mlr

I recently started working on rebuilding my radio station – this one in Evergreen Valley, a sub-division of San Jose, and small community in it’s own right.

I recently started working on rebuilding my radio station – this one in Evergreen Valley, a sub-division of San Jose, and small community in it’s own right.

The community itself is fairly sprawling, and covers quite a bit of dirt.

EVLR is going to be using a Chez Radio Procaster to start with, and eventually go to multiple transmitters around the community. We’ll have a SStran and a Rangemaster in the mix, since they are sitting right here.

My audio chain, so far, is a 2 channel EQ, Behringer 2 channel compressor/limiter, a denon cd deck, an old akai tape deck with 2 VU meters (oOOoo), a gemini console, Shure Mic mixer, Shure Console, a nady mic, a boom arm, a small radio shack backup mic and desktop stand, and a PC running whatever automation I end up settling on.

I had asked Phil at SSNTRAN about how it should handle heat, since I now live at the focal point of the cosmos’ magnifying glass. (AKA: Tucson)

On 4/18/06, info@sstran.com wrote:
Rick,

The crystal is rated to be within .002% of frequency over the temp range of -20C to 70C (-4F to 158F). The spec sheet doesn’t say what happens outside this operating range. Storage temperature limits are -40C to 85C (-40F to 185F) which are the absolute safe limits before damage would occur over time.

I had asked Phil at SSNTRAN about how it should handle heat, since I now live at the focal point of the cosmos’ magnifying glass. (AKA: Tucson)

On 4/18/06, info@sstran.com wrote:
Rick,

The crystal is rated to be within .002% of frequency over the temp range of -20C to 70C (-4F to 158F). The spec sheet doesn’t say what happens outside this operating range. Storage temperature limits are -40C to 85C (-40F to 185F) which are the absolute safe limits before damage would occur over time.

Phil

—–Original Message—–
From: info@sstran.com [mailto:info@sstran.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 10:48 AM
To: Rick Collette
Subject: RE: temp tolerance
Hi Rick,

Good question. There really aren’t any components that will be affected by temperature extremes that are likely to be experienced in the US. The only possible concern is the frequency accuracy at very low or very high temps. I will look at the crystal spec tonight and give you an estimate of usable limits.

Phil

With no ground to speak of, I got nearly 5v from the little transmitter. I’m sure once it’s nice and grounded, I’ll get something more substantial.

So I fine tune it (by the way – use a plastic tuning stick… boy it’s hard to get a reading using a screwdriver on that trimmer..)

I hand the antenna up at the top of my blinds in the computer room. The antenna was sort of looped to the floor and then up to the top of the blinds. I was expecting to get around my house – TOPS.

With no ground to speak of, I got nearly 5v from the little transmitter. I’m sure once it’s nice and grounded, I’ll get something more substantial.

So I fine tune it (by the way – use a plastic tuning stick… boy it’s hard to get a reading using a screwdriver on that trimmer..)

I hand the antenna up at the top of my blinds in the computer room. The antenna was sort of looped to the floor and then up to the top of the blinds. I was expecting to get around my house – TOPS.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that without a real antenna, or even a well tuned one, and with zero grounding, I got about 4 blocks radius from my house… and keep in mind: my house is stucco’d – that means I’m wrapped in chicken wire.

VERY cool. I’m extremely please this far – so pleased in fact, I may buy another for backup purposes.

Next step: Build that Antenna.

So I sit down at the tiny desk I have to do projects on, and start reading the manual.

After the manual was read, I started serparating the parts by value.

About 3 hours later, the kit is built.

Wow – talk about easy. I’ve only ever built a couple of kits before (Ramsey FM25A, RFB 1 Watt FM Transmitter, RFB 6 Watt Amplifier) – and I screwed 2 of those up pretty bad. So I’m no expert – in fact, Stephen Dunnifer told me I should never pick up a soldering iron.

So I sit down at the tiny desk I have to do projects on, and start reading the manual.

After the manual was read, I started serparating the parts by value.

About 3 hours later, the kit is built.

Wow – talk about easy. I’ve only ever built a couple of kits before (Ramsey FM25A, RFB 1 Watt FM Transmitter, RFB 6 Watt Amplifier) – and I screwed 2 of those up pretty bad. So I’m no expert – in fact, Stephen Dunnifer told me I should never pick up a soldering iron.

I’ll probably bypass the power connector, or jumper it to an external connection mounted insidde my weatherproof case. I still need to find the case…

Next step – Testing the SStran with built in antenna.

The kit showed up after 3 days. Complete. I had the surface mount chip already installed, because I’d heard poeple say the board was crammed too tight. I did not find this to be the case. I thought the board was VERY well laid out.

I won’t be using the supplied case, and I will be building my external antenna for it. But I decided to try it with the wire antenna, just to see what happens.

The kit showed up after 3 days. Complete. I had the surface mount chip already installed, because I’d heard poeple say the board was crammed too tight. I did not find this to be the case. I thought the board was VERY well laid out.

I won’t be using the supplied case, and I will be building my external antenna for it. But I decided to try it with the wire antenna, just to see what happens.