I don't know why its so hard to get a decent AM Transmitter yet FM transmitters are vastly available for cheap.
No AM transmitters are made in China!
All are made in the USA or Canada and a few in Europe and are good quality and need a more elaborate set up.
Less are made.
Decent FM transmitters are more expensive too and are not made in China...Decade(cert.), Broadcastvision(cert.), Panaxis(cert.), EDM, Veronica.
Mark
I have first hand experience with the Veronica 30W. I ran it in Florida for 4 straight years until FL passed a law. Felony. That's a nope. Unplugged it. Been silent ever since.
But boy was that thing clean! The cleanest AM transmitter (I have had several) was the SSTRAN. I have an Orban 424A Comp/Limiter/De-Esser, but I did not need that with the AMT-3000. My Veronica FM needed that punch to keep up with the big boys. It did.
But the SSTRAN has that AGC built-in. It is schweet, too! If I don't ever hear from SSTRAN, I will be surprised. But I eventually may go with the $295 iAM Radio with the augmented audio. It's my only choice. The next up would be the ProCaster. Too much $ for me...
Doug
Veronica and EDM transmitters are very good ones indeed and our member who has been granted the Experimental license from the FCC to allow reaserch on FM for 1 Watt has been testing some of these and with different antenna designs with ranges from 1-2 miles indoors with a telescopic antenna and other indoor designs. This is nothing to cry about and could pave the way for a rural Hobby Radio broadcasting service.
Testing some of the CZH (SainSonic) and CZERF (Signstek) transmitters we found some HUGE differences in filtration and performance. SainSonic being a major issue because of its miss matched rubber ducky antenna that with an MFJ analyzer comes out to be at 140 Mhz (Ouch). The noise from the transmitter was caused by the poor antenna that was sold with the transmitter. Connecting a BNC connector to the motherboard instead of the reverse threaded TNC connector (SainSonic's genius idea) and then using a tuned FM antenna to the frequency of use did clean up the spurs of the SainSonic but didn't stop the fact that they often try and sell used transmitters that have been reworked. Some of the soldering was a nightmare and their mods to the board were very obvious. SainSonic's Low power in their 05B is NOT 100mW but -48dbm (11 nanowats) and they tried to say that was part 15 compliant which would be close I'll give you that).
Signstek (CZERF) transmitters actually come with a manual that clearly says CZERF and they sell their transmitters with a Metal Telescopic Antenna and at the base is what looks to be a loading coil. They did NOT change the power and did not decide to put a reverse connector and uses a standard TNC connector on it. Their 1 Watt capable unit has a FAN to keep this transmitter cool. Tests are being conducted to see how this compares to the SainSonic and others but already we've seen a cleaner transmitter with the Signstek (CZERF) than the SainSonic and even the certified Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0. Even at its High Power level it had less hash and FM wipe out than the (Certified) Whole House 3.0 Also and this is running this transmitter at more than 10 times the power of the Whole House FM Transmitter 3.0. Also it should be noted that many certified USA based FM transmitters are modified Chinese units (Decade CM-10) or made by the SAME COMPANY under a different name (Richmond Electronics). We've yet to tear into a C. Crane but I'm willing to bet they are actually made in China once you see the circuit board. At least the BH 1415F chip is the same as other transmitters are using which has its own pre emphasis circuit in it.
Again China's QC department is not as good as the USA's and their transmitters vary a lot in their batches. Even folks who own C. Crane FM Transmitters have complained about the faulty antenna connection and again this can and often will cause spurious emissions in itself for the faulty antenna connections cause a miss match. If Hobby FM Broadcasting is to be allowed with a different service these toys just won't cut it. You could not just simply boost the C. Crane to 1 Watt and call it good. It would have to be so that it had the proper filtration.
The Talking House (iAM) is built in China.
The iAM is certainly the odd one out of the bunch as well, it has a few pros that make it pretty nifty, but the shortcomings become a problem as you try to expand your station. The iAM is stupid easy to setup and many of their units put out near 100% of the allowed power. However their frequency stability makes nighttime listening difficult and impossible to sync future transmitters. For what you end up spending on an iAM unit to attempt to reach the ProCaster and Rangemaster's levels you're almost better off saving the money now and buying the real deal later.
And along the same lines of discussion, concerning transmitters, I want a AMT5000, but do not have the patience to wait for months to take delivery.
I have a site across town that is wanting to host a transmitter setup. I have even researched the low end Barix Instream 100-110 series. They seem to fit the bill and are cheaper than messing with a laptop or computer.
Support is growing for my little hobby station. The idea of having a locally run station is very well received.
I may need to rethink my strategy and become part of the problem on FM with a low power commercial station instead of LPFM.
I noticed a customer walk over to a radio I keep playing in my front office. It of course is for my enjoyment, but can be heard at times if you are in the right place. I watched him on camera and I noticed he was looking at the dial.
I walked up and asked if if he like what he heard. He was grinning and said oh yes, I just need to tune it in. I told him to enjoy the 1/2 mile of solid coverage I have. 100 milliwatts of rip snorting raw power!
