Hello everyone, I'm preparing to establish a part 15 station. I live on the 26th floor of a high rise building in a very populated area in a major city. I have an outside balcony and the building is made of brick.
What's the best/only way to ground myself? I know the building managers won't be too thrilled about 900 ft of wire hanging down the building into the garden below, obviously this isn't an option.
Can I ground to metal balcony? Or the building itself? Or a pipe in the kitchen/bath? Just curious what anyone thinks. Obviously huge range potential with antenna but very nervous about grounding ability.
Thanks for any suggestions/help.
In the AM band, the Talking House transmitter will work with a grounded AC outlet because of the configuration of the power supply - no other ground is needed.
A 900 foot wire would probably get you an unbalanced dipole rather than a ground, and a church was cited for that, so it wouldn't be a good idea even if the landlord OK'd it.
A ground screen on your balcony might work.
Might also be an interesting location to try an FCC certified FM unit, only because at that height, you just might beat 200 feet 🙂
interesting, that "Talking House" xmitter only allows 5 minute messages, otherwise it would look great. I would need at least 15-20 minutes for what I'd like to do. Although great idea thanks.
Any idea of a product name for something to stick on my balcony? Like a radial grounding system are you talking about? Thinking of this chezradio product with their radial plate and just sticking it on the balcony, does that have a prayer of working? Thanks for any and all help.
Just a quick note to let you know that the talking house unit also has an input for a mixing board or PC out to provide typical broadcast activities in addition to the internal digital recorder.
Ilbayne,
You didn't specify whether you intend to use AM or FM or both. I recommend you try both.
For AM, it is common to provide the audio from a PC and the ground will be defacto through the audio cables to the PC and thereby to the power line ground. Due to the unknowns regarding the routing of the power ground it is not easy and is likely not possible to accurately predict the performance. I would recommend that you just let the transmitter "naturally" ground itself through these connections. Otherwise, ground it to the screw on a three prong outlet cover plate. I advise against grounding to a water pipe for reasons, if you are interested, I can comment further. Also, listen to the AM band in your abode. Noise is a real problem and if your place is like mine (single family house) light dimmers and other electrical things are a real deal breaker.
For FM, either a vertical dipole or a 1/4 wave ground plane antenna will work well. One of my favorites is the J-pole and you can build our own and it usually takes and SWR meter to properly tune. Elevation is not the only thing which determines range though it is important. The truly puny field strength allowed by the rules is going to be your limiting factor. If you run a compliant transmitter I will be very surprised if you can hear your signal at ground level from a transmitter 26 floors up. I don't know your physical layout but unless there is another building equaling the height of yours within a few hundred feet I doubt that your height will be an advantage. Perhaps you could cover a few floors up and down from yours in your own building but that could only be determined by trying it.
If I were starting again and intended to broadcast to the neighbors and was in your situation as I picture it I would go FM and realistically expect to cover only about 50 to 100 feet in any direction. In a residential building this can yield many potential listeners.
Don't be afraid to experiment. What I post is based on my experiences but yours may be totally different.
Neil
In Places Like that AM Reception is going to be hell...
The C Crane Will Probably do pretty good in that building if not there are several "Possibility's" to increase the range of it.
While FM is usually dismissed out of hand because of the intense regulatory scrutiny and limited range of a legal transmitter, it might be worth a try at your location. The old addage about "High and in the clear" for FM range will certainly be well served where you are located and it might be fun to see where the signal goes - if it manages to reach the ground 🙂
I would probably go fm as well.
Given the elevation and "captive" audience potential it should be interesting to see what you can do with a certified fm transmitter.
Also I wonder what kind of buildings are around you?
Are there other apartment complexes, maybe other high rise buildings?
Are they as tall as the building you live in?
There's a very good chance that you will cover other buildings at your location with line-of-sight coverage. Maybe even cover a 1/2 city block with l-o-s coverage.
I'm interested in what you are saying. What can you tell me about the Talking House? I haven't been able to find much information on it. Could I broadcast from it, and ignore the talking house messages? What are the limitations?
Probably the best thing to do is to review the past posts - a list is found here:
Talking House Transmitter Threads
I should get this talking house tomorrow or the day after. I will let you all know what happens. I purchased the AM radio xmitter, and yes, AM radio is very tricky in this area.
I don't really want to give my city location but I will say a few things: I'm within a few hundred feet of a major network's FM/AM and television tower (a big building with giant antennas on top of it about 15-20 stories higher than me). I do have quite a few high rises around me but not packed in tight. Closest bulding is that network building, then a few hotels, and they aren't that close, about 2-3 blocks away. There are hundreds of thousands of cars that drive about 1/8-1/4 of a mile from me every day. I'd say 15-20 high rises at least equal to my building's height are within 4-7 blocks of me and at least at the level of my window. Again, it's not tightly packed, it's fairly scattered density-wise.