Started a new thread as this is a change of subject,
Wanted to post a reply to Artisan's comment about my post regarding a good article for new people to part 15 here on the forum as it may be informative to some.
He brings up a good point about operating with no ground and still getting great range.
He suggested that the "ground" could be being accessed through the power supply or audio cables or other equipment in the audio chain to the electrical ground of the house or building and this based on some strange things with me that I could never figure out could very well be true.
I use the Procaster indoors with NO ground, or so I think. Nothing connected to the ground lug(doing so would have more length than legal anyway), just a 20 gauge 3 meter(118") wire with an alligator clip to the top lug taped horizontally to the wall.
Now, my range like this from inside the house covers the neighborhood and beyond but a ground could be there completely unknowingly! Makes sense and if it makes sense it's usually true(Judge Judy) It could be getting an electrical ground from the power supply, other audio processing equipment connected including the computer, audio cables to and from the studio part connected to the transmitter.
So maybe me, Timinbovey, etc., thinking there's no ground could really have a ground indirectly.
To farther think this is true this weird thing happens to me. My transmitter, computer, and 9 band Behringer EQ is all in one location to one power bar at one outlet.
There's some humming, subtly, but there, and it can be nulled completely by turning the radio one way. OK, now I have another computer for all my regular stuff in a different outlet. Now, I have a Bose active speaker that I use as a computer speaker sometimes and get this....when I plug in an audio cable from the computer to the speaker it affects the hum I get on the radio even though it's got nothing to do with the transmitter! All I did was plug in an audio cable to a different computer to a speaker in a different outlet. Go figure!
I must be somehow affecting the transmitter "grounding".
So yes I agree with Artisan that even though you don't have a physical ground that doesn't mean you have no ground....if you know what I mean.
Even if you have the Procaster mounted as Tim has, outside on a 30 ft pole with "no ground" you are still linked to the electrical ground of the house which is a copper stake in the earth under the house linked to the electrical wiring, directly to the 3rd hole in the outlet.
To really see if I get the same range with truly no ground I may(one day) power the transmitter with 2 6 volt lantern batteries and unplug the computer so it runs on the battery and test Artisan's claim that to get any range you need a ground and see what performance I get with everything on batteries off the grid.
As for artisan's disputing the claim in the article that if you are more than so many feet in distance it's not legal I agree with him 100% as no limit on distance is in any rule AM or FM, Canada or USA. How "far" you can go has nothing to do with if it's legal.
Artisan also brought up the subject of certification and the point that the certification makes it a legal product, dispite what Tim tested and found as the certification is all we have to go by and we don't have the equipment and know how to check ourselves.
The certification gives me peace of mind. If I show, if inspected, a certified transmitter, by an approved lab, with number in the Industry Canada REL lookup page, unmodified, and in the case of AM 3 meters of antenna wire with nothing connected to the ground, the certification info on the transmitter, the rules pertaining to my use so an agent can see that I have done my homework, I have no worries.