Another listener...he works for the City and should be in range most of the day.
I'm retired so I spend the days sitting outside on the porch with a radio of course listening to my station and the mail girl came to deliver a parcel to me and seemed to pause to listen for a moment and I said do you like what you hear? She said yes and I told her that every day when you are around this area and at the mail boxes turn the radio in your truck to 90.7 and enjoy!...you'll hear me being DJ also. Yes I will she said, so I have a part time listener. Seemed impressed that I was broadcasing on the radio.
Mark
almost worth it. I am starting to see proof of what I have said for a few years that a local station would be well received here if some work went into it.
The question is if it would be financially self supporting or profitable if it were a LPFM or even low power commercial. I can't answer that, so I am going to go forward slowly and have fun...
Sense I rent an apartment which is actually a 4 Plex I get visitors. Some actually hear my voice over the radio and wonder what the heck I am doing. I tell them that I haven't internet radio station and give them the website as well as let them know that if they are within range they will hear me on FM on 100.1 Mega Hertz.
Recently a 15 year old neighbor boy heard my station. He said that he like the type of music that I was playing I was actually surprised that he listened to other formats other than top 40 and rap. I told him that my station is a different sort of radio station in the fact that we are an album rock station. I let him know about the wonderful genre of album Rock and how much more creative it is as opposed to the hit music that is played on everyday radio stations. He made a request for the Charlie Daniels Band which I was glad to play. He says no one ever plays that anymore other than the Devil Went Down to Georgia and I heard something that I've never heard in a long time. I told him to keep on listening because he'll hear lots of stuff that he normally will not here. Luckily his houses probably less than a hundred feet away so he has a really good signal. his mom who is a cancer patient Love's album Rock and classic rock and said this was the best thing she has heard in a long time. It made me smile knowing that I was able to bring something back that has been dying for such a long time in the radio Market. This is why I am so strong held in trying to bring about a separate service called hobby broadcasting.
I actually have a friend who has talked to me about trying to do a bigger radio project. Maybe we could rent a piece of property next to an apartment complex. Then we could get a good am transmitter like a rangemaster or an AMT 5000. We could have the 10-foot antenna and everything set up just right and our range would cover a good couple of miles if we did it right. This would be really nice for folks in this Rural town and we could do different programming during different times of the day. Maybe even have military news or news articles that help disabled folks. Something a little different though that's what it calls for.
Hi Guys, For all practical purposes a LPFM makes no money. The coverage area is small so you work just to break even. LPFM's are non-commercial so nothing more than underwriting is permitted. LPFM's are a labor of love.
That is what I am learning after asking questions. I am ok with that to some extent, but as I told someone the other day, I can program for myself and not have the headaches of keeping things current for everyone else.
I see no real transition path from LPFM to commercial broadcast. It looks like you start over, except for maybe experience gained.
I have heard some real aggressive underwriting techniques on a non-commercial (not LPFM) station in a town about 100 miles south of me. The seem to be doing ok and the parent company has several stations in the DFW area if memory serves me.
Everything always leads back to one thing... money, lack of it usually!
Hi guys!
Doug here. Yep! The SSTRAN AMT-3000 has arrived! What have I done to my Part 15 station...hmmm. Well, I hooked up and calibrated my Orban 424-A comp/limiter. I may use that in place of the SSTRAN's processing. We'll see. I may change frequency. At night, WFME (1560 AM) comes in. I DXed that the other night.
WFME-1560 is a religious-formatted broadcast radio station located in New York City; it operates as a Class A station on a clear channel frequency with 50,000 freakin' watts (50 kilowatts) of power.The station is owned and operated by Family Radio, a Christian radio ministry based in Oakland, California. The station's studios and offices are located in West Orange, New Jersey, and its transmitters are based in the Maspeth section of the New York City borough of Queens.
So, I may go up or down from there a notch or two. As I said, if I can reach downtown Augusta the way the Talking House unit did, with just the wire hanging out the window (!), I be GOLDEN! The damn thing went half a mile! Where I am, that covers a LOT! So come on, SSTRAN, make me proud!
I have a slew of KLW jingles. See, what I did was, I edited the CKLW jingle package! I used Cool Edit Pro 2.1. I lopped off the "C", leaving "KLW" in the clear! It works for me! I need to run across jingles with them singing 1510, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, and 90. One of those should be clean at night.
So, building the 3000 is next. No hurry on that. It is such an easy build! I don't understand the fear some have of this build. Just the basic, rudimentary soldering skills are needed. The instructions could be followed by a grade-schooler! I love doing this! I might buy the AMT-5000 just for the challenge! Ha! Besides, that is a gem! That is Phil's best work, there. Can't let that one go by!
Doug
Any particular reason you are avoiding being above 1600? If old radios are your target most should tune to 1610 which would be a heck of a lot clearer at night. I've tried running in the 1500 range but found nighttime coverage to be extremely rough, which did provide me a "daytimer" part 15 setup that complimented my X-Band signal for older radios.