The 4.5 mile signal was received in a vehicle. Yes some home AM Radio's may not receive quite so far. Still none the less I have not seen this and I'm very excited about helping people who lofe Album Rock be able to break FREE of the shackles of Top 40 and Rap which has killed most creative Rock. Now if this really works I could at least get Album Rockers to listen to my station in the car while they travel from my home to almost Wal Mart. Don't forget that I have a few electronics and appliance stores near me. Aarons is one. If they get a good signal of my station do you know how many folks who like Album Rock I could get? This would be a Huge promotion for my Internet stream. I can only hope that some of the stereo's at Aarons could receive the signal. We also have Radio Shack at about 2 miles away. It could really be a promoter to occasionally go there and tune some Radio's to my station. Think of the possibilities if this really works in my house when he is done. And to think its all coming from a Talking House AM Transmitter.
The ink was still wet on my first driver's license and I hopped into Dad's car to check the range of my AM (KnightKit broadcaster) station. I was halfway down the drive when I remembered that the car didn't have a radio. Determined as I was to do this experiment, I grabbed my Motorola portable receiver, tuned in, and took off under the guise of testing my transmitter range which was really an excuse to test my new behind the wheel freedom.
As I left our town the range was about what I had already known by doing the test on bicycle but I kept going to explore the boundaries. I decided that after reaching a point six miles from home, long after the signal was gone, that I should probably call a halt to this and return since Mom and Dad would see through this one if I was gone too long. I pulled into a church parking lot at the top of a hill from which point I could see the water tower planted a couple of hundred feet from our house from six miles away. I checked the radio and heard my station as evidenced by the music playing from a tape I had made. I listened a while and it was my play mix.
As I drove down the hill the music faded until I was close to home, but somehow that was OK because I knew my signal was listenable at that one spot 6 miles away.
As one gets more knowledge and experience, one is less likely to believe that things such as this are real so six years later when I had my own car with a radio I repeated the experiment. I could not hear my station at the magic spot despite several tries over a few months.
There are several possibilities to explain this, none of them confirmed. I could have heard another station coincidentally playing the same music mix, the HV power lines next to the church lot could have acted as a receiving antenna, the water tower was a sympathetic radiator of my signal, or my imagination was playing games with me.
Or maybe, just maybe, that was really my signal that I heard. I choose to believe this option.
Neil
Got 2 miles. Once. On a car radio.
The transmitter was an AMT-3000.
I designed the loading coil, and the
antenna was a (slightly less than) 3 meter
stick. There was a radial system.
My loading coil was never really finished.
When it was exposed to the weather the
range went down. When the water table
and ground conductivity went up, so did
the range.
The only data I have on "in house" reception
are the following:
6 houses to the left of me, (about 500 or 600 feet -
the lots were very narrow there) reception was very
good on a GE Superadio, day or night. Stations on
the channel at night were covered if the radio was
pointing in the right direction.
About 10 houses away on the right, the signal was
about 70 percent quieting on an unknown boombox
pointing in an unknown direction (during the day.)
I was there to see the reception in the house on the
left, but not the one on the right. If my friend on th right
had rotated the boombox, maybe the signal would have
gotten a lot better OR maybe a lot worse. I heard my
station over the phone in that case.
My station was heard all over the town center 1/2 to
1 mile away on a really good car radio.
And in a house a mile away, my station was just
barely heard. (You could tell it was there and that
is all.) I don't remember the receiving set-up, so
that info isn't very useful, I guess.
I'm proud of that, even if it is not as good as other
Part 15.219 set-ups. I built it myself.
(For those of you who have seen this info many times
before, I'm just posting it again for those who have not
seen it.)
It was some of the best radio fun I ever
had in my whole life.
Best wishes,
Brooce, WLP
You probably heard your transmitter
6 miles away.
There are many things that we still
can't explain.
The fact that you didn't heard it the
second time you tried makes it all the
more interesting, as far as I'm concerned.
Brooce, WLP
Using a Kenwood TS-50 in the CW postion I was able to hear a ground mounted Rangemaster with no modulation about 3 1/2 miles.
Too long ago I did my experiments with
the imfamous Lafayette KT-195 transmitter with it's
2 50BM8 and one 36AM3B vacuum tubes.
I thought it was on 1600 kHz, but the
transmitter had a "dirty" output. It was
really on 2100 kHz. I had it in the cellar
of my parent's house. A 10 foot transmitting
wire was put on the cellar floor.
