FM Station - Signs

[Durty]

Those of you that have signs for tuning to an FM Station, can you share?  Do you use lights?  Do you use some sort of weatherproof board with a spotlight?  Pre-fabricated?  Your own creative idea?

[TheSignGuy]

Small LED flood on a sign/s about 18" X 24" is what I use. I did the lights 1 year but I did not care for it. I use coroplast it's light and easy to store but any board will work as long as you can read it. Secure it to a piece of rebar or fence post and you are good, don't over think it.....

I can print my own outdoor stuff so it was easy for me. Any vinyl cutter or sign shop can do the lettering and supply the board and stake if needed.

Edited October 16, 2021 by TheSignGuy

[Mr. P]

I originally started out with the HC "Tune To" sign and then switched to a three line scrolling sign so I could put out more info.

[k6ccc]

The first couple years I used pieces of scrap plywood that were about 15x20 inches   Spray painted a dark color, and after that dried, laid out the letters and numbers with blue painters tape.  Spay painted the whole things white, and pulled off the painters tape after the white dried.  Screwed a couple stakes to the back and illuminated each with a white spotlight.  I literally did that on opening day and it was fast to do (and I was running out of time).

After a couple years, I built two light boxes out of plywood with a translucent plastic front.  Put stick on letters for the text.  The light box had dumb RGB strip inside so I could make it any colour I wanted.  Those lasted a couple years until one was damaged in a wind storm.

The last few years I have used a P10 matrix that normally displays the time to info, the song title and artist.  Once in a while it displays other stuff as well.

I have photos that show all of these that I will post when I get to my computer.

 

[LaughsBrightly]

I use one of these at each show.

https://www.holidaycoro.com/Tune-To-Radio-Frequency-Sign-p/345.htm

They also have one for pixels 

They hold up well to Michigan weather.

[k6ccc]

On the computer now, so here are some photos.  For each of these I am embedding the photo, but also a direct link to it since some browsers won't display the embedded photo.  First the original plywood sign.  Sorry, it was photo of something else, but it's all I have for one of these:

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/2014_6_arches.jpg

Now a couple photos of the light box signs  The first shows the dumb RGB strip:

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Tune_To_3.jpg

Next is a completed daylight view:

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Tune_To_in_daylight.jpg

And now in the dark:

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/TuneTo_cyan.jpg

And the P10 matrix.  First what it normally displays for songs (photo taken along with the P5 matrix hanging in my family room):

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Matrix_panels_hanging_close-up.jpg

And the temporary outside mounting:

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/P10_2018_mounting-3.jpg

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by k6ccc

[basis21b]

I went with a low tech solution:  A 2'x4' sheet of plywood.  I started out with a base coat of white paint, attached letters purchased from an office supply store and then applied a layer of black paint.  I use a flood light on a timer to illuminate the sign.  What appears to be white lettering on a black background shows up very well under the flood light.  Our sign will be making its 16th appearance this season.  I can get away with using plywood for long term due to the fact that I live in Minnesota.  The precipitation we typically get during the display season comes in a form that does not penetrate the plywood.

[tlogan]

Here is one of the few pictures I have stored on this website since it comes up relatively frequently. This is what I do. My wife is has one of the craft style cutting machines so we cut out the holly and all of the letting except for the station numbers. I bought a pack of those and have had to change them as commercial stations have come and gone that interfere. I just stick new ones one as needed. Don't know why it looks bad in the picture, but "Christmas" reads fine in real life.

Oh, for those of you on the other thread about leaving lights all on off between shows, I run two different shows that run almost a half hour so there is 4 minutes at the end of one show and 2 minutes  at the end of the other. I turn all on and run some generic music with a voice countdown every minute to the start of the next show, so no one should wait more than a minute to know when the next show starts. Then the lights go all off just before the next show starts.

