Running a station from a spare room
One machine, one line in and a steady connection will carry a programme to a few hundred listeners.
What you need
The encoder does the hard work, so give it the faster machine. Keep the bit rate low: most of your audience is still on a modem.
- A sound card with line in
- A mixer or a single deck
- An upstream of 128 kbps or better
Checking the signal
Start the encoder with chronoskin --meter and watch the level. It should peak just under the top mark.
Getting listed
Run the programme for a week at the same hours, then send the stream address to the relay crew. They listen in before the station goes on the dial.