1/2 mile away, my friend heard my transmission
on his Knight Kit R-100 communications receiver.
It was very clear and was S7 on his meter. He had
a 90 foot receiving wire up in the backyard. No
doubt that this helped. So did the big lake on
his side.
Still, a transmitting antenna on the cellar floor and
no ground wire.
We didn't know it was illegal. We were only
interested in the magic of radio. Besides,
2100 kHz was just at the bottom of the 120 meter
international shortwave broadcast band. Wasn't that
good enough?
Many will remember this story. Also, many will
remember that MRAM took a KT-195 and modified
it to be a much much better transmitter. Again, I'm
just putting this story out there for those who may
have not seen it before.
By the way the Lafayette KT-195 was the kit version
of the transmitter. The already assembled version was
the LA-320. Actually, Mr. MRAM, I don't remember
which one of these you have.
Oh yeah, my experiments with this transmitter were
in 1969 and 1970.
What great times!
Brroce, WLP
Great job!!
Oh - I wish I had a TS-50. That would
be good, too.
Brooce, WLP
I have a few questions for Micro. Do you think the antenna being on the floor of the celler was acting in some way as a beverage antenna? If you had a spring underground and the celler was close enough to it as well as the concrete floor being moist you may have unwittingly created a sort of a capacitance inductance sort of phenomena. My friend N8DEF when he was in Wacusta, Mi use to talk about this theory among low power AM transmitters. I almost got a part 15 carrier current transmitter built for giggles just to play around with and practice my DJ skills back in 1979 when I did some work for WOCR in Olivet, Michigan.
Wow. This thread got hijacked from the original question. Even I hijacked it.
Okay to answer the question what about Planet DJ? Does it not say Start your own Radio Station? Or even be your own DJ? And what about some of the other ads even for Mr. Microphone. It talks about being a singer. That said your trying to “sing to an undifferentiated audience” (Otherwise called Broadcasting) This is something we brought up in the classroom of WOCR in Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan. Even though its low power part 15 we were taught to not use anything that can “Broadcast” as a toy because under the right conditions we could be heard further than we once expected. Case in point when I showed the teacher I could pick up the 10 watt station 40 miles away.
So with that said AFAIK there is nothing saying your are not to run a Radio Station when you run your transmitter at either 15:239 (For FM) or 15:219 (AM). As my opinion goes anyone who says running a station unlicensed no matter what the power is full of themselves to put it politely. We are Micro Broadcasters and that is that. Its been called Micro broadcasting since I was a kid. There are some shopping malls with micro powered AM and or FM stations inside to broadcast (There is that word again) an event or promote something. High schools often used part 15 Radio stations to teach Broadcasting (there is that word again).
I am running 85 watts ERP and the signal drops off a car radio(s) at about 9 miles. (As the crow flies)
Here is the details of my setup up in Lansing, Michigan. Remember I said I could receive the station in Lansing from Olivet, Michigan and the Teacher said “No Way” he didn't say how or why No Way. So again here is what I did to receive it:
Technics Digital AM/FM Stereo receiver with 75 ohm F connector Model wa SA-206 I think. This thing was as sensitive as any car Radio I swear.
-
Radio Shack FM Antenna the biggest one they had around 1979.
-
Channel Master rotary not the one that went cer chunk but the one that went vvvvvv and you could go in precision accuracy to where you could pull the signal in the best.
Now what I did was tune to the SW. I put the tuner on 89.7 (Yes not 87.9) and I was able to pick up the signal in Stereo with some noise. When there was a nice temperature inversion even better. I also was able to pick it up on my neighbors Scott tuner and it was very clear and almost full quieting. He had a Radio Shack VU 190 with a 20 DB outdoor booster that boosted both VHF-UHF. My antenna did not have a booster as I also used this for my station at times that went 3 miles. I don't know why your range was so poor, but if there is a way to look up WOCR in Olivet, Michigan and if Stewart Blacklaw was still working there he'd tell you about a young man who worked at the station and hated Top 40 and had an Album Rock show when I was on air. I played some top 40 or should I phrase it pop songs outside the top 100-500. I remember playing Juice Nuten – Queen Of Hearts and Oh Nichole (Can't remember who sang it now). Then I played Jethro Tull – Wind Up. I was known also to bring in my own albums and play some stuff from them. I remember their phone number was 749-7598 I think the area code was 616. It is a little town just west of Charlotte, Michigan. Like I said it was all of 40 miles from Lansing, Michigan. Remember being an Album Rocker and back then MONEY was NOT an object. I wanted the best receiver I could get to pull in Album Rock stations from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Toledo, Oh (WIOT 104.7). I remember I could even pull in WXKE 88.3 from a college station in Indiana. I don't remember the watts but the slogan was Indiana's kick ass Rock & Roll Radio station. And they were definitely Album Rock. Loved the station. I could pick up WOES in Ovid, Michigan. That station was on 91.5 I think which was from Ovid, Elsey High School. I could block out WCSG A God Caster with my directional antenna. And when we had sporadic E I got stations in Florida (you read right) from my home in Lansing. I loved that receiver at was one HOT receiver. It would make the Radio's now days look like a Fisher Price play thing for your 2 yr old son. I loved to FM DX still do.
