AM Antenna Solution

The Talking house ATU is pretty good over all. However I am not sure it can be used with the SS Trans. And the Talking House Transmitter has issues with the Audio levels.

Here is a thread that talks about An antenna for the SS trans that does seem to have some potential.
http://www.part15.us/node/4498

Also on the SS Trans site , Phil has some directions for building a nice antenna.
Plus the SS trans 5000 has it's own built in Coil so you do not need an antenna with a coil.

As for as being snobs ?
I am pretty sure I am not one of this people LOL.
And most of the people here are very nice and willing to help.

Lefty.

The simplest, easy to setup and use I'm aware of is the ATU made for the Talking House or I AM Radio transmitter.

This antenna is pricey unless you can find one used on Ebay or elsewhere. From the manufacturer, Radio Systems, it's around $300.

It could not be easier to setup. And, if used with the Talking House or I AM Radio transmitter, is legal to use with coax to allow separating the transmitter and antenna. This allows you to place the transmitter some distance from the antenna like in the house.

Find the ATU REMOTE ANTENNA HERE.

The Talking House ATU is set up as the external antenna for that unit, the connecting cable is standard CATV 75Ω R6, not 50Ω. I'd think some mods would need to be dealt with in either of the SSTRAN units. Not sure what would be efficient.

Other than that and your sub-par experience with Antenna Guy (I thought he quit making them), the only other pre-made antenna I know of that could work (but will still require fine tuning) is the Isotron talked about in another topic about a few days ago, the one made specifically for Part 15 AM.

AFAIK, no one else builds and sells separate pre-built Part 15 AM antenna systems. It's a very tiny market.

Ken's comment, which I quoted in the subject line, says it all. The people manufacturing equipment for Part 15 AM tend to be small-time operators working on the side. Keith of Rangemaster owns a company that manufactures PC boards. I don't know what Phil of SSTRAN does in his real job, but it seems to be somehow related to IT. You are just not going to get your "solution" delivered to your door by UPS. That's the nature of this hobby, and it is the reason for forums such as this one. People exchange information to try to come up with their own "solution."

This hobby is surprisingly technical, considering its apparent simplicity. There are also competing interests. The final authority, the FCC, tries to keep the coverage range low to avoid interference to licensed stations, and the hobbyists want to maximize their range. To be sure, there are big egos on the forums, sometimes posting just to try to impress others with their technical smarts.

More than a decade ago, the major player in the Part 15 AM field was LPB (for Low Power Broadcasting) which sold a Part 15 AM transmitter for about $1800. Then Rangemaster came along with a beter transmitter for about half that amount, which pretty much eliminated LPB from the Part 15 AM market. LPB went into higher power transmitters for licensed stations for a while, and later mostly went out of business. I don't know what, if anything, remains of LPB now. The point is that there just isn't enough money in the Part 15 AM world for a turnkey solution, which, incidentally, LPB provided in its day (for a price).

"Many hobbyists like me shy away from this site because of the levels of pretentiousness associated with ‘Part 15’."

So much for manners.

Antenna technology for medium wave AM broadcasting is not something that can be easily reduced to a shipping package, but is not difficult for the hobbyist to build.

If the hobbyist is not inclined to build his antenna he may be a hobbyist only in pretense.

I've also been looking for an outdoor antenna solution for an STRAN 3000 for my friend's unit and have spent some time o the internet looking for one.

So far, my advice would be to sell the Stran on Ebay and buy a package system like a Procaster or Rangemaster. My Procaster cost $700 but is was a COMPLETE system including he antenna. that worked great right out of the box and took 30 minutes to set up. The Procaster (and also the Rangemaster, i believe) has the final amplifier right at the antenna so there's having to stuff the Stran in a tupperware box up on the roof at the base of the loading coil.

Ask for help here after calling everyone here pretentious. Now THERE'S a good start, guaranteed to get you results. It's only because most of the people who keep this Forum going REALLY care about the hobby that you're getting any answers at all.

If you want a turnkey system, then there are really only a couple of ways to go, and they've all been enumerated here in previous posts:
1. Get a talking house (installed indoors) with an ATU and whip (installed outdoors)
2. Get a Procaster or Rangemaster, which are installed outdoors with a whip.

With a little more effort, you can mount other transmitters (including the SSTran) inside a weatherproof box, and install them outdoors with a whip or an extended wire.

Since you've already discounted the very few manufacturers of pre-built base loaded antennas, and don't want to build one from scratch, there's not much choice.

You might, and I do emphasize might, be able to take a 160 meter base loaded amateur radio mobile antenna, and extend the whip to take its resonance down to 1700Khz - a few manufacturers make those, or at least, they used to (ProAm is one, I saw one recently on e-bay). I don't know if you could do that and remain within the 3 meter - 10 foot - Part 15 limits. I've also never tried this specifically for the AM broadcast band (although I've done similar transformations, such as replacing the whip on a 29 Mhz amateur antenna to take it 2Mhz lower on the CB band).

1580 called himself a hobbyist.

But then this...

