The Legacy 1640 Khz C-Quam AM Stereo Deltaville, VA's True Album Rock!
OK folks talk is cheap and graphics are cheap. The true test is what your eyes can see and what your ears can hear. The video is sort of short because one of my biggest loyal listeners Red Horse 1620 (who also runs a part 15 Rock station on 1620 using a Talking House and His own home made antenna constructed before the Range Extender 2.5 was invented). So if you want to free your mind and see some real honest Range tests you should watch his Youtube videos.
The Test will show you what you'll hear a mile and a quarter from the transmission site. You'll recognize the water where he tested it (If you know Deltaville, VA). This was received on a Car Radio with good sensitivity compared to the Toyota Corolla's Radio. Now get this you'll also see a video of my station 4.66 miles away crossing the bridge that heads to Gloucester, VA. This will make the Radio Sheriff's eyes water as I prove It can be done as the agent said it could. Note: The water around Deltaville, VA is salt water as the FCC agent told me would greatly magnify the signal of a part 15 station. So watch and meditate on the greatness of a well located station near salt water.
Here is a video around the bay at Fishing Bay. Notice the beautiful signal out of that Radio. Be sure to pause and un pause the video to see the scene.
Next is a video unfortunately it didn't show exact location but Red Horse said he was around the Deltaville Market. That is 1 1/4 miles away and as you can hear an Album Rock quality signal there on the Car Radio. On the Tecsun PL-380 (without the Terk AM advantage loop was barely listenable).
Finally are you sitting comfortably? put your headphones on though I know he recorded this with a mic so you could not hear the C-Quam AM Stereo but this video is 4.66 miles away as you cross the bridge. It statics at first but you'll hear it suddenly come in.
I wish he would had been able to show the bridge but this was the second report of my signal being received over there. The first one was on a Toyota Corolla from a neighbor and the third report was from my Broadcast Engineer friend.
We will try and do more actual sound bite range tests of our station later.
listen on Live365 or Tune You as A-1 Audio Legacy FM and check out our web site as we also have videos there.
Can you show us a video of your setup, including antenna?
My antenna is really nothing special what it consists of is a 10 ft PVC pipe with the wire going up the pipe.
I am quite sure that the aluminum antenna on a procaster or even the antenna that comes with the range extender 2.5 is more efficient than this one but it does the job. The top hat seems to really help though because there's a coil in that which is an inductance type of coil which helps Force the radiation upward. I don't use a ground I use a counterpoise. The counterpoise seems to help better than actually using a ground we've actually tried with and without a ground and it works better without it so why use it.
Again I'm legally blind so I have other people do camera work for me. But I do believe the salt water as the FCC agent explain to me is what's making my range as good as it is. I am quite sure that if my transmitter were saying Michigan my range would probably be about a mile with booming signal 2 a mile and a half weather Fair signal. What I'm trying to get to everyone is your location makes a big difference. Your height makes a big difference. And your surroundings are going to make a big difference. One size certainly doesn't fit all with this stuff. It's the same reason that some CD radio operators with a standard radio no linear no modification can do better than others. It's the material that your antenna is made out of and your location that makes a big difference.
But what sort of irks me is when people install a range master high on a church steeple or on a wooden Pole with no ground and they're getting range there are some that are already crying that they done something wrong. The range master has a good matching system this is something that my broadcast engineer talked about. If you have the gumption to take an SWR meter and connect it between your transmitter and your antenna as you can do with the talking house you just have to have a meter that will go down to 100 maw but yes you can measure SWR. This also helps your transmitter get out the best it can.
Maybe in the future I'll see what I can do about a video of the antenna but it is a good start for some of you folks trying to get the range try to get your Transmitter near salt water and you'll see the difference. There are some that actually use a saltwater ground system and have reported good range.
Well, you see, you use both a top hat and a counterpoise. That's not just a wire up a PVC pipe. It likely contributes to the good range you're seeing (whether it's legal or not is open to debate - there've been many discussions on this Forum).
The problem is that you're reporting range that far exceeds others that have been reported by Part 15 compliant broadcasters. Yes, there are lots of factors that influence range, but there is a theoretical maximum, given 100mw input to the final, amplifier efficiency and antenna restrictions.
Just as an example of my experience, with a Rangemaster outdoors in the open, few obstructions, excellent ground conductivity and audio processing (consisting of an Inovonics 222 and a Symetrix 421), I was able to achieve ranges to a car radio of slightly over a mile consistently. The signal was definitely not clear (static could be heard) but it was listenable. In one direction, at just the right spot, I got about 2 miles, but the signal was very weak - you could tell it was there, but you wouldn't want to listen to it.
With other transmitters (Talking Sign, Talking House, ProCaster) in other locations I usually got 1/4 - 1/2 mile, sometimes up to a mile or a bit more in certain directions. That's consistent with virtually all signal reports that I read.
I don't think that you're doing anyone any favors by claiming 2 1/2 miles range fair, 1 mile booming. That's not typical, even if someone works really hard to get the best installation possible. When people hook up their transmitter and get 1/4 mile range, they wonder what they're doing wrong, when it's probably nothing.
My intent is not to imply that you're in violation of the rules. That's between you and the FCC. Just that it's not likely that most people will see the kind of ranges that you're seeing. It's important to set expectations, particular for those new to Part 15 broadcasting.