I believe you are correct.
I think the underground pipes, AC wires,
the golf course, the lake, and a huge underground
pipe that went under our street (we could crouch
down and walk through it - another story) all acted
like a beverage antenna (or some kind of antenna)
or just a big conductor. There must have been some
kind of ground path return, too(????) I don't know.
Good for you on the FM DXing. Yeah, I've been doing
AM and FM DXing all of my life. A LOT of stories there.
Speaking of beverage antennas, here's a little story.
I know of a guy in Florida who set up a beverage that
was several miles long. It went through a forest (or
something like that.)
His goal was to hear the famous KORL on 650 kHz in
Hawaii. (Remember, he was in Florida...)
Anyhow - he calculated the gray line (sunrise sunset line)
and listened at the correct time. Meaning the time of
year when the gray line was favoring propagation between
Florida and Hawaii. (I'd have to check a map for this one...)
He was successful with this.
And WSM 650 in Nashville (I'm sure you've heard THEM many times)
would have to be in the right corresponding position so it would
NOT interfere.
Anyway, he figured it all out and on the correct day - about 5
or 10 minutes AFTER sunrise, KORL 650 was just alone by itelf
on the channel, with a stable signal - strong enough to hear
and listen to. It was in for about 15 minutes, and then it
faded away.
What a thrill that must have been!
Also - it must have taken him a long
time to take down that beverage antenna.
I know it took him a long time to build it.
Point being - a radio signal will go a long
distance - and if you have the right receiving
equipment - it will be heard much farther than
previously thought.
Getting back to the original thread - with a beverage
antenna - maybe a legal and optimized Part15.219 set-up
could be heard 20 or 30 miles away with a beverage antenna.
It is very cool that people can detect the carriers of 15.219s
very very far away. But a beverage at a very great distance
might even hear the modulation.
On the other hand, Granma's 1970 Wolworth's clock radio might
not even get the transmitter 2 houses down the street.
Brooce, WLP
(Please excuse any mispelled word or grammar/punctuation
errors. It always takes me a very long time to type these
messages.)
Wanna hear something strange? During the day, i am NOT in the WSM 650 fringe coverage area and technically I am not at night either. Bruce - Micro1700 made me think of this.
WSM Fringe coverage misses Eastern Kentucky by over 80 miles +- a few miles, they cover central Kentucky pretty well but still scratchy during the day. (i miss their c-quam signal)
Now that is not to say i cannot hear them in the daylight hours, I can , BUT they sound like a part 15 AM at the edge of it's fringe coverage area. I can hear that station just enough to know they are still on the air but not enough to enjoy their programming.
At night of course they blast over this mountain with authority, i really wish they would bring back their Stereo signal (c-quam) that was the sweetest sounding 50,000 watt station around. I spoke with their engineer about bringing it back to stereo again, he said it has been brought up to upper level management but I guess it didn't make an impression.
Now i wonder and think we covered this, but as i have stated in older threads that my house is in a valley which stays wet most of the time, we have a creek across the one lane road in front of my house. What would it do with a ground wire accidently dropped into that water? lol
I think in terms too of reception, if i had my long wire antenna grounded to that creek would it help my reception of shortwave and medium wave signals?? When i say grounded, i mean the shielded side of the coaxial cable running from the house to the wire.
Would that create a path to certain stations using the water as a sort of conduit?
As we all know, all streams, rivers and tributaries lead to larger bodies of water.
Just thinking out loud .....which i don't do too often.
The range of the LPFM is consistent with this map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/patg?id=WLSL-FL