The RF output power adjustment in the AMT5000 part 15 transmitter from sstran.com has creative applications.
The RF power control of course was designed so the user can adjust for precisely 100 mW, but it has other uses besides.
For strictly indoor AM listening I back the RF power down to 36 mW (minimum power) which is just exactly enough to cover the interior without reaching other neighborhoods, although at such a low level it provides a real DX challenge for distant listeners.
While dabbling in the yard 36 mW is slightly more fragile for portable listening but still useful, although I usually crank up to 100 mW for solid yard coverage.
The high side reaches nearly 400 mW but getting up there would be wrong so I prove my trustworthiness by never doing it.
I hear about people struggling with other transmitters and I have to ask myself, "Why? Why do they torture themselves?"
haha, im all about the self-made life then. the struggle of the 12 dollar PLL oscillating on multiple freqs. the original anklebiter life is allright though.
The SSTran AMT5000 has been set at 75 mW to the final RF stage all day today, and no one has complained.
Today is the Summer Solstice, longest day of the year, your daytime only stations wish it was always like this.
why cut it short of what you're allowed? we're talking milliwatts here, AKA splitting hairs
It's a kick to mess with the power level to see what all the differences are.
When it's set at 36 mW it takes a lot of effort to tune it in out in the yard at 100-feet away, yet 75 mW actually improves it.
I think tomorrow will be 110 mW day. Will I be kicked off the ALPB?
I'd really like to know what the extra 10 millawatts would actually do. Would it really make all that much difference? Its been a while but I think back in the CB Walkie Talkie world as kids we did have a 200mW walkie talkie set and I thought Oh Boy I'll get 4 times the distance. What actually happened was that normally when you got the the other end of the campus at Michigan School For The Blind the signal would start to weaken. But at 200mW it was strong clear across campus till you started to go off campus and it was a few more feet till it was gone. So the actual distance we'd normally use if for was clearer but it didn't actually reach all that much further. It was a lesson back then too I can remember. The difference between 100mW and a Watt however did make quite a bit of difference. Boy those experiments are suddenly comming back to me now playing around with those things as kids. We'd spend several hours playing around and trying to figure how to improve the range.