The power supply for the Rangemaster and the FM rcvr wewe both inside of the shack. The distance from the DataKit to the rcvr was only ~10'..
I went ahead and ordered one of the audio balun kits with the headphone jack connectors.
Even if it doesn't end up used in final broadcast stack, can use it to connect audio between my two buildings for listening to programs when I decide to move from computer over to kitchen to cook and clean.
Baluns are in.
One glaring issue I didn't foresee is the baluns both have male headphone jacks. That would work if I was piping the audio on the other end into a sound card or the back of the Talking House.
However, wrong connector if I want to connect speakers directly or headphones.
So I ordered a 10 pack of 3.5mm double ended female connectors.
Once I get those in will start the balun testing to see what the audio sounds like and general impressions.
Might run the balun out to the Talking House in the greenhouse if I can get up on a ladder and cut an old PVC drain pipe run that goes into greenhouse about 7ft in the air. Not feeling ambitious since the temperatures just collapsed and forecast is more winter blahs.
I don't think you can use audio baluns with CAT 5 to hook up speakers.
The usual application is for line level audio where the power would be too small to drive a speaker. Maybe a headphone.
But, to run your sound card output into the high impedance line level input of the Talking House, it should work ok.
I think you are right about speakers and baluns, but all my speakers are amplified, so *should* be alright.
Unpowered speakers, they probably are as you have pointed out.
Got the 3.5mm female-to-female couplers I need to tether headphones and speakers to the balun kit. Arrived today in mail.
So test setup is this:
Smartphone --> 3.5mm balun ---> 10ft CAT5e --> 3.5mm balun --> 3.5mm F-to-F coupler --> Headphones
Plugged that together and it works very well. Audio sounds how I expect it to. Nothing different that is noticeable to my ears. Still testing with other audio to be sure.
Only catch/concern is the coupler with the male inputs on both ends and maintaining a good connection. Fairly easy to unseat the coupler and end up with mono. Will probably glue and/or tape the coupler in place when finalized.
Next step is to cable this setup to existing Talking House AM transmitter outside in the greenhouse. Should be 50-75ft of CAT5e cable run total.
Following that, will attempt to splice both ends to utilize the rest of the pairs for ethernet connectivity. Hopefully can find a diagram for the audio baluns before I have to dissect them and self determine what pair is being used and if compliant with standards (i.e. using one of the two unused pairs).
There should be 2 pairs of pins with resistance on them. (400-700 ohms) The 2 seperate transformers may be in just one adaptor but there may be one in each adaptor. The pinout should be the same in both adaptors..
If you have an old cable that's cut with an end on it, make a diagram of what wire goes to what pin and do the ohms test..
I figure that you could do whatever with the extra pins..
As for those double female adaptors, make sure that the male plug is in all of the way. Mine snap in real hard but they will still work if they aren't seated all of the way. Once they are seated, it's hard to get them apart. At least that's the way it is with the ones I have..