sends data to it which is broadcasts, and then there's a receiver hooked up to another computer with software that interprets the data. Is this feasible? What sort of stuff would I need to know to do this? I really have no clue, to be honest, so I'm countin on sinetific to provide me with a list of links

Research Packet Communications. Packet Communications is generally the act of sending data through the airwaves. Its commonly insecure since anyone can snag the files if they know how.

That is possible for you to do, extremely actually, but I reccommend that you do research on differant bands.

It is illegal for an amateur to broadcast for public pourposes. It is also illegal to broadcast for more than 15 minutes without broadcasting a callsign (in amateur radio bands).

With Amateur Communications you can plug a "Packet Device" to your serial port on yoru computer and then plug it into a Ham Radio and then start your ish with whatever software you wish to use.

It is definately feasable although it'd be quite insecure. Don't think about encrypting the signals either, once again, it is illegal to encode messages.

It is quite easy though, you should get an amateur radio license and get some books on it, things fall together with what you're doing for basic stuff lol...

Well this wouldn't be for broadcasting purposes, and I would really only need the signal to go like 8 feet, lol. I don't intend to broadcast anything I care about, I just want to see if I can send some more info about the song over as well. So, that said, what are some good links and books I should read?

Ahh, well you wouldn't need too high of a band for that, you'll need to learn about frequencies and antenna's though. See if you broadcast too high the transmitter will generate a lot of excess radeation.

Umm http://www.qrz.com http://www.arrl.org are good sites, take QRZ's practice tests, I do it when I get bored till I start passing. The questions on the test are official questions on the official test.

Umm http://www.hamradio.com or Ham Radio Outlet has a lot of books, you should have one in your area. Just tell them that you're looking for books for a Technician class license.

Damnit, work makes it so i cant check the board often so giz got here first but....

Many radio stations already do broadcast song information along with the audio signals you just need the right type of radio reciever to see the data and the stations need the equipment to broadcast it.

This technology is called RBDS (Radio Broadcast Data System) in the U.S. which is based on the european RDS.

If you want it for your computer check this out it has some usefull info:
http://www.dvdirect.com/pdf/ADS/5013.pdf

Ill get more info when i get home hopefully or talk to you in IRC.

Alright, that's pretty cool, and pretty much what I want... However I'm interested in making my own So what can you tell me about that?

it's cheaper to buy it....

Definately, you don't want to mess around with radio equipment, the radiation from the antenna's can be quite large at points...

Sorry, I know this is an old topic. Just came to my head there have something called "slow scan". Its the use of a camera (well video camera). Setup with LCD screen other devices bleh bleh and you take pictures and you can send them VIA radio... Anyway sorry had to get that off my mind. Anyway this can lay back in it's grave sry.

And? Anything, including video's can be sent over the radio spectrum, but you most be licensed to use the frequencies.

Didn't read other posts...so this may be a dup...but there are some companies that make wireless rs232 links.

I remember this question being asked on the PICLIST...if you wanna find a lot of info, search the PICLIST archives at http://www.piclist.org You'll find plenty of information there about wireless links.

i would like to know about police digital radio coms and if there is a tumbler out there yet

i think that what they talk about should be heard by every one and no just the police.
because how can we check if they are doing there jobs if we cant hear them

Well just though I'd comment on the security thing, even though encrypting the signals in illegal for Civilians, you can always Freq Hop, as long as you stay with in the allotted Freq's that are assigned to Amatuer Radio Op's and as long as you don't stay in the same place, it is VERY hard for any type of EW to grab where your signal is coming from when you cycling 16 Freq's every 0.3 secs............just a thought, not easy to build though.........