Edited October 18, 2021 by tlogan

[k6ccc]

3 hours ago, basis21b said:

I can get away with using plywood for long term due to the fact that I live in Minnesota.  The precipitation we typically get during the display season comes in a form that does not penetrate the plywood.

That line made me laugh!

You can keep your snow...

 

[dibblejr]

13 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

That line made me laugh!

You can keep your snow...

 

Could have been bb’s

LOL

JR

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

That line made me laugh!

You can keep your snow...

 

Right now, I will take water any way it comes. The 60' well at the Family retreat ran dry in July  (the water was at 25' in April). Half the neighbors are in the same boat.

BTW I was raised in Norther NJ, so as soon as I was old enough to hold a shovel... 🙄

[k6ccc]

1 minute ago, TheDucks said:

Right now, I will take water any way it comes.

Actually getting a small amount of measurable rain this morning.  Only 0.06 inches, but it's better than nothing.  At least gets the grass wet...

 

[Sctiger]

I also went the low tech route. I ordered 2 double sided signs online (Vistaprint or somewhere...I forget the actual place) for cheap.  I then built a frame around it and mounted it to 4x4 posts with finials on top. I have spotlights on timers that illuminate them. 

If you go this route, double check your station availability before committing lol. 

[tlogan]

15 hours ago, Sctiger said:

If you go this route, double check your station availability before committing lol. 

Indeed. I've had low power commercial stations come and go a couple of times now.

[Wayne K]

I made mine out of coro plastic. I made 2 panels 1 for each side and then made a wood case with short 2x4's for the cross mount. I then laid out the coro in 3/4" grid up and down and side to side. Then spelled out the listen to the lights and then spelled out the tune to 96.7. I then used green leds for the listen to the lights and then gold / yellow leds for the tune to and then red for the 96.7. the listen to the lights is on one channel and then tune to  and 96.7 are on a second channel. Then I fade up on down between the 2 and it works really good.

 

[tlogan]

@Wayne K - I just may steal that idea! I think I have a couple of spare channels now to do it.

[Wayne K]

10 hours ago, tlogan said:

@Wayne K - I just may steal that idea! I think I have a couple of spare channels now to do it.

Just more fyi. I think there will be 2 grids on each panel. One will be listen to the lights and the other one will be tune to and 96.7. the reason for the 2 grids is to allow some bulbs in between other bulbs to get the letters needed. If you can slow the picture up you will see different bulbs in some lines of bulbs.

If you can't blow the picture up, I could send you the jpg file if you want.

Wayne

[Wayne K]

20 minutes ago, Wayne K said:

If you can slow the picture up

Sorry should say: if you can blow the picture up

[tlogan]

I think I got the idea. Now that I think about it, I'm thinking I could layout the numbers like you see on digital clocks (a squared off Zero with a line through the middle) so that you create any number and use blackout caps to allow only the lights of the numbers I want to shine. I'm thinking it would make it pretty easy to change on the fly...just black out the lights I don't need in order to create a new number. Using a black coro background would hide the blackout caps.

[TheDucks]

18 minutes ago, tlogan said:

I think I got the idea. Now that I think about it, I'm thinking I could layout the numbers like you see on digital clocks (a squared off Zero with a line through the middle) so that you create any number and use blackout caps to allow only the lights of the numbers I want to shine. I'm thinking it would make it pretty easy to change on the fly...just black out the lights I don't need in order to create a new number. Using a black coro background would hide the blackout caps.

That was my IDEA. A Seven Segment  layout using Smart nodes (bullets or rectangles). You get to set Color as well as the digit. and only use a single string /port. No overlapped nodes

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f2Q6I-kD0_cqn7BCqp0v00Jm8Lld8gsV/view?usp=sharing

I picked the ratio of 5 for vertical to 3 Horizontal  for looks (29 nodes  per digit)

Remember the decimals (clocks inverted the adjacent display to get the Colon look. Count down timer?)

Oh and the first digit is a 1 (if you are using 1xx.x freq) for 10 nodes

comes in at 99 nodes