"I don’t want schematics, I don’t want ‘plans’ or ‘ideas’ or ‘illustrations’ and I don’t want to have to source certain parts from a hardware or electronics supply store should there be someone that makes these things. I want an all-out, out-of-box solution shipped to the door."

That begs the question, what is your hobby?

What if one is not so electronically minded and just wants to play around and send some music to the end of the driveway? It's a cool feeling for a newbee.(I didn't forget my first broadcast)

Some folks just don't wanna go through all of the techie stuff and wants to see what it's all about. If the play turns to an obsession, that's when all of the technical stuff is fun..

I'd build him an antenna if it would cure his interest. Might make him a good poster around here too.

I'd build him an antenna if it would cure his interest.

Yeah?.. build two! I'd like one for my AMT3000

Hey Everyone,

First of all, thanks so very much for your (mostly) kind replies.

(Carl, seriously, back off. You just created a prime example of exactly what I was referring to)

Obviously, I'm frustrated at this point. Therefore, I do sincerely apologize to everyone if the tone of my original post came across as too negative. I've seen far too many in this hobby get shunned or told off because of the 'you're not a guru like me, so get lost' mean-spirited type of stuff that goes on these boards.

However, I have NO issue whatsoever admitting that perhaps I could have been a bit more diplomatic with my question. It was late, I was tired and it didn’t seem harsh at all at the time. Again, my apologies.

Anyways, I've tried several solutions. I have no problem soldering together and building a transmitter and I've setup plenty of FM antennas of various types using different types of polarization. But to get me to build a proper type 15 AM antenna? LOL…You got me! I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but I just haven’t had any luck with any setup that worked properly or efficiently.

I've owned a Procaster (same concept as the Rangemaster) and that did not work out. For some reason, the grounding just didn't work. Chez Radio was very good about support and troubleshooting. In the end, it was determined that the TX was faulty and I just took the refund. After all, I really wanted to build my own TX and the SSTRAN was one I wanted to build, so I decided to go that route and keep the money in my pocket. I have a Talking House Transmitter as well; however, I've read that the ATU can only be used with the unit it was designed for. I also have an Isotron sitting in my garage in two pieces because I was never able to get a good match and I don’t want to really mess with the coil.

So, I am a technical guy to a degree and I understand basic concepts and theories. However, I’m not an engineer in anyway and I didn’t go to school for any of this.

That’s my situation. So, to answer Carl’s question:

“1580 called himself a hobbyist.
But then this...
"I don’t want schematics, I don’t want ‘plans’ or ‘ideas’ or ‘illustrations’ and I don’t want to have to source certain parts from a hardware or electronics supply store should there be someone that makes these things. I want an all-out, out-of-box solution shipped to the door."
That begs the question, what is your hobby?
Carl Blare”

Perhaps maybe it’s because I’ve tried working with that stuff already? Had you even considered that angle? No, because jumping down my throat seemed more appropriate to you.
My hobby is to get an AM station on the air with a properly matched antenna to maximize signal strength and range using legal power and have some fun broadcasting. What’s yours?

P.S.
Yes, I would be using the SSTran AMT3000 as my transmitter of choice. Great sounding transmitter.

Cheers,

ArtisanRadio Wrote:

“You might, and I do emphasize might, be able to take a 160 meter base loaded amateur radio mobile antenna, and extend the whip to take its resonance down to 1700Khz - a few manufacturers make those, or at least, they used to (ProAm is one, I saw one recently on e-bay). I don't know if you could do that and remain within the 3 meter - 10 foot - Part 15 limits. I've also never tried this specifically for the AM broadcast band (although I've done similar transformations, such as replacing the whip on a 29 Mhz amateur antenna to take it 2Mhz lower on the CB band).”

Actually, I have thought about this as well and wanted some opinions…

Thanks Artisan.

1580 please contact me at forumsnotify at gmail dot com

1580, the big question is why the Chez radio solution and others hasn't worked for you.

I'll reiterate what gets thrown around Part 15 typically:

1. Low power AM is 100mw. That's 1/10th of one watts. Often called flea power. By design it isn't meant to go much more than 300 feet and that's 'optimally'. Those achieving half mile, mile and beyond are both often lucky and very hands on with their setup. Rare to achieve that out of box.

2. Grounding is greatly variable. Even a proper ground might be in soil that has low (what's the word).... conductivity.

3. There is is no mandate that you must use a ground. There are antennas out there without a wired ground that some have had good experiences with them instead

Odds are if you have bought a ready to use system like the Procaster or Rangemaster and got terrible range, then that experience will be continued with nearly every other solution. Absent tweaking, moving it around, taking guess, sinking cash, etc.

I'd try moving your transmitter elsewhere on your property and experimenting quickly and lightly.

All the antenna wizardry out there, tends to be expensive (or time consuming and technical) and no one can be sure if the antenna will fix your situation. It's like the often pointed to ground radial burial scheme a few will point to that will have you excavating tons of soil to bury copper just to be at the same output strength.

What I'd advise (and note I am new here) is looking for a local radio club in your area and befriend, pay or borrow some time of a radio nerd.

Also look up the ground conductivity for the area you are in. May or may not be biggest issue.